Starlight Peninsula (5 page)

‘Any news?’

‘Sean? He’s not coming back. I’m going to have to sell the house, leave the peninsula.’

Demelza looked at Nick. ‘
Men
,’ she said. Her gaze rested on the blackened grass, the mounds of burnt vegetation. She sniffed. ‘But, chuck, your bushes are all black. And what a pong. What’s happened?’

‘We had a bonfire,’ the Sparkler said.

Carina and the Sparkler argued about the pizzas, Eloise got on the phone and ordered, and they sat on the deck drinking wine and eating crisps.

Demelza said to Nick, ‘Eloise’s husband has taken up with an actress. She’s very attractive, I understand. My husband, Terrence, now, Eloise’s father. He was a right terror with the women.’ Her expression turned distant; she seemed to suppress a brave, bitter laugh. ‘Any road, he wasn’t going to give up his fancy women. I lived with it. I became a
realist
.’

Carina snorted. ‘No you didn’t. You were furious when he had affairs.’

The Sparkler, all studied innocence, was watching Demelza and secretly feeding the dogs crisps under the table.

Demelza said, haughty, ‘I accepted it.’

‘Right. Sure. As well as wanting to kill him. And fair enough, too.’

‘No,
Carina
.’ Demelza drummed her fingers on the table. ‘I believe in telling the truth, see.’

There was a silence.

Eloise tipped up her wine glass and said in a faint voice, ‘It doesn’t make much difference whether I accept it or not, since Sean’s gone.’

‘Men are hopeless,’ Demelza said, holding out her glass. ‘Carina, if you could just …’

Carina didn’t move. Nick poured more wine all round.

‘Thank you, that’s champion,’ Demelza said. ‘Do you wish me to pass the crisps, Nick, or have you had sufficient? Terrence and I came from Manchester, Nick, when we were in our twenties. We’ve been very happy, once we got used to the heat and the problems, the insects and the diarrhoea, which we all suffer from here, goodness knows.’

Carina said, ‘God! She’s been here fifty years and she still makes it sound like she’s living in the tropics.’

A phone went off. ‘My editor,’ Carina said and wandered off over the lawn. Demelza and the Sparkler made stick figures and words on the table out of crisp crumbs. Demelza said, ‘How are you getting on at school?’

‘I like it.’

‘Your mummy hated school. She was always in terrible trouble. The teachers were right nasty to her. Are yours horrible?’

‘Mrs Reid is a Nazi.’

Demelza laughed, clapped her hands. ‘A Nazi.’

‘If my socks are the wrong colour, Mrs Reid says I’ll have to be sent home.’

Demelza narrowed her eyes. ‘Does she
say
that? See, she shouldn’t say that to you, I reckon. That’s petty. That’s wrong-uh.’

The Sparkler struck a pose. ‘I accept it.’ Her expression was deadpan. ‘I’m a realist.’

‘Well, what a character you are,’ Demelza said, sweeping away the crumbs and gathering them in her fist. ‘Just like your mummy.’

She turned to Nick. ‘Carina was a wild girl. Hated school. She was always falling foul of the law when she was a teenager. Getting arrested and the like.’

‘By the police?’ the Sparkler said, big-eyed.

‘Ooh yes. You know, Nick, we’d get the call, come down to the police station. There she’d be, just out of the
cells
. What with that and
the troubles at school, she could be terribly difficult, you know.’

Eloise said, ‘Carina mightn’t want people to hear that stuff.’

‘What stuff?’ Carina said, sliding into her seat.

‘How you used to get in trouble at school,’ the Sparkler said.

‘And be arrested,’ the little girl added.

Carina fixed her mother with a steady look.

The old woman laughed, her bright eyes on Eloise, ‘Ooh, I can never keep my mouth shut. You know what Terry says about me, I can’t tell a lie. Not one falsehood, me. I just can’t.’

Carina leaned forward. ‘Who’s asking you to lie?’

Demelza’s tone hardened. ‘Well, I can’t see what the harm is,
Carina
.’

Eloise watched her mother’s fingers drumming on the table.

They were interrupted by the delivery man bringing boxes loaded with pizza; they lost focus, the conversation shifted, they talked about the GCSB scandal, about the local security services caught spying illegally on the internet millionaire Kurt Hartmann.

Carina mentioned the mayor, Edward Mack, who’d been caught having an affair with an employee.

‘Edward Mack then,’ Demelza said, looking at Nick. ‘With that high-pressure job, I imagine the poor chap
had
to have an affair, just to help him get through the day.’

Carina glanced quickly at Eloise, then leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes, her whole body expressing irritation. Eloise stared out at the estuary, where the silver water was running fast with the incoming tide.

Silence. Nick coughed. ‘Eloise tells me Roysmith’s interviewed Andrew Newgate.’

‘Andrew Newgate! He’s right creepy, that one.’

Eloise said quietly, ‘He was acquitted. He was found not guilty.’

Demelza snorted. ‘The jury found him not guilty, but they were blinded by that smoke-and-mirror merchant, that Carstone. With his
sports cars and his girlfriends and his lawsuits. Him, a campaigner for justice? Don’t make me laugh. It’s symbiotic, that’s what it is. You scratch my back and I’ll get you off a murder.’

‘That is an incredibly simplistic interpretation,’ Eloise said.

Nick’s tone was polite, cautious. ‘So, Eloise, you and Roysmith are totally convinced?’

‘Roysmith’s always thought Newgate was innocent. There were too many holes in the evidence.’

Demelza’s laugh made Eloise furious. She stared at her hands. Demelza said, ‘I’ve read Carstone’s books. All three of them. They’re badly written, unconvincing and without intellectual merit. Narcissistic, that’s what they are. He’s even put big glossy photos of himself in them. He’s
fabricated
the holes in the evidence. They don’t exist. Smoke and mirrors.’

‘Really,’ Eloise said.

‘And your Roysmith, with his emoting and his silly hair, he helped get Newgate acquitted. All through the second trial, the reporting was right biased.’

‘The jury isn’t allowed to look at news reports.’

‘Oh, I’m
sure
they don’t,’ Demelza said.

Carina said, ‘I’ve read Carstone’s books.’

‘Well, you’ll know what I’m talking about then,’ Demelza said. ‘Load of rubbish.’

Eloise banged down her glass. ‘We’ve all read the books. Okay, Carstone’s not a great writer, but that’s not the point.’

Carina traced a line on the table with her index finger. ‘So, Eloise, are you going to go into the case, or is it going to be magazine-style, “the wronged man speaks about his new life”?’

‘The point about most television,’ Demelza said loudly to Nick, ‘is that it’s just not intellectually good enough.’

Eloise turned to her. ‘So Roysmith’s thick.’

Demelza sipped her wine and said in a hoarse, amused voice, ‘Not
completely
thick. But … a lightweight.’

Nick said, ‘I heard Newgate’s supposed to have killed his parents when he was eleven.’

‘That’s just a malicious rumour. It’s just pure … tabloid.’ Eloise turned her glare on Nick, who flinched. His phone rang in his pocket and he jumped up to answer it, walking away across the grass.

Carina said, ‘Want another slice, Mum?’

‘Has it got garlic on it? I won’t have that foreign muck.’

Demelza was inspecting the Sparkler’s bag. ‘Fancy Roza Hallwright selling her
Soon and Starfish
books to Hollywood. She must have made a right fortune.’

‘She was rich to start with.’

‘Who?’ the Sparkler said, reaching for the bag.

Carina told her, ‘Roza Hallwright is the wife of Sir David Hallwright, who used to be our prime minister. She wrote the
Soon and Starfish
books. Which were then turned into the cartoon, the movies and TV series.’

She added, ‘I got the bag in LA.’

‘I’m not sure the books have much literary merit.’ Demelza gestured at the house. ‘I suppose
Soon
built this house. Since Sean works for Jaeger’s and they act for the Hallwrights. Since they made the
Soon
movie, the whole country’s gone mad. Terrence and I flew to Wellington recently; I couldn’t believe it. There was a gigantic statue of the dwarf — Soon — hanging from the departure lounge ceiling, looked like a right death trap if you were sat under it in an earthquake. And signs saying
Welcome to Soonworld
. And out on the tarmac there’s a 777 with Soon characters painted all over it. And when you get
on
the plane you have to sit through a
Soon and Starfish
safety video.’

‘There’s
Soon and Starfish
Lego now.’

‘Merchandising. Soon tourism. The Soon Village at Rotorua.’

‘The National Party will never be short of funding.’

Carina said, ‘Although the party’s divided, since Hallwright’s faction’s backing Ed Miles. Miles is breathing down Dance’s neck.’

‘Who’s Ed Miles?’ The Sparkler, leaning on Carina’s chair, was interrupting for the sake of it — her way of signalling she was getting tired.

‘Ed Miles is our Minister of Justice.’

‘Who has hopes of overthrowing our current prime minister, Mr Dance, according to the gossip. With the help of David Hallwright.’

‘With the help of Sooncorp.’

‘Roysmith says Miles is leaking against Satan Dance, that it could have been Miles who leaked that Dance knew Kurt Hartmann was being spied on illegally.’

‘Miles is
so
after Dance’s job.’

‘Dance managed to deny he knew anything.’

‘But the leaker went to the Opposition, and they’ve said there’s going to be proof.’

‘Of what?’

‘That Dance knew Hartmann was being spied on illegally. Proof Dance acted illegally.’

‘The internecine stuff is really heating up.’

‘Funny that the Hallwrights are “Hollywood money” now.’

‘Was Hartmann’s website ripping off the
Soon and Starfish
movies?’

‘No doubt!’

‘Do you think Satan Dance’s the father?’

‘Of Baby O’Keefe? Not him, surely.’

‘The way he used to look at O’Keefe, like he was licking his chops.’

‘He looks at everyone like that.’

‘Most men look at her like that.’

‘Except not any more. Not the front bench.’

‘They look away, guiltily.’

‘Nervously.’

‘Heard any clues, Carina? Any rumours at the paper?’

‘No one’s found out anything as far as I know.’

‘I thought maybe David Hallwright.’

Nick came across the grass, putting away his phone. ‘David Hallwright what?’

‘We’re wondering who’s the father.’

‘Oh, Baby O’Keefe? What about Ed Miles.’

‘He’s only interested in power.’

‘O’Keefe wouldn’t go for him. He’s too chilling.’

‘When it’s born we’ll know. There’ll be a resemblance.’

‘Babies usually look like their fathers.’

‘A tiny Satan.’

‘A tiny Ed.’

‘Oh these
men
,’ Demelza said, picking up Gerald.

Nick clapped his hands. ‘Anyway. Do these dogs know how to play fetch?’

‘Course.’ The Sparkler’s piping voice, all competence and scorn.

‘Got a ball?’

The Sparkler produced a tennis ball from her bag and they coaxed Silvio and Gerald down to the grass strip by the path. Eloise watched, imagining Nick in a white karate outfit. He had a strong throwing arm, was well co-ordinated. The sausage dog couldn’t keep up, and resorted to jumping on the spot and barking insanely. She noticed Nick glancing across at her.

Later, Demelza rose to her feet and lightly kicked Silvio, who was trying to get at a pizza crust under the table. ‘Look at your silly dog, Carina. What a ridiculous name you’ve given him. Funny, he looks gay to me.’

She leaned down to Silvio. ‘Are you gay? Are you
gay
, little pussy cat?’

There was a silence.

‘Well, I must love you and leave you. Carina, here’s the keys. If you could just …’

She shook the jingling bunch at Carina, who stared at her for a further beat of seconds before rising from her seat, taking the keys and leaving the table.

When Carina had manoeuvred the car out of its park and positioned it on the road outside Eloise’s house, ready to be driven, Demelza kissed the Sparkler and Nick, neatly side-stepped Eloise, turned her back on Carina, and worked her way into the driver’s seat. Gerald bobbed in the back seat, his long nose sliming the window. They waited respectfully while Demelza put on a different pair of glasses and pressed the button to lower the back window, allowing Gerald to poke his nose and one long ear out.

She revved the motor and engaged the gears. The engine whined and a scorched rubber smell rose. They heard a last hoarse bark from Gerald, a toot, and she was gone.

Eloise, Nick and Carina cleaned up while the Sparkler and Silvio slept sprawled together on the sofa.

Nick put his hand on Eloise’s arm. ‘Want a brandy at my place?’

‘I’ve got to stop drinking so much.’

‘Do you good.’

‘I’ve got to get up early, so …’

She imagined going to his house, drinking brandy, waking in his bed. Did she want that?

But he was already saying, ‘Good night, ladies …’

After he’d left, Carina stood on the deck smoking a cigarette. She blew out a long stream of smoke. ‘Strange guy.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I don’t know. Intense. Hard to place. He likes you, he stares at you. Did you see him playing with the dogs, checking to see if you were watching? He fancies himself — bit of an athlete. He’s got a good torso. Works out.’

‘Anything else?’

‘Did you say he lives alone? Is he a “loner”? Gay? What’s he doing at your place?’

‘He’s my neighbour. He’s separated. Single. He hasn’t been back in the country long.’

‘What does he do?’

‘He owns the house over there, and he’s inherited some other property. He worked for an NGO in Africa. He does karate. There was something about trying to decide what to do next, doing up houses in the meantime.’