‘What’s Tish’s full name?’
‘I never knew her surname. I only met her once.’
Albie’s burger now arrived and he started eating immediately, clearly very hungry.
‘Rupert didn’t have much money, did he?’ asked Robin.
‘No. He sounds posh, but there’s nothing left in his trust fund. All the money went on paying for his boarding school in Switzerland. Rupe needs to work if he wants to eat. Have you spoken to his aunt?’
‘My partner has.’
‘Rupe can’t stand her. He had a bad childhood. He was really unhappy at his boarding school and he didn’t like his aunt and uncle. He told me he never felt like he belonged with them. He wanted to get back to England and his mum’s side of the family. He really liked his Uncle Ned, but he died just after Rupe came back to the UK.’
‘What did Rupert do before he worked at Dino’s?’
‘Worked for an estate agents, then he was front of house at some restaurant in Soho, and then Sacha – you know Rupe’s Sacha Legard’s cousin?’
‘I did, yes,’ said Robin. ‘Are they friendly?’
‘I don’t think Sacha wants to get too friendly.’
‘Why not?’
‘In case Rupe wants things from him,’ said Albie owlishly.
‘What kinds of things?’
‘Dunno. Money? Premiere tickets? Hang out with his famous friends?’
‘Would Rupert want those things from Sacha?’
‘No,’ said Albie. ‘All he really wants is family. Sacha was the one who suggested Rupe went and worked at Dino’s, though. Sacha’s a member there. He said, if Rupe wanted a better job than the restaurant, he should ask Mr Longcaster, seeing as he was his godfather and everything.’
‘Did Rupert have much to do with Mr Longcaster before he went to work for him?’
‘He never even knew Mr Longcaster was his godfather before Sacha told him. Rupe’s aunt doesn’t like Mr Longcaster, but Rupe didn’t care what she thought about anything any more, so he went to the club and Mr Longcaster said, “oh, you’re Veronica and Peter’s boy?” and said he’d try him out for a bit.’
‘Mr Longcaster hadn’t been a very involved godfather, then?’
‘I think he’d forgotten all about Rupert until he turned up at the club.’
‘And did Rupert like working there?’ asked Robin.
She was moving the conversation gradually closer to Decima, but didn’t want to arrive there too quickly.
‘He thought the same as me,’ said Albie. ‘Bits of it are cool. You see some really famous people in there, and at first that’s interesting, but after you’ve been there a while you realise they’re just people. Some of them are OK and some are twats, you know?’
‘And that’s how Rupert felt about it, too?’
‘Yeah… you haven’t spoken to Mr Longcaster?’ Albie asked again.
‘No,’ said Robin, but this time she added, ‘why?’
‘He’s… I hate him,’ said Albie, with sudden, surprising vehemence. ‘I hate all of them – except Decima. She’s OK. She’s the only decent one.’
‘When you say “all of them”, you mean—’
‘The Longcasters. Him and his wife, she’s a real bitch, and his other kids. Valentine – I wouldn’t piss on him if he was on fire,’ said Albie savagely. ‘He’s a shit, he acts like it’s his club, he treats the staff like dirt. And Cosima, she’s the youngest, and she’s a spoiled brat. Decima’s the only decent one, she always treated the staff well. Well, she kind of was staff herself, for a bit, working on the menus. Mr Longcaster asked her to help out. She’s a really good chef… but I think her restaurant’s in trouble. I saw online.’
Robin thought she heard a trace of guilt, but Albie went on quickly,
‘Anyway, she doesn’t fit in with her family. Same as Rupe. I heard the two of them discussing it, once.’
‘So you saw Rupert and Decima’s relationship up close?’
‘Yeah, I s’pose,’ said Albie.
Their client’s prohibition on mentioning her baby was highly inconvenient; Robin sensed that Albie might be amenable to a little emotional blackmail.
‘So, did you think Rupert and Decima were a good fit, or—?’
‘Why’re you asking that, if you work for her?’ said Albie.
‘Because,’ said Robin, looking Albie straight in the eye, ‘I think it’d be kinder for her in the long run to know the truth, rather than be told lies, and left wondering why, if Rupert was supposed to genuinely care about her, he disappeared.’
Albie looked down at his plate, ate another couple of chips, then said,
‘She thinks he was that body in the silver shop, doesn’t she?’
‘She told you that, did she?’
‘Yeah, but’ – Albie laughed uncomfortably – ‘that’s mad. Why the hell would Rupert have gone to work there?’
‘You’ve just told me why,’ said Robin. ‘He had to work if he wanted to eat. He’d run off with Mr Longcaster’s nef, so he had reason to hide, didn’t he? But you don’t strike me as the kind of person who’d encourage him to ditch his girlfriend without a word.’
She watched as a flush spread over Albie’s face.
‘I’m not,’ he mumbled.
‘Did Rupert want to end things with Decima?’
Albie opened his mouth, shut it, then said,
‘Not really.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘I don’t know… her brother was really against it, he thought Rupe was way too young for her – and probably not rich enough, knowing Valentine.’
‘Rupert decided to split up with her, because Valentine disapproved?’
‘No,’ said Albie. ‘He didn’t want to end it, but he had—’
He cut himself off.
‘“Had to?”’ said Robin. ‘Why would he have to? Because he was afraid of Valentine, or Mr Longcaster?’
‘Not “had to”, I wasn’t going to say that,’ said Albie, still red in the face. ‘He just – you know, with that drug dealer and everything. He didn’t want Decima targeted as well.’
‘Albie, that’s a nice story,’ said Robin, ‘but why would he break all contact with her, if he was doing it to protect her? And why steal the nef from her father, if he cared about her? That caused her trouble too, didn’t it?’
‘The nef wasn’t – he didn’t – you don’t know what went on,’ said Albie.
‘I’m here to find out what went on,’ said Robin.
Albie took a deep breath, then said in a low voice,
‘Look – Mr Longcaster’s a bully. He hardly likes anyone except his daughter Cosima, and that’s only because she’s thin and blonde and good-looking. Even Valentine’s scared of his father. Mr Longcaster was a shit to Decima, even though she came to help him out at the club, and she’s talented, she really is, she’s a good chef. But it’s all surface with Mr Longcaster, you’ve got to look right, it’s all about being beautiful and stylish – being a bit plump or whatever, or not knowing how to dress, that’s, like, I dunno, a – a sin. And Decima and Rupe, they don’t look the way Mr Longcaster wants people in his club and his family to look. You think I’m exaggerating, but that’s how he lives, everything’s got to be perfect, the way the napkins are folded, how chilled the cocktails are, how thin the waitresses are – I’m not kidding – he finds a way of forcing girls out if he decides they don’t look right. He wants to live in this – this completely controlled world… Rupe burned his hand really badly in the kitchen, a couple of days before he left, and Mr Longcaster was just angry. Said he didn’t want his waiters wearing bandages, that they didn’t look smart.
‘And he used to call Rupe “the jellyfish”. Any time he did anything wrong – and Rupe’s a hard worker, it was only small mistakes – he’d call him the jellyfish and he worked up a comedy bit about it.’ Albie looked truly angry now. ‘“Blob of brainless, semi-sentient matter”, stuff like that. “Invasive species, fundamentally pointless.” And he talked about Rupe’s father.’