‘What happened?’ I asked the waiter, tersely.
‘He came into the restaurant about a quarter before three. I offered to seat him, but he didn’t want to eat. He said that you’d be coming in here to meet with him but he couldn’t wait. He said he’d give me a hundred dollars to deliver that envelope. That’s more than I’m going to make this afternoon, so I said okay. Then he asked me for our payphone number; he said he wanted to call you to make sure it was okay. I told him it was bust, but I said that he could call you on my cell, if it was that important. He took the number, gave me the envelope and a hundred bucks, and that was it.’
I returned the boy’s phone and gave him another hundred for the aggravation. He’d given us the envelope, unopened. Another kid might have slit it to see if there was money in it, or even drugs; this one was honest, trusting and stupid. I hoped he wasn’t studying medicine, or law, or anything maybe a little less life-threatening, like nuclear physics.
Prim almost snatched it from my hand as I sat down. ‘What is it?’ she asked, as she tore it open.
I topped up my Pinot Grigio. ‘It’s what we’ve been expecting. It’s the sharp end of the business.’
She read through the document, once, then again for luck, and looked up at me, pale beneath the tan. ‘He wants all of it, Oz, everything that he moved to Vancouver. The shit,’ she hissed. ‘He’ll give me my son, but take his inheritance. Well, he’s not getting it; I’m going to find him and I’m going to take Tom from him, dead or alive.’
‘Do you mean him or Tom?’
‘Don’t be stupid.’
‘I’m not. When people start thinking like that, there can be cross-fire, and the innocent can get caught up. You’ve still got your interdict from Scotland, remember. Once we find out for sure where Tom is, I mean in which legal jurisdiction, we can take action to enforce it. I can afford better lawyers than Wallinger, I promise you.’
She looked down, and gnawed at her lip, as I’d seen her do a few dozen times before when she was preoccupied. ‘I suppose so.’
‘Speaking of lawyers, we should run that past one, just to check that it’s as binding as Wallinger said it is.’
‘Where are we going to find one on a Saturday afternoon?’
‘Good question. If necessary it can wait till we get to Vegas…’ Her gasp stopped me.
‘I’m going to Las Vegas?’
‘That’s what he wants. Before we get there, though, let me try this.’
My phone had been switched off, in case Wallinger had shown up, to prevent interruptions. When I switched it on, I noticed that I had a voice message, but I didn’t have time to deal with that. I located Miles’s cell and called it, not caring what time it was in Australia. As it turned out he was having breakfast.
‘I need a lawyer,’ I told him.
He chuckled. ‘Hey, I saw that stuff on the news. Don’t tell me the guy’s suing you for beating him up.’
‘If he does I’ll counter-sue.’ I filled him in on where we were with Wallinger, and on the document.
‘Okay, I can fix that,’ he said at once. ‘I have a lawyer on twenty-four-hour call, against something going south on one of my projects anywhere in the world. Call this guy, mention my name, and suppose he’s three up with four to play at the country club, he’ll concede the game and see you. His name’s Victor Knight.’ He read me a phone number; I patched it in and stored it as he spoke.
‘Thanks, mate,’ I told him. ‘That’s another one Prim owes you.’
Mr Knight wasn’t on the fifteenth fairway, as it turned out. He was in his Jacuzzi at his home in Beverly Hills. At the drop of Miles’s name, he gave us the address and said that he would see us as soon as we could get to him. We left half of the Pinot Grigio in the bottle, walked back to the hotel and went straight down to the garage to pick up the Jaguar.
The navigation system took us right up his driveway in twenty minutes. His home was in a small estate with private armed security; we had to be cleared at a gatehouse before we could even drive into the street where he lived. Mr Knight’s wasn’t a movie star’s mansion, but it was a movie stars’ lawyer’s mansion and that was impressive enough. It wasn’t anywhere near as big as the Loch Lomond place, but it might well have been in the same price bracket.
He was ready to do business when we arrived, a dapper bloke, silver-haired but fresh-faced, dressed in grey slacks, a blazer, and a blue and white striped shirt. We made some contrast as we were still in shorts, but he didn’t bat an eyelid: he was used to actors.
He took us through the house and out on to a huge patio at the back, where he offered us plush seats around a low table. It reminded me of our leisure wing, but being in LA this one was outdoors. ‘Run through your situation for me,’ he began.
I’d done enough talking for the day, so I left it to Prim. It took her longer to run through the story than it had taken us to drive there from Wilshire Boulevard. When she was done, she handed him the document.
Knight studied it, line by line. When he was finished he laid it on the table and nodded. ‘If you sign and implement that,’ he announced, ‘you will be handing over ownership of your fortune voluntarily, with full legal effect, and no prospect of recovery.’
‘But I’ll get my son back, and that will be irrevocable too. Yes?’
‘Yes, that’s the case. However, Ms Phillips, I have to point out that in the light of this gentleman’s behaviour just about any court in the United States would give you your son back.’
‘If we could find him.’
‘There is that; it’s easy to hide in this country. There is also the possibility that Mr Wallinger could take the child to Mexico. It’s a lot easier for Americans to gain admission there than the other way around.’
‘What should I do?’ she asked.
‘As you say Mr Blackstone has told you, if you find the child, you could seek to enforce your Scottish court order. You could also petition for custody under US law, with, as I have indicated, a significant chance of success. Our courts are a lot more flexible with children than with adults. However, I concede that this is all contingent upon locating the infant.’
‘So?’
‘So, to be brutally honest, it’s your call.’
We thanked Victor Knight, and left him to his weekend. As I slid back into the S-type, I switched my cell-phone back on; it had been off for that meeting too. That message warning popped up again; this time I retrieved it.
It was short and sweet. It was Susie, sounding strange, tired and drawn; all she said was, ‘Oz, I trusted you, and you lied to me. If it’s her you want, stay with her and may God rot the pair of you. And if by any chance you don’t know what I mean, check your e-mail.’
‘What the hell are you on about?’ I said to the phone.
‘What’s up?’ Prim asked.
‘Susie,’ I told her. ‘From the sound of things Wallinger’s been stirring her up again.’
‘How?’
‘God knows; I’ll find out when we get back to the hotel.’
As I piloted the Jag out of Beverly Hills and back into Westwood, that was all I could think about. Well, almost alclass="underline" my ear was throbbing again and that got my attention. I was tired, and annoyed. I was doing my bloody best here, out of some sort of duty, and I was doing it on a pink ticket from my wife, and now here she was getting outraged about it. Part of me wanted to forget her and her problem, whatever it was; happily it was only a small part. I determined that as soon as we got back to the Century I would get online.
That was my top priority; it really was. It wasn’t my fault it was knocked on the head. I parked the car in the tight basement space, then we took the incredibly shaky wood-lined lift. I got out at the reception area, leaving Prim to go up one more to the suite, and went straight to the desk. I retrieved my laptop, and was heading for the door. . the lift was so slow I decided that I’d be quicker on the stairs. . when the clerk called after me, ‘Excuse me, sir, there’s this too. It was left for you.’
I turned, to see that she was holding out a package, wrapped in red and white striped paper and tied in a neat bow. ‘Who left it?’ I asked as I took it from her, then I held up a hand to stop her reply. ‘Let me guess: it was a guy about my height, but slimmer, with shades, a beard, a tan-coloured jacket and a funny blue hat.’