Heller's Revenge (32 page)

I knew he had notes with him,
but he didn’t seem to refer to them once. He entertained us with a
light-hearted and extremely amusing talk for an hour and thirty
minutes, speaking mostly about his adventures. As he did, he showed
a various assortment of hair-raising, heart breaking and downright
personally embarrassing slides along the way. But he finished his
talk with a sad silent series of disturbing shots showing animals
being maimed and tortured in the name of science, rivers and
fertile land across the world being permanently despoiled by big
business and humans in the most abject poverty and misery you could
possibly imagine.

“Most speakers prefer to end
their talks on a high note. But I prefer to end with the brutal
reality of what is happening on this planet
right now
as you
sit here congratulating yourselves for being so righteous and
liberal for coming today to listen to my little talk.” He stared at
the audience, a burning intensity in his eyes, and there was
complete silence across the theatre. I swear nobody was game to
fidget or cough. I know I wasn’t. “I say to you today, don’t just
be a listener. Be a doer. We can
all
do our bit to help. All
of us. No matter how small.” He raked us with his burning eyes
again, before smiling congenially, taking a little of the sharpness
from his words. “Peace be with you all. Good afternoon friends, and
thank you for coming.” And then he was finished and the entire
lecture theatre collectively released their breath and burst into
spontaneous applause that lasted for a good couple of minutes.

He was detained on the stage for
another hour afterwards, a crowd wanting his attention. He answered
questions, signed autographs, fobbed off a few eco-groupies. I hung
around patiently, not getting in the way. He noted my presence with
a wry smile, before returning to the crowd to answer a question
about what it was like to see a whale being slaughtered.

“
What’s it like?
” he
repeated, staring at the stupid girl who had asked the question,
his face hard and uncompromising. “It makes you diminish as a human
being to watch the last thrashing movements of such a beautiful and
intelligent animal. It makes you wonder which of us is truly the
animal and which is the higher being.” That shut the poor girl up
quick smart and she slunk away, red-faced.

There were a lot of questions on
whale hunting. It was a big topic of concern in this part of the
world as it happened directly in our neighbourhood, against the
wishes of most of us. He was patient and friendly with everyone,
even when I could see that stubborn or ignorant people were testing
his temper. Eventually though the admirers and the curious petered
out and left, only Maria, him and me remaining in the vast lecture
room.

“So,” said Maria, getting
straight to the point, her eyes flicking between us, “are you two
going out?” She seemed hopeful.

“No Maria,” Meili told her in a
serious voice. “Tilly’s with me to bear witness.”

Maria stared at me, her
optimistic smile collapsing. “Oh,” was all she was able to say.
“I’m sorry to hear that. I thought . . .”

“You thought incorrectly,” he
said gently, squeezing her shoulder. I threw her a
‘weirdest-thing-I’ve-ever-done’ kind of look and shrugged
apologetically.

When Meili went off to refresh
himself, we chatted casually for a while before I decided to speak
openly.

“You looked so pleased to think
that Meili might be dating again. Am I right?” I asked her
bluntly.

“Tilly, you have no idea how
happy I would be to hear that. Inge’s death was such a
devastatingly cruel blow to him. They were made for each other.
Absolutely perfect. Soul mates. It was almost as if he died
alongside her, because he hasn’t been the same man since she was
murdered.” She blinked rapidly, her eyes teary. “I loved Inge.
Everyone did. She was so warm and caring and beautiful. Meili
absolutely adored her – you could see it in his face. His eyes lit
up when she was around. He couldn’t hide it. He was desperately in
love with her.” Another fierce bout of blinking. “But I would be
thrilled to the core to know he was in love again, wanting to
embrace life, instead of all this fucking ‘bear witness’ crap he’s
got into his brain. It’s as if he’s just waiting to die!”

She turned away, too upset and
angry with her friend to continue.

I rested my hand on her shoulder
and pressed lightly. “I’m so sorry, Maria. It’s a very difficult
situation, even for me as a stranger, but I want to do the best
that I can for him. He’s a wonderful man. I can see that and I only
met him yesterday.”

“Thanks Tilly. He’s so afraid of
dying alone like poor Inge. She must have been terrified. The man,
or men, who killed her . . . assaulted her first. The police
thought there might have been more than one person involved. She
knew what was going to happen to her. After they . . . used her,
they played with her, shooting her in the leg and then in the arm,
before killing her with a shot to the forehead. Meili can’t forgive
himself because he wasn’t there to protect her. He was on an
anti-whaling ship when she died. In the middle of the ocean
somewhere, nowhere nearby. He blames himself for everything.”

She wiped the tears from her
eyes determinedly. I felt like wiping a few from my own.

Meili rejoined us and Maria
forced a smile onto her face and brightly suggested that she take
the two of us for coffee. She led us to one of the campus’ cute
little coffee shops.

It was full of lounging students
who seemed in no hurry to go to classes, but we managed to find a
small table and dragged an extra chair over to seat the three of
us. We chatted generally for ages, having a few refills, Meili
approached a few times by students for his autograph. Maria stood
up reluctantly after checking her watch, needing to leave for a
meeting. I shook her hand, and she and Meili exchanged another
affectionate hug.

“See you in a few days,” she
reminded him and we watched her rush away.

“Let’s go for a walk,” he
suggested, so I agreed and we left the campus and made our way back
to the harbour again.

“That was a great talk, Meili. I
really enjoyed it,” I said sincerely.

“Thanks, Tilly. It always amazes
me how many people turn out to hear me speak about myself. It’s
quite humbling, really. I’m not that interesting.”

“Are you kidding? You’re
probably the most interesting person I’ve ever met.”

“There’s that famous Chalmers’
charm again,” he teased and I smiled up at him.

We walked aimlessly for a long
time. He admitted that he was always full of nervous energy after a
public speech and liked to work it out through exercise. When he
mentioned the word ‘work’ though, I immediately thought of Heller.
I stepped to one side, guiltily whipping out my phone to ring him,
looking around anxiously for his personal SWAT team, hoping they
weren’t about to besiege us.

“It’s me,” I said
redundantly.

“I know. How’s it going?”

“Touching, emotional. What did
you expect?”

“Matilda, don’t become
personally involved,” he warned, his voice hard.

“Too late,” I told him and hung
up.

Chapter 21

“Problem?” Meili asked.

“Nope, everything’s fine,” I
replied with a smile, resolutely cheerful.

“Good,” he said, equally
cheerful. “Maria told me about a great place for us to eat tonight.
I hope you’re hungry.” And surprisingly, I was.

After our long walk, we made our
slow way back to the hotel. We had time to shower again and lounge
around for a while, me reading my thriller after checking my texts
and emails, and him spending a long time chatting on the phone in
Norwegian to a friend. Then we readied ourselves and headed out to
dinner.

He took me to a lovely little
French restaurant, hidden down a narrow arcade, probably the most
romantic place I’d ever eaten at. It was small and intimate, no
more than ten tables, plenty of space between them all, lights low,
candles on the table tops, seductive music playing softly, the
plaintive vocals sung softly in French. We looked at each other
when we stepped inside.

“Um, Meili, Maria might have
recommended this restaurant to you
before
she realised we
weren’t dating?” I suggested after I’d been attentively tucked into
my chair by the maitre d’, who then fussed around, placing my
napkin on my lap, filling up my water glass and handing me a menu
with a flourish.

He pondered for a minute,
glanced around and pulled a sheepish face. “I think you’re right,
Tilly. Sorry. I’m not trying to seduce you or anything. Frankly,
after the warning Heller gave me, I wouldn’t dare!”

“Don’t worry about it. As long
as the food’s great, I’m okay,” I assured.

And, by God, the food certainly
was great. In fact it was sensational, every mouthful a gift from
the gods. I never wanted that meal to end. I ate so much garlic
that night that no man on earth would have gone anywhere near me,
not even for money. He did the same though, so I wasn’t worried
about offending him with my overpowering breath.

Afterwards, heading back to the
hotel, I exclaimed for the millionth time over the meal, and
thanked him heartily for paying for me yet again. He brushed my
thanks away and tucked my hand into the crook of his arm. I was
more than glad to hang onto his arm for the rest of the way home,
having consumed more than one glass of the wonderful red wine.

We did the bathroom shuffle
again on our return and both were happy when our heads hit our
pillows. I gave Heller a quick and perfunctory phone call before I
did though, to let him know I was still alive and okay. I didn’t
chat but hung up as soon as possible, yawning my head off.

Next morning was a repeat of the
previous. We jogged, showered and ate breakfast in the restaurant.
He was due at court that day to answer to charges of trespassing
and vandalism following his little stunt at the cultural centre, so
dressed appropriately in a charcoal suit, pale green shirt and
darker green tie. He tied his hair back neatly. I dressed in an
emerald skirt suit with a crisp white blouse, hair up neatly as
well.

He was meeting his lawyer at the
courthouse fifteen minutes before the trial. On the walk over, he
told me that he intended to plead guilty.

“But you might go to jail!” I
said, worried.

“I don’t think so. I’ll probably
receive a fine or community service or both. Jail would be okay
though. Great publicity for me,” he responded casually. I shot him
a disbelieving glance, but before he could respond, we had turned
the corner to the block where the law courts were situated, to find
a barrage of media lounging around the front of the court, waiting
for someone or something.

“For you?” I asked, eyebrows
raised.

“Possibly. It’s a fairly high
profile case. Guess we’ll find out soon enough.”

And he was right because the
very second one of the reporters spotted him walking towards the
court, he came running down the street to us, his camera crew
hastily trailing after him.

“Dr Eriksen? Meili? How do you
intend to plead today?” he shouted, instantly alerting the other
reporters. And soon Meili and I were mobbed by the media,
microphones and cameras shoved in our faces, people pressing
against us, jostling us. We struggled slowly through the scrum,
pushing our way towards the courthouse. In their eagerness to
snatch a sound bite from him, they were less than considerate of
me. One rude reporter, with big blonde hair and a hard face,
actually pushed me away from him, her palm in my chest, so that she
could take the advantage of standing right next to him to ask him
some pointless question.

He noticed we had separated and
stopped suddenly, causing a minor media pile up behind him, and
waited for me to catch up, grasping my hand firmly. We pushed
through together until we reached the door of the courthouse and
Meili’s lawyer joined us. Then Meili turned to the media and gave a
short statement in a confident, clear voice, still holding my hand.
In his enchanting accent, he politely apologised to everyone who
had been inconvenienced by his actions. He advised the media that
he intended to plead guilty, but didn’t regret what he had done as
it brought public attention back to the fate of the whales. And
with that, we headed inside the courthouse.

Inside, Meili introduced me to
his lawyer, Alex Landry, a handsome, well-dressed man in his late
forties, with neat salt and pepper hair and large liquid chocolate
eyes. He cut me a curious look and a brief smile as we shook hands,
and I stepped aside as the two men discussed their strategy. We
were approached by a small group of people and I was introduced to
Meili’s co-defendant in the charges, a small, dark man, who had his
lawyer in tow as well.

The whole hearing was over
surprisingly quickly, as both men pleaded guilty to all charges.
Each was fined $10,000, placed on a twelve-month good behaviour
bond and ordered to reimburse the city for the cost of the cleanup
of the centre. Leaving the courthouse, the men were set upon by the
media again. Meili’s lawyer gave them a few words and we sped off
as fast as possible, chased for only a couple of blocks before the
press gang gave up. Meili took Alex and me to a stylish restaurant
for lunch.

“What are you doing tomorrow,
Meili?” Alex asked as the waiter scattered freshly grated Parmesan
on his lobster pasta.

Meili looked at me. “Nothing
planned. I wasn’t sure how long we’d be in court so kept it
free.”

“Good. Sali and I are taking the
run-around out on the ocean tomorrow, maybe stay overnight, do a
spot of fishing. Interested?”

“Only if Tilly’s invited as
well? I take her everywhere with me.” He smiled at me. “We’re
inseparable.” I smiled back at him.