‘I understand,’ I said gently. Tom was at the lift; the doors were open, but I waved for him to wait, knowing that if I stepped inside I’d lose the signal.
‘I called the flight attendants,’ she continued. ‘They’re all first-aiders, and they could see right away it was serious. They asked if there was a doctor on board and a woman came up from the back of the plane. She had ID that showed she worked in a hospital in Paris. She couldn’t find a pulse, she held a mirror under her nose, and I could see there wasn’t the faintest sign of breath on it. Then she shone a penlight in her eye and said the pupils were completely non-reactive. They had oxygen on board, and those shock pads, but the doctor said she was beyond resuscitation, and she pronounced her dead, at nine twenty-nine local time. The captain was there; he made a note of it, and got her to sign a declaration.’
‘Did she suggest a cause of death?’
‘No. The pilot asked her, but she said she wasn’t prepared to guess, that there’ll have to be an autopsy.’
‘What happened then?’
‘They put a sheet over her, and got everyone off the plane through the back exit. We had to clamber over her, Duncan and I.’
‘How did he react?’ I asked.
‘You know, Primavera, I can’t answer that, not properly. He didn’t burst into floods of tears or anything, put it that way. He was very quiet. That’s until the captain asked me who was the next of kin. I said it was Janet, just automatically, without even thinking, and Duncan shouted, “No, she’s fucking not! I am!” The crew probably just thought he was hysterical, but he wasn’t. He was making a point, if you ask me.’
‘I don’t have to,’ I told her. ‘I can see that. What are you doing now? Where are you?’
‘I’m in the VIP lounge; they’ve asked us to wait here to talk to the ambulance crew that are coming to take Susie’s body to the morgue. They’re going to take her to the hospital in Nice. I want her to go to Monaco, but that might not be possible, a jurisdictional thing, the airport manager says, since she died in France. Duncan’s outside, having a cigarette … to calm his nerves, he said … but I can see him from where I’m sitting. He’s standing in the forecourt and he’s not smoking; he’s on his phone. He switched it on when we got in here, and got a text right away.’
‘I’ll bet,’ I muttered. ‘Audrey,’ I continued, ‘I have to think about all of this, and I have Tom with me. I can’t kid him on about this. I will call you back as soon as we’re through security and I’ve had a chance to talk to him.’
‘You’re still going to catch your flight?’
The thought of not catching it hadn’t even occurred to me. ‘Oh yes,’ I said. ‘It’s even more important now that I do. I’ll speak to you again shortly; meantime, hang in there.’
‘What’s wrong?’ Tom asked, as soon as I’d joined him at the lift. We weren’t alone; a fat bloke with a suit bag and a briefcase was waiting beside us, and I didn’t want to be breaking any news in his earshot.
‘Not now, love,’ I said. ‘Be patient, until we’re inside the building.’
He nodded, but his face was set in a look that wasn’t fearful exactly, but told me he wasn’t expecting to be hearing any good news. I’d called Audrey by name and if he’d heard me … He said nothing, though; instead he fussed me through the fast bag drop, which wasn’t, and security, putting his carryon bag and mine on to the X-ray conveyor and reminding me to take off my belt and watch. I set the damn gate off, of course, thanks to the metal button on my bloody trousers, and had to endure a pat-down, no, a feel-up, from a clumsy woman who was so thorough in her search that I asked her if she was enjoying it, for I sure as hell wasn’t. She threatened to call her supervisor. I threatened to call the police. I must have been better at threatening than her, for she backed off.
I was still steaming mad with her by the time I’d reclaimed my stuff, but my son’s presence, and the knowledge of what I was about to tell him, helped me control myself. We went straight to the business class lounge. I’ve known those to be busier than the concourse at some airports, but Barcelona’s was quiet that morning. I checked the board as we walked in, letting Tom show our tickets. Our flight was showing a ten-minute delay; that meant we had more than half an hour to boarding time, enough for what had to be done.
I fetched a soft drink and some biscuits for him and a coffee for me, then steered us to the quietest corner I could see. His patience finally ran out as soon as I sat down.
‘It’s Susie, Mum, isn’t it?’ he said, his face tense.
All I could do was nod.
‘She’s dead. I can tell by your face.’
‘Yes. She died on board the flight to Nice, about an hour ago. It was very sudden, Tom. Audrey said she died in her sleep.’
I’d thought he might shed a tear. After all, for that part of his early childhood when I was away, in various places, and Oz had custody, he’d been brought up by Susie, hence the name by which he always called her. But he didn’t, he sat there stoically and it was I who felt my eyes go moist. Twice in two days, Ice Maiden, I thought. What’s happening?
‘She was very ill, wasn’t she? Janet told me,’ he added, ‘after she’d spoken to her.’
‘Yes, she was. She was very frail, and in her condition, many things could have gone wrong any time. From what Audrey told me, I’d guess she had a brain haemorrhage, and died pretty much instantly.’
‘Was Duncan there?’
‘Yes, apparently so.’
‘What’s going to happen now? Does that mean that Duncan’s going to be Janet and wee Jonathan’s stepfather?’
‘I suppose it does.’
He glared at me. ‘Mum, we can’t let that happen. He’s not a good man. They have to live with us.’
‘Tom,’ I sighed, ‘that’s easier said than achieved. It’s never that simple. Like it or not, Duncan and Susie were married when she died. You’re their half-brother, but I have no relationship to them at all. I suppose I could petition the court.’
‘You could, Mum,’ he insisted. ‘Duncan won’t want two kids. Why shouldn’t he let them live with us?’
‘These are not two ordinary kids,’ I pointed out, ‘any more than you are, given that your father was a famous man, and still is. Christ, there have been as many sightings of Oz Blackstone as there were of Elvis after he died! Tom, you are all wealthy kids and Susie’s will is going to make you even wealthier. If I can speak to you as if you were all grown up, not just two-thirds of the way there, I think Duncan Culshaw is a greedy, grasping son-of-a-bitch, and he’s unlikely to give up control of Janet and Jonathan’s wealth. Understand?’
He nodded. ‘Maybe Uncle Harvey could fix it. He’s a lawyer.’
‘Yes, but he’s not that sort of lawyer any longer. He’s a judge. We couldn’t take a case to him, because he knows us.’
‘Okay, maybe he could get one of his pals to fix it!’
I smiled at his remaining innocence … or was I the innocent, and was he right? Do the courts really work on the old pals principle? It didn’t fucking help me when I was in the dock, that’s for sure.
‘We have to wait and see what happens, but I promise, I won’t let anything bad happen to those kids. And nor,’ I reminded him, ‘will Conrad Kent. Speaking of whom,’ I concluded, ‘I must call Audrey again, like I promised I would.’ I picked up my coffee and took a sip, but it was cold, and anyway, I didn’t fancy it any longer.
‘Be a love,’ I asked him. ‘Go and get me a drink. White wine; biggest glass they’ve got.’
He looked at his watch, raised an eyebrow.
‘Hey,’ I exclaimed, ‘gimme a break.’
As he walked over to the self-service bar, I called Audrey back. ‘How are things?’ I asked. A damn silly question, looking back on it; unless Susie had suddenly stopped being dead, ‘things’ were not going to be any better.