Joe shook his head and made for the stairs.
There was an emptiness left behind; Benny and Max knew that Joe was important, Jimmy had his guesses, even Little Celia was worried.
‘He’ll be back,’ said Hackle.
‘You said that about Dopejack/ said Benny.
‘It’s up to you, Benny. He—’
‘Why me? You’re the one that’s fucking him.’
‘That’s…’
‘Yes?’
‘It never went that far.’
‘I wonder why? Couldn’t get it up?’
‘Ask Joe. Please, don’t let him go…’
‘I get all the dirty jobs.’
Benny left them to it, their mad experiments with broken- down mazes and little girls. He found Joe in the bedroom, packing his things.
‘You’re not really going?’
‘Why not?’
‘Look, I know about you and Max, OK?’
‘Yeah, and I know you know. Like where were you last night.’
‘Getting some air.’
‘Getting that stupid love bite more like. Bloody kids!’
‘Cheek. You’re fucking Max, then telling me off for going out.’
‘I’m not fucking Max.’
‘You’d like to.’
‘I don’t go for older guys.’
‘Nor do I.’
‘Cheap shot.’
‘I love you, Joe.’
‘Don’t say that.’
Joe dropped a folded shirt into his suitcase. He came up close to Benny.
‘There’s nothing between me and Max. Friends. He’s my tutor!’
‘Kinky.’
‘It’s this house, don’t you see? Messing with the bones. The nymphomation. It’s making us all randy. And… well, we were having problems weren’t we? Max was… Max is Max. I mean, he’s Max Hackle! The best fucking mathematician I’ve ever known. That means something to me, something pure. But now… it excites me. It turns me on. And I don’t like it.’
‘Wild Joe Crocus, loverman supreme!’
‘Benny, you know what I’m really like. That’s why I love you. You know I want control. I haven’t got long left, and I can’t afford to waste it. I want to be in control. That’s why I told Max to stuff his cock up somebody else’s hole.’
‘You didn’t say that?’
‘Exactly that.’
‘Loving it!’
‘Yeah.’
‘You wanna go to bed?’ asked Sweet Benny Fenton.
‘Sure do,’ answered Joe Crocus.
At seven o’clock, Daisy went downstairs to the Golden Samosa. The evening rush had barely begun. Looking through the window, she could see no sign of Jazir, so she went inside. Immediately, a waiter asked her if she wanted a table or a takeaway? Neither, she wanted to see Jazir.
‘Jazir not here.’
‘Where is he?’
The waiter shook his head, slowly, then moved back to the kitchen, carrying a stack of dirty plates. Daisy followed him through the swing doors. Jazir’s father was working up a new spice mixture, carefully adding chilli powder to turmeric and coriander. The smell of the kitchen was so like Jazir’s beautiful flesh, the colour of the smoky air. The father’s anger was like the smell of the flesh of the night of the air of the flames in the karahi pan.
‘You get out of my kitchen, this instance!’
‘I’m looking for—’
‘Jazir not here. Very angry I am. Out, out, out!’
Daisy went back upstairs and tried the telephone. Jazir’s mother answered it. She was less angry than the father, but only slightly so. ‘Jazir’s not coming out any more. Jazir is banned.’
Daisy lay on her bed, wondering what to do. She wanted to tell Jazir she wasn’t going with him tonight, that’s all. Now it looked like Jazir wasn’t going either. It was her fault, wasn’t it…
She reached over to find a handkerchief. The tube of Vaz was still there, bedside, from the night before, plus a small pile of punies.
Daisy was angry at first, because she thought Jaz had paid her for the sex. But then another thought came to her, even more scary.
Play to lose
Later, a cold, dark house in Whalley Range. There was a cop-ribbon across the gate, but that was easy. The door, when closely examined by the light of a torch, was seen to have been recently mended. A new lock. No problem. Daisy squeezed a small amount of Vaz into the keyhole. The tumblers became slick, the door opened easily with a slight push.
Elsewhere…
Softer, darker, quieter, more ghostly… Benny lay peaceful beside the sleeping Joe. He’d proven something to himself. That he was in control. He’d turned the bad bone into a good fuck. At the height of it, how badly he’d wanted to plunge his teeth into Joe’s neck, passing the nymphomation on to the next stage. How badly he’d then wanted Joe to kill him, kill him viciously. Once passed on, the carrier had to die, that was the ruling.