Think Yourself Lucky (18 page)

"I think your friend is afraid to show his face."

"He's no friend of mine, and as for being afraid—"

"Then why has he sent you to speak for him?"

"He's done nothing of the kind. I'm trying to warn you, that's all."

"Don't waste your concern for me. Save it for your brother."

"He's not my brother," David said wildly, "any more than he's my friend. We aren't related at all."

"We are all brothers in the Lord. We are all children of God." With a stare that might have been searching inside David for his soul the evangelist said "Why are you so anxious to deny him?"

"I'm not denying anything. I'm telling you the truth. I don't even know him. I only know about him."

"I think you know more than you care to admit, my friend. May I advise you on how to proceed?"

"I don't see how you can when you don't know the situation."

"Perhaps I see clearer than you, and God sees more clearly than any of us." Not unlike a farewell the preacher said "Do your best to take His word to whoever you have in mind, and perhaps it will be the salvation of you both."

David felt as if he had collided with an obstacle so unyielding that it left him numb with dullness. Even the spectators had lost interest and moved on. Or was one loitering nearby? When David glanced around he couldn't see any. "I wouldn't know where to find him," he was desperate to make plain. "I can't be responsible for him."

The preacher looked saddened but determined. "We are each of us responsible for our brethren."

"Then you can be responsible for him," David cried, "and you'll be responsible for whatever happens to you as well." He was afraid that the longer the man argued, the worse he might be bringing down upon himself. "I've done my best to warn you," he said, "don't throw that back at me," and dodged into the crowd without giving the evangelist time to respond.

Was there any point in trying to warn Norville when he'd found so little that he could say to the preacher? If he didn't try he would feel even more helpless. As he headed for the arcade where he'd encountered the official he heard the evangelist proclaim that the word was everywhere. Both sides of the arcades were lined with shops, and there was no sign of a council office. Beyond an avenue of plastic torsos raised on stalks in a boutique and dressed in items that came nowhere near covering them, a security guard as broad as several of the torsos was talking to a girl behind the till. He might know Norville, and David was making for him when an alarm began to bleep like the countdown of a bomb in a film. "That wasn't me, was it?" he called as it fell silent at his back.

The guard had turned his shaven head on its ruddy corrugated neck. "If it wasn't you it must have been the other feller."

Presumably this was a joke, since David saw nobody else near the entrance. "I've got nothing on me and this is who I am," he said, wagging his badge.

"We'll believe you," the guard said but peered at it. "Makes me think of my lad's nursery. Helps them remember who they are."

David wondered why the mention of a nursery should trouble him. As he concluded that it must remind him of when Lucky was conceived, the guard remarked "Like I said, the other feller must have set off the alarm."

David's suddenly dry mouth felt capable of closing up his throat. "Who?"

"Don't ask me. Nobody we're watching out for. I thought he was with you at first till he sloped off."

David swallowed in order to say "What did he look like?"

"Tell you the truth, I wish you hadn't asked me that." The guard fingered his pate as if he was feeling for his thoughts. "I should've got more of a look however fast he ran off," he said. "Maybe he didn't want me finding what he had on him."

With some relief but uneasily as well David said "So you can't say what he looked like at all."

"I might have mixed him up with you if I wasn't careful."

David found he didn't want to enquire any further, but he had to say "I'm trying to find someone who's involved with security round here. His name's Norville, and I was wondering—"

"He comes past here most days. Hang around and I expect you'll catch him."

"I have to be back at work soon. Can't you tell me where to find him?"

"Somewhere across town is my guess. Give the council a bell and they ought to hook you up." As David's resolve began to falter the guard said "Want me to pass on a message if I see him?"

"Somebody may be, may be after him."

"That'll be you, will it?"

"Not me at all. Nobody like me." With a sense of abandoning caution David said "A lot more like whoever set off your alarm."

"Him again, eh?" The guard gazed at David for an uncomfortable few seconds before saying "And what's this feller who's like him want with Larry Norville?"

"I think he may mean him some harm."

At once David was afraid he'd admitted too much. "Better say what else you know," the guard said.

"That's all I do. Just tell Mr Norville to be on his guard for anyone who looks suspicious."

"Hang on," the guard said and moved towards him. "You're not telling me you know that much and don't know any more."

"If you don't believe me I can't help it," David said, backing past the shiny half-clothed torsos. "Just make sure you tell him when you see him. It's your responsibility to tell him."

"Hang on," the guard repeated and tramped faster towards David, whose innards clenched as he retreated through the security arch. The alarm stayed dormant, but this didn't stay reassuring for long. When he looked back from the corner of the arcade he saw the guard watching him from outside the boutique. As David headed back to work he thought of calling Norville, and took out his phone to see there was still no message from his mother. He cared more about saving her than Norville or the preacher—and then he wondered if he could achieve all that simultaneously. For once he felt inspired enough to be a writer. "It's Payne you want," he murmured too low to be heard by anyone he could see in the crowded street. "Just Payne. Nobody but him."

"It's done. David."

He was nervous of learning what Andrea meant—what was in the official envelope that she pushed towards him under the currency window. "Is that for me?"

"It's for you to take, and I've left it open in case you have anything to say about it. I think it's appropriate for you to be involved."

It was addressed to Stephanie. Andrea had printed out the email with comments of her own. To Stephanie's six dishes she'd added half a dozen from other countries Frugogo offered. The food should be served from cartons, not plates. Bread for dips had to be hot. All the meat dishes needed vegetarian and vegan alternatives, and there must be no ingredients to which any member of the public could be allergic. "I'll leave it to Steph," David said.

"Whatever you think is advisable. I just thought you might like to speak up for once,"

David took a breath that was meant to keep his words in, but it turned into several. "I expect you're trying to do the best job, and I can tell you Steph is. But she can do her talking for herself, and I don't want anyone to do it for me either."

"Well said, Dave," Bill muttered without looking at him, and David was aware that Emily and Helen were silently applauding. The counter hid their hands from Andrea, who said "I suppose I asked for that, but please don't make a habit of it."

David sensed that his colleagues thought this unfair and quite possibly aimed at them as well. He sealed the printout in the envelope and stowed it under the counter. Why was he feeling watched? When he glanced at Andrea she was busy on the computer. Surely nobody was spying on him through the window, where the faint outlines of words on the posters for holiday offers might almost have been striving to convey secrets in reverse: OWT ROF MOOR. DEDULCNI THGILF. GNIRETAC FLES. YCNAPUCCO ELBUOD... He logged on his terminal and was frowning at a tour operator's standard response to a complaint about a cruise—highest standards maintained, frequent hygiene checks, infection brought on board by passengers—when a movement at the window caught his attention. Eyes were peering at him over a poster that appeared to lend them an obscure caption, ENOG YLRAEN. Then the small man marched into the shop and up to the counter, where he leaned his large face at David as if his considerable eyebrows were weighing it down. "I'm told you have a message for me."

"Mr Norville, you didn't need—"

"Excuse me?" Andrea coughed and tapped just as shrilly on the currency window. "Are you the Mr Norville from the council?"

"I am, yes," Norville said and straightened up as if his identity required it. "And you will be ..."

"Andrea Randall." Having locked the inner door behind her, she hurried to extend a hand. "I'm sorry if we weren't as professional as you have every right to expect, Mr Norville," she said. "We ought to have checked whether any permit was required."

Norville gave her hand two terse shakes. "I believe the matter has been settled to everybody's satisfaction."

"It was kind of you to let us have the permit and the one for our gastronomic promotion."

"I wasn't personally responsible, Ms Randall."

"You've been very kind all the same," Andrea said and indicated David with a frown. "Now I believe you wanted a word."

"Can we talk in private, Mr Norville? Andrea, if I could take him—"

"I haven't much time, Mr Botham."

"If it's anything to do with us," Andrea said, "I'd better hear it too."

"It hasn't, I promise you, so can't I just—"

"I've no idea what it has to do with," Norville said. "I'm told somebody is supposed to be threatening me, according to Mr Botham."

"You need to explain that, David," Andrea said, adding a cough like an exclamation mark.

"Someone," he told Norville and wished he could leave it at that, "Someone didn't like how you spoke to me in the street."

"I'm sorry if they objected to my doing the job I'm paid to do. Who might this person be?"

"I couldn't tell you. I've never seen them before."

"In that case what did they look like?"

"I can't tell you that either." David felt his tale was escaping his control. "Like someone you wouldn't notice if you passed them in the street," he said. "I'm sorry, I'm no good at describing people. I'm not a writer."

"They'd be on your security cameras, wouldn't they, Mr Norville?" Andrea said.

As David kept his doubts to himself Norville said "I don't know if they sound significant enough for anyone to bother. May I assume were talking about a man?"

"A man, yes, and I think you should be bothered." David didn't know how much he might be about to reveal as he said "He was saying, you'll have to forgive me, he was saying he didn't like people like you, and he'd let a few of them know he didn't."

"Did he indeed." As Andrea's stare added weight to the comment Norville said "And what are we supposed to think happened to them?"

"I can't say." Fearing this sounded too much like an admission, David said "But I honestly got the feeling he was serious."

"Thank you, Mr Botham," Norville said as he might have addressed a subordinate. "I may have it looked into. We can do without people like that at large on our streets."

He strode in his small way to the door and opened it, only to hesitate. For a moment David thought he'd encountered someone coming in, but nobody seemed to be near. "Well, David," Andrea said and gave him time to wonder why. "I'd like to know what made you think that had nothing to do with us."

"Because it hadn't, and not with me either."

"It sounds as if this person was taking our side, but we don't want that kind of support. How many people will know what he said?"

"Not many," David said and realised he had no idea who might read Newless. "Maybe just me," he said and did his best to hope.

"So long as anyone who heard him won't associate him with us."

"He's never said anything that would," David assured her and then couldn't breathe for hearing the trick his words had played on him. "I mean," he managed to say, "he didn't and nobody could think so,"

Her frown rose and then pinched her forehead again, "I must say it doesn't seem much like you, David."

"He isn't. Nothing like at all."

"No, I mean I'm surprised you got in touch with Mr Norville. What you said happened doesn't seem much of a reason."

"You didn't see him," David was forced to protest, "the person I was talking about."

"It sounds as if you hardly did. What was it about him that bothered you so much?"

"The words he used. The way I could tell he sees everyone." David felt too close to the truth to risk continuing along that route. "Anyway, it's like you said," he tried saying. "We don't want to be mixed up with anyone like him."

Her lingering frown used to mean that she expected him to tell her more and would return to the subject under discussion until he did. It kept hold of her brow as she went back to the currency desk. Perhaps that was why he kept feeling watched, even while he was dealing with customers. The impression was so distracting that when he left work he almost forgot to retrieve the envelope from the drawer in the counter.

On the bus he was joined by a woman who took up most of the seat and overlapped on him as well. She wasn't so much clutching as squashing a shapeless canvas bag that sagged onto David's thigh. Despite all this she kept mumbling "Give us a bit of room." At least no skaters were to be heard in the park, though why should that concern him? As he climbed the stairs to Stephanie's apartment he heard muted voices singing a requiem. He couldn't help feeling anxious to shut it out, and the slam of the door brought Stephanie into the hall. "Has something come for me?" she said.

"I hope that's not what I seem like."

Her question had thrown him so badly that his response had no time to resemble a joke. He stayed nervous until she pointed at the envelope in his hand. "Didn't you pick that up downstairs?"

"No, it's from Andrea. I hope you like the messenger at least."

Stephanie halted between a Venetian sunset and a postcard of a rotund family scoffing at elephants whose shapes they shared. "Whatever she's saying, I don't know if I'll be able to provide," she said. "Rhoda's closed the restaurant till she sees her accountant. She isn't sure it's making enough to be worth her while."