For The Death Of Me (22 page)

‘I need more assurance than that,' I replied. ‘I still need to know what happened to the woman.'

Tan shrugged. ‘What matter? Fuck her, she's in the sea.'

‘The Triads will want to make sure as well,' I pointed out. ‘If she's still alive, and maybe still has the pictures, she's a threat.'

‘Then let them have her, and for sure she won't be a problem any more.'

‘And you still won't have identified the top banana.'

‘True,' he conceded. ‘What you wanna do? Got any ideas?'

‘I want to see where this guy lived. If we find her there, dead, okay; if not, maybe there'll be something that'll give us a pointer to where she might have gone.'

Jimmy Tan picked up the keys from the pool table . . . that cover was never going to be the same again . . . and tossed them in the air. ‘Okay,' he said. ‘I can find out his address no problem . . . and we have no problem getting in either.'

He grinned at me. ‘Now I take you back to your hotel, but first we better fit you into one of those T-shirts on show behind bar. You can't turn up for your girl in that one.'

I stared at him: secret fucking policemen. ‘How did you know about that?' I demanded.

He laughed out loud. ‘Mr Blackstone, you forget: you made your date on television.'

26

Fuck! Live television! That stuff gets everywhere these days; no bookie in the world was going to give me odds against Susie switching on Chris Tarrant one night, and looking at footage of me trashing Mai Bong and his show, and picking up the beauty in the front row into the bargain.

Confession may or may not be good for the soul, but it can be a wise precaution. I decided that as soon as I got back I'd phone Susie and fill her in on every detail of my exciting evening, including my fixing up a meet with Marie Lin to talk a deal about a part in the movie of Blue Star Falling.

That's what I'd planned, honest; Susie would believe me . . . of course she would.

It was eleven thirty by the time Mike and I got back to the Stamford. It hadn't occurred to me for a moment that Marie would still be there, but she was, at a table in the foyer bar, close to the waitress station. I nodded good night to Dylan and headed towards her.

‘Hey,' I said, as I approached, ‘what are you doing? A woman on her own at this time of night? There's flight crew coming in and out of this place all the time. You don't want anyone to get the wrong idea.'

She laughed quietly, as if she was amused by my concern. ‘They only get the wrong idea if I give it to them, and I won't do that. I waited because your friend said there had been trouble at the Next Page.' She looked me up and down, as if she was checking that I had no bits missing. ‘Are you all right?'

‘I'm fine, honest.'

‘What happened?'

I had hoped not to get into that with her. ‘A man died there. We had to wait for the police to come.'

She frowned. It was the first time I had seen her without a smile on her face; it didn't make her any less beautiful. ‘What happened to him?'

‘The policeman who came said it looked like a heart-attack. ' I hoped that Sammy Grant hadn't told her anything different.

‘Oh dear,' she murmured. ‘What a pity. Who was he? Do you know?'

‘It was the man I was looking for this morning at Riverside, Lee Kan Tong.'

‘Ah, did you go there to meet him?'

‘No. I was surprised to see him there.' I gazed around, the place was virtually deserted. ‘I guess the City Space will be closing soon,' I said.

‘I think midnight,' Marie replied.

‘I have my own bar, and it's almost as high. Would you like to come up?' I had to go up anyway: I was still carrying fifty grand US in a knapsack.

‘That depends,' she murmured, ‘on what I'm coming up for.'

I dug out my wallet from my pocket and showed her the photo of Susie and the children. ‘Does that answer your question?'

The smile was back. ‘Not really, but I'll come.'

The suite wasn't as gaudy as some I've had, but it was pretty comfortable. The evening chambermaid had been in, the lighting was dimmed, the folding doors that led to the sleeping area were open, and the cover on the Olympic-size bed had been turned down. Marie took a seat on the sofa in the sitting room, while I put the cash back into the safe, poured two glasses of dry white wine and pulled back the thin gauze curtain to give us an uninterrupted view of the city.

‘Where do you live?' she asked, as I sat beside her.

‘I live in a few places; at the moment my family are in our house in Monaco.'

‘Monaco?'

‘Monte Carlo.'

‘Ah, yes, I have heard of it: the fairy-tale kingdom, the place where Grace Kelly went.'

‘The place where Grace Kelly died. I saw their graves a few days ago, hers and Prince Rainier's. They're in the cathedral, near the Grimaldi palace.'

‘My mother loved Hollywood movies,' she said. ‘I think that's why I'm an actress. She told me the story of the beautiful American actress who became a princess. I thought it was wonderful . . . that they lived happily ever after.'

‘But they didn't,' I had to point out. ‘Nobody lives happily ever after. She died in a car accident and he spent the rest of his rich and powerful fairy-tale life grieving for her. Now their bones are under two slabs behind the altar. Where their spirits are . . . well, that's the part we hope for, that's what faith and religion and all that stuff is about. Forget about ever after, Marie, just live happily when you can.'

‘You sound cynical.'

‘I'm not a cynic, I'm a realist. Up until six years ago, I was a dreamer; I accepted all that romantic stuff too. Now I know the truth: in life there are more horror stories than fairy-tales.'

She slid her hand into mine; I don't remember ever feeling the touch of softer skin. ‘What happened to make you believe that?' she murmured.

‘I can't talk about that, not any more. I've had a second chance, though, and I'm going to protect it. Anyone who tries to threaten my family will have to deal with me and, when I'm away, with a man called Conrad. They shouldn't, though; either one of us would kill them if we had to.'

‘It must be very scary to be loved by you.'

‘What?'

‘You're so intense. You aren't a bit like they make you seem in the movies.'

‘But scary?'

‘What you feel is so strong. For a moment, I had a flash of what it would be like to be your enemy; it wasn't nice.'

I gave her hand a gentle squeeze. ‘I'm sorry,' I told her. ‘I shouldn't let you think of me that way. I saw someone die tonight, just three hours ago; I guess it's affected me.'

‘Then stop thinking about it.' She touched my face gently, turned it towards her and kissed me. It was very gentle, and very tender, and it went on for quite a long time. When she broke off, I felt soothed, softened, my hard, jagged edges rubbed away, and the night didn't feel quite so dark.

She laid her head on my shoulder and we looked at the lights of Singapore; there were still monsters out there, I knew. One of them had shoved a blade through Tony Lee's heart, and would get away with it, because that's the way things are sometimes. But with Marie, in that room, I felt as if I was in a beast-free zone. There was something about her that seemed to build around me the same kind of invisible security forcefield that being with Susie and the kids gives me. They're my island of tranquillity and at that moment I needed them badly: they were far away, but Marie was there, and her goodness was hauling me back from the places I'd been since I'd met Maddy January in Fort Siloso.

Without her being aware of it, she was reminding me of something I knew, that monsters threaten us on two levels: first, because they are what they are, but also, because when we get down there where they live and tackle them on their own terms, as sometimes we must, then all too easily, without realising it, we can become like them.

27

She stayed with me until after two. I think I dozed off for part of the time, and maybe she did too; eventually I asked her if she wanted to go home. Maybe I was really asking her if she wanted to sleep with me, although honestly, I don't think I was. In any event, she said that she should, so I saw her to the elevator and down into the lobby.

There were no taxis at the rank outside, not unreasonably since it was the middle of the night, so we walked round to North Bridge Road, where I could flag one down. ‘Are you working tomorrow?' I asked, as we waited. ‘Will I find you at the theatre if I'm free for lunch?'

‘No,' she replied. ‘I'm never there on Mondays. Tomorrow I have to see about auditions: there are some productions coming up and I hope to get work.'

‘I'll have a part for you,' I said, ‘once I get back to work. I've bought the rights to a book; I don't know for sure when we'll make the movie, not this year, but probably next. Meantime, if you really want to leave Singapore and can sort out a US visa, I can find you some other work.'

‘But you've never seen me act, Oz.'

‘Miles Grayson had never seen me act either, before he cast me in my first movie. He took a chance and it paid off. I'll do the same with you.'

She looked me dead in the eye. ‘Why?'

‘Because I like you.'

‘You don't just want to get into my pants?'

‘No, but could I, if I did?'

She smiled. ‘Could I get into yours, if I did?'

I grinned back at her. ‘Maybe you just had a chance. We'll never know.'

‘Let's just say now is too soon,' she said quietly. ‘I don't know you well enough.'

‘Only one person ever really knew me.' There was something about the girl that had me saying things without even thinking about them.

‘Your wife?'

‘My sister: half-sister.' I said it naturally: I'd never think of Jan as a wife again. Our marriage was never legal, in the eyes of the law, at any rate. No, what we had was much more complex, much deeper than a marriage, even if I hadn't known it at the time.

‘Where is she now?'

‘Her bones are in a cemetery in Scotland. Her spirit's never far away.'

‘That's what you didn't want to talk about earlier?' I nodded. ‘What happened?'

‘She was murdered.'

‘Aah.' She sighed. ‘That's why you can seem scary inside. And the man who did it?'

‘People. The man who did it was under orders. They're dead; all dead.'

‘Did you . . .?'

‘Ssh!' I whispered. ‘Let's not go there. It's better that you don't know about the feelings you have in your heart when something like that happens.'

‘Maybe not.' She looked up at me again, as if she had closed one chapter and moved on to the next. ‘Do you leave Singapore, now that this Lee Kan Tong man is dead?'

‘Not yet. I didn't come to find him, but the woman who's with him. She has something that I need.'

‘Do you know where she is?'

‘No. But if I find out, I'll go after her. I'll know better tomorrow morning . . . this morning.' In a corner of my eye, I saw the traffic-lights change. A taxi with an illuminated sign came towards us: I flagged it down.

‘He'll think I'm a prostitute,' Marie said, laughingly, as it drew to a halt.

‘You're too good-looking to be a hooker.'

‘You don't know Singapore; I'm not good-looking enough.'

I raised an eyebrow as she slid into the cab. ‘Maybe I'd better check those guide-book ads again.' Impulsively, I bent and kissed her. ‘I'll call you later,' I promised, ‘even if it's only to tell you I'm leaving.'

28

I slept late next morning, late for me, that is. It was nine o'clock when I was wakened from a troubled sleep by a knock on the door of the suite, followed by the sound of it opening and a shrill cry of ‘Housekeeping!'

‘Later!' I yelled. I'd hung out the privacy sign when I'd got back from seeing off Marie, but often that means nothing. Rita Rudner, the comedienne, who's big in Vegas and spends a lot of her life in hotel rooms, once claimed that she was driven to creating her own ‘Do not disturb' sign to get the message across. It showed a maid with her neck in a noose.

I'd probably have been more polite if it hadn't been for the dreams. Several times that night I'd seen Tony Lee sitting across from me in the Next Page booth, then toppling forwards. On each occasion even more blood came my way, until finally I was drenched in the stuff. But that wasn't the only vision I'd had in my sleep. I saw Maddy January's darting, frightened eyes. I saw Jan, lying dead on our kitchen floor from a massive electric shock; I wasn't there when it happened, but that doesn't shield me from its full horror. I saw Susie and Prim, in the pool in Monaco, both of them naked and swimming towards me. I saw Jack Gantry's maniacal, evil face lose all its colour as he realised he was going to die. And I saw Marie Lin, black hair spread on the pillow, long legs apart and stretched out as she lay beside me in another bed, in another room, in a place I couldn't recognise. That was where I was when the maid opened the door and shouted. If she'd looked round the corner into the sleeping area she'd have seen the duvet on the floor and me with an erection that would have made Shergar feel inadequate.

I swung out of bed, feeling incredibly guilty, and snarled my way to the bathroom, where I took a long, cold shower, until I was back to something approaching my normal temper and size. I was shaved and dressed when I heard another knock at the door. I opened it, ready to apologise to the chambermaid for the delay, only to see Dylan standing there.