Siesta by Patrice Chaplin

Author:Patrice Chaplin [Chaplin, Patrice]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lume Books
Published: 2016-12-29T05:00:00+00:00

10

By the next morning Len was anxious again. There was too much delay. He sent a telegram to Del informing him he was getting the police. Then he decided to go in person to Scotland Yard. But when he went to the office to collect everyday photographs of Sylvia, Simon Kingsley-Roe had telephoned and left a message on the answering machine. ‘Girl answering your star’s description seen in trendy Barcelona nightspot, Palladium Club, approx September 1st.’

He called at Del’s house during the lunch hour, but Del was still in bed. The telegram hadn’t been delivered, it seemed, but Len had forgotten all about it. Del opened the front door barely enough to let Len’s voice through.

‘What are you going to do about your wife?’

‘I’m here. As always.’

‘You don’t care about her, do you?’

‘I put up with her, didn’t I? I put up with her drinking.’

‘Why don’t you get your phone fixed. She might be trying to contact you.’

‘I’ve called them, but they never come.’

‘Try replacing the receiver. She’s been seen in Barcelona,’ he said. ‘With a man,’ he added, hoping to rile him, ‘a Spaniard. On the evening of the first. The date she was supposed to be in Las Vegas, remember?’

‘She’s obviously happy if she’s got a bloke there. Leave her alone.’

‘We won’t be leaving you alone. She’ll have to stand in court and come to terms with the Americans. And she’ll have to give me back that fat fee. So you’d better get her back, Del. Picking an Arab up in a hotel foyer won’t be enough this time.’

Del closed the door and wondered what on earth he was talking about.

*

She was in a lavatory, half lying on the floor. She didn’t know why she was there. She supposed she’d been asleep. There was a rustle of clothes outside, the squeak of high heels on a tiled floor, the dry bounce of a roller towel being pulled. When there was silence she got up and left the lavatory.

The English were dancing, the tables full of bottles. Kit, she could see, was at an angle that made driving anywhere unlikely. She went back to the lavatory.

Although she’d got off the Talgo in Angeles in the morning, she hadn’t gone to Celestino’s flat in the Calle Forsa until dark. She’d spent the day walking. He was always the first person she saw when she came to the town. She’d bump into him in the street before she’d been there ten minutes. She regretted her past behaviour with Marie France. It made going to the flat difficult. I should have been diplomatic. But how diplomatic can you be when you’re in love?

At half past nine in the evening she’d knocked on the door, tentatively. His mother said he wasn’t there. He was away, many kilometres, with his wife. She closed the door firmly.

Sylvia sank on to the stone landing. The automatic light clicked off. He’d gone. It felt as though half the lights of the world had gone out. Her head was full of the buzz of tiredness.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.