He poked his head round the doorframe. ‘What the fuck’s he doing here?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Then get rid of him!’
Eddie retreated, leaving the bedroom door fractionally open so he could listen as Nina let the unexpected visitor in. ‘Larry, hi. This is, uh, kind of a surprise.’ He was alone. ‘Where’s Julie?’
‘Shopping,’ Larry replied. ‘She’s on a pilgrimage to Bloomingdale’s, so I thought I’d leave her to it.’
‘When are you flying back to England?’
‘Tonight. Not trying to get rid of me, are you?’
‘It’s kind of an awkward time.’
‘That’s okay, this won’t take long.’ He looked around the apartment. ‘Nice place you’ve got. Very tasteful.’ He spotted one of Eddie’s possessions on a shelf, a pottery cigar-box holder in the shape of a smiling Fidel Castro. ‘Well, mostly.’
‘So what can I do for you, Larry?’ Nina asked, moving round the room so that by facing her, Larry would have his back to the bedroom door.
‘I wanted to fix things up between us. When we had dinner, it didn’t end well. Which made it two out of two, and I’d like dinner number three to at least reach the dessert course without any fireworks!’ He laughed a little, but stopped when he saw Nina’s stony expression. ‘That’s assuming that you’re willing for there to be a dinner number three, of course.’
‘It’s not something I’d given a great deal of thought, to be honest. Look, Larry, this really isn’t a good time—’
‘Please, it’ll just take a minute!’ He was silent for a moment, composing himself. ‘I wanted to apologise. For what happened in South America. I’ve been thinking about what you told me, and . . . you were right. I shouldn’t have talked to Stikes.’
‘No,’ said Nina coldly. ‘You shouldn’t.’
‘But I didn’t know, I didn’t know!’ Larry protested, hands spread wide. ‘Yes, Callas and de Quesada weren’t the kind of clients I’d actively seek out, but I didn’t know what they were planning. When Edward turned up in Bogotá afterwards and started threatening to tie me in with their attempted coup, I . . . well, I admit it, I panicked. I needed reassurances that I wasn’t going to end up embroiled in the whole mess – and Stikes was the only person who could provide them, since de Quesada and Callas were both dead.’
‘And because you called him—’
‘I know,’ he interrupted. ‘And I’m sorry, I really, really am sorry about it, and I know that if I hadn’t spoken to Stikes none of it would have happened. If I’d known, if there had been any possible way I could have known, I wouldn’t have done it.’
‘That doesn’t change what happened, though,’ said Eddie, stepping out of the bedroom behind him.
Larry whirled, face a mixture of shock, relief – and nervousness. ‘Edward? Oh my God! You’re all right!’
‘Yeah, I’m okay,’ Eddie said with a shrug, before fixing his father with a cold gaze. ‘So, did I just hear that right? You actually apologised to someone?’
‘If I make a mistake, I own up to it,’ his father replied stiffly.
‘So I guess that must have been the first mistake you ever made in your life, seeing as I don’t remember you doing that before.’
‘Eddie, for God’s sake,’ said Nina, stepping between the two men to prevent yet another family argument. ‘The point is, he did come here to apologise. Maybe now that you’re here too . . .’ She gave the elder Chase a pointed look.
‘Well?’ said Eddie, folding his arms and regarding his father expectantly.
It took considerably more effort for the words to emerge this time. ‘Okay. Edward. What I wanted to say was . . . I made a mistake, and I regret it. I’m sorry.’
A sarcastic smile split his son’s face. ‘Well, fuck me. I can die happy now that I’ve finally heard that.’
‘Jesus Christ, Eddie!’ Nina snapped. ‘Will you just listen to him, please? For me, if nothing else?’
‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry,’ Larry repeated, with growing emotion. ‘Look, I’m . . .’ He paced in agitation across the room, then turned back to Eddie. ‘I’m not a soldier like you. I’ve never been in any situation where people’s lives were in the balance. How do you think I feel about learning that something I did ended up getting people killed? It’s – it’s appalling! I don’t know how to deal with something that huge. I really don’t.’ He went to a chair and