Limbo (21 page)

If she were Katie, she wouldn’t want to be planting
any
ideas, subliminal or otherwise, in her father’s head.

Unfortunately though, Katie looked quite taken with it. She twisted it around as she held it up towards the overhead lights. The mirrored surface flashed and shone.

‘It’s big enough to play hide and seek in,’ she mused.

Joy nodded. ‘You’re right. Maybe we need to get a friend for Ralph to play hide and seek
with
.’

Katie looked up abruptly from the castle as googly-eyed as Ralph. ‘Really?’

‘Sure?’ Joy shrugged. ‘Why not?’

‘I don’t think daddy would like a second fish,’ Katie frowned. ‘He was kind of cranky about Ralph.’

Which was all the impetus Joy needed. His kid lived every weekend in a poky flat with only a goldfish, a brothel madam and One
freaking
Direction for company.

Something new to look at, to take care of, would do her the world of good. Not to mention it’d probably perk Ralph up no end.

‘We could get him a girlfriend,’ Joy suggested, trying to not so subtly win Katie over to her way of thinking. And two against one once they got back to Dash’s would probably come in handy.

God alone knew that Ralph must be so horny after three years of solitude that a girl should have him turning cartwheels in his bowl.

‘Ooh,’ Katie said, a sparkle gleaming in her eyes. ‘Would they have babies?’

Joy nodded. ‘I reckon they would.’ Not that she had any idea how goldfish got it on but she was pretty sure, unless Ralph’s solitary confinement had made him impotent (did goldfish have penises?), that they were all going to be finding out pretty damn fast.

There was nowhere to hide in
that
bowl. Unless he was classy and paid for a room at the castle.

Clearly, Katie was sold. ‘Oh, could we get him a girlfriend?’ she asked, her little cheeks red with excitement.

‘Sure,’ Joy said, holding out her hand. ‘Bring that,’ she indicated the castle, ‘and let’s go get Ralph…’
laid
‘…a girlfriend.’

***

Dash looked up from his computer as his front door opened to reveal a chatty Katie followed closely by Joy. He rarely heard his daughter so animated these days and it punched him in the gut to think she was so reserved a lot of the time.

He prided himself on the separation and divorce being amicable but it was at times like this he realised that, amicable or not, for Katie her parents still lived in separate houses and it was she who formed the bridge between them.

That was bound to impact on a deep-thinking kid like Katie.

The problem was as an only child, Katie was surrounded by adults. Maybe if there’d been siblings to talk to she wouldn’t feel so alone, but trying for another baby around the time he’d become obsessed with the Ginny Bardan case had pretty much nailed the last nail into the coffin that was their marriage.

He should make more of an effort though. Let Katie invite a couple of friends for a sleepover. Although an apartment next to a brothel in a sleazy area of town wasn’t exactly high on the places-where-I’m-comfortable-letting-my-kid-stay list of most mothers.

‘Hi Daddy,’ Katie said, standing on the other side of his desk, barely containing her smile as she shifted from foot to foot.

He smiled back. Everyone said how much Katie looked like him but there were times she looked so much like Liz it took his breath away. ‘Hey baby. You look like you had a good time.’

‘
The
best.’

He glanced up at Joy, about to thank her, when he spied what she was holding in her hand. A water-filled plastic bag containing a solitary orange goldfish. The fish stared straight at him, sending him fishy kisses with its fishy lips.

He glared at her. ‘What is that?’ he asked.

‘We got Ralph a girlfriend,’ Katie burst out, clearly unable to contain herself any longer.

Dash forced himself to smile at his daughter before fixing Joy with a ‘please explain’ look. ‘I thought you were going to get him a castle?’ he said calmly through clenched teeth, keeping the smile on his face. She smiled sweetly back.

‘Oh we did,’ Katie said, oblivious to the undercurrent. She reached into a plastic bag and pulled out the castle. Dash winced as mirrored turrets flashed at him.

‘I said it was big enough to play hide and seek in and then Joy said maybe we should get somebody for Ralph to play hide and seek with —’

‘Oh she did, did she?’ Dash interrupted softly as he nailed Joy with a hard look.

‘Yes,’ Katie said ploughing on, ‘and so we did. We’ve called her Simone. Isn’t she pretty, daddy?’

Dash glanced at Simone, who was still pressing her lips together. She looked exactly the same as Ralph as far as Dash was concerned so God alone knew how he was supposed to know who was who. ‘Er, yes. They look kind of alike though, don’t they? I’m not sure we’re going to be able to tell them apart. Maybe we should take her back and —’

‘Oh no,’ Katie jumped in hastily at his suggestion, looking kind of panicked by it, and he felt lower than a snake’s belly. But seriously? A fish was no pet for a guy. Two fish doubly so. ‘It’ll be easy, won’t it, Joy?’ she asked, looking behind her.

‘Easy peasy,’ Joy confirmed smiling at Katie. Then she looked at him. ‘Simone will be the one having the babies.’

Dash blanched. Dear God.
More
fish!

‘C’mon, let’s get her settled,’ Joy said.

‘Can I put her in?’ Katie asked.

‘Sure,’ she said as they crossed around to his side of the desk.

Dash rolled his chair in front of the bowl. ‘I’m not sure the bowl is going to be big enough for both fish, some weed
and
a castle,’ he said, trying again to hold back the tide.

No more animals. He had the feeling that if he said yes to this it was going to open the floodgates. He was going to come home one day and a puppy with floppy ears and a waggly tail was going to be sitting on his lounge and peeing on his rug.

Or worse, a cat.

Dash wasn’t against pets. If he had a big house with a large yard and a park nearby, a dog would be just fine. In fact he and Liz had talked about getting one when Katie was a bit older. But a small apartment with no yard, no park for miles and especially no time to spend with an animal was just not conducive to a dog.

He had to get Eve to come in and feed Ralph as it was whenever work took him away for a couple of days.

‘It’ll be fine,’ Joy dismissed.

‘Really?’ he asked, their gazes clashing, his jaw locked. He was pretty damn sure that Joy could read the message in his eyes.
Back off!

Joy placed her hands on Katie’s shoulders. ‘We’ll take out
the weed
if it’s too crowded.’

Dash dropped his gaze to where Joy’s hands sat on his daughter’s shoulders. A not very subtle way of telling him she was on Team Katie. But it was the casual, easy way Katie leaned into Joy that had him swallowing hard. Katie had taken to Joy quickly in the last couple of weeks. As quickly as she’d taken to Eve.

He knew he should be grateful that his daughter had instinctively chosen two strong female role models. She already had one in Liz, and Katie could learn a lot from the sheer guts it had taken both Eve and Joy to get where they were today. And, who knew, if they were both still around as Katie got older, they could even be there for the kind of advice fathers couldn’t give and girls often didn’t ask from their mothers.

But he also knew that three against one spelled trouble for him down the track. They were going to take sides. They were going to gang up on him.

Like now.

He glanced at his daughter who looked at him with
Please Daddy
eyes.
Oh crap
. He rolled away from the bowl. Had he ever stood a chance in this argument?

‘Fine.’

Katie clapped and hugged her father excitedly.

Dash hugged her back — hard. ‘Just remember though,’ he said gruffly, ‘Ralph has been on his own for a long time. He might not appreciate the company. Don’t expect them to be instant friends. Ralph may not even
like
her. Ralph might not want to share his bowl.’

Joy raised an eyebrow at him. ‘You probably shouldn’t say that so hopefully,’ she murmured. ‘Here,’ she said to Katie, ‘castle first.’ And she handed it over.

Ralph did his usual cowering at the side of the bowl as Katie settled the castle into the gravel at the bottom but his curiosity soon overtook him as she withdrew her hand. Ralph swam down and inspected it thoroughly, seemingly quite taken with his own reflection in the turrets.

‘Oh he’s looking at himself,’ Katie exclaimed.

Dash grimaced. Great, he owned a vain fish. In a bowl full of pink rocks.

Ralph finally dragged himself away from his reflection and disappeared into the castle, coming out the other side. Then he swam around and did it again.

‘I think we did good,’ Joy said to Katie.

She nodded. ‘He
loves
it,’ she said breathily.

‘Wait til he gets a load of Simone,’ Joy murmured.

Katie held the bag as Joy dipped her hand in and scooped up the unsuspecting Simone, quickly depositing her in the bowl with Ralph.

Ralph startled at the sudden, unexpected intrusion and for long moments both fish just sat there, looking at each other, not moving.

Then suddenly Ralph was swimming away, down to the bottom towards the castle and Simone was following.

‘Oh look, they’re already playing hide and seek.’ Katie grinned as both fish disappeared into the castle’s open drawbridge.

When they didn’t reappear Katie covered her mouth stifling a giggle. ‘I think Ralph
really
likes Simone. I think they’re already making babies,’ she whispered to Joy.

‘Atta boy, Ralph,’ Joy murmured and Dash could hear the laughter in her voice.

How Ralph, who was a virgin as far as Dash was aware, even knew what to do was a mystery. Although there
had
been a lot of time to think about it. In which case whatever they were doing down there shouldn’t take that long.

He glanced at Joy who was biting her lip to stop herself from laughing. She looked at her watch then at him. ‘Thirteen seconds,’ she said. ‘He’s passed your record.’

Dash flipped her the bird.

On Tuesday morning Joy had just finished painting the first coat of old Mrs Noonan’s nails with her favourite bottle of cherry red polish, supplied by her family, when she got a text from Dash.

Just spoken to Kimberley. Have some possible leads to chase down. Will let you know when/if I have anything solid
.

Joy glared at the phone. Did he honestly think a text that essentially said
don’t ring me, I’ll ring you
was going to satisfy her?

He was positively certifiable if he did.

She had a day off tomorrow and she was spending it at Dash’s whether he liked it or not.

I’ll be round tomorrow. Text if anything in meantime. NOT at 2am!

Her phone vibrated a few seconds later.
No need. It’ll take me a while to sort through.

Joy didn’t care how long it took — she was going to sit at his place all day tomorrow if required.
I’ll *be* there tomorrow. Two heads are quicker than one.

It was a full minute before he replied.
You are a pain in the ass Joy Valentine.

Joy smiled and typed.
Thank you.

She put her phone down and went back to apply the second coat of polish to her client’s nails, which looked very colourful next to her own regulation black. It might seem strange to some to be giving a nail job to a dead person but the Noonans were adamant that old Phoebe would want to go to God with a good manicure.

‘There you are Mrs Noonan,’ Joy said out loud to the dead woman on the slab. ‘Your nails are fit for a queen. Or you know…God.’

It was a closed casket, so nobody was going to see. But the family would know, and Phoebe would know.

Joy would know.

And at the grand old age of ninety-four, Joy figured Phoebe Noonan could have any damn thing she wanted.

Not to mention Joy had excelled at French tips in beauty school.

Joy’s phone vibrated again.
PS Am soon to be proud father of a billion goldfish babies. Ralph and Simone are insatiable.

Joy smiled as she typed.
According to Wiki goldfish don’t have sex. That’s just foreplay to stimulate egg laying.

The reply was almost immediate.
Whatever they’re doing, they can’t seem to get enough.

Joys thumbs flew over the keys.
Simone obviously appreciates Ralph’s technique.

His answering text wooshed onto her screen seconds later.
Oh yeh. Ralph’s got the moves like Jagger.

Joy laughed, shoving her phone in the back pocket of her jeans as she finished up, stripping her gloves off and stretching out her back as she stood. The mobile stools they used were murder on the back. She wandered over to the sinks and washed up. All Mrs Noonan needed now was to be dressed in the chic Chanel suit her family had brought in, placed in her coffin and the lid sealed.

She’d do that after lunch. Then get stuck into the Roderick embalming.

Her phone vibrated again as she made her way to the staff room. It was Dash.

Oh god. They’re at it *again*.

Joy’s lips curved up into a smile.
Stop watching them you perve.

The reply came back quickly.
Can’t. Stop. Watching. It’s weirdly compelling.

She laughed out loud this time.
Don’t you have robbers to catch? Babies to find? Bad guys to follow?

Another quick reply shot through the ether to her phone.

Yes to all of the above. But then you bought me a nymphomaniac fish. She’s corrupting him. She should be called Jezebel. Plus, it’s not fair that Ralph is getting more action than me.

Joy shook her head. She hadn’t exactly been queen of action herself since her return. There’d been a few hook-ups in the beginning as she’d desperately tried to distract herself from thoughts of Chris, from going online and buying herself a one-way ticket to Nashville and to hell with the consequences. To hell with all the reasons why getting back with an unrepentant cocaine addict was a seriously dumb thing to do.