Family Business (10 page)

‘Why?'

‘Because that's an old-fashioned way to kill
slugs
,' Rosetta said. With her free hand she raised the wine bottle to her lips again.

‘Hey,' David said. ‘Hey! Leave some for me!'

Bonnie the Regular appeared in the Rose and Crown half an hour before closing time. She asked Cheryl for a pint and was surprised to find that her drink was already paid for.

‘What brings this on?' she asked.

‘It's not me,' Cheryl said. ‘That gentleman over there.' Cheryl pointed to Salvatore who stood by the dart board. Cheryl waved to attract Salvatore's attention and Salvatore waved back.

‘Him?' Bonnie said. ‘But he's gorgeous!'

‘Don't get excited,' Cheryl said. ‘He's with the woman at the oche.'

‘Probably his sister,' Bonnie said. She walked to Salvatore and touched him on the arm. ‘I understand I have you to thank for my bedtime drink. What can I do in return?'

Muffin delivered a dart into the heart of the treble-twenty.

When Mama and the Old Man left to go up to their flat, Marie retreated to her room, taking the hall telephone with her. She closed the door.

On the kitchen extension Gina and Angelo saw the line-occupied light come on almost immediately. Angelo reached toward the receiver. ‘I could pretend I made a mistake,' he said, but they both knew he wouldn't do it. Then they heard riotous laughter coming all the way from Rosetta's room.

When they opened the door they saw Rosetta, seated at the computer, laughing. David was on the floor, rolling and holding his sides. David said, ‘Auntie Rose and I are drawing cartoons.'

Gina and Angelo moved to where they could see the computer screen.

‘Run it for them,' David said.

With Rosetta at the keyboard Gina and Angelo watched as a male figure appeared on the screen. He was standing beneath a funnel. Then the image was replaced with another that had dots emerging from the funnel so it became clear that the man was standing under a shower. Next the figure was shown on its knees. Then lying flat on its face. After a moment the screen was filled with a flashing caption that read, ‘Our latest legicidal spray is the most effective yet!' Rosetta and David burst again with laughter.

‘What's going on?' Angelo asked.

David said, ‘We're doing a series called “21st Century Ecology”.'

‘We're exterminating solicitors,' Rosetta said, ‘to help the environment.'

‘Wait! Wait! I've got a new one, Auntie Rose,' David shouted. He rolled up to a kneeling position. ‘Here it is. Here it is. “One way to control the spread of solicitors is to release a zillion sterilized males.” He looked up at his aunt, expecting her approval.

But Gina and Angelo saw that Rosetta did not laugh. Her amusement turned to something else. She stiffened and turned to the screen.

‘Do you get it?' David said. ‘We sterilize male solicitors so they can't breed more solicitors! They did that with fruit flies in California. We studied it in school.'

Rosetta said nothing. In another moment she was fighting back tears.

‘Angelo,' Gina said, ‘take David to his room.'

‘Is that wine I smell?' Angelo said.

‘I've done all my homework!' David shouted. ‘Don't you get it?'

‘Rose?' Angelo said.

Gina said, ‘Take David.' Angelo lifted his son off the floor by the shoulders.

‘No, no!' David said. ‘I've got another one. How about a solicitor swat? It's like a fly swat, only bigger.'

‘Time for bed,' Gina said.

‘No, no, wait!' David said, giggling, as Angelo half-carried, half-dragged him from the room.

Gina knelt on the floor next to Rosetta's chair. Rosetta was running the computer's mouse back and forth across its pad. Gina heard clicking, but didn't know what it was about. However she saw that the screen was being spoiled with a web of lines.

‘Rose?' Gina said.

‘He had a vasectomy,' Rosetta said.

‘Walter?'

‘Yes.'

‘Oh,' Gina said. ‘But they can be reversed sometimes.'

‘Can they?' Rosetta said.

‘I'm sure I've read about it.'

Rosetta turned to her sister-in-law. ‘Without the man knowing?'

CHAPTER NINE

Angelo followed Jack Shayler to work again on Friday morning. Shayler's route, activities and timing followed exactly the Thursday morning pattern. A man of routine. Just not the particular routine he told his wife about.

When Angelo returned to the office, he and Gina shared a pot of tea and discussed how they would handle the day. Then they went to see Mrs Shayler. When Angelo and Salvatore confronted Jack Shayler later in the day and claimed they had planted a telephone bug, it would be helpful to be able to describe details of the house.

‘How did Sally and I get in?' Angelo asked as they walked down the street.

‘Checking for telephone faults,' Gina said.

The Shaylers' two-storey house was in a small stone terrace, one of few on the street which had not yet had its front garden paved and its honey-coloured ground floor façade knocked into a shop display window. Angelo rang the doorbell while Gina stepped across a row of pansies. From beneath the prickly leaves of a
Mahonia japonica
she retrieved a black plastic box. ‘See,' she said to Angelo. ‘Waterproof receiving equipment. Guaranteed.'

Mrs Shayler opened the door. The first words she said were, ‘Water again last night.' She invited Gina and Angelo to come in and they did. Just inside the door a telephone rested on a small table. Next to the phone was a vase of yellow freesias.

To Gina's eye, Mrs Shayler looked better than she had the day before despite the mug of water. Perhaps it was the fact that a plan had been agreed, that she expected relief from her uncertainty and ignorance. Gina and Angelo followed their client to a small, immaculate sitting-room. Angelo studied a series of ceramic cottage scenes on the mantelpiece.

Mrs Shayler said, ‘I painted those.'

‘The detail is wonderful,' Angelo said.

‘I use the second bedroom as a studio,' Mrs Shayler said. ‘It's a north light.'

Gina opened the black plastic container. ‘There was a short call. Did you use the telephone last night?'

Mrs Shayler shook her head. ‘Nobody did.'

Gina played the tape and they all heard the dial tone, a number being dialled, and a telephone ringing. After ten rings the caller hung up. ‘Not you?' Gina asked.

Mrs Shayler shook her head. But instead of being fearful or panicky or angry, Mrs Shayler seemed shocked.

Gina and Angelo exchanged glances. ‘Do you still want us to intercept your husband on his way home from work today?' Angelo asked.

Mrs Shayler nodded.

‘All right.'

Gina said, ‘We'll take this tape with us. By counting the clicks we'll be able to work out the number he dialled.'

Angelo said, ‘When we stop him, quoting the number will prove we've been watching him. We'll put him under as much pressure as we can.'

‘Good,' Mrs Shayler said without enthusiasm.

Salvatore was in the office when Gina and Angelo returned. So too was a small man with a large moustache. Salvatore was watching the stranger attach wires to a computer terminal on Angelo's desk. The wires emerged from a fresh hole in the office wall. ‘Welcome to the twentieth century, bubba,' Salvatore said.

The small man stood up. ‘Mr Angelo Lunghi?' he asked brightly. ‘Mrs Gina Lunghi?' He advanced on them, hand extended. ‘Ignatius White,' he said. ‘Adrian Boiling asked me to get these computers up and running for you. Miss Lunghi said I should take the leads through the walls.'

‘Oh,' Angelo said.

‘She'll soon have the business on its feet,' Ignatius White said. ‘And I'll soon have your computers in working order. Will two o'clock be convenient for me to show you how everything works?'

Salvatore, Gina and Angelo retreated to the kitchen. Angelo sat with his head in his hands. ‘Tea. I need tea,' he said.

Salvatore made coffee for himself and tea for the others while Gina went through the morning's events with Mrs Shayler. Salvatore said, ‘We'll head for The Circus about 4.30. OK, bubba?'

Angelo said nothing.

Gina said, ‘4.30's good.'

Salvatore sat and reported on his meeting with Bonnie the Regular.

Bonnie had remembered the black-mac detective. ‘Only too well,' she said, ‘I couldn't get rid of him.'

‘What do you mean?' Salvatore asked.

‘He was coming on to me.'

‘You really think so?' Muffin said.

Bonnie did not remove her eyes from Salvatore. ‘It got to closing time and I was afraid to leave. I thought, “This guy is going to follow me home. Oh fuck!” In the end I asked Phil to scarecrow for me.'

‘Phil?' Salvatore said.

‘Bloke I know who was in the bar. He'll do anything for me, but I'm not interested in him, not
that
way.'

‘In
The Wizard of Oz
, wasn't the scarecrow the one who wanted a brain?' Muffin said.

‘But even with Phil there,' Bonnie said, ‘this so-called detective nearly came out with us.'

‘Are you saying you don't think he really was a detective?' Salvatore asked.

‘I didn't believe a word he said. He showed me this picture, right? And I told him I'd never seen the woman. If he was the goods he'd have shoved off. That's what you'd have done, isn't it?'

‘I expect so,' Salvatore said.

‘But this guy starts talking about what a mystery man he is and how important the case is. It was interesting for a while, for the sheer flannel. I don't mind when someone spins me a good story, but this cloth-head couldn't even do that. In two minutes he's not looking me in the eyes, he's focusing on my boobs. Now I know they're good, but you expect a man to pretend, to be a little subtle. But this guy was drooling in my cleavage. It was obvious he wasn't looking for the woman in the picture at all. It was a pure pick-up line. Only he wasn't any good at it.'

‘How would you say he rated?' Muffin asked. ‘From one to ten. Or should it be from one to a hundred?'

Disdainfully, Bonnie said, ‘He was just creepy. To tell the truth, he scared me.'

Salvatore said, ‘Cheryl thought he gave you a copy of the woman's photograph.'

‘Yeah, he did.'

‘Do you still have it?'

‘I chucked it this morning. I found it in my bag.'

‘Did he tell you his name?'

‘Oh no,' Bonnie the Regular said with a sneer. ‘Not his real name. But he said I could call him Clint. Clint! Clit, more like.'

Salvatore smiled. Muffin did not. Bonnie asked Salvatore, ‘Does your sister understand the joke?'

‘What joke, honey?' Muffin said. ‘You better explain it.'

Salvatore said, ‘How about a phone number or an address?'

‘He wrote a phone number on the back of the picture,' Bonnie said. ‘Get a life is what I say.'

‘This picture you threw away,' Salvatore said, ‘might there be a way to retrieve it?'

‘Well,' Bonnie said, ‘I can look for it in the rubbish when I go home. But I'm not going to do it tonight. I've had a hell of a hard day. I don't intend to finish it off by rooting through orange peels and coffee grounds.'

Muffin said, ‘What sort of rooting do you usually end the day with?'

Gina said, ‘It sounds like your Muffin is the jealous type.'

‘If they aren't before they meet me,' Salvatore said, ‘they are afterwards.'

‘So what about the picture?' Angelo asked.

‘I'm meeting Bonnie at the Rose and Crown tonight.'

‘And Muffin?' Gina asked.

‘I invited her,' Salvatore said. ‘But she says there's something else she's got to do.'

The telephone rang. Angelo answered it.

‘Mr Lunghi!' Adrian Boiling said brightly. ‘I promised I'd ring back on Friday, and I'm a man of my word. How are you liking our Telephone Interceptor? Great quality, isn't it? And one hundred per cent reliable!'

Because of routine work for other clients, it wasn't until lunchtime that Gina was able to sit down with the cassette from the Shayler bug and work out the telephone number that Jack Shayler had dialled the night before. While she did so, Angelo made lunch.

‘What do you think?' she said. ‘Shall I ring it? Or do we ask Charlie to find out what it is first?'

‘Ring it,' Angelo said. He rose and said, ‘Shout through.' He went to the nearest extension, which was in the hall outside Marie's room.

As he waited for Gina to dial, Angelo looked at Marie's door. Impulsively he tried it. The door swung open, but when the entrance was eighteen inches wide Angelo suddenly felt resistance. Something on the floor was in the way. Angelo peered around the edge and discovered that a cardboard box was blocking the door's natural movement. The box was filled with magazines and torn wrapping paper. It blocked the door because it was wedged in place by two other boxes.

In fact, little of Marie's floor was not covered by boxes, paper flowers, sheets of notepaper, open books, cast-aside clothes, plastic wrappers, family photographs, sea shells, dead plants or cuddly toys. There was no obvious way to the bed.

Unexpectedly, Angelo found this collage of his daughter's life comforting. It was very much her own place, settled and full of things that were precious to her. Not a place she might run away from easily. He pulled the door closed again. As he did so, Gina called, ‘It's ringing.' Angelo lifted the receiver.

Almost immediately the telephone was answered. ‘Block Letter,' a man said.

‘Who am I speaking to?' Gina asked.

‘Howard,' the man said.

‘May I speak to whoever is in charge, please?'

‘I'm in charge now,' Howard said.