Page 91 of Calling Frank O'Hare

As if her week hadn’t been bad enough with that shite date. She would not be trying that dating site business again, thank you very much. She’d get a hobby instead. Or maybe a dog. Frank said he had dogs. She’d have to ask his advice. She caught herself on. Ask Frank for advice? Ha! Never in a million years.

She called Da’s mobile. ‘I’ve no news. I just thought I’d try you in case you’d heard anything through your feelers.’

‘None whatsoever. If he was back over here, I’d have found him. He must still be over the water.’

‘Are you in the car, Daddy?’

‘Aye. I’m after picking your mother up from the church.’

‘Tell her,’ said Ma in the background.

‘Your mammy thinks we need to take drastic action.’

‘You mean–?’

‘I do. Can you make the arrangements, Siobhan? Soon as possible.’

Siobhan closed the lid on her laptop. All done. There was a quickening in her chest. She tried the slow breathing thing again. Finn seemed very fond of it. No. The quickening was still there, and the candle’s smell was making her want to boke. She blew it out and went to the fridge. Fuck the breathing. Fuck the candle. Siobhan had her own relaxation trick and it was called Sauvignon Blanc.

60

Guess who’s come to dinner

‘Did I hear right? Did your sister say Martin wasn’t on the plane?’ said Netta. She’d heard the conversation playing out over the phone and had to stop herself laughing when Siobhan had said that thing about their brother being Martin, the Scarlet fucking Pimpernel. Siobhan was someone she’d really like to meet.

‘Sounds like it. He promised us. He promised he’d go home. He was in the queue for the plane. I only looked away for a minute. Less than a minute. I will kill the fecker when I get my hands on him.’

She’d never seen Frank angry before. Maybe angry was too strong a word. Annoyed. He was definitely annoyed.

He put the phone to his ear. ‘Sorry, I have to make some calls.’

Netta heard the familiar sound of voicemail asking him to leave a message.

‘Martin, where are you? Call me.’ He tried another number. This time he got through. ‘Has Siobhan called you? So you know then. I watched him go. No, I didn’t walk him right up to the gate. I took him at his word and thought I could trust him to manage that much himself. Foolishly, obviously. I am calm, Finn. Yes, I’m breathing slowly. Listen.’ He rolled his eyes at Netta and breathed slowly and loudly down the phone. This time she allowed herself a smile.

The door knocker went, setting off a cacophony of barks downstairs. ‘I’ll go and answer it,’ she whispered.

The man on the doorstep looked like a slimmer, smoother version of Frank. He smiled at her showing a set of near-perfect white teeth. He had to have had them fixed. ‘Netta?’

‘I’m guessing you’re Martin.’

He smiled again. ‘You guessed right. I’m looking for Frank. There’s no answer at his house.’

Netta opened the door wider for him. ‘Come in. I hope you like dogs.’

‘I love them. Does one of these belong to Frank?’

She pointed to Fred. ‘Yes, that one.’

He called Fred to him. ‘I’d have put my money on it being him. He’s just like Timmy.’

‘Timmy?’ The only Timmy Netta knew of was the dog in the Famous Five books and if memory served her right, he was a bit smaller than Fred.

‘Ignore me. It’s just a thing from when we were kids,’ he said.

Maybe it was something to do with the Famous Five then. ‘Frank, you have a visitor. It’s Martin,’ she called up the stairs.

‘Have I interrupted something?’ Martin’s smile turned into a sheepish grin.

---