16

OVER THE NEXT few days, following the storm, the temperature dropped to a more bearable eighty-five degrees, before shooting back into the mid-nineties and seeming hotter and more stifling than ever. During the relatively cooler spell, though the atmosphere between Louisa and Danny was still at times fractious, the animosity was on the whole kept to a minimum. But now that the mercury was rising towards an all-time high it was not only shortening tempers, it was making the smugness of Danny’s pleasure in Erik’s recent proposal seem all the more galling. There was such a de-energizing sluggishness to the humidity that Danny’s excitement was as exhausting to watch as it was to contend with. She hadn’t given Erik an answer yet, and secretly she was intrigued to know what Jake’s reaction was going to be, but she didn’t mention that to either Sarah or Louisa. She simply swanned around the house and garden, naked but for her G-string, admiring herself in passing mirrors or lovingly massaging herself with suntan oil while flicking through magazines, filing her nails or talking to Erik on the phone.

Occasionally Danny took herself off on long, solitary drives never saying where she was going or when she would be back and, as difficult as the situation was between them, seeing her go off alone touched Louisa’s heart with sadness and regret that the rift between them was widening and there was nothing, it seemed, that either of them could do about it. Were it not for the capricious delight Danny appeared to take in never saying where she was going Louisa might have tried a bit harder to repair things, but as it was Jake stood between them like an immovable mountain and any sympathy Louisa might have felt for Danny’s isolation was swallowed by the sickening suspicion that it was him Danny was going to see when she disappeared for hours on end. It clearly wasn’t Erik, because he often rang when she was out, and the fact that Jake had neither called nor sent Marianne to pick her up as he had on a few occasions the previous week only served to convince Louisa further that now Danny was back his attention was elsewhere.

Sarah hadn’t heard from Morandi either, though she’d tried several times to call him both at the office and at home, but all she got was the answer phone. The frustration they were both feeling very nearly erupted in an argument between them when, one afternoon while Danny was out, Sarah angrily referred to Jake as the bastard who was fucking up all their lives. Louisa, without thinking, leapt to his defence, but then realizing that there really was nothing she could say to dispute that she reluctantly backed down. Sarah apologized and went off to her darkroom while Louisa settled down beside the pool to try for the umpteenth time to tie a subplot to the main plot without its seeming too contrived.

The trouble was, she realized irritably as the sun beat relentlessly down on her and she let her pen and pad slide on to the pale stone tiles, so much of her own life seemed so implausible that she was losing her grasp on reality.

A few minutes later she heard the sound of a car pull into the drive and felt herself tense. Quickly she turned her face towards the woods at the end of the garden deciding to feign sleep rather than have to put up with Danny’s exultant strut towards her and half-apologetic, half-triumphant manner as she tried to goad Louisa into asking where she’d been. Louisa had only fallen for it once and wasn’t going to make the same mistake again because she’d come very close to slapping Danny’s face when, having given Danny the satisfaction of asking, Danny had merely drawled, ‘Really, you wouldn’t want to know.’

‘Louisa?’

Louisa’s head spun round, her heart lurching at the sound of Marianne’s Australian accent.

‘Jake would like to see you,’ Marianne said.

Louisa would have dearly loved to be able to say no, wanted desperately to tell Marianne to tell him she was sorry, but she really didn’t have the time, but as she sat up, removing her sunglasses and covering her breasts with a towel she heard herself say, ‘Where is he?’

‘Not far from here,’ Marianne answered, showing her perfect white teeth in a smile that seemed even more dazzling than the sun.

Louisa stood up. She could wish that Jake had chosen someone a little less glamorous as his runaround since beside Marianne’s oozing voluptuousness she felt gawky and skinny. ‘I’d better get some clothes,’ she said.

Ten minutes later she was beside Marianne in Marianne’s white convertible Golf, speeding through the winding forest roads towards Opio where the occasional glimpses of the alps shimmering in the heat haze were quite breathtakingly lovely. As usual Marianne was asking about Louisa’s new series, telling her how much she’d loved Private Essays when it went out in Australia and generally enthusing about a talent she longed to have herself.

Despite feeling ordinary and rather overshadowed by Marianne’s shining blonde beauty, Louisa liked her, and generally enjoyed the brief conversations they had when on their way to meet Jake. Today, however, Louisa was in such a turmoil of nerves she was barely listening to what Marianne was saying.

It wasn’t until they took a sharp turn from the main road and started to climb the hairpin bends to the top of a hill that Louisa realized where they were heading. A ripple of unease coasted over her heart, for this road led to only one place, the village that, despite its quaintness and hilltop splendour, she and Sarah had found so strange and so stolidly unwelcoming when they’d first arrived on the Côte d’Azur. Why, of all places, she wondered, had Jake chosen to meet her here, in what surely must be the only village in the whole of France that had no café, no restaurant, no amenity or attraction to entice the outsider?

There was no point, she knew, in asking Marianne anything. Marianne never spoke about Jake, except to say that he wanted to see Louisa, and besides the sinister feeling she’d got from the village before probably had a lot to do with the rain, which had undoubtedly also been responsible for driving everyone indoors and keeping tourists away.

However, as they drove slowly in through the huge stone walls that surrounded the village, Louisa saw straight away that the sunbaked square with its neat rows of empty cars and firmly, somehow forbiddingly, shuttered windows was, just as it had been before, totally deserted.

‘Here we are,’ Marianne said, coming to a stop outside the Maine. ‘Jake will be here in a few minutes.’

Louisa pushed the car door open and got out. ‘Don’t you find this place a bit …?’

‘Bye,’ Marianne smiled, cutting across her. ‘I have to rush, but you two have a good time,’ and before Louisa could draw breath to say more the Golf was disappearing back the way they’d come.

Louisa looked around at the outwardly innocuous facades of the tall, narrow houses, the salmon-pink walls and bright blue shutters of the Mairie; the drab and silent École Communale, the eery stillness of the lavage, the somehow incongruous circle of bright flowers on the roundabout, the stark oblong of the church tower jutting from the labyrinth of sloping, red-tiled roofs.

It was odd, she thought, that despite everything she had heard about Jake, the violence, the blackmail, the deceit, it had never once occured to her to be afraid of him. Not that she felt afraid now, at least not of him, but this peculiar ghost town with its hidden inhabitants and omnipresent air of menace wasn’t somewhere she’d have chosen for a lover’s tryst.

She wandered over to a short, stone pillar in the shade and sat down. After a while it seemed as if the silence were descending over her with all the intensity of the suffocating heat and it was only as the minutes ticked monotonously by and she found herself listening to the silence that she began to realize the strangeness of it. There were no birds. And now she came to think about it, it wasn’t only here that no birds sang, for she couldn’t recall hearing one for several weeks. Maybe they migrated to more temperate climes during the height of the summer, but their absence was adding to the sense of menace in this square.

A while later she turned to look back at the road and seeing an old woman, who had appeared from nowhere, her heart froze. She was standing not ten feet away, staring at Louisa with hostile eyes. Her thick arms were folded across her chest, her stout frame was bulging with animosity. Louisa attempted a smile. To her surprise the woman smiled back, but instead of reassuring her it only served to unnerve her further. The woman turned, walked away across the square, then sat heavily down on a cast-iron bench, and once again fixed Louisa with her intimidating eyes.

Suddenly Louisa was angry. She’d been waiting over fifteen minutes now and still there was no sign of Jake. If he didn’t come it was a long and arduous walk back, but that wasn’t really the point. The point was, that he had kept her waiting in this godforsaken time-warp of a place, where she couldn’t even get a drink if she wanted one and couldn’t even use the phone to call him because she hadn’t brought the number with her.

Hearing footsteps approaching from the bottom of the square she turned, half-expecting to see someone else, but it was him. Immediately her heart turned over and seeing the way he was looking at her her anger started to fade, leaving in its place the misery and reluctance of having to deal with what had happened since the last time she’d seen him. She stood up, watching the easy movement of his body, feeling her own responding and knew that, despite herself, she was smiling. He looked so pleased and eager to see her that she longed with a passion bordering on desperation to just ignore all that Danny had said and go to him as freely and as naturally as she had only a few days ago.

‘Hi,’ he said, coming to a stop in front of her and after looking long into her eyes he cupped his hand around her throat and kissed her lingeringly on the mouth. There was nothing she could do to stop herself responding, the power he had over her was too great.

‘Sorry I’m late,’ he murmured, letting his gaze roam over the smoothness of her face, the liquid softness of her anxious brown eyes.

‘Where were you?’ she asked.

‘I had some business to attend to,’ he answered. ‘It took a bit longer than I expected.’

‘Where’s your car?’

‘Up at the top. I’ve missed you.’

She lifted her eyes from his lips and seeing the familiar expression of gentle mockery and surprise at the pleasure he seemed to take just in looking at her she felt herself aching with love for him. ‘Have you?’ she said.

He seemed vaguely bewildered by the question, then frowned as he remembered that of course he hadn’t called for a few days. ‘Yeah, I missed you,’ he said firmly, but gently.

‘Then why didn’t you call?’

‘A lot’s been happening, but I sent Marianne as soon as I could.’

Louisa looked away. ‘So it’s got nothing to do with Danny being back that you didn’t call?’ she said.

‘Why should it?’ he asked, turning her back and looking genuinely bemused. Then his frown disappeared as realization dawned. ‘Oh, I get it,’ he said, ‘she told you I brought her home on Saturday?’

‘Amongst other things.’

‘Well, I don’t know what else she told you, but the reason I brought her home Saturday was because I went to pick her up from the airport. I picked her up, drove her to Consuela’s where she collected her belongings then I drove her to Valanjou. And the reason it was me who did all that was because Erik was doing something else at the time, something for me.’

‘Like picking up a lot of money?’ Louisa said, unable to keep the accusation from her voice.

‘Yes, as a matter of fact, he was,’ he responded, his face darkening. ‘Now come on, what is all this? I thought we agreed, no questions …’

‘That was before Danny told me that you’re still sleeping with her. That you’re making a laughing stock out of me with your crew, that …’

‘For Christ’s sake, why are you listening to her? Why are you even discussing me with her? I thought I told you, she is the last person …’

‘You want to know about us,’ Louisa finished heatedly. ‘Yes, you did tell me that, but what I want to know is why, Jake? Why are you flaunting your relationship with her when you’re hiding it with me?’

‘I’m not flaunting any relationship with Danny,’ he said angrily. ‘How can I be, when there’s no relationship to flaunt? She’s lying to you, Louisa. I don’t know why she’s doing that, I don’t even care much. All I care about is that you stop listening to her.’

‘And go on listening to you? Go on making a fool of myself over someone who didn’t even bother to tell me he was married?’

His eyes were suddenly hard and as he glared down at her she could see the struggle he was having to keep his temper. ‘Who told you?’ he said tightly.

‘Consuela told Danny.’ Louisa waited, almost crippled by the need to hear him deny it, but it was obvious he wasn’t going to when his question alone had confirmed it, and if that were true, then dear God, the likelihood was that so too was everything else. ‘So are you?’ she said dully.

‘If Consuela says so, then I guess I must be,’ he answered, his voice still strained with anger.

‘What kind of answer is that?’ she cried. ‘Either you are or you aren’t!’

‘Right now it’s the only answer I can give,’ he said, ‘so don’t push me.’

‘It’s not good enough,’ she said turning to walk away. ‘I’m sorry, but I can’t go on like this. I thought I could, but …’

‘Louisa,’ he said, grabbing her arm. ‘Louisa, don’t walk away.’

As she looked up at the fine bones of his lean, handsome face and saw the way it was racked with torment, the way the disfiguring scar around his left eye was suddenly so pronounced, she was almost engulfed by the longing to put her arms around him, to hold him and tell him that none of it mattered. That whatever it was, whoever it was, driving this wedge between them would be of no importance at all if he would just trust her enough to tell her what was happening.

‘I want to tell you,’ he said gruffly, as though he had read her thoughts, ‘more than anything else I want to tell you, but I just can’t right now.’

‘Why? What difference is it going to make when you tell me?’

‘There isn’t the time to tell you now,’ he answered.

‘Excuses. Always excuses, but never answers,’ she said.

‘I’m catching a plane this afternoon,’ he said, putting his hands on her shoulders, ‘but if I weren’t I swear, Louisa, I’d tell you now.’

‘I want to believe you;’ she whispered, her voice strangled with emotion as she lowered her eyes, ‘but I don’t know if I dare. I don’t want to believe what I’ve been hearing, but until you tell me what this is all about, why Erik was asking Jean-Claude to look after so much money, why Danny should want to lie about sleeping with you, what your relationship is with Consuela …’

‘Darling, look at me,’ he said, his voice almost as choked with feeling as hers. ‘Look at me and listen to what I’m telling you. I am not sleeping with Danny. I don’t want to sleep with Danny, I never did want to sleep with Danny. She was just there, she threw herself at me and I took it. It was no more than that. A one-night stand and I never expected to see her again.’

‘And the money?’

‘Is money I’m taking with me to Mexico. The people I’m doing business with there want paying in cash. What Erik had was a quarter of a million dollars worth of pesos.’

‘What kind of business is it?’

He looked at her for a long time before slowly shaking his head. ‘Not now,’ he said. ‘I will tell you, but not now. I need to be with you afterwards and today I just can’t stay.’

‘Then what about Consuela?’

‘It’s all a part of the same thing,’ he answered and once again it was as though his pain was being pushed to the surface. ‘Louisa, please don’t make me hate myself any more than I already do. I never intended anything to happen between us, it would have been better if it hadn’t – for both of us. But we’re here now, we’ve got what we have …’

‘It’s blackmail, isn’t it?’ Louisa said flatly. ‘You’re involved in some kind of blackmail.’

His eyes closed and sighing he dropped his forehead against hers. ‘Were it only that simple,’ he murmured.

‘Aphrodite told Sarah that Morandi was a blackmailer,’ she persisted. ‘Morandi told Sarah he works for you.’

‘He does, in a way. When did Aphrodite tell Sarah that?’

‘On Saturday. The same day that Danny told us she thought the same thing.’

‘Has Sarah spoken to Morandi since?’

‘No, his answer phone’s on all the time.’

Jake was silent, then pulling her into his arms he said, ‘I told you none of this was going to be easy. I tried to warn you, but it’s my fault, I was crazy ever to have started it. I should let you go now, but, God help me, I can’t. If you only knew how it feels to hold you, what you do to me when you look at me. I want you, Louisa, I want you here with me to remind me that there is still some good in this world. But I know I can’t keep doing this to you, hiding things and expecting you to accept it. Jesus Christ,’ he groaned as he buried his face in the soft scent of her hair, ‘I want you so bad it’s hard to make myself think about anything else.’

As Louisa’s arms went around him she just knew, deep in her heart, that no matter what anyone said this wasn’t a man who beat his wife. And neither was he a man who was lying to her now. She could feel his love as though it were moving into her, drawing her closer, binding her to him. The gentleness, the concern and deep emotion that reflected themselves in his eyes, in his voice, in his touch were more real to her than anything else could ever be.

‘Hold me,’ she whispered as his arms tightened around her. ‘Hold me close Jake and tell me that I’m not wrong about you.’

He lifted his head, looked deep into her eyes and said, ‘You’re not wrong,’ and then his lips were on hers, his arms were crushing her and his whole body was pressed against hers telling her the extent of his desire, his passion, his unspoken love.

‘Oh God,’ he laughed harshly. ‘Why does it have to be like this? Why can’t I just …?’ His eyes closed as though he regretted saying even that much, but then he was kissing her again, kissing her and holding her as though he might never let her go.

Then suddenly, like a great, ugly fist, Danny’s words hit her. ‘He’ll get you to the point of begging …’ she’d said. ‘He won’t make a commitment to me, not yet …’

Louisa pulled herself abruptly from the embrace, shaking as much with anger at herself for being so easily taken in as with hatred of Danny for spoiling what little she had. But it wasn’t Danny, was it? It was him. He had said those things …

‘For God’s sake!’ he cried angrily as she threw the accusation at him. ‘What do you want me to say? That I’m committing myself to you?’

Yes, that was what she wanted, but at the same time she didn’t want to hear him refuse.

He rolled his eyes towards the heavens as he gave an exasperated smile. ‘Why are you letting her do this?’ he said gently.

Louisa looked at him, the battle raging within her to resist him.

‘Would you believe Erik if I got him to tell you how I feel about you?’ he said.

‘Why don’t you tell me yourself?’ she challenged.

‘Because I don’t have the right to tell you myself. But I will tell you this, Louisa, I want you just as much as you want me. Sure, you’re telling yourself you don’t right now, but we both know that what’s happening between us is too big for either of us to deny. And what Danny told you, what she claims she’s repeated from my lips, was either what she overheard me saying to Erik, or what Erik’s told her himself. It’s more likely that she overheard it, because I don’t believe Erik would break my trust. And what I told him was that I can’t make the commitment to you that I want to make. They were idle words, because he knows that already and he knows why. And as for getting you to beg me, you’ve got to know that I’d never let you do that, it would never get that far, because God knows I can’t hold out much longer myself. The only reason I’ve held back until now is because I can’t make love to you knowing you feel the way you do, without telling you first what you’re really up against. Erik knows we haven’t made love because I told him. I told him that it was going to drive us both crazy, but that I wasn’t going to do it until you knew the truth. Danny must have heard that and then put it into her own words.’

‘But why would she do that? And why, after I asked you that night in the garden not to make me beg, should she have used that very same word?’

‘An unhappy coincidence, I don’t know. But that word sure as hell never crossed my lips when I was talking to Erik.’

‘That still doesn’t explain why Danny would lie to me.’

‘No, because I don’t have an answer for that,’ he said, ‘I don’t know Danny like you do, maybe you’re better placed to come up with the answer.’

Louisa thought she probably was. But what was it all about, she wondered. What was going on in Danny’s head to make her want to hurt her the way she was, to take the credit for her success, to throw her background in her face then tell her it was because of it that she excused Louisa for a selfishness Louisa was unaware of? There was something going on with Danny, something that undoubtedly had its roots in a horrible and competitive jealousy that Jake had fallen for Louisa and not for Danny. But it wasn’t something Louisa wanted to think about now, not when Jake was standing there, watching her with that lazy irony in his eyes that was tinged with concern while waiting for her to tell him … To tell him what? How sorry she was that she had doubted him? But no, she couldn’t do that, and she was sure, under the circumstances, that he wouldn’t expect her to.

‘Why don’t we just forget about Danny and concentrate on us?’ she said softly.

‘You got it,’ he smiled. Then pulling her into the circle of his arm he started to walk towards the narrow road running alongside the school.

‘Do you find anything odd about this place?’ Louisa said, taking the hand that was draped around her shoulder and lacing her fingers through his.

‘Yeah, as a matter of fact, I do,’ he answered. ‘To be honest it gives me the creeps.’

‘Mmm, me too.’ She paused for a moment then said, ‘I’m sorry we argued.’

‘I’m sorry too,’ he said, giving her a quick squeeze. ‘So tell me, what have you been doing with yourself?’

‘Not much actually. It’s been too hot to go anywhere, so we’ve been lazing around the pool mainly. Oh, by the way, Sarah’s got the enlargements of the Valhalla. I think you’re going to like them.’

‘Good, I’ll have to try and get round to see them. And, now I come to think of it, I’m going to have to get you on board one of these days because you haven’t seen her yet, have you?’

‘No, but I’d love to. More than anything I’d like to see where you live.’

He laughed. ‘I don’t live on the Valhalla,’ he said. ‘I’ve got a house over in the Var where I live when I’m here.’

‘A house?’ she said, surprised. ‘You’ve never mentioned it before.’

‘No, I just hope I’m doing right by mentioning it now.’

‘Why shouldn’t you be?’

‘Come on,’ he said, pulling open the door to the Mercedes, ‘get in and I’ll drive you back.’

‘So soon?’

‘I told you, I’ve got a plane to catch.’

‘Where are you going?’

‘Back to Mexico,’ and closing the passenger door behind her he walked round to get in the other side. The roof was up and all the windows were closed, but as Louisa made to push the button to open hers he stopped her.

‘The air-conditioner’s on,’ he told her, starting up the engine.

As he reversed back over the gravel he was punching out a number on the phone. He let it ring on the speaker for a moment, then picking up the receiver he spoke in what at his end was a series of non sequiturs, ‘Bob?’ he said. ‘Yeah. No, it was no good. Get onto Erik if you can and have him meet me at the Valhalla in half an hour. He can take me to the airport. What!’ he hissed. ‘When did it happen? Where’s Morandi now? OK, find him, tell him I want to see him. Sure, I’ll be right there,’ and he rang off.

‘I want you to do something for me,’ he said, glancing over at Louisa as they drove back through the village.

‘What’s that?’

‘I want you to promise me you’ll stay away from Consuela. And, if you can, I want you to keep Danny away from her too.’

Louisa’s heart gave a twist of unease. ‘Am I allowed to ask why?’ she said.

He didn’t answer straight away so she turned to look at him. ‘Do you know the story of Pandora?’ he said.

‘I think so,’ she answered, curiously.

‘Well I’ll tell you just in case,’ he said glancing at his watch. ‘She was sent by Zeus as a punishment to Epimetheus. She came with all the gifts of the divinities and with all the beauty of the goddesses. But in her mouth were lies and in her heart was perfidy. That is Consuela.’

Louisa turned to look straight ahead, not knowing what to say.

They continued in silence as they rejoined the main road and the refreshing breeze from the air-conditioner cooled them. She looked over at him and though she couldn’t see his eyes behind the sunglasses she could tell from the tightness of his mouth and the hard set of his jaw that whatever was going through his mind now was causing him a great deal of anguish, if not anger. She desperately wanted to lighten the atmosphere for these last few minutes, but couldn’t think what to say.

‘When are you coming back from Mexico?’ she ventured and immediately wished she hadn’t when she saw the strain in his face increase.

‘I don’t know,’ he answered abruptly.

She shrugged awkwardly. ‘Whereabouts are you going in Mexico?’ she asked trying to sound chatty.

‘Look, Louisa, I don’t need this right now, OK?’ he snapped. ‘Just get off my back with the questions. I told you I’ll tell you everything just as soon as I can, so quit hassling me.’

‘Don’t speak to me like that!’ she retorted angrily. ‘I was merely trying to make conversation.’

‘Then don’t.’

For a moment she was lost for words then, quite suddenly, without her even knowing how it had happened, they were in the middle of a blazing row.

‘I did what I could to put your mind at rest,’ he was raging, ‘but right now I’m not doing any more. And if you’ve got a problem with that then maybe you’d better get out of my life now!’

‘Of course I’ve got a problem with it,’ she shouted back. ‘I can’t stand all this deceit, all this …’

‘Make the decision, Louisa, because it’s all the same to me.’

She gasped. ‘Well if that’s how you feel,’ she seethed, ‘then I’ll say goodbye now.’

‘That suits me just fine.’

For a second or two as alarm threatened to get the better of her anger she smouldered in silence. ‘So you are a liar!’ she suddenly cried. ‘One minute you say you can’t let me go, then the next it suits you just fine.’

‘OK, I’m a liar!’ he yelled furiously. ‘It’s what you’ve been trying to get from me ever since I turned up today, so you got it. I’m a liar. Does that make you happy? Is that what you want to hear?’

‘If it’s the truth, then yes, it’s what I want to hear.’

‘Then you’ve got it!’

Louisa turned to glare out of the window while he swore under his breath as he took a bend too fast and had to swerve to avoid an oncoming car.

‘Why don’t you slow down?’ she snapped. ‘You’re going to get us both killed at this rate and I don’t see why I should die just because you can’t control your temper.’

His face was still stony, the knuckles of his left hand white as he gripped the wheel, but he did ease off the accelerator at the same time as he punched the CD and drowned the car with music.

Louisa immediately sat forward and punched it off again.

He let it go, glancing in his rear-view mirror as he made a right turn into Valanjou. A few minutes later he pulled up at the end of the lane leading to the villa.

When Louisa merely sat there he looked pointedly and impatiently at his watch.

‘Is this how we’re going to leave it?’ she said curtly.

‘I don’t have time for this,’ he responded, sounding only fractionally less angry. ‘I’ll call you when I get back, OK?’

‘Suit yourself,’ she said through clenched teeth and throwing open the door she got out and slammed it behind her.

It was just after midnight. Jake was furiously pacing the deck of the Valhalla while Erik stood leaning against a stanchion calmly smoking a cigarette.

‘How much goddamned longer are we gonna have to wait?’ Jake growled. ‘And who the hell called the police, is what I want to know?’

‘Aphrodite?’ Erik suggested, tilting his head so that it was in the glow of the lamp on the foremast.

Jake glowered at him, then resumed pacing.

‘Look, if it had been a straightforward burglary the police needn’t have been involved,’ Erik pointed out. ‘But there’s no way he can cover up the fire.’

‘How much longer are they going to hold him?’ Jake demanded.

‘They’re not holding him, they’re just carrying out their investigation.’

‘At this time of night?’

‘No one could find him before,’ Erik reminded him. ‘Now, for God’s sake roll yourself a joint and calm down, will you?’

‘Did you get me on a flight out tomorrow?’

‘Yes. And Fernando’s been contacted, he knows you’re not coming in on schedule.’

Jake turned and hammered his fist against the coach house. ‘This is all we fucking need right now,’ he hissed.

‘Hey up, here they come,’ Erik said, spotting Morandi and Bob getting into the dinghy over at the harbour.

Jake stood at the edge of the deck watching them come and barely waited until Morandi was on board before laying into him with: ‘Who the hell called the police?’

Morandi’s face was pale, his hair and clothes were in disarray, his eyes were tired and filled with foreboding. ‘Apparently it was a neighbour,’ he answered. ‘She saw that the office had been burgled so she called the police and by the time they came the place was going up in smoke.’

‘Did they manage to salvage anything?’

‘I think so. They acted pretty quickly, but I haven’t had a chance to go and look the place over yet. You needn’t worry about all the records though, they weren’t there.’

Though it was minimal, Jake appeared mollified by this answer. ‘Where’s Aphrodite?’ he said.

‘I don’t know. I haven’t seen her since this morning.’

‘Where were you when the police contacted you?’

‘On location, where I’ve been most of the time since Monday.’

‘And Aphrodite?’

‘She was with me until this morning.’

Jake glanced at Erik who shrugged and lit another cigarette.

‘OK,’ Jake said, ‘fill me in on what happened just prior to the burglary. Yeah, yeah, I know you were on location, but what about Consuela? Did you have any contact with her over the past couple of days?’

‘Yes,’ Morandi answered, wiping a hand over his mouth as the troubled look in his eyes deepened. ‘I had a video she wanted, but I refused to hand it over.’

‘What video?’ Jake demanded.

Morandi looked at him, glanced at Erik then back again. There was something akin to real fear in his eyes now.

‘What video?’ Jake said through clenched teeth.

‘The one of Danny Spencer’s mother,’ Morandi sighed defeatedly.

Jake gave a bark of laughter. ‘Of course!’ he said. ‘What a fool. I should have known. Did she say what she wanted it for?’

Morandi seemed to shrink as his eyes once again moved between Jake and Erik. ‘She said she was afraid you’d use it to try and get money out of Danny,’ he answered, already wincing at the explosion he knew was about to come.

But it didn’t. Instead, for several seconds, the only sound was the gentle wash of the waves against the hull.

Morandi waited, watching Jake closely, deeply unnerved by this lack of reaction. In the end it was Erik who spoke.

‘The question now,’ he said, ‘is did she get the video out before she had the place burned?’

‘We have to assume she did,’ Jake answered, ‘otherwise she’d never have burned it.’ He turned to Morandi. ‘Tell me you didn’t mention anything about her to the police.’

‘Not a word,’ Morandi assured him.

‘OK. You’d better try and find Aphrodite, make sure she doesn’t start singing either.’

‘Oh, she won’t,’ Morandi said confidently.

‘Just make sure of it. Now I’m for bed, because if Consuela’s already got that video then there’s nothing any of us can do about it now. Where’s Danny?’ he added to Erik.

‘At the villa.’

Jake nodded. ‘Do what you can to see that she stays there. I know she’s as slippery as a barrel of eels, but try,’ and leaving them to it he swung himself in through the hatch, his mind now totally focused on Mexico.