“That does sound serious,” Cockie said. “Well, not to worry. You’re in very capable hands here.” She clasped one of my arms and one of Blix’s conspiratorially.
“Dr. Turvy has sent a prescription,” Blix said, “and medicinally speaking, I’d say we’re in the clear.”
“Dr. Turvy?” I laughed. “Is he your private physician?”
“His imaginary private physician,” Cockie said, shaking her head. “But I’ll say one thing for Turvy. He always does come through.”
—
As we found a corner near the dance floor and settled ourselves, I watched the swirl of bright faces and hoped Jock would be entertained enough by D’s liquor to give me a few more minutes of peace. Blix had the waiter bring three silver buckets and three bottles of pink champagne. “So none of us have to share if we don’t want to,” he said.
“It’s his leonine territorialism,” Cockie explained. “Our Blix is a marvellous hunter. It’s because he has their instincts.”
“It’s better than working,” he agreed. “I’m just back from the Belgian Congo. Up in the Haut-Uele, there are legends about elephants with four tusks. They have special names for them there and any number of stories about the mysterious powers they possess. A wealthy client of mine had heard about them and offered me double my usual rate if we saw one. We didn’t even have to shoot it, he said; he only wanted to see one in his lifetime.”
“And did you see one?”
He gave me a funny look and took a long pull on his glass. “She doesn’t know how to listen to stories, this one.”
“You have to let him draw it out, darling. Otherwise he doesn’t look half so brave or interesting.”
“Exactly so.” He winked at her. “We were out for three weeks—in the Ituri Forest, along the sticky marshes of the Congo. Sometimes you can go for months without seeing elephants, but we saw several dozen, and three or four of them great hulking males with ivory dragging the ground. They were perfect specimens, I tell you, but all two-tuskers. Meanwhile, my client was growing restless. The longer we stayed in the bush, the more certain he was that there was no such thing, and that we were out to hoodwink him and take his money.”
“You are there to take his money, Blickie darling.”
“Of course, but honestly. Or as honestly as possible.” He grinned. “The elephants do exist. I’ve seen photographs of them slain. So had the client, but being out for so long does funny things to you. I became more and more dodgy to him by the hour, and he did everything but accuse me of wanting to kill him in his sleep. One day he simply had enough and called the whole thing off.”
“A month out for nothing?” Cockie exclaimed. “These people are getting more absurd all the time.”
“Yes, but richer, too, and there’s the rub. The money makes you think anything’s worth it. But we’d taken fifty porters with us. They had to be paid somehow, and I was worried he’d lost his sense entirely and wouldn’t foot the bill when the time came.” He shook his head. “Anyway, we were on our way back when we spotted the strangest thing. A lone bull, off by himself, at the edge of a lake, sleeping with his head on a giant anthill and snoring like nobody’s business.”
“The four-tusked phantom,” I guessed.
“Something even stranger.” Blix smiled his most winning boy’s smile. “A three-tusker—the only one ever sighted, as far as I know. The left tusk had grown double, you see, from the same socket, at the root. It was the most extraordinary thing.”
“He must have been in ecstasy.”
“The client? You’d think so, but no. ‘It’s deformed,’ he kept saying. Of course it was deformed…some sort of hereditary malformation, probably. But he was so put off he didn’t even want to photograph it.”
“You’ve got to be joking,” Cockie said.
“No. That’s just it.” He flicked the side of his glass to make his point. “They want things only so wild. Real nature terrifies them. It’s too unpredictable.”
“Well, I hope you got your money,” Cockie said.
“I nearly didn’t,” he said. “But then we became mysteriously lost on the way back to town, with very little water.”
“I’ll bet.” Cockie laughed. “You do tell wonderful stories, darling.”
“Do I? I’ll go and get more of them for you if you like.” He gave her a familiar look, the two of them locking eyes in a way that told me if they weren’t lovers yet, they would be very soon.
“I’ll just go and freshen up,” I said.
“Send the waiter, will you? I don’t want to run dry here.”
“Does Dr. Turvy send a new prescription every time,” I asked, “or will the old one do?”
“Ha, I like this one,” he said to Cockie. “She’s got real potential.”
—
My plan was to return to Eastleigh without anyone noticing, but I wasn’t halfway to the door before I spotted Jock barrelling towards me, his eyes glassy. “What’s the big idea, Beryl?” he barked. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”