Going East by Matthew D'Ancona

Author:Matthew D'Ancona
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780307426048
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2007-12-18T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter TEN

IT TOOK HER SEVERAL minutes to drag the body into her flat. Curled and rigid, Tommy was peculiarly difficult to manoeuvre over the doorstep and then through the little hallway in which her coats and bags hung. He’s light even for a small man, she thought as she strained to edge his slight frame across the fur of the doormat: seven stone, seven and a half at most. Through the soaked cloth of his jacket, she could feel only his shirt and bone. And yet the fetal position into which his body had wound itself—grimly comic in its unyielding form—made an obstacle course of the few feet which separated her porch from the carpet of her sitting room. By the time she had dropped the cadaver to the floor, she was sweating and exhausted.

Mia turned on the light and looked up at the clock on the fireplace. It was 6:30. Was it really only twelve hours since she had met Claude at the Ritz for a drink to warm them up for the ball? In the intervening time, she had stumbled upon an orgy involving a television celebrity. She had discovered that her dead brother had been a high-tech money launderer, and that his greed had killed him and the rest of her family. And now she had the corpse of a lunatic vagrant in her living room. There were better ways of spending a night.

Now she would have to call the police and spend the morning explaining how the mortal remains of Tommy Bonkers—No, Officer, I don’t know his real name—had ended up outside her door. Hardly suspicious circumstances, of course. But that wouldn’t matter. It would take hours, as the ambulance was called, and the body covered, and the formalities concluded. For the second time in her life, she would make tea for policemen and talk about death. Yes, Miss, these things happen. We find it quite often. These kind of drifters, it’s very sad—they attach themselves in their minds to someone, possibly someone who’s never met them, and when the moment comes, they try to find that person. Very distressing for you, Miss, I’m sure. Thanks, Miss, three sugars. That’s what they would say. Did she feel sorry for poor departed Tommy? No. She didn’t have any space left in her heart for that. Tommy had chosen the wrong night to die on her. Sorry, Tommy.

Suddenly, a long susurration filled the room. It was like the call of a tiny bird, a shrill rattle, piercing and plaintive. Then it stopped. She gasped. The silence that had enveloped her since the taxi dropped her off was deep, alien to London even at this time of morning. It was as if a part of the city had died, too. Now a noise from the netherworld had interrupted that silence, filling her with dread and confusion. But no, she quickly realised, that was wrong: There was no need for dread. No need at all. The noise was coming from

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