Thursday 28th January 2016
Monte Carlo, Monaco
Adam has slept fitfully, his brain active, the disk drives processing thoughts about all the women suddenly in his life: Xandra; Emms; Mrs Bateson; and now Gemma. There is also the looming trip to Iraq and beyond that he’s got to work his way through. It’s enough to keep anyone awake at night. At five-thirty he finally gives up on the idea of getting more sleep. He slips out of bed to put the coffee on and to do some stretching.
Two espressos and a large glass of water later, and Adam decides to go for a swim. In the winter months Ricky’s outdoor pool is kept heated and insulated from the elements by an electrically operated cover. It is positioned on a lower terrace away from the main villa. Adam makes his way down the stone steps that lead to it by the feeble light of solar-powered lamps. These charge during the day and then work their magic at night. By this time of the morning, the rechargeable batteries have almost drained.
Despite the early hour, the pool cover is open and someone is in the water, quietly and gently doing laps. It is Tash. In the pre-dawn half-light Adam can see that she is completely naked. She looks up when she hears him approaching.
“Sorry, Tash,” Adam says, coming to a halt, about to retrace his steps.
“I didn’t think anyone would be here. I’ll come back another time.”
“Please don’t leave, Adam,” she calls out plaintively. “The water’s lovely. I really don’t mind.”
Adam turns around and slowly comes back down to the water’s edge.
“Are you sure?”
“Quite sure.” He can hardly see her in the dark.
“I’m not prudish.”
Adam throws his towel on the back of a pool lounger and heads to the deeper end of the pool, ready to dive in. Tash’s slender body swims elegantly away from him, her long blonde hair flowing in her wake as she performs a lazy breaststroke.
Adam dives and swims two fast lengths, catching up with Tash back at the deep end and stopping to catch his breath. Then he sees her face.
“What happened?” he asks, holding on to the poolside.
Her face is badly bruised, the area around her left eye and cheek puffy and swollen.
“It’s nothing,” Tash says, immediately beginning another length of breaststroke. Adam follows, in no time swimming alongside her.
“What do you mean it’s nothing?”
They are side by side, each performing a slow breaststroke.
“What happened?”
Tash swims a few more strokes.
“I slipped.”
At the moment she reaches the shallow end, she turns and switches to front crawl. Adam follows and they eventually meet once more back at the deep end.
“Did Vladek do that to you?” he asks quietly, both treading water at the deep end.
She doesn’t answer, instead simply shakes her head. Adam holds onto the side of the pool to steady himself. With one hand he reaches across to touch her face, gently feeling the swelling and bruising around her cheek beneath his fingers. She is young, beautiful and vulnerable. Adam feels a sudden anger. How could anyone do such a thing and believe they could get away with it?
“Was it Ricky?”
She thinks about this, biting her lip and closing her eyes, nodding her head ever so slightly before swimming away again, once more reverting to breaststroke. Adam catches up with her and this time they come to a halt in the middle of the pool, both treading water. There is a glimmer of light to the east, the dawn soon to arrive. The light is sufficient to allow Adam to notice tears in Tash’s eyes.
“Anything broken?” he asks.
“No,” she says feebly.
“Why did he do it?”
She swims into shallower water until she is able to stand. She then turns to look at Adam directly.
“He thinks I’m spying on him. I’m not, Adam, I promise. But he seems to think that I am.”
“Why? What have you done, or are you meant to have done?”
“I don’t know, and that’s the honest truth.”
More tears. They start swimming once again.
“So he slaps you around, is that it? Knocks you about and thinks it’s okay. That’s terrible, Tash. You should walk away. Forget about Ricky, go and start a new life with someone else.”
Someone your own age who treats you properly, not some sugar daddy who treats you like shit and turns your face into pulp.
“It’s not as simple as that, Adam. We’re both needy people. He gives me access to certain things. Stuff I couldn’t get anywhere else.” She looks at him with a weak, embarrassed smile.
“Such as?”
“Can’t you guess?”
“Happy pills?”
She nods. They are at the deep end once again.
“Those and much worse. Plus loads of other stuff. Money, clothes, jewels: anything a girl could want.”
“And in return?”
“In return, I let him do what he wants with me.”
“Sounds like you’ve got the raw end of the deal, Tash. Why does Ricky think you’ve been spying on him?”
At this point Tash climbs out of the pool and onto the side before standing up. If she is self-conscious about her nakedness, she doesn’t show it. What Adam does see are several welt marks on her torso and lower back. He climbs out after her.
“Did Ricky give you those too?”
He points to the abrasions on her back. Before he can look any closer, she slips on a dressing-gown and covers herself up.
“Him and Vladek,” she mumbles.
“Vladek?”
“I don’t need to burden you with all this, Adam. I’m sorry. Just forget you ever saw me this morning. It’s my fault.”
“No it’s not. Just tell me, why Vladek as well as Ricky? Did they both give you a going over, is that it?”
He reaches for his towel and sits next to her on the edge of a lounger, where they huddle together to try and keep warm in the cold dawn air.
“It’s complicated, Adam. I don’t think you should get yourself involved in any of this. It’s not the first time.”
“What, Vladek and Ricky beating the shit out of you? Why do you let it happen, Tash? For God’s sake, just walk away.”
She shrugs, head down, leaning against Adam for warmth.
“What is it really that you are meant to have done?”
She looks up at him from a hunched-over position, trying to decide what to tell him. Her eyes flicker from side to side as she looks at each of Adam’s eyes in turn. Right here, right now, she looks defenceless and vulnerable. If either Ricky or Vladek were to make an appearance, Adam might be tempted to punch their lights out, regardless of the consequences.
“Ricky has these files, in a safe in his office. They contain important documents. Contracts with various clients that are not retained on any computer system.”
“He told me about them.”
“Did he? He said to me that he never discussed their existence with anyone.”
“He must have felt he could trust me.”
“He must have. Anyway, these contracts. His assistant types them apparently, prints two copies then deletes the electronic file once the papers have been signed. Clients keep one copy and he, Ricky, puts the other in this file. No electronic trace anywhere. Nothing that can be hacked into or stolen.”
She looks up at him again.
“You asked me what I am meant to have done? A few weeks ago Ricky asked me to help him with something. It was meant to be a special project, highly secret and one that I was to tell no one about. Ricky’s useless at computers and he knew that I was reasonably proficient. Anyway, for some reason he had decided to move into the digital age and wanted me to scan the contents of the files onto his computer. No one else was meant to know about this, not even his secretary. Apparently he felt vulnerable with just one flimsy paper copy in existence. He wanted an electronic copy on his private computer in the study here at the villa. It’s a machine with all the latest security, apparently. Anyway, one Sunday morning, he removes two lever-arch files from the safe in his office and I was made to scan in each and every document. There were hundreds of contracts, all individually stapled, each with two or three pages per agreement. He never let me out of his sight the whole time, it was weird. It took quite a while, longer than we had both thought. I scanned everything onto a small USB memory stick, one of those smart drives. Later, back at the villa, I used the drive to upload all the files onto his computer as planned. After I finished, I told him that I’d cleaned all the files from the drive and then handed the memory stick back to him.”
“So what was his problem?”
“Ricky is now convinced that I somehow made a duplicate of the memory stick and gave one to the British.”
“Why? Why the British in particular?”
“Because he’s obsessed with the idea that someone in his operation is a British mole. He’s been trying to convince himself that it’s me.”
“On what basis?”
“How the fuck should I know? Because Judge Ricky has convened his jury of one and for whatever reasons has convicted me, guilty of treason against Al-Shawabi Enterprises. He’s never really needed any excuses previously to treat me like a whore and use and abuse me to his heart’s content. You bloody ask him, Adam Fraser. I’m just a useless piece of trash that he and Vladek do what the fuck they want with. If I’m lucky, one day soon he might even kill me.”
“I hope you’re joking? Because if you’re not, I meant what I said earlier, Tash. Just go. Leave, today, this morning, now would better. Take all the diamonds and gold and Armani dresses that Ricky has bestowed on you and walk out the door before it’s too late. Don’t ever come back.”
She smiles weakly at him, her expression almost quizzical.
“I can’t. I’m too invested and Ricky knows that. You’re a decent sort, Adam. I like you. You look after people. Much more than Ricky ever does. Not to mention that creep Vladek. It’s not that simple. If I walked away they would come after me. Especially Vladek. He’s evil. He’s worse than Ricky.”
“Why? You haven’t given a memory stick to the British, have you?”
“No,” she answers a bit too quickly.
“So what’s Ricky’s problem?”
She pauses, eyes flickering from side to side once more at Adam.
“He’s convinced I made a second copy.”
“How, exactly, were you have supposed to have done that? You said he never left you alone the whole time you were scanning the documents. You couldn’t have made a copy of the memory stick. He would have seen. How are you meant to have given anything to anyone? You just told me: you handed the deleted smart drive back to Ricky. What’s he so worried about?”
“You’re right, I couldn’t have made a copy. However, I never said that I hadn’t still got the original.”
Now it is Adam’s turn to look quizzical.
“You mean you did keep a copy of the original memory stick after all?”
“Not a copy: the original. After I had uploaded the files to Ricky’s computer, I told him that I had erased the smart drive.”
“But you didn’t?”
“Not exactly.”
“How so?”
“The USB memory sticks come in a pack of three. I told him that I had erased the original drive but instead handed him back one of the two unused ones. I wanted to keep the original.”
“That was high risk.”
She shrugs.
“Why did you do it?”
“I felt that I needed a form of insurance policy. Against Ricky.”
“Smart idea, badly thought through. Do you think Ricky knows?”
“I’m not sure. I doubt it. I think he just got cross because it slowly dawned on him that I’d maybe seen too much and had the potential to know some of his dirty secrets. I thought I was just being clever. No harm done, or so I thought.”
“So he beat you up as a warning, is that what you think?”
“Something like that. Welcome to my world. Not looking too clever now, am I?”
“Where is it, Tash? The original memory stick? Do you still have it?”
She shakes her head defiantly.
“No. And he won’t find it on me.”
“How can you be sure?”
She has a slightly triumphant glint in her eye.
“Because,” she says with emphasis, “I don’t have it any more.”
“Where is it?”
“Somewhere secret. I thought about giving it to you but after what we all went through in Saudi I was in two minds.”
“In what way?”
“To tell the truth, Gemma and I were trying to work out whether you could be trusted.”
“But now you think I can be, is that it?”
“Adam, I just don’t know. All I do know is that Ricky got mad with me and I’ll now be wearing a lot of make-up at Xandra’s birthday party tomorrow night.”
“It’s not going to stop there though, is it? What’s Gemma’s role in all this?”
“She’s the only person I trust. About the only true friend I’ve got at present.” She smiles weakly. “Maybe apart from you.”
She pauses then looks directly into Adam’s eyes.
“If anything happens to me, go and see her. She’ll know where to look.” She attempts another smile but it fools neither of them.
“I need to go.”
She is now standing. Adam also gets to his feet. It is nearly light, the bruising around her eye more visible.
“Just forget about all this, please, Adam. Promise me you won’t say anything to either Ricky or Vladek? It’ll only get me into trouble.”
“It goes against my better judgement. If you get me the memory stick, I promise I can get you out of this mess. I’ll make sure you’re properly taken care of, in a place where no one will ever be able to find you.”
She touches his cheek with her palm of her hand.
“Maybe. It’s a kind offer. I’ll think about it. I want to believe in you, I just need time to get my mind around it all. Perhaps tomorrow, Adam. Before the party. That feels a good time to be making an exit, don’t you think?”
“Why not right now? I can wait here while you go and get the memory stick. You can be out of here, safe as houses, by lunchtime.”
“I told you I don’t have it. I can get it but not immediately. Let’s talk later. I need to be getting back. Ricky will be wondering where I’ve got to.”
She kisses Adam briefly on the cheek then turns to leave, aware of Adam’s eyes watching her as she makes her way up the stone steps back towards the villa.