23

JEAN-CLAUDE LOOKED UP from the Nice-Matin as a shadow from the open french windows fell over him.

‘Hi,’ Sarah said, dropping her bag on the coffee table and kicking off her shoes as she sat down. ‘Where’s Louisa?’

‘I don’t know,’ Jean-Claude answered. ‘I think she must ’ave gone out with Danny.’

‘Oh,’ Sarah said surprised. ‘So they’ve made their peace?’

‘I imagine so. Louisa went over there a couple of hours ago and just after I saw Danny’s car leaving.’

‘Well Danny’s back now,’ Sarah said. ‘I just saw her car in the drive. I’ll go over and see what they’re up to in a minute, but first things first. Have you eaten?’

‘Not yet, no. Are you hungry?’

‘Ravenous. Which was why I popped into the poissonnerie and ordered a whopping great paella.’ She glanced at her watch. ‘It’ll be here in about ten minutes. I’ve ordered enough for all of us. Is Didier around?’

Jean-Claude gave an indulgent smile. ‘’e ’as something of a sore ’ead after a late night,’ he said. ‘’e is still sleeping. I will wake ’im when the food arrives.’

‘OK. Do you mind if I give Danny and Louisa a quick call and tell them to get themselves over here?’

‘Of course not,’ Jean-Claude answered, waving her to the phone. ‘’ow did things go with the lawyer?’

‘If I say French bureaucracy will that do it?’ Sarah responded.

Chuckling, Jean-Claude returned to his paper.

‘Oh God, you don’t mind Danny coming, do you?’ she said, giving an anxious, apologetic grimace as she dialled the number.

‘No. Though ’opefully she ’as calmed down a little after last night.’

‘Hopefully,’ Sarah muttered. ‘Hi, Danny, it’s me. I’ve just …’ She came to an abrupt stop and pulling the receiver from her ear she gazed at it blankly. ‘She hung up on me,’ she said incredulously. Then hitting the connectors she dialled again. The phone rang and rang until finally Danny picked it up. ‘Danny,’ Sarah said crossly. ‘Is Louisa there?’

‘No.’

‘No? Well, have you seen her today?’

‘No. Now get off the line, I’m waiting for a call,’ and with that Danny slammed down the phone.

‘The cow,’ Sarah said angrily, putting down the receiver. She turned thoughtfully, worriedly, to Jean-Claude who was looking at her over the top of his paper. ‘Well she obviously hasn’t calmed down,’ Sarah said. ‘But I wonder where Louisa is if she’s not over there?’ It was the strangest thing, she was thinking to herself, but ever since she’d got up this morning she’d had the weirdest feeling inside. She couldn’t say exactly what it was, but it seemed, she thought, to be coming from the air. It seemed even stiller than normal, almost eerily still. There were no birds, there was no breeze, not even the faintest rustle in the trees and she was sure that the temperature must have risen above a hundred.

‘’er car is there, is it not?’ Jean-Claude said.

‘Yes,’ she answered, her eyes drawing focus. ‘At least I think it was.’ She went to the window and craning her neck to see over the thick clusters of oleanders she said, ‘Yes, her car’s there. So where can she be? Unless she’s with Jake.’

‘I’m sure that must be it,’ he said. ‘I didn’t see him, but …’

‘Oh, here they are,’ Sarah said, feeling a bewildering flood of relief as the Mercedes swept into the drive. ‘And by the look of their faces they haven’t patched it up either. Shall we have some wine with lunch?’

‘But of course,’ Jean-Claude said, making it sound like a silly question.

A few minutes later Louisa came in. Even with her sunglasses on there was no mistaking the fact she’d been crying.

‘Here,’ Sarah said, thrusting a glass of wine at her. ‘Come and sit down. What happened? Did he apologize for last night?’

‘Yes,’ Louisa answered.

‘So why the glum face?’ Sarah said, as Louisa started to bite her lips.

‘They’ve found his wife. He’s leaving tomorrow.’

‘Oh là, là,’ Jean-Claude murmured.

‘They’ve found her!’ Sarah said. ‘You mean she’s alive?’

Louisa nodded. ‘Please, do you mind, I don’t really want to talk about it just now. I’ll tell you later.’

‘Of course,’ Sarah said, peering worriedly into Louisa’s face.

‘It’s OK,’ Louisa said, patting her hand. ‘I’ll be all right. I just need some time to get used to it.’

Sarah hugged her. Naturally, no one could be anything but glad that Martina was alive, though what the poor woman must have been through these past three years hardly bore thinking about, but it was just so awful for Louisa that it all had to end like this.

‘That’ll be lunch,’ Jean-Claude said, hearing a car pull into the drive.

As Sarah made to get up he put a hand on her shoulder and pushed her gently back to her knees. ‘I’ll see to it,’ he said in a low voice.

Looking up at him and smiling her thanks, Sarah turned back to Louisa. ‘Will you see him again before he goes?’ she asked.

‘Yes,’ Louisa croaked. Then clearing her throat she said, ‘How’s Morandi?’

‘Would you believe,’ Sarah said, pulling a face, ‘he’s sitting there in his cell writing blue movies about the police?’

Louisa chuckled. ‘No, I wouldn’t believe,’ she said.

‘Then you’re right. He’s not. He’s a bundle of nerves and he looks terrible.’

‘But I thought he wasn’t under suspicion any more?’

‘So did I. But some kind of bureaucratic nonsense is keeping him in jail. The lawyer didn’t bother to explain what, at least not to me. I left him explaining it to Morandi.’

‘They’re very co-operative letting you see him so often,’ Louisa commented, her mind barely on what she was saying.

‘Well I only get five minutes, but it’s better than nothing. I guess that’s France for you, even the police have a romantic side. Still, at least now we know he’ll be out soon.’ Then looking immediately contrite she added. ‘I just wish it could have turned out a bit more happily for you.’

‘Well, never mind, that’s life,’ Louisa said, feeling the tightness of pain move throughout her body as everything in her cried out for him. ‘When do you think they might let him go?’

‘Search me,’ Sarah sighed, glancing at the phone as it started to ring.

‘Sarah, it’s for you,’ Jean-Claude called from the kitchen.

Getting up to answer it Sarah gave Louisa’s hand a quick squeeze saying, ‘That’ll be him now. At least he’s the only one I gave this number to. Unless it’s Danny of course.’

But it was Morandi’s lawyer and as Sarah listened to what he was saying, despite the shaft of burning hot sun on her skin, she felt herself turning to ice.

‘I don’t believe it,’ she murmured as she put the phone down. ‘I just don’t believe it.’

‘What? What’s happened?’ Louisa said.

‘They’re not letting him go,’ Sarah answered, still dazed by the shock of it. ‘Not only that,’ she said huskily, ‘they’ve just added another charge. Extortion.’

Louisa’s eyes closed and as her head started to spin she thought she was going to be sick. ‘But Jake said …’ she began, but what had Jake said? ‘Not that I’m aware of,’ that’s what he’d said when she’d asked him if Morandi had killed Aphrodite. ‘Oh my God, Sarah,’ she said. ‘You don’t suppose that he was double-crossing Jake and working with Consuela do you?’

‘I don’t know,’ Sarah said, her face deathly pale. ‘I just don’t know anything any more. And I hate this silence. Where are the damned birds?’

It wouldn’t be long now, Danny was thinking to herself, as she floated on the surface of the pool staring through her polaroid lenses at the sun-bleached sky. Just one more call, one more person to get into place and it would begin. The witnesses, her rescuers should it turn nasty, were all where they should be. She didn’t feel as nervous now as she had last night, but it was always that way, the nerves generally disappeared when the performance began. And it had begun, for ever since she had left Consuela’s, just under an hour ago, she had been summoning the flair and genius inside her. There were no lines, just a silent, spectacular performance that called for cameras all around the pool. And fate and fortune were with her, directing her, had been pulling the performance from her even before she’d known it. Last night’s fiasco was the prelude, without it today couldn’t have happened. That’s how she knew she was receiving a near divine inner guidance, for when she had felt them all turning against her she had almost lost it. She had come so close to throwing her arms around Louisa and begging forgiveness for the way she had hurt her. But she hadn’t. It was all proving so easy and she couldn’t think now why she had been so frightened and nervous last night.

She was glad she’d had that long talk with Consuela this morning, recalling it now was soothing her. She had come away with everything at last in perspective. She now knew exactly why she was doing this and why it had to be done. A last minute work-through of character and motivation was invariably invaluable, but even so, Consuela had said, ‘If at any moment you feel you don’t want to go through with this, even if it’s right at the last minute, then don’t think twice, pick up the phone and it will be like nothing has ever happened.’

But there was no question now of her backing out. She was so ready for this performance. She wondered how easy it was going to be for them to get Jake here, but maybe, after she’d spoken to him on the phone this morning when he’d tried to call Louisa, he’d come anyway. That had been another unexpected twist that had gone even further to prove that this was all meant to be. She hadn’t told him Louisa was at Jean-Claude’s, she’d told him that Louisa didn’t want to speak to him. Then she’d invited him to come and make love to her, but she hadn’t put it like that, she’d put it in a way that few men could resist. Consuela had been delighted when she’d told her. So maybe he would come anyway, but they still had their plan to get him here, just in case.

Swimming lazily to the steps she climbed out of the pool and as she walked towards the terrace she was watching her reflection in the window. She had chosen her costume with care and just to see the way she looked was igniting her lust. Her swimsuit was black, had only a bikini bottom from which two long straps hooked up over her shoulders, pulling the bottom high on her hip bones and revealing her breasts totally.

It was a strange sort of day, she thought to herself as she sat down, so silent and so unbelievably hot. She’d remarked on it to Consuela that morning and Consuela had agreed, there did seem something unnatural about today. Danny wondered if Louisa had noticed it. She didn’t know why it should matter whether Louisa had or not, but for some reason it seemed important. Ah yes, she knew why, when it came to writing the script later this peculiar, breathless silence would be important for the ambience.

She blinked as for an instant her mind went blank. The telephone rang and rushing into the house she snatched it up, urgently saying hello. The adrenalin was pouring into her veins, excitement was gleaming feverishly in her eyes.

‘Danny?’

‘Yes.’

‘Are you alone?’

‘Yes, I’m alone,’ she confirmed starting to shake.

‘Good. Are you ready?’

‘I will be by the time you get here.’

He laughed.

She laughed too.

‘See you soon,’ he said and rang off.

As Danny put down the phone every nerve in her body was buzzing like a live wire. Exhilaration was coursing through her. She slid a hand over the front of her swimsuit, pushing it between her legs. She was going to screw him one more time, she was going to have a murderer’s cock inside her. She reached out for the edge of the table as her knees suddenly turned weak. Oh, what a shame the real cameras weren’t here, for to recreate later what she was feeling now was going to be almost impossible.

She walked onto the terrace, waving an arm towards the woods to give the signal that he was about to arrive. None of them knew that she was going to screw him, right there on the terrace, it wasn’t a part of the script, but just think of what power it would add to the scene.

A few minutes later she heard his car coming into the drive and going back into the house she began stroking her breasts. Soon his hands would be doing this. A killer’s hands would be moving all over her body and as she goaded him and jeered at him and forced him to beat her the telephoto lenses would be watching.

Then suddenly, from out of nowhere, a terrible fear struck like a hammer. She hadn’t actually seen anyone in the woods, she’d just assumed they were there. But Consuela wouldn’t let her down, Consuela had said they were there, but what if they weren’t? She needed to see them. She had to be sure. She didn’t want to be alone with a killer, but how could she find out now, as he was coming up the drive, if the others were there? Her heart was thudding in her ears, there was sudden terror in her throat. She couldn’t think. She didn’t know what to do. She needed Sarah and Louisa. Her hand flew to her mouth, trembling violently against her lips as she heard his engine die. Then turning, crashing against the table, she grabbed for the phone.

‘Jake,’ Louisa cried. ‘Jake, I’m sorry to call you now, I know you have a hundred things …’

‘It’s OK,’ he said, getting out of his car, the mobile phone resting on his shoulder. ‘I already know.’

‘About Morandi?’

‘Sure. I’m on my way there now.’

‘What happened, do you know? Why was he …’

‘Consuela spoke to the police this morning, that’s how it happened. She’s trying to get her accusations in first. Tell Sarah not to worry, we’ll have him out of there, it’s just not going to be as soon as I thought. I’ve got to go now, I’ll call you later.’

When Louisa rang off she turned to find Sarah’s anxious, bewildered eyes looking up at her from the sofa. ‘He’s on his way to try and get it sorted,’ Louisa told her, then smiled at the way Sarah seemed to deflate with relief.

‘Was it Consuela who accused him?’

‘Yes.’

‘Thank God for that, for one horrible minute there I was almost suspecting Jake again.’

‘I know. I feel a bit like the Valhalla tossing about in a storm these days, don’t you?’

‘Tell me about it,’ Sarah remarked. ‘Anyway, what are we going to do about Danny? Do you think we should go over there?’

‘Mmm, yes,’ Louisa sighed. ‘We’ve got to try and thrash this out between us once and for all. The trouble is I just don’t know if I’m up to her saying any more about Jake right now. If she does, we’re only going to end up having another row.’

‘Then why don’t we leave her to stew in it for a bit longer,’ Sarah said, ‘and go and at least try to be cheerful guests and eat some of that paella.’

‘You’re right,’ Louisa said, as they walked outside to join Jean-Claude on the terrace. ‘It really is horribly quiet today, isn’t it?’ she remarked.

An hour later Didier still hadn’t emerged from his hangover and Louisa was collecting up the used paella plates while Jean-Claude and Sarah sipped their coffee, when they all turned as they heard someone running up the drive.

‘Jean-Claude! Jean-Claude!’ Erik shouted, running onto the terrace and almost collapsing against a pillar. ‘Get the police,’ he said breathlessly.

Jean-Claude was on his feet. ‘Erik, what is it?’ he said, going to him. ‘What ’as ’appened?’

‘It’s … It’s Danny!’ Erik gulped, his face stricken with horror. ‘You’ve got to call the police.’

‘Why?’ Louisa cried, dropping the plates and starting towards him. ‘Erik, what’s happened to her?’

‘Just call the police!’ Erik seethed, dashing his fist through the tears streaming down his ashen cheeks.

‘Where is she?’ Sarah demanded.

Erik was sobbing so hard he could barely catch his breath. ‘The police,’ he choked. ‘Please, just call the police.’

Their faces pinched with fear, Sarah and Louisa looked at each other then together started from the terrace.

‘No!’ Erik yelled. ‘Don’t go over there. Please, don’t go.’

Louisa started to run, Sarah was right behind her as they raced up the drive to the villa, shouting Danny’s name.

‘Oh my God!’ Sarah suddenly gasped, covering her face with her hands.

Louisa swung round, then she saw too.

Interminable seconds passed as they stood frozen in shock, then Louisa began moving towards the pool.

‘No,’ she murmured. ‘No, no, no. Oh, Danny, no! Danny!’ she cried, throwing herself down at the edge. ‘Oh please God! Please, please, please God, don’t let her be dead. Danny, speak to me …’ she begged desperately reaching out her hand.

But Danny just floated silently in the bloody water, her thick black hair spreading like strands of silk, her arms and legs hanging loosely, her face submerged in the gentle undulation as the blood around the glinting knife in her back congealed in the baking sun.

The next two hours passed in a daze as the blazing sun slanted its rays of blistering heat through the open windows and the humidity outside seemed to drip from the trees. Louisa and Sarah sat huddled in Jean-Claude’s sitting room, speaking to the police, and heard, but didn’t see, the commotion going on over at the villa. Neither of them could collect their thoughts sufficiently from the shock to give very coherent answers, but Jean-Claude, who was acting as their interpreter, was doing his best. Erik’s interrogation was going on in another room, his French was good enough for him to fend for himself, but his shock was also rendering him almost incapable.

At some point, they didn’t know exactly when, Danny’s body was taken away and the forensic experts were now combing the villa and its grounds. Louisa didn’t know if anyone had contacted Danny’s parents yet, she didn’t want to ask because she just couldn’t think of how terrible this was going to be for them. There was only one thought in her mind, one agonizing thought, that if she hadn’t been so feeble as to not want to hear Danny insulting Jake again then she and Sarah would have gone over to the villa and somehow they might have prevented this.

Uppermost in Sarah’s mind as all her other thoughts collided in her head, was the way that both she and Louisa, just the night before, had threatened Danny with a knife. Of course, they both had alibis, she had been at the police station this morning and Louisa had been with Jake. Both of them had returned to Jean-Claude’s, all their movements could be accounted for, but it still didn’t stop the horrible fear that someone might suspect them. But worse, so very much worse, was the memory of their parting words to Danny. How were they ever going to forgive themselves? How were they ever going to live with the guilt?

At last the police left. For the time being the villa opposite was off limits they were told, but they could, if they wished, go over now to collect what they needed. Jean-Claude went for them, knowing that at this point neither Sarah nor Louisa knew anything about the blood in the house and he didn’t want them to see it. Only he had been inside the house and only he had seen Danny’s body when it was dragged from the pool, so he knew how savagely her face had been battered, how her body had been slashed, in the minutes before she had been stabbed in the back and thrown into the pool.

When he had gone, Sarah and Louisa, their hands clinging to each other’s, cried some more. They didn’t know what to say to comfort each other, neither could they offer any solace to Erik who was sitting in a corner, staring blindly at the garden, his face so haggard with grief that neither of them could bear to look.

Didier came quietly into the room. ‘Louisa,’ he said softly.

Louisa looked up, her face was ravaged by the tears she had shed.

‘I must tell you,’ he said in pained, apologetic and broken English, ‘that I ’ave just seen Madame Name-Drop and she tell the police that she see a black car leave the villa.’

Louisa’s eyes dilated as she looked at him. Then as though it was coming at her, thundering towards her, from the end of a long dark tunnel, the memory of what Jake had said that morning suddenly exploded in her head. ‘So Danny’s there all on her ownsome, is she?’ he had said.

‘Oh my God,’ she spluttered, thrusting a hand to her mouth.

Erik and Sarah were staring at him as though unable to take in what he had said. Didier looked back, shrugging his shoulders helplessly. ‘She did not say the car is a Mercedes,’ he said lamely.

‘Jesus Christ!’ Erik suddenly cried, seeming at last to come to his senses. ‘I’ve got to speak to Jake! I’ve got to tell him what’s happened,’ and leaping to his feet he dashed from the room.

While he was gone Louisa tried to make herself tell Sarah what Jake had said that morning, but every time she opened her mouth the terrible fear in her heart seemed to open like a gulf and swallow the words.

Erik wasn’t gone long and when he came back he looked agitated almost to the point of panic. ‘Sarah,’ he said, ‘you’ve got to get Morandi to tell you where he’s hidden all the evidence against Consuela.’

Sarah looked at him with dazed, uncomprehending eyes.

‘Sarah! Did you hear me?’ he barked.

‘Yes. Yes, I heard you,’ she mumbled. ‘Where has Morandi hidden the evidence?’

‘When are you seeing him again?’

‘In the morning.’

Erik didn’t seem to know if this was soon enough and putting a hand to his head he started to pace the room.

‘Where’s Jake now?’ Louisa asked dully.

‘On his way out of the country,’ Erik answered. ‘He was with Morandi at the police station when it happened, but he can’t hang around to answer questions. He has to get to Mexico.’

‘Oh God,’ Louisa choked, closing her eyes as she fell back against the sofa. So many thoughts started racing through her head, but the most important one of all was that whoever’s car it had been over at the villa, it hadn’t been Jake’s. For the moment that was all that mattered, the fact that she would never see him again was something she would deal with later.

Sarah’s heart was thudding horribly as she turned to look at Louisa. Obviously in thinking only of the relief that Jake hadn’t done it, Louisa had forgotten that her only alibi for this morning was at that very moment leaving the country.

‘What do you mean, she’s dead?’ Consuela whispered, turning to Marianne.

‘She’s dead!’ Marianne cried, verging on hysteria. ‘I thought it was all a hoax, I thought we were only staging it …’

‘Marianne!’ Consuela gasped. ‘What are you saying? Are you saying that I … Oh my God!’ she sobbed, burying her face in her hands. ‘Marianne, Danielle called me just before it was due to happen. She told me she didn’t want to go through with it so I called the whole thing off.’

‘Oh God,’ Marianne breathed. ‘Consuela, I’m sorry. I just didn’t know what to think. When I heard … When they told me what had happened … I thought, oh God, I’m sorry.’

‘Sssh, sssh,’ Consuela soothed, taking her in her arms. ‘I don’t blame you for what you thought. It has been very hard for you all this. But Danny, poor Danny, what on earth is this going to do to her parents? Has anyone told them yet, do you know?’

Marianne shook her head. ‘I don’t know. I only heard it from the policeman who wouldn’t let me go up to the villa. And when I saw that he wasn’t one of the actors … I realized … I knew something had gone horribly wrong.’

‘Why were you going to the villa?’ Consuela asked, confused.

‘I was going to get Louisa …’ She stopped as she suddenly realized that she’d betrayed herself.

‘For Jake,’ Consuela finished for her, smiling. ‘It’s all right, I know all about Louisa. Danny told me this morning.

‘I’m sorry I never told you,’ Marianne wept. ‘I thought if I didn’t then maybe he would just disappear with her and leave us alone. I know it was a silly thing to think, but …’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Consuela assured her, patting her hand. ‘But I don’t understand why you were running this errand for Jake when as far as you were aware he was supposed to be at the villa himself.’

‘I just assumed, when he called me and asked me to go there, that you had called everything off. But then, when I got there … Oh, Consuela, who could have killed her? Who would have done it if it wasn’t Jake? And it couldn’t have been Jake, he was in Nice with Morandi at the police station.’

‘How do you know that?’ Consuela asked curiously.

‘Because he called me just now in the car. He told me Danny was dead, but I already knew. He said … He said that I was to tell you that burning Morandi’s office wasn’t going to save you, because the records weren’t there. And then he said, he told me, that you had killed Aphrodite and you had killed Danny and he could prove it.’

‘But how can he when I’ve never left this house,’ Consuela cried, agitatedly. ‘The boys are all here to bear me …’ Her eyes came back to Marianne’s. ‘Why was Jake giving you messages to give to me? I thought he knew nothing about us.’

‘So did I. But he must have found out.’

‘Oh dear, this is all so terrible,’ Consuela said wringing her hands as she turned away. ‘I never dreamt he was so clever as to do all this to me. I must speak to my lawyers, I must warn them what’s happening. Where is Jake now, do you know?’

‘No. All he said was that he was going to Mexico, but earlier now than he’d planned.’

‘Then you must get onto the police and warn them,’ Consuela said urgently. ‘He mustn’t be allowed out of the country. Not now.’

‘But if he didn’t do it,’ Marianne protested.

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Consuela said firmly. ‘The police will still want to speak to him. Oh heavens!’ she gasped, throwing an unsteady hand to her head. ‘His father. I must speak to his father and tell him what has happened. Oh, this will be so awful for David, such a terrible blow. He’s on the yacht over in Cannes. I must call him right away and tell him to come.’

‘You mean that really is Jake’s father?’ Marianne said shocked.

‘Of course it is,’ Consuela answered, seeming shocked that Marianne hadn’t realized. ‘I haven’t been lying to you all this time, Marianne. It’s Jake who’s been lying, remember?’

Marianne nodded dumbly. ‘But if he didn’t kill Danny, Consuela, then who on earth did?’

Consuela was shaking her head mystified and once again showing signs of despair. ‘I don’t know, Marianne,’ she answered. ‘I truly don’t know.’ Then she looked up, a sudden thoughtful and suspicious frown creasing her brow. ‘Tell me, who found the body? Did Jake say?’

‘Yes. It was Erik.’

As Consuela’s eyes dropped she turned to the window and looked out. ‘Erik,’ she repeated under her breath. ‘Of course, Erik.’