Chapter Twenty-Nine

The Fire

 

 

A MEMORIAL SERVICE for Rachel Larvin was held two days later. The company gave families from the compound time off to attend the event. The blinding sunlight seemed profanely ill-suited to such an occasion. It threw black shadows around the mourners and set the little white concrete church in sharp relief, so that it resembled an insubstantial paper cut-out.

Colette and her daughters had elected to wear light colours in celebration of Rachel’s life, and it was obvious that some of the families did not approve of their choice.

‘I don’t think it’s in very good taste,’ said Betty Graham, emerging from the service. ‘Not in this place. It’s bad enough that everyone’s wearing sunglasses, as if they’re all going to lunch. You should be able to see the mourners’ eyes. It seems disrespectful. Colette said Rachel had once told them she should be buried in rainbow colours, but they’ve already cremated the body. That’s wrong, isn’t it?’

Lea and Roy offered their sympathy and help. Ben kept searching around, as if expecting to see his mother come to his rescue in the difficult social situation, something he had doubtless done many times in the past. Norah kicked at the ground with her hands in her pockets, demonstrably bored.

‘Ben wants to send Abbi to stay with my sister in Connecticut,’ Colette told them. ‘There are some things we have to sort out here, and he says it will be best for her.’

‘Well, if there’s anything we can do—’ Roy began.

‘No, they—that is, the company—they organized everything. They’ve been absolutely wonderful. I couldn’t fault them.’ Colette’s unqualified support of DWG felt uncomfortable in the light of her husband’s obvious distress. Lea watched as Colette fumbled for her daughter’s hand and slowly led her away, walking tentatively across the car park like a child venturing into the dark.

There was no wake for Rachel. Awkward in company at the best of times, her son and daughter-in-law clearly had no desire to spend time with the other compound residents. Three days later, without a further word to anyone, Ben and Colette sent Abbi back to the USA.

 

 

LEA AND ROY were invited to dinner with the Larvins at Peruglia, an expensive Italian seafood restaurant with overwrought gold and crimson seventies décor some twenty kilometres further along the coast, where occasional Gulf breezes gave some respite from the overheated nights.

They were surprised by the invitation, but figured Colette was making an effort to be friendly now that time was weighing more heavily on her hands. Her youngest daughter and mother-in-law had gone, Norah was rarely home and her husband worked far into the night.

The restaurant was filled with Westerners. Two tables over, Hiromi Morioka and her husband Dan were eating lobster spaghetti. Hiromi had designed the elegant sushi kitchens in the Persiana, and was one of the few female executives brought in by DWG. She gave a friendly wave when she saw Lea. On the other side of them sat the electronics manager Richard McEvoy and his wife.

Ben and Colette arrived late and were out of sorts. Despite the stifling heat of the night, Colette was overdressed in dowdy winter colours, and had thickly applied makeup as if seeking to hide behind it. Struggling to maintain an interest in the evening’s small talk, she sat quietly drinking, letting the others hold up the conversation. Ben looked tired and preoccupied.Considering the long hours he’d been working lately, Roy was in a surprisingly good mood, and Lea was anxious to honour the truce between them.

‘Did you hear what happened last night?’ he asked. ‘Elena Ribisi and Ramiro Gonzales were arrested for adultery.’

‘You’re kidding. How? Where?’

‘The police stopped them while they were out walking together in a park in Al Muraqqabat. They took them to headquarters for questioning. They both tried to deny it.’

‘So what happened?’

‘The police confronted them with two signed witness statements. They’ve been released on bail pending a court hearing.’

‘But who acted as witnesses?’

‘Bruno, her husband, and the pool man, who’s fed up with the situation because he’s sleeping with Ramiro’s wife and wants him out of the way.’

‘So the stories are true,’ said Lea. ‘Who’d have known Dream Ranches was such a hotbed of vice? I never see anything from my window.’

‘You should get out more,’ said Roy. ‘Actually, maybe that’s not such a good idea. You should definitely stay away from the pool man.’

‘He’ll be staying away until the pool is fixed,’ Lea reminded him. ‘I suppose I could go to the golf club if I fancy a dip. And they still can’t seem to fix our sprinkler system.’ She set down her fork. ‘God, listen to me. You’re sorting out multi-billion dollar stuff and all I do is complain about luxuries.’

‘It’s okay,’ said Roy. ‘You’ve been really patient with me lately. I want you to know I appreciate it. Alexei really liked you. He told me he thought you were “feisty”. Then he suggested I should keep you more under control.’

‘He said that?’

‘In so many words.’

‘He’s the one whose wife charged a white wolf fur coat to his credit account without telling him?’

‘The very same.’

‘Then he’s hardly in a position to offer advice.’

‘That’s what I thought.’

‘Did Roy tell you the bad news?’ Ben asked suddenly. ‘We’re having problems on delivery dates. We’ll be going through weekends from now on.’

Ben already looks like he’s about to have a heart attack, thought Lea.

‘Even Tahir Mansour’s wife has been giving him grief,’ said Colette. ‘She says they don’t do anything together, and it’s making them unhappy. I keep thinking we should have been around more for Rachel. I don’t accept the coroner’s verdict. The whole thing stinks. The business with the car door just doesn’t make sense.’

‘Few accidents really make sense,’ said Roy. ‘People have them because they don’t pay enough attention to what they’re doing. They stop concentrating for a moment and end up falling off buildings. How’s Norah?’

‘Teenagers are pretty resilient,’ she said, picking at her food. Looking up, she saw Mrs Busabi heading their way with a folder under her arm and a look of determination in her eye. ‘Oh God, not tonight. Does she have to be everywhere we go? She keeps coming around with petitions.’

‘Hello there you strangers, I don’t want to interrupt your meal, I just thought you might be interested to know how we’re progressing,’ said Mrs Busabi, patting her paperwork. ‘I’ve presented our requests to the British Consulate and to the prefecture of police. We’re all at risk until they stop the immigrants having access to the compound. I’ve seen them down by the nursery at night, hanging around and smoking. I’ve picked up their cigarette butts.’

‘The air’s cooler in the compound,’ said Lea reasonably. ‘There are more trees.’

‘The underpass can’t be sealed off at the moment,’ said Roy. ‘Even when the main work is finished, the construction teams will still require access to the road.’

‘But that could be two or three years away. Who knows what could happen in the meantime? We could all be murdered in our beds. The other day one of them spat at me, just because I told him to pick up his litter. Harji and I don’t feel safe in our own houses. We always felt safe in Delhi.’ She looked down at the crab linguini cooling on their plates, and checked herself. ‘I’m sorry, I’m keeping you from your meal.’

Lea watched her waddle back to the table where her husband was draining his second bottle of red wine. ‘Poor thing, I almost feel sorry for her. It’s all she ever talks about. She’s hardly seen Harji in weeks. I know.’ She smiled and raised her glass. ‘Let’s toast. To the end of Dream World.’

That night they made love for the first time in weeks. Cara was on a sleepover at the beach house with Norah and they had the house to themselves. Lying in cool air without clothing was a rare luxury. ‘We could move from Chiswick if you like,’ she said. ‘Wait for Cara to get fixed up at university and get a place at the coast. How about France? Normandy, perhaps?’ The street was a vacuum of silence. Only the clock could be heard ticking on the bedside table. It was twenty to two. ‘It’s so quiet out there. You’d think we were the last people left alive in the world.’

She fell asleep with her head on his shoulder.

Her dreams were odd and unsettling. Some time later she muzzily awoke and raised herself on one arm. She felt the sheet. The other side of the bed was empty. ‘Roy?’

Silence.

‘Roy, where are you?’

Roy was outlined in the doorway, pulling on his shorts. ‘I got up to get myself a glass of water.’

‘What time is it?’

‘Early. Lea, you’d better come and see this.’

She slipped a T-shirt over her head, freed her hair and joined him on the landing. ‘What’s the matter?’

A crimson glow pulsed in the windows opposite. ‘I think something’s on fire,’ he said.