Page 101 of Last Night

‘VIP means “very important person” so that doesn’t even make sense,’ Fin mutters, and I ignore him.

‘And none of it was my fault. What about the fact that last night, we—’

I’m interrupted, mercifully, by the sound of Finlay’s phone ringing.

‘Hi, Ann?’ he says. He walks a short distance, just out of earshot, to hold the conversation.

I kick my heels until Fin rings off.

‘That was Ann, Dad’s cleaner. My dad’s been in touch with her. She couldn’t get him to be precise about where he’s staying but he says he’s been to see my Aunt Tricia.’

‘Your auntie? You never said you had an aunt up here?’

‘That’s because I don’t, really.’

‘What does that mean?’

I’m really starting to tire of Hart family riddles.

‘She fell out with my dad years ago. When Susie and I were teenagers. A couple of years before my uncle did.’

‘Your family is one long string of fallings-out, huh?’

‘Tell me about it.’

‘But your dad’s been round?’

‘Apparently so. Which means she must be still at the same house.’

‘Why do I have a horrible feeling this is going to turn into a “let’s call on the auntie who hates us” outing?’ I say.

Fin grimaces.

‘She might have softened with age. Sounds like she let my dad across the threshold. And he might’ve told her where he’s staying. So …’

I raise my shoulders and drop them.

‘Sounds like we should go see her,’ I say, pulling a face.

‘Look, I’ll level with you – yes, Auntie Trish is fairly terrifying. But I think she’d like you. She liked Susie. She’d think you also have a thing she calls “moxie”. If you wanted to be your most charming self, shemightgive up my dad’s whereabouts to you. Let her believe she’s got you onside, whatever she says to me.’

‘You want me to be an iridescent beast,’ I say, without thinking.

‘Awhat?’ Fin says.

‘Oh, sorry. A private jokeI had with Susie. I had a fixation with F Scott Fitzgerald’s wife, Zelda, when we were in sixth form. I read this story about Zelda being a wayward Southern Belle socialite at a party. It said she was at her “iridescent best” and I misread it as her being an “iridescent beast”. So Susie and I used to say, whenever we were going all out to impress in a situation, that we were going to be iridescent beasts.’

Fin shakes his head in a ‘if you say so’ way.

‘Riiiight. Yes, please be an iridescent beast, Evelyn.’

34

Finlay cranes his neck over the headrest to reverse park while the car’s sensors go blip-blip-blip. The sweeping curve of Georgian crescent with its luxuriant, rain-soaked mature trees is a strikingly elegant address and I feel a commensurate foreboding about what we’re walking into. I don’t think you bullshit and bluster your way past the kind of individuals who dwell behind these glossed doors, in their giant tax brackets.

Our conversation on the way here has done nothing to allay my fears.

‘Justhowbitter was the falling-out?’

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