The Hunt (24 page)

Weisz at the time of her death. Like Iago, the Weiszs will not be satisfied until they have

collected their pound of flesh. But we fear Mr. Price will not be the last innocent victim

in this case. For banning the Hunt might prove more expensive than anyone suspects.

And the cost will be paid in blood.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mara didn't know whether to be infuriated or overjoyed by this editorial. The undisguised anti
-Semitism and the determination to portray a sadistic killer as a victim of injustice revolted her, but they were more or less par for the course. This was, after all, a publication which had supported Adolf Hitler and Oswald Mosley. And what could anyone reasonably expect from an editor who confused Iago with Shylock? But right there, on the editorial pages of a widely read newspaper, was the suggestion that the Hunt might be banned. The suggestion may have been made as part of a pro-Hunt argument, but the fact it had been made at all seemed significant and encouraging. The end of the Hunt. That was something worth fighting for.

There would be little point telling the police what she knew about Julie and Price. But perhaps this lawyer, Aaron Rosenbaum, could make use of the information. Mara wondered how she should approach him. She trusted her own lawyer, Madeleine Danes, implicitly, and decided to ask her advice. Calling Madeleine's office, she made an appointment for the following Monday.

Mara felt like relaxing and getting back to
The Stand
, but she decided to check her emails first. As she accessed her inbox, the message from Stephen Tyner caught her attention. Mara's hand shook as she opened it.

------------------------------------------------

From: Big [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Subject: The Hunt

hi Mara,

i
just wanted to let yu no that i really enjoyed the time we spent together. i no you did not

like some of the things we
did,but im sure once euve hada chants to think about it yu will

admit
i was rite and yu now no more about eureself than yu did bee four. i would like to

see
yu agen so we can play sum more. but dont wurry. weel have a safe word this time

(unless
yu dont want one). i no i said i would report yu for been out of uniform,but if yu

were willing to play with me sum more
i would forget about the hole thing.

Stephen Tyner

p.s. i was sorry to here about ure frend dine. i only met her breefly but she seemed like

nice
persun.

------------------------------------------------

A picture was attached to the message. It showed Mara standing on a street in the Hunt arena, wearing jeans and a jumper, a collar visible around her neck. Mara was appalled, though more by Tyner's spelling than anything else. This lunatic genuinely believed she'd want to see him again, and even thought he could blackmail her into doing so! The man's stupidity was almost as astonishing as his sadism. She suddenly remembered she'd
not paid her bill at the clinic, as Dr. Rodman had pointed out, Tyner was responsible for her medical expenses. She hadn't wanted to contact Hunt Administration and ask for Tyner's contact details, but since she had them in front of her, she might as well use them.

---------------------------------------------

To: Big [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Subject: Re: The Hunt

If you ever try to contact me again, I will call the police.

You are legally required to pay all expenses relating to injuries I suffered as a result of

your activities. Call Soho Medical Centre immediately. There is already an unpaid bill

you need to take care of. I will instruct the clinic to send future bills to you directly.

You're right. Julie was a nice 'persun'. It's too bad you and 'ure frend' destroyed her.

----------------------------------------

Mara hit 'send' immediately, feeling satisfied with her response. After turning off the computer, she went into the living room and settled down on the sofa with
The Stand
. She had no trouble locating the page she'd been on when her reading was interrupted. She feared the book would bring back memories of the circumstances under which she'd discovered it, but Stephen King's fictional world had its own power, and she was soon immersed in the narrative again. She read all day, stopping only to make herself a salad (junk food was strictly for weekends), and, after using some more Hunex, continued reading in bed. She fell asleep with the book in her hand, only fifty pages from the end. And for the first time in several days, she dreamed. It was the recurring dream of a familiar voice begging her to wake up. But this voice was also saying something else now. “Once into the Hunt. Twice into the Hunt. Then all will be revealed. Once into the Hunt. Twice into the Hunt.” Mara now perceived that the voice belonged to a woman, but the woman's identity remained tantalisingly out of reach.

Chapter 19

Mara finished reading
The Stand
the next day, and felt inspired to start work on the next Melissa Valance novel. She knew this was going to be a difficult one, involving as it did Melissa participating in the Hunt. Mara was having problems outlining the book, since she couldn't see how to combine the Hunt with a murder investigation. She was not blind to the irony. Here she was peripherally involved with a real-life murder investigation related to the Hunt, yet she had trouble finding a way to convey her experience via the generic fiction in which she specialised. The problem from a dramatic viewpoint was more or less identical to the problem from a legal viewpoint: so far, the murder investigation was conspicuous by its absence. Perhaps she could write a semi-autobiographical book, inventing an ending in which Melissa exposes the truth and brings the bad guys to justice. Of course, the real bad guys were not the two sadists primarily responsible for Julie's death, but the entire system which supported and encouraged them. And that was certainly a theme worthy of Melissa Valance. Mara decided she'd at least attempt to write it that way, beginning with Melissa receiving a draft notice.

Mara wrote for several hours, and by six-thirty had completed an opening chapter, though one which dissatisfied her. She couldn't put her finger on it, but something was missing. She knew full well that, much as she'd have loved to be Melissa Valance, she was actually nothing like her. Although the books were reticent on the subject of Melissa's heterosexuality - the private detective's nominal boyfriend, like Lieutenant
Columbo's wife, was referred to occasionally, but never actually appeared - it was difficult to imagine her spending the weekend eating pizza and watching DVDs with her lesbian lover.

The idea of watching a DVD seemed more appealing than continuing with writing that lacked spontaneity. Mara had only recently turned in her last novel, and there was no pressing need to rush into a new one. If she was going to write about the Hunt, she wanted to do so with the experience fresh in her mind. But perhaps a little distance was needed before she could transform reality into fiction. She saved what she'd written so far, made a fish dinner, and settled down to watch Dorothy
Arzner's
Dance, Girl, Dance
, a film she'd loved ever since seeing it on television as a child.

When the film was over, Mara applied some more
Hunex to her bruised body, climbed into bed, and looked at the other books she'd purchased yesterday.
The Man Without Qualities
promised to demand more concentration than she felt capable of giving it at the moment, so she picked up
The SCUM Manifesto
, which, at less than fifty pages, was virtually a pamphlet. Mara had heard of this book, and knew about its author trying to kill Andy Warhol, but she was unprepared for the essay's satirical brilliance. It was written one-hundred years ago, yet Valerie Solanas had already perceived that no aspect of life was “at all relevant to women”, and could see what the sexism of the world she inhabited would eventually lead to. The book's introduction explained that Solanas was not being serious when she proposed forming a Society for Cutting up Men, dedicated to destroying the male sex. But Mara assumed the writer was simply pursuing an idea to its logical conclusion. If Solanas' analysis of masculine oppression was correct, and subsequent events suggested it was, then women would need to be just as ruthless as their oppressors if they wished to survive. It was kill or be killed. Mara was especially impressed by Solanas' account of the typical male, “completely egocentric, trapped inside himself, incapable of empathizing or identifying with others, of love, of friendship, affection or tenderness. He is a completely isolated unit, incapable of rapport with anyone. His responses are entirely visceral, not cerebral; his intelligence is a mere tool in the service of his drives and needs; he is incapable of mental passion, mental interaction; he can't relate to anything other than his own physical sensations. He is a half dead, unresponsive lump, incapable of giving or receiving pleasure or happiness...trapped in a twilight zone halfway between humans and apes.” Mara shuddered as she read this. It could have been a description of Tyner.

***

On Wednesday morning, Mara continued writing the book she was calling
A Kill is Just a Kill
. She'd decided to make Melissa's response to the Hunt letter more or less duplicate her own, introducing fictionalised characters based on Claire Richardson and Dr. Rodman. But the more she wrote, the more she became aware of the disparity between herself and Melissa. She was making her heroine behave in ways which didn't gel with the persona established in previous novels. And Mara couldn't forget that the real story had yet to be resolved. Every so often she'd check online to see if there were any further reports about Julie, but 'The Weisz Case' had been pushed aside to make way for more important 'news' items concerning rumours of a Hollywood star's divorce.

Around three o'clock, Mara became so frustrated that she decided to take a break and pay
Yuke a surprise visit. She changed into her uniform, put the jumper and jeans she'd been wearing, as well as the jar of Hunex, into a backpack, and set out for the tube station. She hadn't been to East Finchley in almost a year, and felt excited by the prospect of seeing Yuke's small, but warm living space again. She arrived at Yuke's apartment building just after four, and pressed the buzzer. Yuke answered right away, and gave a squeal of delight as Mara announced herself. When Mara stepped out of the elevator, Yuke was standing in her doorway looking happy, but concerned.

“Is everything alright?” she asked. Mara shut the door behind her.

“Work wasn't going well, so I thought I'd recharge the batteries by coming to see you. I'm not disturbing you, am I?”

Yuke
responded by pulling Mara into the bedroom and removing her clothes. “This is how much you're disturbing me,” said Yuke as she buried her head between Mara's thighs. Mara never failed to be astonished by how sexually compatible they were. Her heterosexual friends seemed rather equivocal about the physical aspects of their relationships, and Mara had difficulty relating to their lack of passion.

As the two women laid back on the bed, breathing heavily, Mara surveyed the room, which looked much as it had the last time she'd been there. All four walls were covered with bookshelves, a complete set of Melissa Valance novels occupying a privileged position in the bedside cabinet.
Yuke had asked Mara to sign each one, and though she felt awkward signing books for somebody so close to her - it was almost like signing them to herself - she'd happily complied, requesting an autographed copy of Yuke's
Devious Ways: American Cinema and the Twentieth Century
in return.

While
Yuke used the phone beside her bed to call the local takeaway, Mara retrieved the backpack she'd dropped by the front door and went into the bathroom. She applied the Hunex, though she no longer seemed to need it, and put on the clothes she'd brought with. After using the toilet, she wandered into the living room, which was also lined with shelves, these containing Yuke's extensive collection of DVDs. The computer screen was still illuminated, and Mara saw that Yuke had been working on an article entitled “Mizoguchi's Cinema of Empathy.”

As
Yuke, now fully dressed, came in, Mara said, “Honey, I'm really sorry I interrupted you. If you like, I can leave after we've eaten.”

Yuke
looked at her seriously. “Last week was so awful. I felt what that man was doing to you every day. You can't imagine how happy it makes me having you here.”

When the food arrived, they ate in companionable silence, then watched Kenji
Mizoguchi's
The Life of Oharu
, the film Yuke had been writing about. Mara was greatly moved by this story of a woman struggling against patriarchal oppression in seventeenth century Japan, and identified with its tragic heroine. When the film finished, Yuke discussed her ideas for the piece she was preparing, and Mara was stunned by their brilliance. It seemed unfair that the Melissa Valance novels made so much money, while Yuke's more intellectually strenuous labours of love barely covered her expenses. Yuke never actually said so, but this was obviously the reason she'd not yet moved to the more expensive area in which Mara lived. Mara knew Yuke was too proud to accept money, but she longed to help her escape from East Finchley. She was tempted to tell Yuke about the news reports concerning Julie's death and the absurd message from Tyner, but she'd managed to go for several hours without thinking of the Hunt, and didn't want to introduce a subject which would again make her confront that horror. In a way, Tyner's email had actually helped, allowing her to temper the hatred which threatened to overwhelm her with a dash of contempt.