Читать книгу The Heights - Parker Bilal - Страница 15

The flat Howeida Almanara shared with Savannah Reeves was actually just off Drury Lane. Whichever way you cut it, this was a very nice neighbourhood. The building was a neatly faced red-brick structure on a corner. Not old, but not new either. Crane was buzzed in and climbed a wide staircase that appeared to have been recently refurbished. When she reached the second floor the slim woman was waiting in the doorway, her red hair tied back now with a black ribbon.

‘There is an elevator, you know,’ she said, as if the idea might never have occurred to Crane.

‘I have a tendency towards claustrophobia.’

‘Wow, that must really suck.’

‘I had a bad experience once.’ Crane turned the conversation back. ‘Nice place.’

‘Thank you,’ cooed Savannah.

The flat was untidy in the way that you might expect from two students with means. Crane surmised that they had a cleaning service which probably came in a couple of times a week to prevent things tipping over the edge into real chaos. Just two rich kids trying their best to look normal.

Crane allowed herself to be led around. Each of the girls had their own room. Savannah’s bed was covered with fluffy toy animals; bunnies with big ears and so forth.

‘The little girl in me that refuses to grow up,’ she laughed.

Howeida’s room was more austere and tidy. There were clothes in the wardrobe and dresser. A large, hard-shell suitcase big enough to pack a Shetland pony inside stood behind the door. Crane looked around quickly but saw nothing out of place.

‘What a great flat.’

‘Oh, we love it. We looked at a few others. But once we saw this we had to have it.’

Crane made appreciative sounds as the young woman led her through to the kitchen, where she made a valiant attempt at producing coffee from the stainless steel machine on the marble counter. Either she was nervous or she had no practical experience of kitchen appliances. Crane guessed she didn’t spend a lot of time making her own coffee.

‘Why don’t I?’ she suggested. Savannah’s eyes widened in amazement.

‘Oh, would you? I’m terrible with these things. I usually run downstairs to the café.’

‘Nothing to it. Why don’t you sit down and tell me about Howeida. How did you meet?’

‘Oh, wow!’ Savannah tugged the ribbon off her hair, releasing her long red locks. She settled onto a high stool like a model waiting for a photoshoot to get started. ‘I mean, like I said the other day when your partner was with you, we just hit it off. He’s not working with you today?’

Crane ran an eye over the coffee machine and went to work. ‘He’s working on another angle.’

‘Oh, right. Well, anyway, Howie and I, we just clicked right from the get-go. First day on campus, we just got to talking and we haven’t stopped since.’ She giggled in a self-conscious way. Crane asked what had brought her to London.

‘I’ve just always had a romantic thing for London. Don’t ask me why. I guess I read too many of those old novels as a child.’

Specifically, Savannah had come to London to do a masters in international development.

‘So, what did you and she get up to?’

‘Well, I mean, I’m from Virginia, I didn’t know anything about London,’ she gushed. ‘I’d never met anyone like her before. She just knew everything.’

‘She had a lot of contacts here? Family? Friends?’

‘Her family is just, like, so international? So there are aunts and cousins everywhere. Paris, Copenhagen, all over the States. So there were people coming through all the time.’

As she went back over their time together, how they had decided to move out of collegiate rooms and find a place to share, the kind of places they went, a picture began to form in Crane’s mind. Two young women, quite different in principle but connected by some kind of common transnational culture of mobility and wealth. They had grown up on opposite sides of the world, but shared the same references. They watched the same television shows and listened to the same music. They probably had more in common with one another than with people living round the corner from them, in Richmond, Virginia, or Kuwait City. London had brought them together.

‘Tell me about Marco Foulkes,’ said Crane, setting another frothy cappuccino on the counter.

‘Wow, that looks amazing!’ Savannah gushed. ‘How do you do that?’

‘I used to work for a living.’

That produced a blank look. Crane repeated her question about Foulkes.

‘Marco. Yeah, I mean, like I said, Howie knows everybody. So she had heard about this guy. I mean, she’d read one of his books or something. So when she found out he was doing a reading she insisted we go. Afterwards she just went up to him and started talking.’ She frowned and tossed her hair back again. ‘I remember he invited us to this party? Really fancy, lots of earls and dukes? Really cool. And that’s it. We were all friends after that. It was clear that she was the one Marco was interested in. But that’s cool. I mean, he’s like a lord or something.’

‘Something,’ muttered Crane, sitting opposite the other woman. Savannah was drawing a question mark in the air.

‘Right, so he hired you, right?’

‘That’s right.’

‘But you’re like old friends or something?’

The tone in her voice gave Crane pause. She was digging for something.

‘He told you that?’

Savannah nodded. ‘He said you were like old friends. I mean, I think he was trying to put me at ease, you know?’

‘It was a long time ago. We were kids.’

‘That’s great. I mean, like, he’s so famous! We went to a couple of readings? In, like, bookshops? People just love him. They all wanted his autograph and stuff.’

‘Sounds like you got along.’

‘Well, I wasn’t into being a groupie, you know?’ Savannah flushed lightly. ‘But he was a lord and all, right? We went out together a few times, all of us. Marco would bring along a friend sometimes to make up a foursome, but it became clear that they just wanted to be together.’

‘Was it mutual?’

‘I guess so.’ The red hair swayed as she tilted her head. ‘Howie didn’t like talking about personal stuff like that. The opposite of me, really. I just talk.’

It was almost as if she were speaking about someone in the past. Crane wondered if Savannah was aware of that.

‘Did you ever visit his family home?’

‘Oh, yeah, the castle.’ Savannah waved off the description before it was out of her mouth. ‘I mean, it’s not really a castle, but to a small town girl from Virginia it was pretty close.’

‘I’m sure.’

‘We went up there a couple of times. It was real nice and his mother is amazing. She just took such good care of us.’ Savannah scrunched up her nose. ‘Truth is I was always like the third wheel. You know? Staring out the window while they carried on. I got tired of it, to be honest. The last time I left a day early. I told a little lie? I said an old friend was passing through London.’

‘How long ago was this?’

‘Just before she went missing.’

‘So you left her up there with Marco?’

‘And his mother.’

‘His mother, yes.’ Crane had her notebook out to compare dates. ‘Marco said that she went missing around the nineteenth, so this was the weekend before that? The sixteenth and seventeenth?’

‘I think so, if that’s when he says.’

‘Didn’t you notice her not being around?’

‘Really, I didn’t think about it.’ The thin shoulders lifted and fell. ‘It wasn’t a big deal. I mean, missing a couple of days is no big deal.’

‘You weren’t worried?’

‘Not really. She’s a big girl.’

‘Marco mentioned an uncle of hers …’

‘Oh, god! Now he was a real piece of work.’ Savannah was shaking her head as if trying to get rid of a memory. ‘He just showed up out of nowhere. Said he had a message for Howie, from her folks.’

‘What did she say?’

‘She said he wanted to take her home.’

‘You heard them talking?’

‘Well, most of it was in Arabic. At least I think it was Arabic.’ The thin shoulders rose and fell. ‘I couldn’t really understand.’

‘Right, but she seemed stressed about him being here?’

‘Oh, yes. I mean, I’m not even sure if he was an uncle or a cousin. I think over there it’s pretty much the same thing.’

‘Uh huh. What was he like? Can you describe him?’

‘He must be at least ten years older than her, maybe more.’

‘And how would you characterise his interest in her, from what you saw?’

‘I don’t know. To me there was always something a little off about him. I mean, I think that out there it’s okay to marry your cousin, right? I mean, more than okay, everyone does it.’

‘So you’re saying that he was interested in marrying her?’

Savannah was suddenly unsure. ‘Like I said, it was difficult to know what was really going on between them. And Howie didn’t like talking about it.’

‘But you got the impression he didn’t approve of the way she was living here?’

‘That’s it exactly. Right from the get-go he was trying to tell us what to do. I mean, not just her, even me. He kind of assumed he had the right.’

‘How did Howeida – Howie, react?’

‘That’s the thing.’ Savannah’s eyes dropped. She began picking at the cuticles around her fingernails. ‘She was scared. I’d never seen her like that. She was really scared.’

‘Did you get a name for this guy, the cousin or uncle?’

‘Abdul hah-something. I forget.’

‘Any idea where he was staying? Anything at all?’

‘The thing is, when he first showed up he was really sweet. He even took us both for dinner.’

‘When was this?’

‘You mean, the date?’ She reached for her phone. ‘The seventh.’

‘Where was this? I mean, do you remember where you ate?’

‘Oh, just across the street, the nice Italian place? I think he wanted to make a big impression. Anyway, he wouldn’t leave her alone after that. He would follow her. That was creepy.’

‘Then what happened to him?’

‘I don’t know. He just disappeared. Weird, like I said.’ Savannah fell silent for a moment. ‘So, what do you think happened to her?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Crane, getting to her feet. ‘But I’m going to find out.’