Not Dead Yet

magazine Cleo had brought home for him, suggested they might actually be the most beautiful eyes in the world.
    He decided he didn’t have any quibble with that. Cleo was the most beautiful woman he had ever met in his life – until now. But Cleo was not only stunningly beautiful, she was profoundly human. Gaia, for all her humour, for all her warmth, still had a hard carapace. She’d be terrific for a one-night stand, but she’d spit you out in the morning the way a black widow spider eats her male after mating with him – and then excretes his remains.
    Gaia suddenly leaned towards him. Embarrassingly close; and for an instant she was so close he feared she was about to kiss him. Then in her gravelly voice she said, ‘Detective Superintendent Grace, you have eyes just like Paul Newman’s. Did anyone ever tell you that?’
    He blushed. Actually, yes, someone had. Sandy.
    He shook his head, and with a coy smile said, ‘No, but thank you!’
    Across the room he saw Jason Tingley winking at him.
    Trying to suppress a grin, Roy Grace addressed Andrew Gulli, as he reviewed the situation to date. He finished by saying, ‘Although we appreciate the seriousness of the threat level in the USA, Mr Gulli, we are a long way away here. In our view, in the UK the threat to your client is low to medium.’
    Gulli raised his arms in the air, in disbelief, and in his JamesCagney voice said, ‘How can you guys say that? Anyone can buy a gun in this country for a few bucks. Don’t try to kid us with that kind of bullshit!’
    ‘With respect, we’ve delivered your client and her son safely here, and we’ve offered twenty-four-hour protection around her in this hotel.’ He gave Gaia an apologetic look before turning back to Gulli. ‘But what we cannot do is provide the budget to maintain security if she wishes to roam freely around the city. The Chief Constable is willing to sanction armed protection, but you will have to contribute to the cost.’
    ‘This would not happen in any other country in the world!’ Gulli said. ‘Don’t you realize the value Gaia’s bringing to this city?’
    ‘We’re very privileged to have her here,’ Grace said.
    ‘Hey, Andrew,’ Gaia interrupted. ‘I don’t have a problem. I think what Officer Grace is saying is fair. We’ll contribute – why shouldn’t we?’
    ‘Because that’s not how it works!’ Gulli retorted petulantly.
    ‘With respect,’ Graham Barrington said, very politely and diplomatically, ‘it is how it works in our country.’
    ‘This is bullshit!’ Gulli said, raising his voice almost to a shout.
    Grace stood up, towered over him and said to him, ‘Can you and I go and talk in private somewhere, for a minute?’
    ‘Anything you have to say, you can say here.’
    ‘I want to talk to you privately,’ Grace said, in his sternest don’t-mess-with-me voice. People often made the mistake of thinking, because Roy Grace was polite, that he was a pushover. Gulli was suddenly seeing another side to the detective. He stood up, a tad huffily, and pointed to an interconnecting door.
    Grace led the way through into a room that had been turned into a makeshift office, and perched on the edge of a maple desk, signalling Gulli to close the door behind him. Through the window, Grace could see the derelict remains of the superstructure of Brighton’s West Pier rising from the flat blue sea. He felt, as he always did, a twinge of sadness for the loss of this pier he had so loved as a child. Then he turned to face Gulli.
    ‘How much is your client being paid to make this movie, Mr Gulli?’
    ‘You know what? I don’t think that’s any of your business, Detective.’
    ‘Detective Superintendent actually,’ he corrected the man.
    Gulli said nothing.
    ‘Everything connected to this city is my business,’ Grace said. ‘I happened to read that Gaia’s being paid fifteen million dollars – approximately ten million pounds – for four weeks’ production here, and three in a studio.’
    ‘She’s one of the world’s biggest stars, that’s the kind of money they make,’ Gulli said, on the defensive now. ‘She’s actually doing this for a lower fee than usual because this is an independent production and not a studio.’
    ‘I’m sure she’s worth every penny,’ Roy Grace said. ‘She’s terrific, I’m a fan. But you need to understand something. Because of the financial crisis in this country, every police force has had to cut twenty per cent from its