The Lay of the Land - Guest Post: Teri
The city lights beckon, but I am not fooled by their beauty. Even the ugliest reality can be cloaked by artifice.
“Terence, my boy, come in. It’s a sweltering night, fit for no one.” I accede to his request and return to the drawing room where staff have prepared a tray of assorted waters and garnishes. I allow a small smile as I notice my personal blend among them.
“You remembered.”
“You can’t have expected that I’d forget.” The contrast of the cooled room and my superheated skin produces a slight frisson. I ignore it but Ryder, of course, misses nothing. “Brooks, fetch Terence’s robe from his rooms. You know the one.” Brooks nods and leaves on his task. I am curious as to what that means but assume I will know shortly.
“It’s nothing. Merely a reaction to the change in air,” I tell him.
“Which is why you’re not to do that again. Perhaps a hot tea would be best for you. I won’t have you unwell.” Unspoken but heard nonetheless was, “now that you’re with me.” Brooks reappears with an interesting choice: the deep scarlet silk robe Ryder had always preferred I wear. I haven’t seen that particular item since I left him all those years ago. Odd of him to tip his hand so quickly. Or, perhaps, overconfidence. Brook helps me into the garment and leaves to prepare the tea Ryder has ordered for me.
“A bit ostentatious, don’t you think?” I tell him. This is a recent acquisition for him, this Fifth Avenue penthouse fronting on Central Park.
I’ve missed the city,” he smiles. “So many things here that can’t be replicated elsewhere.” He studies me closely. “You’ve changed, Terence. You’re…different, somehow.”
“No one escapes time. You know that as well as I.” He leans back and sips at his drink, the mineral water that follows him wherever he may travel, drawn from a natural spring on a friend’s Swiss estate.
We haven’t been here at the Stanhope very long as he had insisted on sending a car, then joining me on a gallery tour. The pretense was his need of my expertise.
We both knew it was nothing of the sort.
“You’ve been quite busy. I’ve been watching, as you know.” I nod. Of course he has. His occasional contacts aside, I’ve always assumed I was being monitored. It was part of our agreement. “You did well with the Venice situation. Very well, as I’ve told you.”
“Just a matter of making a few well placed suggestions and the matter was considered an isolated incident.”
“Thanks you your perspicacity, my boy. You were quite right to groom those contacts. They did prove useful and have again.” He pauses and studies his glass, admiring the cuts of the crystal as they refract the room’s soft light. “Speaking of Venice, how is your Hanrahan? Well, I expect? Tell me, how have you explained your absence to him?”
Engagement. “He’s well, as far as I know.” Ryder raises and eyebrow, an encouragement to continue, a gesture I’ve been familiar with for years. “He’s away on business, I believe. No, I do not know where. I didn’t ask him. He doesn’t answer to me, nor I to him.”
Not the answer he was expecting. “So much time between you two. I certainly never anticipated that when I first chose to allow your little distraction. One of you would have killed the other long ago, I would have thought.” I say nothing. “And Kim? Or should I call him Domino? How does he fare these days?”
I’ve always admired that about Chatelaine: direct and to the point. “I don’t know about Kim either. He’s disappeared.”
“My dear boy,” he laughs. “Kim disappeared years ago. A direct result of your intervention, as you undoubtedly recall.” Brooks reappears and quietly adjusts the room’s light to compliment the gas fire now burning. Oddly disquieting, given the extreme discomfort of the weather outside. Another of his foibles - always a fire, wood preferably, gas when absolutely necessary.
“I remember,” I tell him. He knows very well that I do. “Then to answer your question, no, I do not know how Domino fares these days.” Brooks replaces my tea with a fresh cup, slivered ginger set on the bone saucer. Brook has been with him for many, many years and was part of the household when I first came into Chatelaine’s possession.
“Are you certain of that?” He knows that Kim was here with me, he knows that I know, he wants me to believe that he knows more.
“I said as much, didn’t I? I haven’t seen him since he disappeared.”
“Terence, I would be surprised as well as severely disappointed were you to lie to me.”
“Should I take my lines one hundred times? ‘I do not know how Domino fares today.’ Brooks, fetch a chalkboard, would you?”
“My boy, there is no reason to be defensive. I was merely seeking to clarify your statement.” He doesn’t care for my tone or my challenge. Yes, Chatelaine, I have changed more than you know. He glances at Brooks who withdraws. “I’m not comfortable with certain things, Terence. I’m not comfortable with the Hanrahan situation. I’m not at all comfortable that Domino has suddenly disappeared.”
“Hanrahan provided a valuable service in Venice.”
“Yes, but that was personal.”
I smile at that. “Robert does his best work when he deems something personal. He rid us of Donato at last.”
“True, but not at our direction. He’s a wild card.” Chatelaine leans forward. “And Domino, what of him?”
“What is it you’re asking, Chatelaine?” He, of course, catches the formal address and what it implies.
”You loved him.” A statement, not a question.
“Love is such a nebulous concept.”
“For Chimera, perhaps, but for Terence? Not at all. So I ask you. If necessary, are you capable of killing Domino?”
“Of course,” I tell him. “He needs to be controlled.” Chatelaine studies me, then nods.
“We’d best dress for dinner. Brooks has set out what you’ll be wearing. We’ll meet here in say, an hour?” I nod and he leaves to his chambers on the second level.
I have killed Domino once. If a second assasination is required, it will be final and by my own hand.