The One You Really Want (49 page)

‘Well, you'll be going to visit them.'

Would he?

‘For Christ's sake don't visit them,' his agent announced without preamble. ‘Don't go near the place. I've been in touch with the lawyers and they're arranging the DNA test.'

‘She says it's mine.' Rennie watched Rose untie her floury pink apron and slip out of the kitchen.

‘Ha,' his agent snorted. ‘And her dad's Elvis. Innocent until proven guilty, remember. Just make sure you keep away from her and the kid.'

Rennie hung up. His agent had three ex-wives and five children he seldom saw but paid a fortune to support.

At this moment, his own son could be lying in a hospital cot less than two miles away.

Rose reappeared clutching something small wrapped in turquoise tissue.

‘Here, pet, I made it last week. I don't know if you'd like to take it with you when you visit.'

Rennie took the small parcel and unwrapped the crackling tissue paper. How typical of Rose to have thought of doing such a thing. The hand-knitted jacket was tiny, white and immaculate. Extraordinarily, the sight of it almost brought tears to his eyes.

Worried, Rose said, ‘If you think it's too old fashioned—'

‘It's not.' Rennie bent to kiss her on the cheek. ‘It's perfect.'

‘What's perfect?' Carmen, yawning and running her fingers through her spiky hair, wandered into the kitchen. Since giving up her work at the hostel she had taken to sleeping late.

Rennie, his stomach churning, said briefly, ‘The baby was born last night.'

‘Oh.' Carmen turned away, headed over to the kettle. ‘Does it look like you?'

‘They just sent a fax,' Rose explained. ‘We don't know yet.'

‘Well. How exciting.' Reaching for a cup and a tea bag, Carmen sloshed in boiling water. Her shoulders stiff and her tone brittle, she said, ‘You're a dad.'

‘I might be,' said Rennie quietly.

Carmen shrugged, still not looking at him. ‘Call me old fashioned, but don't you think it might be an idea to find out?'

 

‘I'm here to see Biba Keyes,' Rennie told the receptionist. ‘Can you tell me which room she's in?'

Of course he'd had to come to the hospital. How could he stay away?

‘Just one moment please.' The receptionist picked up the phone and murmured into it.

Three minutes later, the faint smell of hospitals was replaced by a blast of Obsession as a blonde girl tapped Rennie on the shoulder. Heavily made-up and less pretty than Biba, wearing a glittery yellow boob tube with spray-on jeans and yellow stilettos, she eyed him up and down before breaking into a slow smile.

‘So, you bothered to turn up.'

Rennie disliked her at once. ‘I'd have been here last night if I'd known what was happening.'

‘I'm Jodie, Biba's sister. You can't see them now. Biba's knackered and the baby's asleep.'

‘I'll wait,' said Rennie. Good grief, how could anyone wear that much perfume?

‘No, you don't understand. Biba doesn't want to see you. She feels very let down by the way you've treated her. It's, like, she needs time to work through the pain of your heartless rejection, after everything you meant to each other.'

Rennie wondered if Jodie always spoke tabloid, or just saved it for special occasions.

‘Do I get to see the baby, then?'

Jodie painstakingly adjusted her sizeable breasts inside the confines of their yellow Lycra cage. Then she shook her head.

‘Biba says she needs some quality time alone with her precious son, in order to come to terms with the pain of your heartless rejection.'

‘You already said that.' Rennie tried not to breathe in the overpowering smell of Obsession.

‘Yeah, but it's like a kind of grief she needs to work through,' Jodie parroted. ‘Becoming a single parent is, like,
so
not what Biba wanted.'

‘Five minutes, OK?' If the child was his son, Rennie couldn't bear the thought of not seeing him.

Jodie shook her head again, clearly enjoying her new-found power.

‘Nope.'

‘Please. Just
two
minutes.'

Without warning Jodie reached out and shoved him violently away from her. Staggering backwards on her high heels she yelled, ‘Security! Get this man out of here! HELP!'

Rennie sighed. Perfect.

The temperature wasn't exactly tropical - it was only the end of March, after all - but at least the sun was out and doing its best to cast some warmth on the proceedings. And when you were sitting naked on one of the brass lions in Trafalgar Square - well, let's face it, every little bit of warmth helped.

At least it wasn't snowing.

Ignoring the laughter of the pointing, camera-clicking tourists who had congregated around the lion, Mia proudly shook back her hair and watched the two policemen as they headed across the road towards her.

‘Right. Down you come, miss,' the burlier of the pair called up to her.

‘Sorry, I can't do that.'

‘You've had your bit of fun. Are these your clothes?' Reaching for the neat pile at the base of the statue, the skinny one said, ‘Just climb down and put them on, there's a good girl.'

Mia smiled. ‘Yes, those are my clothes. And this,' she held up a small tube, ‘is my Superglue.'

The two policemen looked at each other. The skinny one took out his walkie-talkie. The burly one said, ‘Is this a joke?'

‘Not a joke at all.' With her free hand, Mia indicated the banner stuck to the side of the lion. ‘I'm protesting on behalf of the animals who have to endure appalling conditions while they're being transported from one country to another prior to slaughter. They're crammed in together so tightly they can't move, they aren't given enough water, they—'

‘I meant have you really Superglued yourself to that lion,' the burly policeman said wearily.

‘Oh yes.' Mia beamed down at him. Having chosen a fairly ladylike side-saddle pose, she had sparingly dabbed the glue onto her bottom, the palm of her left hand and the inner edge of her right knee.

‘You're going to be in trouble,' the skinny policeman pronounced. ‘We'll have to arrest you, love.'

‘I know
that
.' Honestly, did they think she was completely thick?

‘Lewd and offensive behaviour,' said Skinny.

‘Breach of the peace,' sighed Burly.

‘Criminal damage to the lion,' said Skinny.

‘Fine,' Mia said cheerfully, ‘but you'll have to unstick me first.'

 

After an hour-long workout in the gym, Nancy was puce in the face and sweating profusely. Back in the changing room, more than ready for a long cool shower, it wasn't until she unzipped her sports bag that she discovered the top had snapped open on her shampoo bottle, leaking shampoo all over her towel. Lovely.

As she made her way through to reception to pick up a fresh towel - yuk, Cyanide Sadie was there behind the desk checking bookings - the door to Connor's office crashed open. Connor, standing in the doorway, bellowed, ‘My God, what have I done to deserve this?'

He looked as if he should have steam shooting out of his ears. Zena, the new part-time receptionist, said apprehensively, ‘What's wrong? Did I make a mistake?'

Raking his tousled hair, Connor said, ‘I wish. The only mistake around here is the one I made when I said Mia could move to London. I've just had a call from Trudy Mulholland. One of our members,' he explained, because Zena was looking blank. ‘She thought she should let me know that while she was stuck in traffic going round Trafalgar Square, she happened to notice my daughter sitting on top of one of the lions.'

‘Oh,' Zena said anxiously. ‘Is that not allowed?'

‘She didn't have any clothes on!' roared Connor.

Sadie smirked.

‘She had some kind of banner with her,' Connor went on. ‘And there were police there, and paramedics, not to mention a crowd of people
gawping
at her.'

‘That girl's always been an attention-seeker,' Sadie murmured.

‘I'll have to get over there.' Patting his pockets, searching for his keys and cigarettes, Connor said, ‘God only knows what she thinks she's playing at.'

‘I don't have a class until six,' said Sadie. ‘Want me to go with you?'

He looked at her blankly. ‘You hate Mia. How would that help?'

Sadie shrugged, her magenta curls bouncing around her shoulders. ‘I didn't say it would help. I just thought it'd be a laugh.'

Having lit a cigarette, Connor turned to Nancy.

‘Will you come along?'

Perspiration was drying on Nancy's face, tightening her skin like a face mask. Her droopy T-shirt and baggy jogging trousers stuck damply to her body. With no make-up and her hair tied back she felt clammy and disgusting and undoubtedly looked worse. A shower would take
five minutes
—

‘Please?' said Connor agitatedly, jangling his keys. ‘She might listen to you.'

Sadie snorted with derision. ‘That girl doesn't listen to anyone. She's out of control.'

Longing to slap her, Nancy moved towards Connor. ‘Come on, let's go.'

 

The Bentley was perilously abandoned down a side street on double yellows. Racing across the main road and up onto Trafalgar Square, Nancy panted, ‘I thought they'd have got her down by now.'

‘I don't believe this. She's got a bigger audience than Posh Spice. MIA!' Connor yelled over the heads of the massed onlookers. ‘What the bloody hell do you think you're doing? Get down from there THIS MINUTE.'

‘Hi, Dad.' Spotting him, Mia waved excitedly. ‘Fancy seeing you here!'

‘Oh
God
.' Connor winced and turned away.

‘What?' said Nancy.

‘She's my daughter. She's stark naked. I can't look at her.' Grabbing Nancy's arm, he said urgently, ‘You tell her to get down.'

‘She can't get down,' sighed a burly policeman. ‘She's Superglued herself to the lion.'

‘I'm going to emigrate.' Connor groaned and clapped his hands over his eyes.

‘Is she your daughter, sir?'

‘No. I've never seen her before in my life.'

‘I know how you feel, sir.' Burly nodded sympathetically. ‘I've a teenager myself. Nightmare.'

Gesturing without looking, Connor cried, ‘Can't you at least cover her up?'

‘We've tried, sir, with blankets. But she keeps ripping them off. One of the paramedics is going to try and fix up a screen. How old is your daughter, sir, may I ask?'

‘Sixteen,' Connor said heavily. ‘How are they going to get her unglued?'

‘Some kind of solvent.' Burly pulled a face. ‘But it's going to take a while.'

‘Will it hurt?'

‘She'll be pretty sore afterwards.'

‘Good,' said Connor.

 

It had been Nancy's idea to drape the banner - announcing that Animals Have Feelings Too! - around Mia's body.

‘Your dad's embarrassed,' she told Mia. ‘This way you won't be naked but you'll still get the message across.'

‘Is he mad at me?'

‘It's his job to be mad.' Nancy smiled as she tied the ends of the banner - a white sheet daubed with red emulsion paint - over Mia's shoulder. ‘He'll get over it. In a few years.'

‘Ouch.' Mia winced as the paramedic with the solvent-soaked gauze swabs attempted to peel her skin prematurely from the bronze back of the lion.

‘Right, that won't slip.' Double-checking the knot was secure, Nancy said with relief, ‘I'm getting down now.'

‘I know. It's higher up here than you think, isn't it? Thanks for coming along with Dad, by the way.' Breaking into a grin, Mia eyed the hideous jogging bottoms and crumpled T-shirt. ‘Especially at such short notice.'

‘At least I'm wearing clothes,' said Nancy. ‘Anyway, thank your lucky stars. If I'd said no, he'd have brought Sadie instead.'

It took another ninety minutes to free Mia, by which time she'd been interviewed by three journalists, offered a deal to pose for a top shelf magazine and witnessed her father threatening to punch the guy who'd made the offer.

Pocketing a parking ticket and escaping being clamped by the skin of his teeth, Connor drove with Nancy to Charing Cross police station in Agar Street where Mia, now under arrest, had been taken.

They loitered outside the building and Connor smoked yet another cigarette. He saw that Nancy, drinking coffee from a polystyrene cup, was looking tired.

Connor, overcome with guilt, said, ‘Look, you don't have to stay if you don't want to.'

Nancy pulled a face, her hand going up to her tied-back hair.

‘Is that your way of telling me I'm too embarrassing to be seen with in public?'

‘After Mia's one-woman show this afternoon,' Connor said fervently, ‘I can promise you, I'm beyond embarrassment. ' A split second later, realising his unintentional gaffe, he waved his arms. ‘Oh hell, I didn't mean you
are
embarrassing. You look fine, honestly. Very . . . natural.'

From the expression on Nancy's face he sensed that this was wrong too. Bugger, why did he always manage to mess things up when he was with her?

‘I'm a mess.' Nancy fiddled self-consciously with her fringe. ‘Still, never mind. Anyway, I really don't mind waiting. Mia shouldn't be long now.'