Charmed
Neville Creed was one of the city’s most distinguished funeral directors, with a record few could match. Marble Grove, his uncle’s funeral business, was on the brink of receivership when Creed took it over, at the age of 22.
Seven years later he merged with the Paradise Corporation, who bought Creed’s company for an estimated $30m. Creed was made a member of the board.
‘It was a meteoric rise,’ said an old partner of Creed’s. ‘Some people truly seem to lead charmed lives.’
Private
Like many rich people, Creed was intensely private. He didn’t mix in Moon Beach society and he had few friends. He lived a life shrouded in mystery in his penthouse apartment on the top floor of the exclusive Palace Hotel.
The circumstances of his death are no less mysterious. Police are still trying to establish a motive for this seemingly senseless killing, but, so far, they have come up against nothing but dead ends.
Nathan folded up the front page and looked round for the waste bin. His eyes moved through the empty room, found nothing. They must’ve already thrown it away. He looked out of the window. A thin column of black smoke rose above the hedge. Georgia must have built another fire early that morning. One last fire. The neighbours would be complaining again.
He left the house and walked to the end of the garden. He stood looking down into the fire. He could identify various objects. An empty box of cheroots, the video of Harriet. Several dozen bottles of stale pills. Smiling, he dropped the newspaper article into the core of the blaze. He stood over it, watched it begin to turn yellow, then brown, watched it begin to burn. Then stepped back, startled, as it rose out of the flames, rose past his face, and flapped away through the clear blue air, its wings black at the edges, its body still on fire.
Acknowledgements
During the past three years several people provided me with places where I could live and work. I’d like to thank Jean Bedford and the girls, Prue Hawke, George Papaellinas and Cathy Murphy, Polly Whyte, and Martha Crewe. I’d also like to thank Rod Parker, and this book is, in some sense, dedicated to his memory.
Lastly I’d like to thank Imogen for all the support and encouragement she’s given me since the beginning, and for the use of her bath when mine was unexpectedly destroyed.
A Note on the Author
RUPERT THOMSON is the author of eight highly acclaimed novels, of which Air and Fire and The Insult were shortlisted for the Writer’s Guild Fiction Prize and the Guardian Fiction Prize respectively. His most recent novel, Death of a Murderer, was shortlisted for the 2008 Costa Novel Award. His memoir This Party's Got to Stop was published in 2010.
By the Same Author
Fiction
Dreams of Leaving
Air and Fire
The Insult
The Book of Revelation
Divided Kingdom
Death of a Murderer
Non-fiction
First published 1991
Copyright © 1991 by Rupert Thomson
This electronic edition published in 2012 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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