Just in Case Read Online Free PDF Page B

whistled.
    Come on, Boy! Walkies!
    Boy bounded over and jumped up on his master, nearly knocking him over. He was a big dog, nearly a metre at the shoulder. Justin rubbed him behind his ears. Good boy.
    Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his mother watching him out of the corner of her eye. What’s the matter, he thought peevishly. Hadn’t she ever seen an imaginary dog?
    She appeared anxious, perhaps about the safety of his little brother in the presence of such a large animal, though Charlie showed no sign of fear. Anyway, surely he, Justin, was entitled to a pet of his own choosing. Come to think of it, why hadn’t she and his father provided one? Maybe if he’d had a real dog, he wouldn’t feel so threatened.
    Then again, maybe not.
    Justin wanted to see Agnes again, but his desire was tempered with uncertainty. He was young, not suave or knowing. Not brilliant or sexually irresistible. He had quitea handsome dog, but it didn’t exist. In short, he didn’t add up to much.
    Which made it all the more surprising when, a little more than a month after they first met, Agnes phoned him.
    ‘Justin Case, at last. There are twelve Cases in the phonebook; your number happens to be the eleventh.’
    Justin was struck dumb.
    ‘Hello? Are you there?’
    ‘I just… it’s just…’ Perfect, he thought, I’ve developed a speech impediment.
    ‘Never mind, I need to see you. I’ll meet you in ten minutes at the café on West Street.’
    Agnes hung up.
    Justin stared at the receiver. Why had she phoned? Perhaps he had amnesia. Perhaps he and Agnes often met at the café to chat about… about international economic destabilization.
    His life seemed to be getting away from him.
    He entered the café.
    ‘Table for one?’ asked the waitress with an air of resentment.
    ‘Two.’ His voice warbled slightly.
    She pointed at a table wedged between the toilet and the kitchen. He ignored it, chose a booth in the corner with a view of the street, sat down and ordered a cup of tea. By exercising preternatural restraint, he made it last nearly the entire half-hour during which Agnes did not show. Doubt and self-loathing took root in his brain.
    He was about to pay his meagre bill and crawl into the street howling with psychic pain when he saw her pink bob, bob-bobbing along outside the window. Today she was disguised as a geisha in a brightly coloured kimono, short green felt culottes, white foundation, huge dark glasses and six-inch platform clogs. Over one shoulder hung a striped plastic portfolio.
    She threw him a kiss through the window and entered the café. Justin slumped in his seat, embarrassed to have been kept waiting.
    Agnes arrived at the table, amused. ‘Hello, Justin Case. I’m terribly sorry I’m late.’
    ‘Hello.’ He looked at the floor.
    She stood very still until he looked up again, then slipped the glasses down her nose and stared straight into his eyes, smiling the smallest, most seductive of smiles. ‘I am extremely pleased to see you.’
    ‘I…’ he began, but found he couldn’t go on. He reached for Boy, and gathered the warm elastic skin of his dog’s neck in one hand.
    I wonder if I’m in love, he thought. Or if she is? At his feet, Boy raised one eyebrow and gazed up at his master.
    Justin waited as Agnes settled herself daintily into the seat opposite, waved a tiny handkerchief patterned with cherry blossom and ordered camomile tea with the demure, murmuring voice of a geisha. When she finally turned back to him, she reminded him of a blank-faced exotic bug. It made him nervous not to see her eyes.
    She lifted the portfolio off the floor, laid it flat on the table between them, and leant in close. ‘I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to print these up. But…’ Here she paused for dramatic effect and lowered her voice to a whisper. ‘It was worth the wait.’
    Beneath the table, Boy rolled over on to one side, stretched ostentatiously, closed both eyes and began to snore. Agnes opened