Final Demand Read online

  Contents

  Cover

  About the Author

  Also by Deborah Moggach

  Dedication

  Title Page

  Part One

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Part Two

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Part Three

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Part Four

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Read on for an excerpt from Something to Hide

  Copyright

  About the Author

  Deborah Moggach is the author of thirteen previous novels, including the bestselling Tulip Fever, and two collections of short stories. Her TV screenplays include the prize-winning Goggle-Eyes, her own Close Relations, and, most recently, the highly acclaimed Love in a Cold Climate for the BBC. She is Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Chairman of the Society of Authors. She lives in North London.

  ALSO BY DEBORAH MOGGACH

  You Must Be Sisters

  Close to Home

  A Quiet Drink

  Hot Water Man

  Porky

  To Have and To Hold

  Driving in the Dark

  Smile and Other Stories

  Stolen

  The Stand-In

  The Ex-Wives

  Changing Babies

  Seesaw

  Close Relations

  Tulip Fever

  TO GERRY W-F, WITH LOVE

  Final Demand

  Deborah Moggach

  PART ONE

  Chapter One

  THEY BLAMED IT on global warming. It’s a wake-up call, they said. It’s a sign of what’s to come. All that November it rained. Britain was flooded, great swathes of it. On the news, the quaint names of rivers became as familiar as those of the latest celebrities. Day after day gales blew, buffeting Natalie’s car when she drove to work, rocking it at traffic lights. Perhaps that had something to do with it, with her restlessness, with a feeling of Is this all there is?

  The future of the planet held no interest for her; she seldom read newspapers. The rain, however, affected her. It trapped her in the present tense, the clouds blocking any vista beyond, any possibilities. She was trapped at work, perspiring under the strip lights. Back home she felt unsettled yet torpid, sitting on the edge of the bath and then realizing, with a jolt, that an hour had passed.

  Something should be happening. The next big thing in her life should be happening but though time was speeding up, the days whisking past, a breathlessness to them now, Natalie’s life remained doggedly the same. She was thirty-two. When she paused to consider this, the accumulation of years startled her. She found it hard to apply thirty-two to herself. Until recently she had been carried heedlessly in the current but now she found herself stilled in the bathroom, gazing at the fogged-up mirror, thinking: what next?

  She rubbed herself dry whilst Kieran sat in the next room, channel-hopping. He should be a part of the what next? but when she went into the lounge there he sprawled, in a fug of smoke, and words failed her. They had lived together for three years. She adored him. She adored the way his finger traced her skin, under her dressing gown, with his eyes still fixed on the screen. She adored his fine profile, his mouth twitching as he smiled. His hair, pulled back in a ponytail, was tied with a band he had nicked from her bag.

  Words failed her because he seemed content, and until recently, so had she. This new desire to shunt things forward made her shy with him. It revealed her to be like the girls at work, like large plain Stacey who had the hots for Derek in Dispatch and who dreamed of marriage and babies, doodling his surname on her jotter, MRS STACEY WINDSOR . . . MRS S. WINDSOR . . . Natalie pitied this; the naked need seemed humiliating. And then the desire would grip her, so strongly it stopped her breath.

  She had no illusions about Kieran. He was a flirt. He sponged off her and stayed out late, supposedly with his mates. He worked when the mood took him, as a motorbike courier, roaring round Leeds on his Kawasaki 500 and chatting up receptionists. One day he might roar off and never return. She had a shameful desire to keep him to herself. He was like a deer, captured and kept in domesticity; one day he would grow restless and make a break for the wild.

  This was how she felt, those dark autumn weeks with their turbulent, un-British storms. It’s a warning, they said.

  The next thing should be happening. And it did, but not the thing she had imagined.

  It was a Saturday night, and they went down to the Club Danube in Chapel Street. O-Zone were playing. They were her favourite band and she had been a fan for years, long before their biggest hits (‘Dog Days’, ‘Give It To Me’). She felt a proprietorial tenderness towards them, having had a one-night stand, back in 1995, with their lead singer Damon. Travelling down to London to hear them play, she had ended up in Room 316 of the Kensington Hilton (curling hospitality sandwiches, two lines of coke). When she had left, flushed and rumpled, in the small hours, Damon had given her a publicity photo with her name spelt ‘Natlie’ but she didn’t mind. The guy might be dyslexic.

  So now they were dancing, jammed up front near the stage, and Natalie was trying to catch the singer’s eye whilst also watching Kieran, who was pressed up behind her friend Farida, his arms waving like hers and then dropping down around her shoulders when he shouted something in her ear and made her laugh.

  Natalie edged closer. ‘I wouldn’t bother,’ she yelled. ‘Farida’s getting married next month.’

  ‘Anyone I know?’ he asked.

  ‘She hardly knows him herself. She’s only met him twice.’

  ‘You kidding?’

  Farida nodded. Though Natalie was fond of her – they worked side by side – this arranged marriage revealed Farida as foreign, an Indian girl with her future an Indian one. Soon Natalie would lose her; Farida would step into the next room of her life and close the door. Maureen, too, who worked in the same office: she was leaving to have a baby and Sioban was moving to Scarborough to be near her boyfriend, a married security guard at the Seaspray Caravan Park. Natalie’s life felt flimsy, no foundation to it. Up on stage Damon’s eye passed over her without a flicker; it was as if she had never crept from his hotel room, her knickers damp with all those unborn songs. In January this very building was to be demolished for redevelopment.

  And when they stumbled out into the damp night, ears ringing from the music, she found that somebody had smashed the window of her car and stolen the radio.

  Kieran picked up a cassette. ‘Seems they didn’t fancy your Best of Moby.’ He kicked the glass away. ‘Should get an alarm fitted.’

  ‘Know how much they cost?’

  ‘Yeah, but—’

  ‘Why don’t you pay half then?’

  ‘Listen, babe, it’s your car.’

  She glared at him. ‘Oh, so you’ll be wanting to walk home then.’

  This had happened before, several times. The neighbourhood where they lived had the highest crime rate in Leeds. Natalie, however, was still upset. She loved her car. It was a silver Honda Civic with sunroof and – before it was ripped out – quadrophonic sound system. Humans were not to be trusted – she had learnt this at an early age – but her car could be relied upon to remain where she had left it, awaiting her return like the most faithful of lovers. When she pressed her foot down, it surged in response. When she changed up to fifth, it sighed like somebody set
tling back in an armchair. She cared for it too – she, who had cared for little in her life – probing its interior with her dipstick, daintily wiping her fingers with a moistened towelette. Each day it released her from work, from the numbing repetition, swallowing the motorway under its wheels as she sped across the moors, the huddled sheep caught in the headlights as she swung left towards Leeds (South).

  And now it had been violated. On Monday morning, when she drove to work, Natalie seethed. The wind blew through the empty window, freezing her shoulder. What turned a human being into a criminal? The moment they smashed the glass? Or did they consider themselves a normal person who occasionally took advantage of other people’s stupidity or inattention? Driving to work, that fateful Monday morning, crime was on her mind. She parked and slammed the door shut, hearing the fragments of glass settle into the lining.

  Her insurance had expired. She had discovered this the night before, whilst rummaging through the unpaid bills wedged behind the toaster. She would have to find a garage and spend her precious Saturday getting it fixed. This nameless window-smasher, did he consider the time he had stolen from her life, apart from the money? And her O-Zone compilation tape was missing.

  So it was hardly surprising that Natalie was in a mutinous mood that morning. It was a dank, foggy day. NuLine Telecommunications, where she worked, was a large office building stuck in the middle of an industrial estate, out on the moors, miles from anywhere. Around it loomed warehouses, Midas Wholesale, K.M.M. Refrigerated Meats. Today they were shrouded in mist. There seemed no reason for the existence of these buildings in this particular place; like Farida’s arranged marriage, it was just a matter of chance. ‘This way’s as good as any,’ she said. A random choice, a pin on the map.

  Accounts was open-plan. Natalie sat down at her desk. They were mostly women who worked there; they were blurs to each other through the frosted partitions. These were stuck with holiday postcards – beaches at dawn, Seattle at sunset, anywhere but here – and blurred Polaroids of Salsa Nite at Club X-Press. Photos of boyfriends and fiancés too. Soon these girls would disappear into other lives, for nobody stayed at NT for long.

  For eight hours a day Natalie’s life was suspended. Only her hands were busy, and a small portion of her brain, the part that ticked over like a car engine, for she was good at sums and could do them in her sleep. There were nine of them sitting there, lost in their daydreams. Cheques arrived, customers’ cheques, payments for phone bills. They tapped them into their computers, registering them as paid. In the next office, Processing, the money was transferred from the customers accounts to the one belonging to NuLine Telecommunications plc, a rapidly expanding company that prided itself on being, in the dizzy world of communications, the most aggressive competitor to BT. Natalie didn’t give a fuck. She never stayed anywhere long. She was restless, waiting for the next thing, whatever that would be.

  And the next thing arrived at ten twenty that morning. She slit open the envelope and pulled it out. It was just a cheque, like all the others.

  The sum startled her for a moment, it looked so familiar. Then she realized.

  Leaning back in her chair, so she could see Farida, she held out the cheque. ‘Five hundred and fifty pounds,’ she said. ‘That’s what a car alarm costs. Wouldn’t life be simple if I could just pay this into my account?’

  Farida took the cheque and looked at it. ‘Will they never learn?’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘They’ve written it out to N. T., the wallies. They should’ve written the whole name, NuLine Telecommunications, otherwise it could get tampered with.’ Her voice went syrupy. ‘Bashir told me, the first time we met. He knows, being an accountant.’

  At the time this meant nothing to Natalie. She didn’t even ask how somebody could tamper with the cheques. She was more fascinated by Farida’s voice, the way it softened when she mentioned Bashir’s name. Was she already investing this man with love-at-first-sight in retrospect – a sort of backwards rosy glow? And how on earth could they have talked about something so boring?

  Later they stood in the smokers’ doorway, the two of them. Beside them, the extractor fan whirred out curry smells from the canteen. The fog had cleared; sunlight gleamed on the rows of parked cars. A white dog sat between a Range Rover (Management) and the rusting van belonging to Derek (Dispatch), the object of Stacey’s lust.

  ‘What did you mean about the cheques?’ Natalie asked. The dog stared at them with a fixed expression, as if remembering them for later.

  ‘It’s dead simple,’ replied Farida. ‘Like, there used to be a dental suppliers called C. Ash. What dentists did was write out a cheque, leaving out the full stop. Then they withdrew the cash, claiming it was business. Pathetic really, but it mounted up.’

  ‘So what about here?’

  ‘Easy. If your initials were N.T. you could write in the rest of your name and pocket the cheque.’

  ‘That easy?’

  ‘Have to have the right initials, of course. You and I couldn’t – well, you could with the Natalie bit, I suppose.’ She flicked away her butt. ‘That’s why people should pay by direct debit. That’s what Bashir says.’

  Farida went indoors. Natalie ground out her cigarette with the toe of her boot. The curtains of cloud had lifted; beneath them, between the buildings, the moors glowed with a lemony light. They looked like a stage set, like a show ready to begin.

  Natalie couldn’t move. She felt the blood draining from her body, down to her feet, leaving her weightless.

  She looked at the dog. It held her gaze. Then it turned its head away and licked its balls.

  The block of flats where she lived was called Meadowview. Somebody had a sense of humour. In the barricaded shop across the street, Natalie bought a bottle of wine. When she took the change, her hand was trembling.

  She stepped outside. It was all strange to her – the heavy brick buildings, bathed in sodium light; the plastic seats at the bus stop. It was as if she was seeing them for the first time. Her own unfamiliarity filled her with panic. Heart thudding, she crossed the street, let herself in and walked up to their flat on the third floor. Soon I’ll be out of here, she thought. Stay calm, it can happen.

  Natalie went into the kitchen. A lone man had moved in next door; through the wall she heard his kettle whistling. She fetched a bowl and filled it with Bombay Mix. She was no home-maker – nor in fact was Kieran, they were similar in this respect – but tonight she plumped up the cushions like a housewife. She lit a candle and set out the wine glasses.

  Hours seemed to pass before Kieran arrived home. He unzipped his leathers. She always loved this moment when he sloughed off the outside world.

  He kissed her, slumped down in the armchair and felt for his Rizlas. There was something wrong with his bike, he said; she didn’t catch what, she couldn’t concentrate. His mate Keith tried to fix it but apparently it needed a whole new something.

  She watched him as he licked the papers and laid them on his knee. ‘It’s OK,’ she said. ‘You won’t have to worry about that.’

  He bared his gums. ‘Got my teeth cleaned today, just for you. Like ’em?’

  ‘Soon you could buy a whole new bike.’

  He looked at her, puzzled.

  ‘A whole new set of teeth,’ she said.

  She started speaking. He was assembling the spliff. As she told him her plan his hands came to a standstill.

  ‘You what?’

  ‘It’d be so simple, see. I’d only do small sums, a hundred pounds here, a hundred pounds there. Not enough to notice.’

  ‘But that’s stealing.’

  ‘What do you do each week?’

  ‘That’s different—’

  ‘Signing on, claiming benefits?’

  ‘But you’ll get found out.’

  Natalie ignored his tone. Her voice rose in excitement. ‘No – see, I’d process their bills as paid, I’ve worked it out, it’s bloody brilliant.’

  He lit the joint a
nd, with a hiss, sucked in the smoke. ‘How have you worked it out?’ His pale, bony face looked at her. With his hair scraped back like that he looked Slavic, a horseman of the Steppes.

  ‘I’d log into the Processing program . . .’ She explained how she would do it. As she spoke, the white dog flashed in front of her – sitting motionless, watching her face.

  ‘You’re bonkers,’ Kieran said.

  ‘I’d open building society accounts and pay in the money. And we could go on holiday. We could move somewhere nicer, somewhere with bus shelters that aren’t smashed.’ She smiled at him. ‘You could buy a 1,000-cc Harley with a nice new whatever.’

  Kieran didn’t offer her the joint. She didn’t dare reach for it; she didn’t dare move.

  ‘I can’t believe you’re saying this.’

  ‘It’s just an idea,’ she said. ‘I thought you’d be up for it, all the stuff you’ve told me, about what you did when you were a kid—’

  ‘So how’re you going to change your surname? Look a bit suspicious, wouldn’t it? Just suddenly calling yourself something different.’

  There was a silence.

  ‘We could get married,’ she said.

  He stared at her. ‘What?’

  ‘Then I would be Natalie Turner. N.T.’

  In the kitchen the tap dripped – plunk, plunk – on to the heaped-up plates in the sink. She didn’t look at Kieran. Out of the corner of her eye she could see him leaning forward, his shoulders hunched, gazing at the carpet.

  ‘I mean, I’m thirty-two,’ she said casually. ‘Other people do it . . . Maureen and Farida and your brother and, well . . . people do get married . . .’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘I mean, we’ve lived together for three years . . .’ A little laugh. ‘It’s not such an odd thought, is it? I mean, we’ve never talked about it, but, you know . . .’

  Kieran didn’t speak. She felt heat spreading into her face. He cleared his throat. She couldn’t look at him, not now, not ever.

  ‘Forget it,’ she muttered.

  ‘Look, Nat—’