Chapter Six
The Nasty Old Man
‘I DON’T SUPPOSE they’re all like her,’ Lea told Roy as they sat together for a dinner of sea bass in fennel. ‘God, they can’t be.’
‘Sounds like she was just being friendly,’ said Roy. ‘She’s probably used to a certain kind of person living here. Where’s Cara?’
‘She called to say she’d be late. Some of the girls in her class are planning to go swimming at sunset on one of the public beaches near the Palm Jebel-Ali.’
‘Really? Is that a good idea?’
‘What harm can it do? Her social calendar seems to have suddenly filled up. I had this fantasy that the three of us might get to eat meals together.’
‘Look on the plus side. We have the place to ourselves.’
‘Good point. Give me a kiss.’
He leaned over and raised his hand to her face. ‘Hey,’ she said, looking at the shiny redness on his left arm, ‘you’ve burned yourself.’
He examined the mark. ‘We have to get our hands dirty here. No more sitting behind desks sending emails. I’m out in the field now.’
She savoured the taste of his kiss.
‘So your day,’ he said, reminding her. ‘Mrs Busabi.’
‘I can’t remember her first name, and we’ve got beyond the point where I can comfortably ask her to remind me.’
Roy laughed. His teeth looked white against his new tan. ‘You are so English sometimes.’
‘She’s going to try and recruit me and Cara for the Pastry Club, whatever that is. Actually I feel a bit sorry for her. She’s obviously lonely, stuck at home while Mr Busabi does something demanding with rotating fountains.’
‘Go on, make fun now,’ said Roy, ‘but wait until Dream World is open. You’ll be proudly pointing out that your husband was the one who discovered why the marble walkways were splitting.’
‘Why are they splitting?’
‘Wrong usage. They’re too fine. The Chinese have been buying specialised high-finish marble for the heavy-traffic areas, and it’s not suitable. The water-sprays make everything slippery, and because it’s hard water we’re getting calcification in the natural texture of the marble, which causes it to split. There’s a lot of trial-and-error.’
‘Do you think you’ll make the opening date? It’s only three months away.’
‘It’s not impossible, but there’ll have to be cuts.’ Roy carefully deboned his fish. ‘People don’t realise how much work it takes to keep hotels looking good. Most resorts have teams of marble polishers that work through the night.’
‘I suppose it really is like Oz,’ said Lea. ‘The guests don’t want to see what’s going on behind the curtains. Maybe you can’t transform a country into something entirely different overnight. It’s like the Victorian English in India, passing out in their crinolines and planting rosebushes everywhere, only to watch them die.’
‘Well, the region can’t go back to being a desert populated by nomadic tribes and fishermen. The UAE member-states have ancient alliances; everyone’s watching, anxious to learn from our mistakes. Nobody wants to end up with a string of ugly Vegas-style resorts.’
‘But isn’t that exactly what Dream World is going to be? The British press says they’re ignoring safety precautions and won’t allow the workforce to unionise.’
‘The British press.’ Roy made a sour face. ‘They tell their readers that celebrity footballers are buying luxury holiday homes on the Palm Jumeirah, then run stories about the sewage pipes backing up. Build and destroy. You were a writer, Lea, you know how that works.’
She bristled at his use of the past tense, but it was impossible to be angry with Roy for long. His enthusiasm was so boyish and energetic that it could spread like brush-fire. ‘What will happen if you miss the date?’
‘I guess they’d have to renew my contract, for a start.’
‘You mean we’d be here for more than two years.’ The thought hung between them. ‘Oh, I didn’t tell you—the previous tenant here died in a freak accident. He went through a power line and electrocuted himself.’
Roy did not look up from his partially deboned fish. ‘Really? I didn’t hear about that.’
‘Something happened to his daughter and he went a bit odd. He was gardening at night. Mrs Busabi didn’t tell me the full story.’
‘You certainly got a lot of information out of her, considering you didn’t like her.’
‘You don’t think it’s kind of weird?’
‘What, that someone failed the Darwin test?’
Lea watched as Roy carried on eating.
THE NEXT MORNING, a minor accident brought Lea into contact with Milo. She returned from the mall and was parking the blue Renault when she heard a bump. A red electric scooter had appeared behind her at the kerb. She was sure it hadn’t been there when she left. The old man came out of his house with such speed that she felt sure he must have been watching her.
‘I’m so sorry,’ she said, bending down to check the scooter for damage. ‘It’s just a tiny mark. I can get it out and you won’t be able to see a thing.’
‘Woman driver, eh?’ said the old man, waving a tanned hand at the Renault. ‘Menaces to society, the lot of you.’ He had the kind of German accent she had only ever heard in old British comedy shows. ‘Don’t worry, I’m joking’, he said quickly, seeing embarrassment in her face.
‘You must be Milo.’ Lea remembered Davenport’s description of the retired German engineer who lived across the road. ‘Mr Davenport told me about you.’
‘Well, you can assume that anything James told you was a lie. He’s a company weasel. He has no opinions of his own. So cheerful, so enthusiastic. He can brighten any room just by leaving it.’
Lea stifled a shocked laugh. ‘Listen, would you like to come in for some tea?’
‘Why not? That’s what we do around here, we drink buckets and buckets of tea until it’s time to start hammering the alcohol, which is any time past midday. At my age tea makes me piss like a horse every ten minutes but what the hell, I’ll accept a good strong Arabic coffee if you have it.’
Milo Melnik was small, stocky and sun-creased, with fine white hair and sharp blue eyes that seemed to be searching for signs of rebellion. In his baggy red cardigan and trousers pulled halfway up his chest, he reminded her of Mickey Rooney. Instantly drawn to him, she introduced herself and took him inside.
Lastri obediently appeared with cups and cinnamon date cake. ‘It’s shop-bought, I’m afraid,’ Lea apologised. ‘Our furniture only just turned up and I’ve been busy unpacking.’
‘At least you got Arabic food,’ he said. ‘Nobody does that here. They spend most of their time setting up little kingdoms and copying the recipes they used to have at home. Have you ever eaten something called Battenburg cake? I’m sure we never had it in Germany. Disgusting. The Americans and Australians are always hosting god-awful barbeques and the English are forever complaining that you can’t get a decent cup of tea.’
‘I won’t be doing that,’ said Lea. ‘I’m interested in Middle Eastern culture. I’d like to get involved, not hide away. Back in London I was a writer.’
‘I thought I recognised a kindred spirit. Please don’t turn into a little housewife like the rest of them. And don’t let them tell you they’ve got nothing better to do. There’s plenty to do. People arrive with good intentions but instead of being useful they spend their days creeping around the malls like ghosts, staring at all the stuff they don’t need. But what do I know, I’m an old man, there’s nothing in the malls for me.’
He seated himself in the kitchen’s only comfortable chair. ‘I was going to visit you yesterday but I saw old Busy-Body Busabi heading over here and thought I’d better stay out of the way. That woman makes my balls ache. Wait until you try her sponge cake, it’s like eating a cushion. How are you settling in?’
‘Everyone seems very nice.’
‘Bullshit, you thought you were making an entry into an earthly paradise, but you’re slowly finding out that you’ve landed in a snakepit.’
Lea laughed. ‘Well, let’s just say I’m not really interested in shopping and taking cookery courses.’
‘Hooray for that. It means we can be friends at least. It may not endear you to the other Stepford Wives, though.’
‘How do you fill your time, Milo?’
‘Haven’t you heard?’ He leaned forward and held his palm against his lips in a theatrical whisper. ‘I’m the nasty old man who frightens the children. I’m the fly in the ointment around here, a German Jew working in an Arab country. They look at me and ask themselves, how did that happen? I tell them it’s simple, I have no roots, I’ve outlived the rest of my family, I go wherever I damn well please and I say the things nobody is supposed to say. We’re all meant to toe the company line, even the retired ones.’
‘Well, I guess they’re paying for us all to be here.’
‘They!’ he exclaimed. ‘They! It used to be we, us. I was a founding member of the original project team. I started as a marine engineer, working on the concept of building on reclaimed seabeds. Several of us shared parallel ideas. But ideas aren’t enough. They have to be financed, monetised, packaged, so a new board of directors was formed. Needless to say, I didn’t make that team. They pay the UAE, they pay us all, and look what they get in return! Have you seen much of your husband since he started work?’
Lea’s smile fractionally faded. ‘He’s putting in long hours.’
‘You won’t see him at all from now on, and when you do he’ll be so exhausted he’ll just want to sleep.’ He sighed wearily. ‘We knew it would be hard, but it didn’t turn out as I’d imagined. Things never do.’
‘You sound disappointed.’
‘I would hate to become known as the grandfather of a project that’s a future watchword for all that’s wrong with the world. I’m not full-time anymore, they just come to me whenever they have a problem nobody else can fix. I guess you heard about some of those?’
‘Only what I read in the papers. The stories seem to have stopped now.’
‘That’s down to Davenport’s latest PR onslaught.’
‘I heard about the workman who froze to death.’
‘It’s the price we pay for leaping into the future.’
‘So everyone keeps telling me,’ said Lea. ‘The business district reminds me of the Emerald City. I keep expecting the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion to come dancing out of the bushes.’
‘That’s because it’s a fantasy. We’re trapped between Eastern and Western ideals. The Arabs don’t have to work. They have an Indian workforce triple the size of their own population. Do you know how many couples here meet for the first time just before their wedding? Is it surprising that when they come out of the mosques and see Western women in tiny bikinis, it offends them? They want tourists but they can’t pick who comes, except by raising prices.’
‘Britain is the same,’ said Lea, ‘only more secretive. Our government is stuffed with Old Etonians who don’t give a damn about the underprivileged.’
‘Good God, a woman with an opinion.’ Milo laughed. ‘You’ll have to be careful about that.’
‘I’m hoping to get a job here.’
‘I wish you the best of luck. Most of our magazines just print glossy guff about sporting events and fashion shows. There’s less moral outrage than in the other UAE countries, of course—you should try living in parts of Saudi Arabia, it’s still the Stone Age there—and here sometimes, just below the surface.’
‘What do you mean?’
Milo waved his hand airily. ‘Oh, raids take place and people go to prison. You never quite find out what’s going on. Everyone knows about the secret police. They had a perfectly workable system before the West arrived. Now they have a sort of polite totalitarian state. Hey, I don’t want to frighten you. I’m meant to be part of the welcoming committee.’
‘It’s a pleasure to find someone I can talk to,’ said Lea.
‘Let’s change the subject. How’s your daughter coping with the move? I assume that’s the pretty girl I see charging about on her bike.’
‘Cara seems to be taking to it well. Of course the weather’s still a novelty. She’s joined the computer club and is going to the beach. The kids at her London school were a pretty wild crowd, and she’s easily led. I didn’t want her getting into drink and drugs.’
‘There’s not too much chance of that happening,’ said Milo. ‘They don’t publicly whip offenders here like they do in Saudi, but arrests are made over tiny quantities of soft drugs and even over-the-counter medicines. In theory you can get a mandatory sentence for being in possession of flu medication. One guy was held after poppy seeds were found on his clothes. It turned out they had fallen off a bread roll he’d eaten at the airport.’
Lea’s eyes widened. ‘Is that for real?’
‘It was in the papers, it must be true.’
She couldn’t tell if he was joking. ‘Do you think Dream World will work?’
‘I don’t see why not. So long as people are rich and stupid enough to want novelties like underwater casinos and refrigerated shops selling fur coats. The Americans won’t come here and the Europeans are too broke, so it’s the turn of the Russians, the South Americans and the Chinese.’
‘That’s what Roy says. But what happens after that?’
‘My dear, there’ll be plenty of things to worry about before we reach that point,’ said Milo, sipping his coffee with a smile. ‘The road to democracy is filled with nasty surprises.’
‘I heard our predecessor got a nasty surprise right outside this house.’
Milo raised an eyebrow. ‘You mean Tom? Old Busabi has been busy. I was here the night he died.’
‘How did he manage to cut through a power cable?’
‘Nobody knows that he did. He’d certainly been using a fairly lethal electric saw to take out dead tree roots—the garden wasn’t like it is now. But he was found dead in the street. It was an odd thing—’
‘Why?’
‘Darling, it was dark. What the hell did he think he was playing at?’
‘What happened to his daughter?’ Lea instantly regretted asking the question.
Milo turned aside and made a fuss of checking his watch. ‘Look at the time, I must be getting on. It’s nearly noon—the safe hour.’
‘What do you mean?’
He pointed up to the ceiling. ‘The sun is directly overhead. There are no shadows at noon. Middle Eastern cultures believe that death hides in the shadows. You’re fine for now.’ He rose and made his way to the front door, turning to her. ‘Oh, don’t look so serious. Silly old men love to tease pretty women. But do one thing for me. Keep an eye on your daughter.’
His change of tone surprised her. ‘Why?’
Milo shrugged. ‘There’s an unhealthy lassitude that descends on rich people at the equator. The heat breeds strange notions.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘She has your looks. This is a place where the most primitive beliefs can suddenly resurface.’ He cut himself off. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be here to keep an eye on you.’
And with that he was gone.