When they got to the Blue Parrot she paid the driver and hurried inside. The bar staff were getting ready for the evening’s trade: polishing glasses and bringing up crates of mixers from the cellars. Like the Palermo Lounge and the Shalimar, the décor in here was dark chocolate and gold, angels and cherubs, faux tiger skin on the chairs and some of the banquettes. In fact, all three clubs looked damned near identical.
But there’s a difference, she thought as she stood there in the big room that constituted the main body of the club. At the Shalimar, Ellie’s motherly presence gave the place a warm ambience. And at the Palermo, Dolly had imbued her territory with a brassy sweetness. Here, there was only Gary and a coven of ever-changing girlfriends to run the place. The atmosphere was not cosy, not welcoming. Strictly business.
‘Shit, not you,’ said a male voice from behind her.
Annie turned around and there he was: Gary Tooley. Over six and a half feet tall, and so skinny it was as if he’d been stretched on a rack. His eyes were devoid of any humanity; she’d always thought that and clearly nothing had changed.
Gary Tooley looked like what he was: a vicious thug. His straight straw-blond hair had been restyled since she’d last seen him; he now wore it swept straight back, giving him an even more hawkish air. He was wearing a dark designer suit, a white silk shirt open at the neck. Working for Max had given him a good lifestyle; he’d come from the East End gutters, but today he looked rich and she knew that would please him, because Gary loved money – it was his god, the only thing that mattered to him.
‘Hi, Gary,’ she said, and then her eyes went to the minuscule blonde at his side. Big calculating blue eyes rimmed with black lashes, a sneer on a face plastered with too much fake tan and make-up, and a too-short pink leather dress showing off a taut little body.
‘And who’s this?’ asked Annie.
‘I’m Caroline,’ said the blonde. ‘Who the fuck are you?’
‘This is my girlfriend,’ said Gary to Annie. Then to Caroline he said: ‘This is the boss’s wife, hun.’
The woman linked both arms possessively through one of Gary’s. ‘Gary and me, we’re together.’
Looks like a match made in heaven, thought Annie: a horrible cow and a soulless, sadistic bastard. Ignoring the blonde, she addressed Gary: ‘You heard about Dolly?’
‘Yeah. Big friend of yours.’
‘She was. Yes.’ He didn’t say sorry for your loss, what a nice woman she’d been, nothing; but then, Annie hadn’t expected that. Not from him. She diverted her gaze, glancing around the place in case he should see any weakness in her eyes at the mention of Dolly. You didn’t show vulnerability in front of people like Gary, they’d eat you whole. She knew that.
The club was starting to come to life: lights flicking on over the bar, doormen arriving, giggles and chatter from girls heading to the dressing room to get ready for the evening. There was a female cleaner working late, moving in and out of the chainmail curtains over to the right of the room, pushing a vacuum cleaner. There was a smell of lavender polish in the air.
‘So how’s business?’ she asked, looking back at Gary.
‘Good,’ he said, and his eyes were wary.
‘A private word?’
‘About what?’
Annie looked pointedly at Caroline, clinging on to him like ivy on a wall.
Gary stared at Annie for a moment, unblinking. Then he patted Caroline on the backside and said: ‘See you at six thirty, babe. OK?’
Caroline gave Annie one last look and moved off toward the door. Then Gary said, ‘Gimme a moment,’ to Annie and followed Caroline’s wiggling leather-wrapped arse over to where the doormen were standing. He saw Caroline out the door with a peck on the cheek, then spoke to the men there. One of them handed him a newspaper. After a couple of minutes, he headed back to Annie. ‘Come on up to the office,’ he said, and turned to lead the way.
26
Once inside the office, Gary went around the desk and sat down. He gestured for Annie to sit, too. She did. They could hear the DJ firing up his decks now, could hear Queen thrumming up through the floor, Freddie Mercury’s superb voice singing ‘A Kind of Magic’.
‘So what’s on your mind?’ he asked her, throwing the paper on to the desk.
Annie glanced at the front page. O. J. Simpson had been charged with the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman outside the Simpson home. And a hacker had been charged for wire and computer fraud. It all seemed removed from reality, about a million miles away.
Gary looked pissed off to see her. His loyalty was to Max; they’d been part of the same gang since school. For as long as she could remember, Gary had despised her. Gary screwed women but hated and mistrusted all of them – and he viewed any deep involvement with them as foolish. Annie wondered if Caroline knew that yet. Well, she’d find out. Gary had always seen Annie in particular as a female bloodsucker, a vampire who would draw the life out of Max, weakening and sapping him. Well, fuck Gary.
‘You’ve been phoning Max a lot lately,’ she said, by way of openers.
‘Have I?’ He leaned back in his chair, linked his hands behind his head, very casual, and stared at her with that pale blue unblinking gaze.
‘Yes, you have. And I’d like to know, about what.’
Now he was smiling, a flash of teeth that was more like a snarl than anything else. ‘You better ask Max, not me.’
‘I can’t,’ said Annie.
‘Why’s that then?’
‘Because Max has gone somewhere. Left with no explanation.’ Annie leaned forward in her chair, her eyes holding his to emphasize her point. ‘He’s just gone. Said he had stuff to do, and took off. I don’t know where to or for what reason, but what I do know is that he’s had a lot of calls from you lately. And so the question remains – what’s he been talking to you about?’
Gary straightened and shrugged. ‘This and that,’ he said.
‘Yeah? Can you be more specific?’
‘Private stuff. You know. Man to man.’
Annie nodded slowly. ‘Private? Well, we’re married, Max and me, so I think you should make an exception.’ Her eyes were hard dark green pebbles as they held his. ‘So tell me what the fuck is going on, Gary, will you?’
‘Hey.’ The smile dropped from his face. He sat up straight and leaned both hands on the desk and stared into her eyes. ‘Don’t come in here flinging your weight about. I run this place for Max, not you.’
‘You run it for both of us, Gary. I told you. We’re married. Joined at the hip.’
‘Yeah, like fuck! He’s gone and you don’t even know where.’
‘Do you?’
‘What?’
‘Know where? Only, what with all those phone calls, I’ve got a feeling that if anyone knows, it’s you.’
Gary shrugged but his eyes were steely as they stared into hers. ‘If you want to keep Max sweet then you ought to start bloody behaving yourself.’
Annie’s jaw dropped and a skitter of fear shivered up her spine. ‘What the fuck’s that supposed to mean?’
‘It means this conversation’s over,’ he said, and stood up. ‘I don’t have to take any of your shit.’
She started shaking her head. ‘No. No! You tell me what you mean, Gary. You can’t just say a thing like that and think I’m going to leave it there.’
Gary came around the desk. To Annie’s shock, he grabbed her arm and hauled her to her feet.