Copacabana: International Crime Noir: Liverpool - Rio de Janeiro by Jack Rylance

Author:Jack Rylance [Rylance, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9780957200425
Publisher: 40° Books
Published: 2014-01-08T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Pete insisted on their meeting in person. He refused to explain why over the phone.

“I don’t have long,” she said. “I’ve got to go out.”

“You won’t need long,” Pete answered. “I don’t have much time either.”

He did not tell Ester that he had something to give her – five grand in sterling which he’d withdrawn from the stolen sports bag and had changed into twenty thousand reais.

It was not clear what Ester might do with this money. It was certainly not enough to start a new life. It was intended, rather, as something for her to remember Pete by. He did not want to vanish altogether from her life. He liked the idea of persisting in her memory, triggered by the purchases that she would make. There should be at least one item of precious metal. A necklace, another ring.

He’d always thought Ester had it in her power to become one of those great female asset-strippers, steering mens’ financial portfolios into uncharted waters, away from sound returns, reliable dividends, and towards salacious indemnity. He thought she could prey on men who were saving for a rainy day and blind them with her instant sunshine until they showered her with gifts: the nemesis of sons and daughters, dining out on their birthrights and turning up in their fathers’ wills at the midnight hour, somewhere near the top. At the same time Pete doubted that Ester would achieve these things. He didn’t know if it was ruthlessness that she lacked, he just had the feeling that she was too easily distracted.

Perhaps the best thing that could happen to Ester was a handsome marriage to a wealthy man, although even if she succeeded in this, he envisaged problems. Maybe one of her current benefactors would tie the knot – if they weren’t all married to begin with – although Pete imagined them to be quite content enjoying the prime of Ester’s life, paying her rent, her airfares, for clothes and gifts, and going no further no that. This prime of hers was incredibly precious and she needed to use it wisely. It was the time to secure her future. Pete knew that Ester had recorded losses by spending time with him. If he hadn’t endangered her livelihood then he’d still hit her up for any number of dollars in his indirect way by taking advantage of her profligate heart.

Had she ever totted up this cost?

Ester was not one of the sensible few who would go back to where she’d come from and buy a nice house, maybe open up a shop. This wasn’t written in her stars. She was like Pete himself in this respect: her spirit had rejected tranquillity; she was tied to the night and he suspected that she would continue to brazen it out, come what may, for longer than was wise. It was a problematic ambition. He dearly hoped he was wrong. He thought about the small handful of women in their forties who still braved HELP and how they stood out amongst the youthful competition, stranded by their age.

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