I had confidence in Ricky’s people, but I was half hoping that my friend would have a go at me. Okay, maybe he was no more than a fan trying to get close, but he’d interfered with my family time and I didn’t like that.
I found myself thinking about him for most of the way back to Edinburgh and I didn’t like that either. I was starting work on my most important movie in the morning. . it’s like football, but you’re only as good as your next game, rather than your last. . and here I was having to force myself to concentrate on it. No, I was annoyed, and given half a chance, the cause of it would pay.
When I got back to the Mound, I thought about calling Ricky, but he’d know where I was, and I knew that if he’d anything to tell me, he’d have been in touch. So I parked the Mercedes and walked up the slope to the tall grey building. I let myself into the apartment, and went straight to my bedroom, flicking on the light when I got there, dropping my bag on the floor, and heading straight for the shower, ripping off clothes as I went.
I must have stayed in there for a good ten minutes, trying to wash that man right out of my hair, I suppose. Eventually I succeeded; I towelled myself dry, brushed my teeth and headed for bed, focused fully on next morning.
I stepped out of the bathroom into darkness. At first I thought the bulb had blown, but then I sensed movement on my right. I spun towards it. . then felt my world turn upside-down.
I call myself a wrestler. I mean, I’ve been trained, I know proper holds and throws and everything; the real stuff. I hadn’t a chance: my legs were kicked out from under me, and a slim but very strong arm went across my chest in the same instant, driving me down. I landed on my back, hard enough to wind me for an instant. My arms spread out wide as I fell. As I hit the ground, I felt them pinned down, and a weight pressing on me.
There wasn’t much moon but a little light was creeping in from the outside, through the slatted blinds. I could see. . and feel. . that my attacker was naked, and at the same moment I could feel. . and just about see. . that she was female. She was straddling me, trapping my upper arms with her feet, pressing my thighs to the ground with strong arms.
My eyes grew more accustomed to the light; I couldn’t believe what they were seeing, close up. Then I felt something else, and I heard a voice that was more of a loud mumble. ‘Lie still,’ Mandy O’Farrell ordered, ‘or I may bite.’
I flexed my biceps and used my leg strength to lift her clear of the ground and to pull the part of her that was nearest to me even closer still. ‘I could say the same to you,’ I pointed out. In the end, we called it a draw.
The apartment was warm; we were both covered in sweat from our brief struggle when she rolled off me, and swung herself round. She was grinning. ‘Think you’re so tough, eh?’ She was right; half an hour before I had been thinking about filling in my stalker.
‘Do you realise’, I asked her, ‘that I could have you f ired?’
She gave me a look of pure innocence. ‘But Mr Ross,’ she exclaimed in a girlie voice unlike her own, ‘I was only obeying your orders.’
I stared at her in what must have been amazement, for she laughed out loud. ‘Ricky told me that you were heading back to Edinburgh on your own, and that I was to get here and stay as close to you as I could. Couldn’t do better than that, eh?’
‘So how did you get in?’
‘I told you, this building has no security. . well, actually, it has but I’m rather good at that sort of thing. I’m good at all sorts of things, as you know by now.’
I have to move out of here, I thought. It’s bad luck; I keep getting beaten up by women.
I could feel an incipient carpet burn on my bum, so I pushed myself up from the ground and slid into the king-size-plus bed. Mandy followed me under the duvet. In the circumstances I couldn’t be bothered protesting. I caught another flash of her in the moonlight, as she stood. With her long powerful limbs, high breasts, and genuine blonde hair, she made me think of a silver wolf.
‘Is this the way you usually go about your job?’ I asked her.
‘Not very often; in fact, hardly ever. Sometimes clients expect it; they think it’s part of the service. Those ones really have no chance. You’d think Arabs might be the worst for that, by the way, but they’re not. No, it’s the Americans you have to watch out for.’
‘I’d have thought they’d have to watch out for you.’ She laughed. ‘Those who tried it on, that is.’
She ran a hand across my chest. ‘I’m glad you’re one of the nice types,’ she said. ‘You’re a strong boy; I don’t know how I’d handle you if you got rough.’ My self-esteem was restored.
‘Very carefully,’ I suggested. She took me at my word, and moved across me; I found myself looking up into her smiling eyes. ‘Mandy,’ I told her, ‘fidelity has never come easy to me, and you’re making it more difficult by the second.’
‘I can feel that,’ she remarked.
‘So please. . and don’t be offended, because I’m having trouble asking this. . go and sleep in the spare room.’
‘No,’ she said. ‘I’ve got my orders.’
Chapter 37
I don’t know how I did it, but I made it to Advocates’ Close at the appointed hour next morning, looking reasonably fresh-faced, and feeling fit and ready for work. When the alarm woke me, at six on the dot, Mandy was up and dressed. She offered to make breakfast while I showered but I knew that the caterers would be taking care of that in the production trailers in Cockburn Street.
The location was so near at hand that I was able to walk there in only a couple of minutes.
The book says that it’s dark and raining when they find the body, but Miles had taken a liberty with that as well. If we’d shot in darkness we’d have had to spread it over at least two nights, and the cost would have shot up. As I said, the man knows the value of a pound.
Advocates’ Close was blocked off when Mandy and I got there, guarded by policemen, who were actually extras in uniform. The High Street was open to traffic, though, and a small crowd of onlookers had gathered at the barrier; some, but not all of them, were on the payroll. Once the cameras started rolling, though, all the punters would be cleared away. Continuity is everything in film; if the faces in the background changed from shot to shot, it would stick out like a sore thumb.
Speaking of which, as I eased my way through the crowd, I saw Ricky Ross standing inside the alleyway. I walked up to him, and Mandy strolled off to join the other minders. ‘She picked you up, then?’ he asked, nodding after her.
‘She never left my side,’ I told him, ‘as per your orders.’
‘You should be so lucky,’ he muttered, sarcastically. ‘The Ice Maiden’s above the likes of you, son. Her job’s to collect you from your flat and get you here on time, and that’s that, so don’t you get any ideas.’
‘As if I would.’ I changed the subject, fast; if Mandy’s visit had been extra-curricular, I didn’t want him to get more of a sniff of it than I’d given him already. ‘Have your people spotted the guy who was following me?’ I asked him.
‘Sorry. There hasn’t been a trace. You are sure about him, are you?’
‘Of course I’m fucking sure!’
‘Okay, okay, keep your hair on. You’ve probably spooked him. Chances are he was just an idiot punter and you’ll never see him again, but we’ll keep looking, and I’ll keep the cover on Susie.’
‘Thanks.’
For the first time, I wondered about his presence there. ‘Where’s Alison?’ I asked.
‘Still at home. I’ve got someone watching her too, though.’
‘Do you really think she’s at risk?’
‘I’m not taking any chances,’ he said, curtly.
I caught something in his voice. ‘Here, Ricky,’ I challenged, ‘are you getting keen on her?’