The Dancing Face by Mike Phillips

Author:Mike Phillips [Phillips, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780241992777
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2021-02-04T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

When he ran out of Gus’s flat on the previous night Danny had intended to get out of London and back to his room as soon as possible, but by the morning his mood had changed. His night with Justine had calmed some of the turmoil inside him, and when he woke up he found himself looking back at the previous twenty-four hours as a period when he had been more or less out of his mind. At the hospital, for instance, the policeman had told him about the inquest and what he ought to do about making arrangements for the funeral, but he had been too agitated to listen. Opening his eyes to find himself in Justine’s bed, this was the first thing he remembered.

Similar thoughts seemed to be occupying her.

‘What are you going to do today?’ she asked him. She was sitting at the foot of the bed fully dressed. ‘I have to go.’

Danny couldn’t tell whether or not this was a signal for him to get up and leave, but he scrambled out of bed and began picking up his clothes, which she’d left in a neat pile next to the bed. She handed him a cup of coffee.

‘If Gus left a will or anything like that, you ought to find it,’ she said.

Danny agreed. He knew that Gus had made a will and he would have liked to ask her what to do with it when he found it, but this morning she seemed distant, unapproachable, as if she wanted to forget lying in bed wrapped round him, or to pretend that it had never happened.

‘You should get some advice,’ she said. ‘Do you know what to do?’

‘Of course,’ Danny told her, although at that moment he hadn’t the slightest idea. ‘I’ll sort things out and let you know.’

In the street she gave him a brief peck on the cheek, got into her car, and drove away, leaving him to make his own way to the station. He trudged down towards the tube station feeling deflated. He had told Justine everything, but what he’d learned from her wasn’t much more than he already knew. Now he felt just as incapable of making a decision as he’d been in the first place, and, to make matters worse, he didn’t have a clue about how to deal with Okigbo or Rodney or anyone else who might turn up.

He approached the flat cautiously, walking up and down the street, peering round the nearest corners for Rodney’s Escort. After he’d determined that the coast was clear he crossed the road and let himself in.

The will and an insurance policy were in a big brown envelope in the kitchen drawer where Gus kept his documents. Danny stuffed them into his bag and walked away without bothering to shut the drawer. Back at the front door he stood looking around. When he left it would be as if he was parting from Gus for the last time, and for a moment

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