‘Take it to my room,’ she said.
A near bow. Forelock tugging. ‘Right away!’
The Cube looked at me, saw we thought the same thing: ‘So this is how the other half lives?’
I got to my feet. From nowhere the Leither in me rose up. The ghost of Burns reminded me: ‘The rank is but the guinea’s stamp… a man’s a man for a’ that.’
She took a few steps into the elevator. I followed behind her, then pressed the hold button. The indignant look on her face seemed like incitement to me.
‘Take her coat,’ I told the Cube.
The concierge flustered, ‘Really, I mean…’
‘No, it’s all right,’ said Nadja. ‘These men are… associates of mine.’
The doors closed.
The air inside the elevator felt thick with menace. A tinder-box waiting to explode. I’d happily be the spark.
‘Associates?’ I said.
‘What is this?’ said Nadja.
‘I tried to-’ said the Cube.
‘Shut your fucking yap!’ I said.
I moved towards Nadja. The closer I got, the more I became overpowered by the scent of her perfume. I looked her up and down. She recoiled from me. Guess I didn’t smell quite as good. ‘This, my dear lady, is the moment of truth.’
I stopped the elevator. Opened the door. ‘Do one!’ I grabbed Nadja’s coat from the Cube, kicked his arse on the way into the hall, he’d served his purpose now. ‘And remember — I wasn’t kidding about the machete.’
As the elevator began its ascent, I eyeballed Nadja.
She held herself motionless. Wouldn’t grant me so much as a stare. I felt a queue of my cloth-capped forebears forming behind me. Each one, prodding, demanding I do my bit for the class struggle. I fought them off as long as I could. Even after the caps came off and were trampled under tackity boots, I kept my cool.
When the elevator stopped Nadja looked through me. Something snapped.
I hit the door lock. Grabbed her face in my hand, said, ‘Lose the high and mighty pose, lady.’
She tried to turn away, raised a neatly manicured set of claws to my eyes. In a second my forearm clicked into place, pressing her by the throat to the wall.
‘This is the one and only warning you’re going to get. Go down that route and you’ll find out what a perfectly unreconstructed example of maledom I really am.’
Her face turned white. Even through the layers of expensive panstick I saw I had her beat.
‘Now, we are going to walk out of here all nicey, nicey — understand?’
She couldn’t move, but signalled her compliance with a flutter of long eyelashes.
I let her go. ‘Don’t test me. That would be a mistake you might not live to regret.’
27
I’d only one word for the way I felt about the opulence of Nadja’s room: appalled. I’m a working-class bloke, it’s in the contract.
The carpet felt so soft that it added an extra layer to the air-cushioned soles of my Docs. But I couldn’t feel comfortable here. I’d no place in my life for gilt mirrors and walnut marquetry. Tried to tot-up the cost of furnishing a room like this. Couldn’t do it — had seen nothing like it in the Argos catalogue. All I did know, I’d need several lifetimes to afford one cabriole leg of the table Nadja treated like a piece of MFI flat-pack.
‘I need a cigarette,’ she said, slamming the drawer shut.
She seemed on edge — just how I wanted her.
I let her hang. Wandered about the place. Caught sight of a Peploe on one of the walls.
‘You don’t like the picture, Mr Dury?’ said Nadja. She’d found some tabs, lit up and blew smoke in my direction.
‘Not my style.’
‘What is?’
‘I’m more a “tennis player scratching her arse” kinda guy.’
She winced, found me coarse. I wasn’t the type she usually dealt with. Thought, ‘Tough shit.’ She’d just have to get used to roughing it with the proles for a while.
‘Do you plan to take me prisoner in my own suite, Mr Dury?’
I’d a mind to do much worse. A man had been killed, a man I’d got close to. The image of Milo’s burned remains stabbed me, called for revenge, and the anger inside me wasn’t choosy who paid.
‘You really are quite a piece of work, aren’t you, Nadja?’ I said.
She hesitated, stalled with her cigarette halfway to her mouth. ‘I’m quite sure I do not know what it is you mean.’
I walked over to the drinks cabinet, poured out a large Courvoisier, swirled it around in the bottom of the glass. When I turned round, Nadja had lowered herself onto the chaise. She crossed her long legs delicately in my direction. ‘Please, give me one.’
I sighed. ‘Sorry, but I’ve come out without my white gloves.’
She looked confused, but undeterred. Shot me a smile.
‘Let’s get something straight from the off,’ I said. ‘That kind of shit isn’t going to cut any ice with me.’
‘Excuse me?’
I fired down the brandy, said, ‘I don’t do fuckstruck.’
Her act slipped away. She sat forward, elbows on knees. ‘What do you want?’
‘I seem to remember telling you what I wanted some time ago.’
‘And…’
‘Here we are again.’ I reloaded with brandy.
‘Look, Mr Dury, when a man, a how do you say… private investigator, comes to ask the questions about my personal life I have little to say.’
I drained the glass, held it in my hand, some weight in these crystal jobs. As it hit the wall the noise came like gunshot.
‘Okay — Okay,’ said Nadja. ‘I’ll tell you what you want to know. I just had to be sure who you were before I could speak.’
‘And your little helper, he filled you in?’
‘I wanted to know who you were working for. I couldn’t trust that you might be from them.’
‘ Them?’
‘From Zalinskas.’
She fell to bits. Head in hands. Tears. The works.
I moved a chair in front of her, turned it around, sat down.
‘I know about the Latvian girls. My friend found out too — and they murdered him.’
‘Yes. Yes…’
‘You and the Bullfrog, you’re in it together.’
‘No — Yes. With Billy. It was his job.’
‘Billy brought in the girls?’
‘Yes. But, there were many things he did that I did not know of.’
I reached out, lifted up her head. ‘Such as?’
‘I do not know. Really, there were some things Billy wouldn’t even speak to me about.’
I remembered Col’s words, about Billy being close to making his pile. I wasn’t buying that Nadja didn’t have more to give.
‘And Zalinskas, he knew all about Billy’s… activities?’
Nadja looked towards the window, placed a curl of hair behind her ear. She shook her head.
‘I see.’ Now we were getting somewhere. ‘So Billy was branching out on his own?’
She stood up, pressed down the sides of her skirt.
‘Mr Dury, I shouldn’t be telling you of this — any of it.’
‘Why?’
‘It will put me in danger.’
I stood up quickly, knocking over the chair. ‘You’re already in danger, don’t forget that.’
‘But these people — you do not understand. If they knew, they would kill me too.’
‘Knew what?’
She turned away, started to move off. I grabbed her by the arm, stopping her in her tracks. ‘Knew what?’
‘Billy… he was talking about making a lot of money in a hurry, he was on to something.’
‘On to what?’
‘I do not know what, he had some information and I think Zalinskas thought he should not have it.’
I squeezed her wrist. ‘What do you mean, information?’
‘I do not know any more. I promise. I have told you everything. Oh, Mr Dury I promise you, this is all I know.’
I dropped her arm. She sobbed, placing a hand where I had gripped her.
She’d caved. She might still be useful to me, but there was nothing left in the well right now.
‘Wait! Where are you going?’ she yelled out.