The Flanders Panel

“Middle-aged, well-dressed, blonde. Wearing a raincoat and sunglasses.” She turned to her friend. “It could have been you.”

“That’s not funny.”

“No, I know it isn’t.” Julia let out a long sigh. “But it could have been anyone. She didn’t give her name or her address, she just gave Alvaro’s details as sender. She asked for the fast delivery service. And that was it.”

They joined the rest of the traffic. It looked like it was going to rain again and a few tiny drops were already spattering the windscreen. Menchu crunched the gears and wrinkled her nose with displeasure.

“You know, Agatha Christie could have made a blockbuster out of this.”

Julia gave a humourless smile.

“Yes. But it has a real death in it.” She imagined Alvaro naked and wet. If there was one thing worse than dying, she thought, it was dying grotesquely, with people coming to look at you.

“Poor devil,” she said out loud.

They stopped at a pedestrian crossing. Menchu cast a glance at her friend. She was worried, she said, about Julia’s being embroiled in such a situation. She too felt uneasy, so much so that she’d broken one of her golden rules and installed Max in her home until things were clearer. Julia should do the same.

“What, install Max in my apartment? No thanks. I’d rather go to rack and ruin on my own.”

“Don’t start that again. And don’t be obtuse.” The light changed to green, and Menchu shifted gear and accelerated. “You know perfectly well I didn’t mean him. Besides, he’s a sweetheart.”

“A bloodsucker.”

“Well, at least it isn’t just my blood he sucks.”

“Don’t be vulgar.”

“Oh, so now it’s Sister Julia of the Holy Sacrament.”

“And proud of it.”

“Look. Maybe Max is what you say he is, but he’s also so gorgeous that I get dizzy every time I look at him. The way Madame Butterfly felt about Lieutenant Pinkerton… in between coughing fits. Or was it Armand Duval?” She swore at a pedestrian crossing the road and, honking indignantly, skidded into a tiny space between a taxi and a bus belching fumes. “But, seriously, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be alone. What if there really is a murderer and he decides to get you?”

Julia shrugged irritably.

“What do you want me to do about it?”

“I don’t know. Move in with someone else. I’ll make the ultimate sacrifice, if you like. I’ll send Max away and you can come and stay with me.”

“What about the painting?”

“You can bring it with you and continue working on it at my place. I’ll get in plenty of tinned food, coke, dirty videos and booze and we can hole up there, the two of us, like in Fort Apache , until we can get rid of the painting. Oh, and two other things. First, I’ve taken out extra insurance, just in case.”

“What do you mean, just in case? The Van Huys is perfectly safe in my apartment, under lock and key. The security system cost me a fortune to install, remember? It’s like Fort Knox, without the gold.”

“You never know.” It was starting to rain harder, and Menchu switched on the wipers. “The second thing is: don’t say a word about all this to Don Manuel.”

“Why not?”

“Are you mad? It’s just what his little niece, Lola, needs in order to ruin this whole deal for me.”

“So far no one has linked the painting with Alvaro.”

“Heaven forbid. But the police aren’t exactly tactful and they might have got in touch with my client. Or with his bitch of a niece. Oh, well. It’s getting horribly complicated. I’m tempted to hand the whole problem over to Claymore’s and just take my commission and run.”

The rain created a procession of blurred grey images through the windows, so the car seemed surrounded by a strange, unreal landscape. Julia looked at her friend.

“By the way,” she said, “I’m having supper with Montegrifo tonight.”

“What!”

“You heard. He’s got some business he wants to talk to me about.”

“Business? He’ll probably want to play mummies and daddies too.”

“I’ll phone and tell you all about it.”

“I won’t get a wink of sleep until you do. He’s obviously guessed that something’s going on. I’d stake the virginity of my next three reincarnations on it.”

“I told you not to be vulgar.”

“And don’t you go betraying me. I’m your friend, remember. Your best friend.”

“Trust me, and don’t drive so fast.”

“I’ll stab you to death if you do. Like Jose in Merimee’s Carmen.”

“OK. Look, you went through a red light just then. And since the car is mine, I’ll have to pay any fines you get.”

She glanced in the rear-view mirror and saw that another car, a blue Ford with smoked-glass windows, had jumped the light with them, but it soon disappeared off to the right. She seemed to remember seeing mat same car parked – double-parked like them – on the other side of the street when she came out of the courier service. But it was difficult to say for sure, what with the traffic and the rain.