‘Describe him.’
‘Um… well he’s big, and he’s got this curly red hair. He visited a couple of the girls for a shag, got his old man polished up and then fed them stupid lines about weekends in Paris. Oh shit, that hurts. Silly cunts believed him, too, until they compared notes.’
Annie stood up.
‘Where’s Rufus now?’ she asked the woman at her feet.
‘I don’t know. God’s honest, I don’t,’ said Moira, blood all down her front and dripping on her hands as she pawed at her face.
‘You better not. I find you’ve been lying to me, I’m coming back.’
‘I don’t know.’
Annie counted off two hundred, dropped the notes on the carpet. Then she put the kiyoga back in her pocket, went to the door, sent a sweet smile to the man sitting at the end of the hall, and left the building to report back to Max and Alberto.
‘Is that it, do you think?’ Precious wondered aloud, linking an arm through Layla’s.
They were standing outside Rigby & Peller, bristling with a ton of bags. They’d been in there over an hour, and Layla had been hoiked about, measured, assessed, and fitted out with more underwear than seemed strictly necessary. She’d been wearing the wrong bra size since puberty, she now realized. Her bras had flattened her breasts instead of accentuating them. Now Layla felt as if her chest entered a room about ten seconds before she did.
‘Jesus, there can’t be more,’ said Layla.
She was worn out. Trailing sundry minders behind them – and that got on her nerves, having them following her around all the time, she hated it – they had been in and out of so many boutiques that she was dizzy. Taking Layla’s colour swatch with them, they’d bought daywear, casual weekend wear, and finally evening wear, and more shoes than anyone could ever possibly need.
‘Oh, you look fabulous in that,’ the sales assistant had said when Layla stumbled out of the umpteenth changing room that day.
It was unnerving, seeing her mother every time she checked herself in the mirror, instead of the usual plain don’t-look-at-me Layla.
God I really do, she thought.
‘She’ll take it,’ said Precious.
Rufus watched the two women from a little distance away. He would have moved in and snatched the Carter girl then and there, but the two minders who were sticking to her like glue didn’t strike him as amateurs. He ducked into a shop doorway as one of them glanced his way. No, these were definitely pros. They were watching the crowds, forming a barrier of muscle around the Carter girl and the other one. They’d spot him coming long before he had a chance to get in close enough to do anything. He watched covertly as the two women were escorted to their car, ushered inside.