Chapter 18.
“Mmmm…” Dark Angel said. “It appears that you really do not know where Joshua is. However…”
“What?”
“It also appears that you are the only person he knows in this town, except for this girl, this Terrence…”
“Terri…” Nat corrected.
“Terri, yes. And what is it that you know about her?”
“Terri? Well, nothing, really. I mean, she just turned up with him, and then they left, and…”
“They left together?”
Nat could feel his stomach churning. “Yeah…”
“You do not sound very certain, Nathan?”
“No, no, yeah, yeah, they left together. And I didn’t see her after that!”
She studied him, then nodded. “He did not mention her when you were sharing drinks together?”
“No?”
She paused. “Again, Nathan, you are not sounding very certain.”
“Yeah, yeah, I am…”
She scrunched her huge hands together and Nat flinched.
“Do you know what it is that I am thinking, Nathan?”
“Erm… that you’re tired and you’re going to leave and go to bed?”
“No, I am not thinking that. I need very little sleep. What I am thinking, Nathan, is that some part of this makes little sense.”
“But I’m telling you the truth!” Nat blurted.
She looked at him. “Be that as it may, I do not understand. Joshua Reeves is a man who has not paid a number of substantial debts. He is a man who is wanted by very many people. Indeed, he is a man so wanted that even someone like myself is asked to come to your country in order to specifically help track him down. He escapes to a little known, how do you say, shitty little town, where he can hide. Maybe he chooses this town because he knows you, and believes that you can be some help to him. However, he must be aware that he would be tracked here eventually. He would therefore choose a method in which he had a profile that was rather invisible, you understand?” She looked at him for confirmation and Nat nodded.
“Yes, exactly. And therefore, we must ask ourselves why he came to your apartment with a woman that you say was extremely attractive…”
“She was… I mean…”
“As you say” Dark Angel interrupted. “And yet this would not be in keeping with a desire to be not noticed.”
“I don’t know. Maybe he was, I dunno, in love with her?”
“One may draw this conclusion. He was not able to keep away from her. And yet in our record of searching for him, and tracing him to this shitty town, there is no record whatsoever of this lady. This Terri. And it would be unusual to meet and fall in love with a girl so pretty, only one day after arriving here, especially if one wanted to keep one’s profile so low?”
“What are your thoughts?” she asked into Nat’s silence.
“Well… I dunno. I mean, maybe, it was, you know, a whirlwind romance, maybe that was it?”
“Yes, these things are possible. One does hear of these romances. However, it would be rather unlikely, do you not think? In the circumstances? And in your account of the evening, did you not also say that Joshua was clear that he had no romantic attachment to her. I believe you did. And yet I see no reason for him to lie about this. In fact, in such case as a whirlwind romance, as you say, then the declaration of love is made obsessively, and repeatedly, is it not. I understand that it fulfils the need for justification as to one’s impetuous actions. And yet this was, as you say, absolutely not present.”
“Yeah, I guess…” Nat answered, confused.
She lifted a finger. “Which therefore makes me believe that there is more to this lady than at first may appear.”
“What do you mean?”
“What I do mean is that I will need to find out who this lady is, because…”
Just then there was a loud rapping at the door. Dark Angel looked at Nat. “Are you expecting further guests?” she whispered. She was up on her feet at lightning speed, her back to the wall, stood by the window.
“No…”
The rapping came again, then a voice. “Nat, let me in. Quickly.” Joshua’s voice, unmistakable. Nat froze. Dark Angel looked sharply at him. “Who is this?”
Nat gulped. “Oh, yeah, I think it’s my friend, Zak…”
“Nat, for Christ’s sake, let me in…”
“Who is Zak?”
“He’s, erm, a friend from… work.” This, at least, was true.
“Get rid of him” she whispered.
He rapped again.
Nat looked desperately at Dark Angel. She opened her hands in frustration. “Open the door. Have a chat to him. Get rid of him. Before he wakes up the whole hotel” she whispered fiercely.
Nat ran to the door, let it swing open. Joshua barged in. “Why the hell did you keep me so long?”
“What the hell happened to you?” Nat asked, looking at Joshua’s bruised and bloody face, his torn clothes.
Joshua took a deep breath, and looked round. “A slight misunderstanding, that’s all.” He looked at the bed. “Jesus, I’m tired. Shut the door, won’t you?”
Nat pushed the door shut. “Listen, Zak, this isn’t a good time. You’ve got to leave.”
“Zak?” Joshua asked, then realization broke on his face. He swung round, as if expecting to be attacked, but there was no one there. Come to think of it, where was Dark Angel, Nat thought.
“Yeah, just give me a minute.” Joshua sat on the bed, then just as quickly jumped up again. “What the…?”
There was a huge cry and the bed started moving, as if it was alive. Joshua looked desperately at Nat, who was staring at the bed, as it seemed to rip itself in two, falling into pieces as Dark Angel emerged from a tangled mess of sheets, feathers and wood.
“Ah” she wiped herself down, “apologies for that.”
Nat continued staring at the bed. “How am I going to explain this when I check out?”
“I wouldn’t mention it” said Joshua, “they never check.”
Dark Angel nodded. “Your friend Zak is correct. You have nothing to worry about.” She put out her hand to Zak. “My name is Dark Angel.”
Joshua gave a half smile and took her hand. “Zak.”
“My friend from work” Nat said quickly. “Just over to talk about…” but his imagination couldn’t keep up with him.
“The presentation next week” Joshua added quickly.
“A strange time to talk about work, no?”
“We’re very dedicated.”
“What is it that you do?” Dark Angel asked.
“Actually” Joshua said, “with a name like yours, I am curious what it is that you do?” He asked this with such a sweet voice that Dark Angel actually blushed, and took a step back, almost tripping over the remains of the bed.
“Oh” Joshua continued, putting his hand over his mouth, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…” He looked at Nat, then at Dark Angel, then back at Nat. “I’m sorry, I think I’m interrupting something here…”
“No, no, no” Nat said quickly.
“No, no, no” Dark Angel repeated, and they both shot a quick glance at each other, then both looked away, embarrassed.
“Oh no” Joshua put his hands in the air. “There I go again, putting my foot in it! I am so sorry. There the two of you are, enjoying a nice, quiet, relaxing time together in this hotel room. What am I saying, a nice quiet relaxing time! I mean, what I meant to say, was a romantic break, the two of you! I loved the thing with the bed, must try that! Anyway, there you were, the two of you, enjoying, erm, and I come in and try to drag my friend Nat here off to finish our presentation! How thoughtless of me! I am so sorry. I will leave straight away.”
He started making an elaborate show of brushing himself down, smoothing down his ruffled hair and patting down his dirty, blood stained jacket. He took a look in the mirror, pulled out a handkerchief (again, worse for wear) from his torn left pocket, and sp
at on it. “You don’t mind, do you?” Joshua then proceeded to try and clean his face with it.
“Why do you not use the bathroom?” Dark Angel suggested; Nat wondered if she felt as flustered as she looked.
“Oh, would you mind?” Joshua asked.
“No, of course not.” She stepped over the remains of the bed and opened the bathroom door for him. Joshua bowed ever so slightly and entered the bathroom. Nat and Dark Angel stood there, looking at each other, neither entirely clear what to do, until Joshua emerged, looking fresher but still damaged, and with a smile on his face. “Right, I’ll be going then.” He stepped towards the door then stopped. “Err, just one thing.”
“Yes?”
He looked at Dark Angel. “Would you mind very much if I had a quick word with my colleague here? It’s just that, we have a deadline tomorrow and we really need to talk.”
“You work on a Sunday?” she asked.
Joshua smiled and put his finger on his watch. “Well, it’s 1:30 in the morning, so technically, it is Sunday today. And technically therefore it is Monday tomorrow. We work to very precise deadlines.”
“How silly of me” she smiled. “Yes, please do go ahead.” She folded her arms and looked at both of them.
Joshua coughed. “Erm, the thing is, I don’t wish to be rude, however it is rather confidential.”
Dark Angel thought about it for a moment, then smiled, turned, walked into the bathroom and shut the door. Joshua and Nat stood looking at each other for a second. A strange, gurgling sound started to come from the bathroom, followed by a rush of water, and then a kind of croak-croak-croak.
“What the…” started Nat.
“Don’t look at me. She’s your girlfriend.”
“She’s not my fucking girlfriend. She’s…”
Joshua put a hand on his arm and pulled him towards the door, opening it and pulling him half into the corridor. “I know who she is, for God’s sake” he whispered.
“Oh” Despite himself, Nat felt himself go red.
“Keep your voice down” Joshua whispered. “I can’t work out if she’s just pretending she doesn’t know who I am, or if she genuinely thinks I am your colleague.”
“I thought I covered for you pretty well.”
“Yeah, thanks for that.”
“What’s going on, Joshua? She’s saying you’re in lots of trouble. She’s saying that you owe lots of money. I mean, she dangled me out of the window…”
“Listen, Nathan, we haven’t got much time…”
But Nat grabbed his arms. “Did you hear what I said, she dangled me out of the window! She thought I was you! I mean for Christ’s sake, Joshua, what…”
Joshua pushed him off. “Shut up and listen! Look, I’ll explain, I mean, it’s complicated, but I’ll explain, but right now…”
“Explain what? You’ve been using me…”
“What?” Joshua asked, exasperated. “No. I mean, come on, Nathan, we haven’t got time for this… Listen, I will explain, I promise, but right now I need your help.”
“I can’t believe you were using me…”
“Listen!” Joshua half whispered, half shouted, pushing Nat off him and at the same time grabbing his arms and squeezing hard. Nat shut up.
Joshua talked quickly, urgently. “Any second now she will come out of that door. All right. I will explain. Right now, I need the finger.”
Nat stared at him. “The what?”
“The finger, for God’s sake. Terri’s finger.”
Nat looked dumbfounded. “But… why on earth do you need Terri’s finger?”
Joshua squeezed Nat’s arms. “I’ll explain. I promise. It’s… it’s really complicated. But I need it. I need it now. Please, Nat” he added.
“But… I haven’t got it.”
“What?”
“I haven’t got it.”
Joshua shook his head. “What?”
“The finger…I dropped…” he stared at Joshua. “Why on earth do you need Terri’s finger?”
“What do you mean, you dropped it? Where? Where the hell is it?”
“But Christ… you didn’t… I mean, Terri…”
“No” Joshua was half shouting, “I didn’t! Whatever you think, whatever people are telling you, you have to trust me on this. Please. I promise I’ll explain. But right now, please, Nathan, tell me. Where did you drop the finger?”
“When… outside…” Nat mumbled.
“What?”
“Outside… when she held me outside the window, it must have fallen out of my pocket… some people saw it…”
“Outside the window? Which window?” Joshua looked back into the room. The bathroom door was still closed, there was a half humming, half singing coming from the bathroom. “This window? It’s on the ground outside the hotel?”
When Nat didn’t reply, Joshua shook him “Is that what you mean? Is it? Is it, Nathan?”
Nat swallowed and nodded his head. “Yeah, I think so. At least it was…”
Just then there was a loud noise from inside the hotel room, a bit like a crash, and the bathroom door sprang open. Ripped off its hinges, more like, Nat thought, as Dark Angel stood in the doorway.
“I think you should come in now.” There was something different about her. Some of the softer edges seemed to have got sharper, her hair stuck up in an aggressive way, the lines round her eyes had changed, the colour of her eyes had changed, that was it, Nat thought, her eyes were red. And her smile was crooked.
Joshua had noticed the same thing, it seemed, as they both stepped inside without a word. The hotel room door shut behind them. Nat stared at Dark Angel, standing in the destroyed hotel room. She was staring at Joshua.
“Enough play, Joshua Reeves” she said coolly.
“I…” started Joshua.
There was a loud knock on the door.