The Birthday Girl (32 page)

'Jo has your number in Colorado?'

'Ah. Unfortunately not. It's a cabin in the middle of nowhere and there's no phone. I'll try to arrange a portable or something and call you with the number. Failing that I'll check in with you from a payphone each day. But I'm sure you'll be able to handle everything.'

'I appreciate your faith in me, Tony. I really do. I won't disappoint you.'

Freeman watched Josh leave the office. He was still worried about leaving the company with Anderson going walkabout and Sabatino's threats still weighing on his mind, but his desire to spend time with Mersiha outweighed all other considerations. He shook his head, trying to clear his mind. Anderson would come to his senses after a few days' rest, and Sabatino was just a blustering fool who thought he could get his own way by playing the hard man. Everything would work out just fine.

Katherine was measuring kidney beans into a large pan when Mersiha walked in through the kitchen door, Buffy at her heels. 'Hiya, kiddo. How does my famous five-alarm Texan chilli sound for dinner?'

'Sounds great,' Mersiha said.

'How did it go last night?'

'Huh?'

'Last night. How did it go?'

'Oh. Great. Yeah, we got lots of work done.'

'Glad to hear it. I'd hate to think you were just watching MTV, painting your fingernails and gossiping about boys.' Mersiha headed for the hallway. 'What's the rush?' Katherine asked. 'Don't you want to help?'

'I've some stuff I want to put in my room, that's all. And I want to finish some work before tomorrow.'

'Not like you to be so tidy,' Katherine said.

'A new leaf,' Mersiha shouted, running up the stairs with her sports bag.

'Don't forget to pack!' Katherine called after her. She picked THE BIRTHDAY GIRL 265 up a large onion and began to peel it. As she ripped off the outer skins she heard Mersiha switch on the television in her bedroom. So much for homework, she thought. Well, at least it was the news she was watching.

Mersiha lay awake, her eyes wide open as she stared up at the ceiling. She'd gone to bed early after supper, telling her parents that she wanted to get an early night before the following day's flight to Colorado. Buffy lay at her side, breathing heavily. The dog wasn't allowed in the bedrooms, but she'd seemed to sense how unhappy Mersiha was and when the house had fallen silent she'd crept upstairs and pushed open her door with her muzzle. Mersiha had welcomed the company and she gently stroked Buffy's head, taking comfort from the warm fur.

The shooting had merited only a brief mention on the Fox evening news and the main networks hadn't even carried the story. The Fox reporter had said that police were still working on the theory that a thief had shot the owner of The Firehouse. Something was definitely wrong, Mersiha thought, racking her brains for a reason why they hadn't mentioned the gun. There was no way she could possibly get away with what she'd done. Retribution was coming, but she didn't know how or when. It was like a big black storm cloud waiting to break.

Katherine poured coffee into Freeman's mug. 'They're calling for snow in Baltimore tomorrow,' she said. 'Why don't I drive you to the airport? You don't want the car sitting under six feet of snow when you get back.' She made to top up Mersiha's mug but Mersiha shook her head as she finished off her scrambled eggs.

'You don't mind?'

'There's a few things I want to pick up at the mall. It's no trouble. Don't forget to leave a number where I can reach you.'

'There isn't a phone in the cabin,' Freeman said. 'Didn't I tell you?'

'You're joking.'

'No, I thought I told you, Kat. The cabin's often used for honeymooning couples, so they make a big thing about not being disturbed.'

'Tony - what if something were to happen? Say you had an accident. What if you get caught in a snowstorm?'

'The weather out in Colorado isn't bad. I took a look at the Weather Channel first thing,' he said. 'You'll get more snow here than we'll get at Estes Park.'

'But what if I need to get in touch with you in an emergency?'

Freeman handed her the rental agent's glossy colour brochure. 'There's the agent's number. They'll pass on a message. They're only a few miles away.'

'I'm not so sure about this,' Katherine said, lighting a cigarette from the gas stove.

'We'll be fine,' Freeman said. 'I think there's some sort of short-wave radio in the cabin, for emergencies. And I'm going to try to hire a portable phone.'

'Now that's a good idea,' she said.

'We'd better be going,' Mersiha pointed out, loading her plate and cutlery into the dishwasher. Buffy chuffed in agreement, assuming that she was going with them. 'Oh, Buffy, I'm sorry,' Mersiha said, kneeling down by the dog and hugging her. 'You can't come. But we'll only be away a week.'

Buffy barked happily, still assuming she was going to be taken for a walk. The dog licked Mersiha's cheek. Mersiha hugged her again, then picked up her blue nylon bag. 'I'm ready,' she said.

Freeman put on his waterproof skiing jacket and picked up his bag. 'Got everything?' Katherine asked. 'Tickets? Money? Credit cards? Snow plough?'

Freeman hugged her and kissed her on the lips. Mersiha went outside to the car, taking care that Buffy didn't escape. The dog began to whine, sensing that she was about to be left on her own. Mersiha climbed into the back seat. She was looking forward to the trip, but her enjoyment was tempered by the constant fear that the police would identify her as Sabatino's THE BIRTHDAY GIRL 267 killer. She'd slept little the previous night. She'd gone over the killing again and again in her mind, but couldn't work out why the doormen hadn't described her and why the police hadn't tracked down the Heckler & Koch. It was a distinctive weapon and she doubted that there would be many in Maryland. It didn't make any sense. She should be in a cell being interrogated by Homicide detectives, not about to depart for a week's vacation in Colorado.

'Penny for them?' her father said as he got into the front passenger seat.

'Oh, I was just wondering if I'd packed everything, that's all.' Mersiha hated lying to her father, but she knew she had no alternative. What else could she say? 'Just thinking about the man I shot to death, Dad. Nothing much.'

Freeman reached over and pinched her cheek. 'Don't worry about it, pumpkin. Anything you've forgotten we can buy when we get there.'

'Ah, yes,' Mersiha sighed. 'America is truly a wonderful country.'

'You know what I could never work out?' he asked.

'What?'

'Where you got your sarcasm from. It's a total mystery to me.'

Katherine dropped her husband and Mersiha outside the United Airlines terminal, dispatching Freeman with a kiss on the lips and Mersiha with a big hug and exacting a promise to be careful if she went skiing. She still had misgivings about the two of them being holed up in a cabin in the wilds of Colorado, but she understood her husband's desire to get closer to Mersiha. She had been a part of their family for more than three years, but there was so much about her they didn't know: what had happened to her parents, what her life had been like in Bosnia, why she kept having nightmares. Art Brown hadn't managed to discover what made Mersiha tick; maybe Tony could.

Katherine realised that she hadn't fastened her seat belt and she immediately thought of Luke and the way he'd died. A small thing like a simple strap and buckle meant the difference between having a son and having a dark hole in your heart where a son used to be. She felt tears prick her eyes and blinked them away. She missed Luke, missed him the way she'd miss an arm or a leg - a constant awareness that something was absent and that life would never be the same without it. She turned to look at the passenger seat and pictured him there, his eyes sparkling, laughing and giggling and loving her. Her belief in God had died when she'd buried Luke. She knew that no omnipotent being would have taken away her boy and put her through the years of grief and misery and loss. There was no God, no Heaven, just the hell of life on earth with the memory of a dead son.

An old woman bent over the steering wheel of a Cadillac was dawdling down the middle of the road and Katherine accelerated and drove by, missing the car by inches. She almost didn't see the school bus turning in front of her and she jammed her brakes on, hard. Instinctively she reached over with her right arm as if holding back a child in the passenger seat. She realised what she'd done and closed her eyes, fighting back the tears. 'Damn you, Tony,' she said to herself. The Cadillac pulled up behind her and the old woman sounded her horn impatiently. Katherine took out a handkerchief and dabbed her eyes. She searched through the radio stations until among the mindless rap and rock music she found one playing classical music, and she kept to the speed limit all the way to the White Marsh shopping mall.

She had telephoned earlier to make sure that the photographs of Mersiha were ready to be collected. As soon as she walked into the store Tanya beamed and held up a large manila envelope. 'Mrs Freeman, these are just terrific,' she said. Katherine opened the envelope and slid out the glossy colour photographs. She looked at them one by one. Tanya was right, they were excellent. The face that looked back was Mersiha, but not the Mersiha that she'd just dropped off at the airport. The girl in the photographs was absolutely stunning. It was a face that could easily have graced the cover of Vogue or Vanity Fair, the face of a professional model. It wasn't just the make-up or THE BIRTHDAY GIRL 269 the hair, or the way she'd been posed, it was the look in her eyes, the confident, measured stare of a woman who knew exactly what she wanted from life. 'She looks older, doesn't she?' Tanya said. 'She doesn't look like a fifteen-year-old.'

'Sixteen,' Katherine corrected. 'But you're right, she looks like she's nineteen. Twenty, maybe.'

'We're all talking about the pictures, about how good they are,' Tanya said. 'In fact, Ted wants to talk to you about them. I'll get him.'

Katherine put the photographs back in the envelope while Tanya went to fetch Ted. He came out of the studio, the same goofy grin on his bearded face that he'd been wearing the last time she'd seen him. Like Tanya, he was dressed all in black: jeans, t-shirt and linen jacket. The only touch of colour was the bright red wristband of his Mickey Mouse watch. 'Aren't they awesome?' he said.

'They're wonderful, yes. You've done a great job.'

Ted waved away the compliment. 'It's nothing to do with me, Mrs Freeman. Your daughter has a way with the camera. There's something in here that shines through the lens. Have you got time for a coffee?'

The change of subject caught Katherine by surprise. 'Excuse me?' she said.

'Coffee. I'd like a chat, and I thought...'

'Sure, coffee would be fine.' They walked together to the food court and Katherine found a table while the photographer ordered two coffees and carried them over.

'I wanted to ask if you and Mersiha had given any thought to what I said before?'

'About modelling? We haven't really discussed it.'

'You should.' He tapped the manila envelope in front of her. 'I could place those with any of the top magazines. Any of them. She's cover material.'

'She's a sixteen-year-old girl,' Katherine said.

'That's not unusual these days. There are lots of teenage girls making a good living from modelling. Do you know how much a girl like Mersiha could make in a year?' Katherine shook her head. It wasn't something she'd ever thought about, though she 270 STEPHEN LEATHER knew that runway models were highly over-paid for doing little other than wearing other people's clothes. 'A quarter of a million dollars, easily. And if she picks up a cosmetics contract you could triple that figure.'

{Catherine sat back in her chair and ran her finger around the lip of her cup. 'Wow,' she said.

'Wow is right. A couple of years of modelling at that level and she'd be able to pay for her own college education. She'd be set up for life.'

'But what about the sort of people she'll come in contact with? She's only a child.'

'People like me, you mean?'

'No, of course not. But you hear stories. You know you do. Girls with stars in their eyes, ending up working the streets.'

'Not girls like Mersiha. She'll be with one of the best agencies in Manhattan. She'll be chaperoned everywhere, she'll work with only the best photographers, the best designers. She'll be protected, believe me.'

'I'll talk to her, see how she feels.'

'I wish you would. It's not often you come across a talent like hers. It's a gift.' He picked up his spoon and rubbed it with his fingers. 'I can see where she gets it from.'

Katherine tilted her head, wondering if he was about to make a pass at her. 'Gets what from?' she asked.

'Her looks.' He smiled, and Katherine noticed for the first time how white his teeth were.

'My looks?'

'Sure. She really takes after you. The same eyes. Great skin.'

'Ted, before you shove your foot any further into your mouth, I ought to tell you that Mersiha's adopted.'

Ted didn't appear to be fazed by the revelation. 'You're a very beautiful woman, you don't need me to tell you that,' he said.

'I hope you're not suggesting that I consider a modelling career, Ted. I'm a bit too old to fall for that line.'

'I'd love to photograph you.'

Katherine studied his face. He was good-looking under the beard, she decided. The facial hair wasn't there to disguise bad skin or a weak chin. And he had a ballet dancer's body,

lean and tight, not an ounce of fat to be seen. 'You would, would you?'

'Uh-huh. I'd jump at the chance.'

'How's your mother? You live with her, don't you?'

Ted nodded and stirred his coffee. 'She's as well as can be expected. She's had heart problems for the last five years. She's too old for a transplant, she's just got to take it easy.'

'What about your father?'

Ted shrugged. 'He died when I was in my teens. She never remarried.'

'It was nice of you to move back to stay with her. I'd have thought New York was the best place for a photographer to be. It can't be much fun for you in Baltimore.'