‘I didn’t know they were stolen.’
‘Which, if you read the terms of the Act, is not relevant.’
‘I’ve told you everything I know.’ Hunt’s voice rose in indignation. ‘If you need any more information, just get in touch with me.’
‘Except that we’ve established you don’t have an address and you’ve mislaid your phone.’
‘Just give me your card,’ said Hunt. ‘I’ll get in touch with you.’
‘I would,’ said Munster. ‘It’s just that I’ve got a feeling that you might go the way of your friends Dave and Ian and be a bit difficult to track down. So are you willing to come, or do we have to arrest you?’
‘I’ll come. Haven’t I been co-operating? Haven’t I answered all your questions? I just want to finish my drink. And then go to the toilet.’
‘We’ll come with you.’
‘I can go later,’ said Hunt. He sipped his beer. ‘Don’t you like sitting outside? It’s global warming, isn’t it? We can sit out on the pavement in London drinking. It’s like being by the Med.’
‘With skulls,’ said Riley.
Hunt peered up at them. ‘I don’t like the skulls. They’re depressing.’
SEVEN
‘No drugs,’ said Olivia. ‘Obviously no drugs.’
‘Mum,’ said Chloë.
‘And no spirits. You’ve told everybody no spirits? If anyone brings spirits, they’’ll be confiscated and their parents can collect them.’
‘You’ve said this about a million times.’
‘Have you got a list of everyone who’s coming?’ said Olivia. ‘Then Frieda’s friend can cross them off as they arrive.’
‘I haven’t got a list.’
‘How do you know who’s coming, then?’
‘It’s not like that, Mum,’ said Chloë. ‘For God’s sake.’
‘But you must know how many people are coming.’ There was a pause. ‘Well?’
‘Sort of.’
‘Well, sort of how many? Ten? Fifty? A thousand?’
‘We’ve talked about this. We’ve talked about it a million times.’
‘This isn’t a joke, Chloë. Did you hear about the teenage party in Hart Street last year? The father tried to deal with some gatecrashers and one of them pulled a knife. He lost a kidney, Chloë.’
‘What’s all this about? You said I could have the party. If I can’t have it, then just say so and we’ll cancel it. Will that make you happy?’
‘I want you to have a party,’ said Olivia. ‘It’s your birthday. But I want you to enjoy it. You won’t enjoy it if people are being sick and there are fights and the house is being vandalized.’
‘It won’t be like that.’
‘And no sex.’
‘Mum!’
‘What?’
‘This is just embarrassing.’
Olivia reached forward and touched Chloë’s cheek. ‘You look lovely, by the way.’
Chloë blushed and mumbled something.
‘There are crisps and nuts and cartons and cartons of juice,’ said Olivia. ‘What I’m trying to get across to you, Chloë, is that you’ll all have a better time if you don’t get falling-over drunk. You can talk to each other and – and dance and things …’
‘Oh, Mum …’
‘But nobody enjoys being really drunk and falling over and being sick. That’s not a good time. I mean, Frieda, back me up over this. Am I being a wet blanket?’
Frieda was standing by the window, gazing out into the garden. There were unlit candles in jam jars along the gravel path. There was a ring at the door.
‘Oh, God,’ said Olivia. ‘Already?’
‘I’ll get it,’ said Frieda.
She went to the front door and opened it. ‘Josef! You’re just in time.’
Josef wasn’t alone. Next to him was a man who was even taller and bulkier. He was wearing jeans and a leather jacket. He had long curly hair, tied at the back of his head in a ponytail.
‘This is Stefan,’ said Josef. ‘And he is from Russia but we will be pleasant to him in any case.’
Frieda shook Stefan’s hand and he gave her a slow smile. ‘You are Frieda? I have heard. You are going to have a beautiful bath. It is big and made of iron, like in an old film.’
‘Yes, I’ve heard of you too,’ said Frieda. ‘You helped Josef take my nice old bath away.’
‘It was a bad bath,’ said Stefan. ‘Cheap rubbish. It cracked like that’ – he snapped his fingers – ‘when we took it.’
‘Well, thank you both for doing this. Although I’m worried that while you’re doing it, my bathroom still doesn’t have a bath.’
Josef looked concerned. ‘Yes, Frieda, I must talk with you. There is a small problem.’
‘What problem?’
‘More problem with the pipes. But we talk later. I sort it.’
‘You know, I had to have a shower here,’ said Frieda. ‘While they were preparing for the party. I have to carry a towel round with me.’ She stopped herself. ‘But it’s good of you to do this. You’d better come in. Can I get you something to drink?’
‘Now we will have juice.’ Josef tapped the pocket of his coat. Evidently there was a bottle in there. ‘At the end of the night we will celebrate together.’
Olivia gave Josef and Stefan a variety of instructions, constantly adjusted and added to. Meanwhile the doorbell rang intermittently and young people began to drift in. Frieda stood to one side and watched the scene, as if it was a piece of theatre or an exotic tribe. Suddenly she saw a face she recognized and gave a start. ‘Jack! What are you doing here?’
Jack was training to be a psychotherapist and Frieda was his supervisor. She knew him well, but seeing him in this context was a surprise. He, too, seemed taken aback and blushed a deep, unbecoming red. Even by his own standards, he was wearing bizarre and mismatched clothes – a pink and green hooped rugby shirt, with an ancient, moth-eaten tuxedo over the top, and baggy brown cords.
‘Chloë invited me,’ he said. ‘I thought it might be fun. I didn’t expect to see you, though.’
‘I’m on my way out.’
‘Is that Josef I can see?’
‘He’s the bouncer for the evening.’
After a minute or two Josef looked at her, over Olivia’s shoulder, with a faint smile that was a plea for help. Frieda walked across the room and tapped Olivia on the arm. ‘Let’s go and get our meal.’
‘I just need to check on a few things.’
‘No, you don’t.’
Frieda led Olivia, still protesting, into the hallway, put her coat on for her and pulled her out of the front door. As they went down the steps, Olivia stared around anxiously. ‘I can’t help feeling that I’m locking in the people I ought to be locking out.’
‘No,’ said Olivia, to the waiter. ‘I don’t need to taste it. Just pour it most of the way up. Thanks, and leave the bottle.’ She picked up the glass. ‘Cheers.’ She took a gulp. ‘Christ, I needed that. Did you see them all hugging each other as they arrived? It was as if they’d returned from a round-the-world trip. And as soon as they’ve finished hugging and shrieking they’re on their mobile phones. They’re at a party but somehow they instantly need to talk to the people who’re not at the party or who’re on their way to the party, or maybe they’re checking whether there’s a better party somewhere else.’ She took another gulp. ‘They’re probably sending out a general call to the youth of north London to trash the house.’ She prodded Frieda. ‘At this point you’re supposed to say, “No, no, it’ll be fine.”’
‘It’ll be fine,’ said Frieda.
Olivia gesticulated towards the waiter. ‘Why don’t we order lots of little dishes?’ she said. ‘Then we can just pick at them.’
‘You choose.’
Olivia ordered enough for three or four hearty eaters and another bottle of wine. ‘I’m a big hypocrite, really,’ she said, when the waiter had gone. ‘My real worry about a party like this is that Chloë will do half of what I did when I was her age. Younger than her age. She’s seventeen. When I think of parties when I was fifteen, fourteen … It was technically illegal. People could have gone to prison. I’m sure it was the same with you. David told me one or two things.’