Dead Flowers Read online

  The place was packed with punters looking for a good time and I was pushed and jostled on the narrow streets.

  I went to the bar where I’d first seen her but there was no sign, so I set off on another pub crawl, looking for another woman who might be able to give me some answers to questions I half didn’t want answering.

  It was no good and I knew it. I didn’t know why I was wasting my time, but still something told me not to give up.

  Eventually, as the boozers were chucking out, I ended up down at Gerry’s club, a late-night haunt for actors, writers and musicians on Dean Street. It was just filling up with post-pub punters when I arrived. I found a seat at the bar, nodded hello to a few of the customers I knew and ordered a brandy and Coke from the barmaid. A black geezer was playing a mixture of jazz and cocktail-lounge music on the upright piano in the corner and I settled down for a quiet drink before heading home.

  The stool where I was sitting gave me a good view of the room and the stairway leading down from the street, which was the only entrance, and I passed the time by clocking the comings and goings of the exotic clientele.

  I sat there from eleven until twelve-thirty, and was just thinking about calling it a night when all of a sudden the girl I was looking for came down the stairs. Just like that, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Which in a way I suppose it was.

  I stopped with my glass halfway to my mouth. I couldn’t believe it was her. After trying to find her for hours, it looked like she’d found me.

  She was with another hippie-looking girl just like her, and when they shucked off the coats they were wearing I saw that they both had on similar, long chiffon dresses that clung to their bodies in a most attractive way.

  They found seats at a table by the piano and my girl came up to the bar. She ordered some drinks and looked around, which was when she spotted me. She didn’t seem in the least surprised, just smiled shyly and looked away. I caught the barmaid’s eye and pointed to the pile of money in front of me and the drinks she was getting. She came over and I said, ‘I’ll get those.’

  The barmaid shrugged, helped herself to some cash, and when she took the glasses to the girl she pointed in my direction. The girl smiled again, took one of the drinks to her companion, came back for the other one and walked round to where I was sitting. I budged up to give her room and she said, ‘I knew you’d be here. Thanks for the drinks.’

  ‘A pleasure,’ I said. ‘We didn’t get introduced the other night. My name’s Nick. But then you know that, don’t you?’

  She nodded.

  ‘How do you know? And how did you get my home phone number? It wasn’t on the cards I left.’

  ‘Someone must have told me the other night.’

  ‘I don’t think so. No one knew me in that bar.’

  ‘You’d be surprised what people know.’

  I could tell I was getting nowhere fast, so I changed tack. ‘So what’s your name?’ I asked.

  ‘Matilda.’

  ‘Nice name,’ I said. ‘Unusual.’

  She wrinkled her nose. ‘I hate it,’ she said. ‘Most people call me Matty.’

  ‘Matty it is then,’ I said. ‘I’ve been looking for you.’

  ‘I knew that too,’ she replied. ‘Do you want to come and sit down?’

  ‘Why not,’ I said back, and we pushed through the crowd to where the other young woman was waiting.

  18

  We sat down and Matty said, ‘Nick, this is Madeleine. Madeleine, Nick.’ Close up Madeleine was almost Matilda’s double. Same hair, same eyes, same everything.

  ‘Hello, Madeleine,’ I said.

  ‘People call me Maddie,’ said Madeleine.

  Then it clicked. ‘Maddie and Matty,’ I said. ‘You two are sisters, right?’

  ‘Twins,’ said Matty.

  ‘Interesting,’ I said. Some detective, I thought. I was getting slow in my old age.

  ‘Nick bought us these drinks,’ said Matty.

  ‘Thanks, Nick,’ said Maddie, lifting her glass and toasting me. ‘Cheers.’

  ‘Cheers.’ I touched her glass with mine.

  ‘He’s the one I was looking for,’ said Matty.

  ‘Lucky boy,’ said Maddie.

  ‘I don’t know about that,’ I said. ‘And don’t tell me, you knew I’d be here.’ She nodded.

  ‘Of course you did,’ I said and took a sip of my drink.

  Matty looked serious and she shouted above the sound of the pianist playing ‘Guantanamera’, ‘Did you do what I said?’

  ‘What was that?’ I asked.

  ‘You know. Stop what you are doing.’

  ‘No,’ I said.

  ‘What is it you do exactly?’ asked Maddie.

  I had wondered when one of them would. Or did they already know? Probably. They seemed to know every other damn thing. But I answered anyway. ‘I’m a private detective. I’m looking for someone. A missing person.’

  ‘Who?’ asked Maddie.

  ‘A woman. Someone’s wife.’

  ‘Is she the woman with the coffin and the skull?’ asked Matty.

  ‘No.’

  ‘But there is a woman like that, isn’t there?’ she asked.

  I nodded. ‘I told you that on the phone. She’s a friend of the woman I’m looking for. I met her the other day. She was wearing a charm bracelet. They were charms.’

  ‘And you liked her, didn’t you?’

  ‘She was OK.’

  ‘Don’t fib,’ said Matty. ‘You did like her, didn’t you?’

  ‘All right. I did like her.’

  ‘She’d be good for you,’ said Matty.

  ‘How the hell do you know that?’ I asked. ‘You don’t know her. Or me for that matter.’ Even though she knew more than I’d given her credit for.

  ‘Have you found this other woman yet?’ asked Matty, not answering my question, though I was getting used to that. ‘The one you’re looking for.’

  ‘No,’ I said to her. ‘But I think someone found me. By the way. What did you mean about the dead flowers.’

  She paled. ‘What dead flowers?’

  ‘Come on,’ I said. ‘You told me to beware of dead flowers. On the telephone, remember? How did you know?’

  ‘Know what?’

  ‘About the dead flowers that were left in my office for me today.’

  She took a long swallow of her drink and looked at her sister. ‘Who left them?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘I thought you might.’

  ‘Oh God,’ she said.

  ‘But what does it mean?’

  ‘It means something really bad,’ said Maddie.

  ‘Like what?’ I asked. ‘It wasn’t you, was it?’ I asked Matty.

  She shook her head and I believed her. I’d never really thought it was.

  ‘Come on,’ I pressed. ‘What’s all this about? Tell me.’

  ‘You may not believe us,’ said Maddie.

  ‘Try me.’

  ‘It’s what we do.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘We foretell the future,’ said Matty, as calmly as she might tell me she worked in the local chip shop.

  ‘You’re kidding,’ I said. Although of course I knew she wasn’t.

  ‘No.’

  ‘For a living? For a hobby? What?’

  ‘Both,’ said Maddie. ‘And your future doesn’t look rosy.’

  ‘Are you putting me on?’ I said.

  Matty looked serious and licked her lips. ‘No, Nick, we’re not putting you on, believe me. When I saw you the other night your aura was flawed. I had to speak to you.’

  ‘Well,’ I said. ‘I’ve been described in lots of ways in my life but never as a flawed aura.’

  ‘Don’t joke about it, Nick,’ said Maddie. ‘It really isn’t funny.’

  ‘And you thought I was getting into something bad,’ I said to Matty.

  ‘That’s right.’

  ‘But where did the dead flowers come into it?’

  ‘I d
on’t know,’ she said. ‘All I can tell you is what I see.’

  ‘And a couple of days later somebody leaves me a bunch after smashing his way into my office. It’s creepy.’

  ‘So you are going to stop trying to find this woman?’

  I shook my head. ‘No. I’ve taken her husband’s money. Anyway, I don’t scare off that easily.’

  ‘You’ll regret it,’ said Matty.

  ‘I’ve regretted lots of things in my life,’ I told her. ‘This would be just one more.’

  ‘Don’t say you weren’t warned.’

  ‘I’d never say that,’ I said.

  ‘And your friend?’ asked Matty.

  In all the excitement and misery of the day I’d forgotten that she’d mentioned Charlie.

  ‘Christ,’ I said.

  ‘Something bad happened, didn’t it?’

  I grabbed her hand. ‘Who are you people?’

  She tried to pull back but I wouldn’t let her. ‘Don’t. You’re hurting me,’ she said.

  ‘My friend is dead.’ I eased off the pressure.

  She looked at her sister. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she said. ‘I saw something but I didn’t know … What happened?’

  ‘He died in a car crash last night.’

  ‘Oh, Nick. What must you think of me?’

  ‘I don’t know what to think. Of you, of anything.’

  ‘He was hurting, wasn’t he?’ she asked after a moment.

  I nodded.

  ‘Did he do it on purpose?’

  ‘No one knows. Maybe no one ever will. Do you know?’

  She shook her head. ‘But he’s at peace now.’

  I shook my head back. ‘Who knows?’ I said. ‘Who the hell knows?’

  19

  ‘Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t just get up and get out of here,’ I said after a long, silent minute which was only interrupted by the regular sounds of the bar and the pianist segueing into ‘This Guy’s In Love With You’.

  The two young women looked at each other again and Matty said, ‘No good reason. No good reason I can tell you now. But later maybe you’ll regret it …’

  ‘You’re good, you know,’ I commented. ‘Frightening, but good.’

  ‘We don’t mean to frighten you,’ said Maddie. ‘You’ve either got the gift or you haven’t.’

  ‘And you’ve got it.’

  ‘I think you know that.’

  ‘I know something.’

  ‘So are you leaving?’ asked Matty.

  ‘Shit no. I don’t want to be alone tonight, and you’re right, I might regret it later.’

  ‘I told you you’d find us when you needed to,’ said Matty.

  ‘And you were right about that too.’

  When we’d got another round of drinks in I said, ‘So how did you two know I’d be here tonight?’

  ‘You don’t really believe us, Nick, do you?’ said Matty. ‘We told you, that’s what we do.’

  ‘But you don’t know everything, do you?’

  ‘Nobody knows everything,’ said Maddie. ‘Otherwise we’d win the lottery every week.’

  ‘Like Mystic Meg doesn’t.’

  They both laughed, and the atmosphere seemed to lighten. ‘Exactly,’ said Matty.

  ‘So tell me what else you see for me.’

  ‘We usually charge.’

  ‘I don’t mind paying.’

  ‘There’s paying and then there’s paying,’ said Maddie, and I felt her knee against mine under the table.

  ‘How old are you two?’ I asked.

  ‘Nineteen,’ said Matty. ‘I’m the oldest.’

  ‘By ten minutes,’ said Maddie. ‘And she never lets me forget it.’

  ‘So I have dibs,’ said Matty. ‘And don’t you forget it, little sister.’

  ‘I think we should take Nick home and read his fortune properly,’ said Maddie.

  And that was when I knew I was getting into some deep shit, but oddly enough I didn’t mind in the least.

  ‘Do you live together?’ I asked.

  They both nodded. ‘And we’ve got some good stuff at home. Want to try some?’ said Matty.

  ‘What kind of good stuff?’ I asked.

  ‘Come along and find out,’ said Maddie. ‘It’s not that far.’

  ‘Fair enough,’ I said. ‘But I want to know what’s in store for me.’

  ‘Can’t you guess?’ said Maddie, and she finished her drink with one swallow, got up and started to put on her coat.

  The girls lived in a loft apartment in Notting Hill Gate about twenty minutes drive away, and they sandwiched me between them in the back of a black cab that we caught on Shaftesbury Avenue.

  We went down the Bayswater Road, did a right on Holland Park Avenue and into the maze of streets round Ladbroke Grove and finally pulled up outside an old factory right beside the Westway. Close enough to hear the sound of engines as cars raced along it.

  ‘You live here?’ I asked, when the cab had gone.

  ‘Sure,’ said Matty. ‘Come and see.’

  She unlocked a small door set in a pair of high wooden gates and led me into the courtyard of the factory where a pair of Suzuki Vitara soft-top jeeps with huge chrome wheels were parked, one red, one blue. ‘Yours?’ I asked.

  ‘Presents from Daddy,’ said Matty.

  ‘Very nice,’ I said.

  We went round the side of the building, which seemed to be pretty dilapidated, and Matty rolled up a huge slatted metal door, opened the accordion door behind it and we were in a service lift. She pushed a button on the box that hung down from the ceiling and with a jolt the lift started upwards.

  Their flat was on the top floor, a massive loft with high ceilings, black wood floors and raw brick walls that were draped with black velvet; a contrast to the desolate look of the outside of the place.

  The furnishing was minimal, featuring lots of rugs and cushions, and as soon as we got inside Maddie ran around lighting enough candles to illuminate a cathedral, whilst Matty put a CD of seventies film themes on the stereo, got out a couple of bottles of red wine, poured out three glasses, sat cross-legged on the rug next to me and started rolling a very large joint.

  ‘Before we start, Nick,’ she said, as she licked the paper, ‘I meant what I told you the other night. You’re in danger if you don’t stop what you doing. But then you’re used to danger, aren’t you?’

  I nodded.

  ‘And you won’t stop, will you?’

  I shook my head.

  ‘Then we’ll have to give you some magic to protect you.’ She lit the joint, using a Zippo with her name engraved on the side. ‘Maddie’s got one too,’ she said, and I wasn’t in the least surprised. She inhaled deeply and blew out smoke, and I could smell skunk in the air along with the candle grease and the girls’ musky perfume.

  ‘Strong magic,’ said Maddie. ‘You like coke, don’t you, Nick?’

  I nodded again as Matty passed me the joint and Maddie produced a lacquered Chinese box from somewhere, opened it and took out a white wrap and a pill bottle. She undid the bottle and poured three tiny pills into her hand. She picked one up between her thumb and forefinger and held it out to me. ‘Have one of these first,’ she said.

  ‘What is it?’ I asked.

  ‘Trust us. We won’t hurt you.’

  I believed her, more strongly than I’ve believed anything for a long time, so I took the pill, put the joint in an ashtray and picked up my glass. I put the pill on my tongue and washed it down with a mouthful of the rich, red liquid. Maddie and Matty did the same with the other two tabs and Maddie started cutting out lines on the top of a mirrored-glass coffee table.

  ‘So tell him, Matty,’ she said.

  20

  Matty took my hand in hers and I felt a little jolt of electricity down my spine, although if there was any acid in the tab I’d been given it might’ve been that. Anyway, it wasn’t unpleasant, and her hand was small and cool and pretty as mine rested in it. She smiled. ‘Don’t be frightened,’
she said. ‘Everything’s going to be fine.’

  ‘I hope so.’

  Maddie kept on chopping, and the music kept on playing, and the skunk and booze and whatever was in the pill started to make my head spin. But not unpleasantly. Just like I liked, and I started to relax as the lights haloed slightly and when I half shut my eyes my vision started to strobe and I wanted to giggle at the effect.

  ‘That’s better,’ said Matty. Then she seemed to trance out. ‘Oh, Nick,’ she murmured. ‘I can feel such sadness inside you.’

  I wasn’t going to argue with that.

  ‘You poor man. You’ve lost so much in your life.’

  ‘Tell me about it,’ I said, and my tongue felt fat in my mouth. I licked my lips, then picked up my glass with my free hand and took a sip.

  ‘The woman you’re looking for is alive, but she’s very unhappy. The man Ray Miller told you about is very bad.’

  ‘How did you know his name was Ray Miller?’

  ‘Trust me. I know. I see two other men. They are even worse. They want to hurt you. They sent you the dead flowers.’

  ‘Who are they?’ I asked.

  ‘I don’t know. I don’t want to get close to them, their spirits are black. But you must get past them to complete your task.’

  ‘Will I do it?’

  ‘If your spirit is free.’

  ‘It isn’t.’

  ‘I know, darling. We two shall free it. But you must trust us.’

  ‘I do.’

  ‘I know. I saw that the first time I saw you. And your heart is strong. Together the three of us will succeed. But you must want our help.’

  ‘I do,’ I said.

  ‘Good.’

  ‘What shall I do?’ I asked.

  ‘Nothing. We’ll take care of you.’