Suckers

I began to elbow my way towards him, and the tide changed and I suddenly found myself pressed up too close and unable to step back. 'Hey,' I said in his ear, 'I think we should go home now.'

The woman twisted round to look at me and smiled. 'Don't go,' she said. 'Things are just warming up.'

'It's too hot for me already,' I said. 'Duncan?'

'I'm waiting for Lulu,' he said bullishly.

'Lulu's not coming,' I said. 'Ruth was telling porky pies.'

He looked outraged. The woman wrinkled her nose as if I smelled bad, and said to Duncan, 'You should stay, you know. We'll have a really good time later on.'

'He's got a headache,' I said, grabbing his arm. For a moment, the woman looked as if she were going to step between us and sink her teeth into me, but I waggled my crucifix at her and she didn't flinch. So she wasn't a vampire. At least, not yet.

'Who do you think you are?' she sneered. 'The Pope?'

'We can't go home,' wailed Duncan.

'Yes we can,' I said. 'I don't think we should stay another minute. Honestly, I really think we should go.' I had an irresistible urge to get him as far away as possible from Ruth. He was too far gone to raise any further objections as I led him in the direction of the front door. Someone whispered, 'Shall we dance?' and two or three people tried to detain us and start tedious drunken conversations. I managed to squirm free, but Duncan kept stopping to chat, and needed constant prodding and pulling. I looked around one last time for Jack, hoping he might offer us a lift to W11, but neither he nor Roxy were anywhere to be seen.

At the very last minute, Ruth materialized out of nowhere and stood guardian-like in front of the door. 'You're leaving?'

'Looks like it.'

She tried stalling us. 'Have you seen Charlie?'

'He was messing around with the tapes.'

'Not any more,' she said. 'He's gone.'

Duncan snapped out of his daze. 'You told me Lulu would be here.'

'She said she would come,' Ruth said. 'It's not my fault she hasn't turned up.' She checked her watch, and I thought she was going to say it was early days yet, there was still plenty of time for Lulu to arrive. But she didn't.

'Charlie must be somewhere around,' I said. 'Look, Ruthie, we have to rush. I'll call you.'

'Please, Dora. Call me tomorrow. There are things we've got to talk about.'

'Yeah, yeah,' I said. 'Bye now.' I yanked the door open and booted Duncan out into the night.

'OK,' she said, seeming to shrink back into the room. The party noises swelled, and then the door closed and the sound was instantly reduced to a muffled wassail.

We walked down the road, our breath turning to vapour in the cold night air. Duncan was concentrating hard on placing one foot in front of the other. The roads were busy, but this part of the world was strangely empty of pedestrians, not like Notting Hill at all, though we heard what sounded like the distant howling of teenage jerks on the rampage, animal noises echoing through the underpass. As we trudged down the Archway Road, the wind at our backs, there was a sudden screech of tyres, followed by a loud metallic crunch on the road behind us, but we didn't stop. We kept on going till we spotted a cab.

Chapter 5

Duncan annoyed me by babbling about Lulu all the way home. Why hadn't she turned up? Hadn't Ruth said she'd be there? Why hadn't she phoned? Everyone liked the ads on TV, but wasn't Multiglom exploiting her, driving her too hard? He was worried, really he was. No one had seen or heard of her for days. 'Ruth saw her in Gnashers,' I reminded him, and then I told a tiny lie. 'Ruth says she was fine.'

Duncan sat bolt upright. 'Gnashers? Hey, let's go there right this minute.' He leaned forward to speak to the cab driver, but I pulled him back. 'No,' I said firmly. 'You've had quite enough wild socializing for one night.'

'But what if she's there?'

'She won't be. Not now. Models have to take care of their skin, otherwise they start looking ropy. No late nights, no boozing, no drugs. Lulu's too old to get away with anything like that.'

'But she's only twenty-five. Only a baby.'

'Old for a model,' I said. 'Your place or mine?'

We went, as usual, to his place, which had soundproof walls and floors. That way I avoided the Krankzeits and got something approaching a good night's sleep, give or take a drunken groping session.

I sensed there was something missing as soon as I walked in. Duncan went to the bathroom while I prowled around, trying to figure out what it was. And then it hit me. Or rather, it didn't hit me like it should have done. 'What have you done with the garlic?' I asked him when he came back.

'Ooh, I chucked it away,' he said innocently. 'It was stinking the whole place out.'

'No, it wasn't. And that was your protection. I put it there specially. You can't just throw it out.'

'There's some in the kitchen.'

I stared at him in disbelief. 'You threw it out because you thought Lulu would be coming back with you tonight, didn't you? And you didn't want her thinking you'd lost your marbles.'

'Maybe.' He shrugged and got out the half-full bottle of VSOP and poured himself a large measure. He didn't ask if I wanted one, so I went over to pour my own.

'You're a fool,' I said. 'I bet you're not even carrying the crucifix I gave you.'

'So?'

'What happens if you run into Violet or one of her chums? What then? You'll be dog meat, for Godsake.'

'Now who's the paranoid one?' he taunted. 'I thought the bloody vampires were supposed to be confined to Multiglom.'

'That's only the headquarters.' The crucifix earrings were heavy; I took them off and massaged my aching lobes. This thing is getting out of hand. It's getting big.'

'What are you talking about?'

'Only that she's building a fucking empire. Bellini's just the beginning. What we're talking about here is a multinational corporation with fingers in hundreds of different pies: publishing, drug companies, breweries, God knows what else. She's running industries.'

He looked at me sceptically. 'She couldn't do that. Not Violet. Not on her own.'

Fragments of all those conversations I'd had with Grauman thirteen years ago reared up on their hind legs to taunt me. 'But that's just it. She's not on her own. We're not talking Bram Stoker any more, we're talking Vampire City.' I was aching with exhaustion, but I didn't want to go to sleep because everything was suddenly falling into place. It was so obvious, I couldn't understand why I hadn't seen it before. The Multiglom floor guide with its list of names: Micromart, Pharmatex, Deforest… Satellite broadcasting, architects, design groups. I wondered whether there were also banks, lawyers, estate agents…

'What would she want with a brewery?' asked Duncan. 'She never drank beer.' He saw I was shivering. 'Are you cold? Want the fire on?'

'I'm OK,' I said, then I decided I wasn't OK after all. I was covered with goose pimples and my teeth were chattering. Duncan put his drink down and took one of my hands between both of his, rubbing it briskly to get the circulation going. 'You're like ice. Do you want to borrow a jumper? No, tell you what, why don't you have a long hot bath? Then afterwards I'll make some cocoa.'