The Fault

by Kitty Sewell

  She wondered what he meant but didn’t want to ask. The moment seemed precious so she put her arms around him, holding him close. They stood there for a while in a tight embrace. Finally, he spoke into her hair. ‘I can’t sit around; the wait is killing me. I’m going to look around town, asking people.’

  ‘Do you want me to come with you?’

  He released her from his arms. ‘It would be better if you stayed here and manned the phone; be here if she comes back. And could you look on my laptop for a recent photo of her?’

  ‘Of course, but take your phone, all right? Don’t you disappear on me too.’

  She left him rooting around in the hall cupboard while she went to find a photo of Mimi to print out. She remembered they’d taken several nice ones on her birthday, and quickly found an excellent closeup of Mimi smiling happily on the Wisteria Terrace of the Rock Hotel. She was just printing it off when she thought she heard the front door close. The sound produced a jolt of relief. Thank God! It had to be Mimi, coming back.

  She ran out. ‘Mimi? Is that you?’

  Her heart sank finding the hallway empty. ‘Sebastian?’

  She dashed through all the rooms, but she was alone in the apartment. In his distress, Sebastian had run off without the photo.

  What would she do now? Just sit there and wait, not able to help anyone with anything? Oh, God! Where was that girl?

  As she paced the cavernous rooms of the apartment, the last couple of days with all its troubles and confusion were bearing down on her. Mimi missing, the dodgy money she’d acquired, Sebastian unrecognisable in his distress, his loss of trust in her, Adrian dead, and the silent caller still out there. Montegriffo did seem the most likely culprit, but what about Jonny Risso; he was a dark horse, to say the least. It hadn’t occurred to her until now that he could be the breather, even though she’d seen in him a covert hostility, a chip on his shoulder about this good-looking diving couple with their – probably – glamorous lifestyle and stacks of money. He’d known her before the calls started. Of course, there were other possible culprits. Plenty of people had negative feelings about the Frontiers Project, or it could be someone at the site who’d caught Sebastian on a bad day. Her number was on his mobile after all, and he often left it lying around. But why her, why not him? The calls had ended when she rushed off to Benalmadena, but she’d assumed that was because she’d proposed to meet Adrian in person. She shuddered. The offender could be anybody, he had his eye on her – his target.

  Or maybe Mimi had been the target?

  Poor Sebastian, he was the one with the biggest burden to carry. He tried to deal with it the best he could, but besides the stress of Mimi being missing, it had become obvious that something within him had changed. Had her departure been the last straw for him? Perhaps it was all about Brian…

  Oh damn…Brian! If anyone deserved to know what was going on…

  ‘Brian, it’s me; Eva. I’m back.’

  ‘Thank God!’ he exclaimed. ‘I’ve not been able to forgive myself for abandoning you at a motorway services.’

  ‘Listen. I’m not a heinous adulterer after all. My husband is dead.’

  Brian was silent for a long moment. ‘Eva…you didn’t kill him, did you?’

  She coughed up a cheerless guffaw. ‘I was ready to, because I assumed he wanted to kill me. No, he died a year ago in a traffic accident.’

  ‘Well, Eva. You never cease to amaze me. So much for a boring life. But…now what? How does the uber-genius feel about you running off like that, and who the hell made those threatening phone calls?’

  For a second, only a brief second, she wondered about Brian. He seemed so utterly solid and stable, but he could be hiding his true nature. Just as quickly, she remembered that the phone calls had begun well before they’d met. She felt terrible. How could she even have thought such a thing about him? He was a rock – no – a mountain.

  ‘Are you still there?’ Brian asked, gently.

  ‘Yes, yes, I’m here! But… Mimi – Sebastian’s sister – has gone missing.’

  Mimi

  She found the door. She banged on it and screamed. She bashed it with rocks and clawed at its edges. It was made of thick metal, and something else was piled against it on the other side. She could tell by the muted sound it made when she smashed it. After a while she gave up; her knuckles were torn and it was a pointless waste of breath. She shone the torch all over the place trying to find some metal bar or any implement to try and wedge it open. There were metal trunks – locked with padlocks – but nothing with which to open them.

  She wasn’t wearing a watch and no longer had a phone so she didn’t know where the time went. Or how it came. It could have been hours or days. She measured time in units of hunger and thirst or by how many times she had to crawl to the gravelly corner where she’d found a whole in the floor, a large package of toilet paper beside a bucket of white stuff that was probably lime. Those visits had been quite often but her stomach had settled down a little by now. There was nothing in it to process. She discovered the food store, a large recess where there were boxes. She ripped one of them open and found sealed packages containing some kind of biscuit. She was sure he’d said there was food for seven years. Seven years was an eternity. It didn’t matter what other edibles she might find in there, because after a time she could no longer eat. Perhaps her body was shutting down and had no need of food.

  Another recess had a huge store of batteries sealed in cellophane. There was a water tank into which water dripped continuously, the only sound in the place. At times she liked the gentle dripping and splashing, it made her know that there was something outside of herself; at other moments it was like Chinese water torture, because it wouldn’t stop. The taste of the water was sweet, though, and she sipped at it from time to time, using a plastic bottle with a spout.

  Up there on the surface they’d be actively looking for her by now. She hoped Eva was safe, that she’d found out about her being missing, and hurried back to Sebastian. The police and the border guards would have been alerted. Everyone in her life would be searching and asking, all of them blaming themselves or each other, for her disappearance. She had a history of disappearing; running when she was too bored, angry, sad, rejected… or when she could no longer bear herself. When she was nowhere to be found, they’d be hoping she’d come back of her own free will. Time would pass. No-one would think to go down into the bowels of the earth to search for her.

  Her panic erupted again like a volcano, overflowed, but gradually dwindled, burning itself out. Fear was a different matter: it was always there like a slow but all-consuming fire. She chose to stay with it because it would alert her to danger. In some strange way, it even calmed her in her darkest moments.

  Sebastian

  He stood on the landing, laden with gear. Knocking on the door seemed to have little effect, but he refrained from banging on it. Finally it opened and there stood Montegriffo in his black bathrobe.

  Carlo’s face furrowed in contempt when he saw who it was. ‘Well? Have you found her?’

  ‘No,’ he hesitated, trying to look sincere, ‘but I’ve come in peace.’

  ‘Well, I can’t help you any further,’ Montegriffo said, and made to close the door in his face.

  ‘Please wait a moment,’ Sebastian said and gestured to his gear. ‘Eva has encouraged me to go off for a little dive, as you can see. I’ve been under a lot of stress and I confess you are absolutely right about Imogen’s disappearance.’ He paused and looked earnestly at his enemy. ‘This has always been the way she’s responded to my excessive brotherly love. She goes off on a jaunt.’

  ‘Truth will out,’ said Montegriffo. ‘So no need to involve me.’

  ‘The thing is, I’ve talked it over with Eva, and I realise now that I’ve been acting like a lunatic. I think I’ve come to see sense regarding your friendship with Mimi.’

  Montegriffo regarded him with suspicion.

  ‘I’d like to settle this as
gentlemen.’ Sebastian gestured towards the interior of the apartment. ‘Can I come in for a moment?’

  When Montegriffo put his hands up in protest, he said, ‘No, don’t worry. I’m not here to harass you. Eva has just convinced me I’m totally wrong about you. You’ve not taken advantage of my sister, I believe that now. You see, I’ve been like a father and guardian to her ever since she was born, a role that has worn me down many a time. In fact, in many ways I wish some other adult male could take over.’ He looked up at Montegriffo and chuckled companionably. ‘A hundred years ago, I would have sold her into a suitable marriage by now. But today…I have to accept that Mimi is eighteen and she is free to do as she wants.’

  ‘This is perhaps something you should tell Imogen in the first instance,’ said Montegriffo with a tight smile. ‘When she comes back.’

  ‘Before she comes back I would just like to be sure of your sincerity.’ He shrugged and pointed to the interior of the apartment. ‘Can’t we do this in there, rather than stand here on the landing?’

  Montegriffo looked at him guardedly for a moment, then relented and motioned him in, leading the way into the living room. Sebastian followed, dragging his gear along. Montegriffo gestured for him to sit down on a blue sofa – which Raven was already occupying a good half of – and sat down in an armchair opposite.

  Montegriffo preempted the questions he had prepared. ‘You should know I talked to your boss the other day and told him you were making a nuisance of yourself here in Gibraltar, harassing and threatening your neighbours, vandalising their property and wasting police time.’

  ‘I gathered, and I wish you hadn’t.’

  ‘You’ve been an intrusive and quarrelsome neighbour, and it’s my misfortune to have fallen in love with your sister,’ said Carlo Montegriffo. ‘However, I realise our age difference is a concern to you. It’s a concern to both me and Imogen as well.’

  Fallen in love. Sebastian had not been prepared for this confession, but it confirmed what he already knew. ‘Yes, you’re old enough to be her father.’

  ‘In fact, so are you,’ said Montegriffo, ‘which you claim explains your over-protectiveness. I suspect that jealousy is a problem for both of us as regards Imogen. I’m trying to keep my feelings in check. So should you, Sebastian. It’s unseemly for a brother to be so…possessive.’

  ‘Like I said, I’ve been her guardian until now, which has placed a number of responsibilities on me,’ Sebastian corrected. His hands, pressed between his knees, were burning. ‘So, where do you think your liaison might lead?’

  ‘I have faith in our…affections, and from there, I can only hope.’

  ‘Have you seduced her?’

  Montegriffo raised his eyebrows a little, then smiled. ‘Something tells me you don’t know Imogen all that well.’

  ‘I can only interpret that comment one way,’ Sebastian said evenly. ‘And it answers my question. So that’s how you justify it, you make her responsible for her corruption.’

  ‘I thought you came here to have a friendly and reasonable discussion.’

  He should have realised that there was no point in trying to clarify or discuss anything with Montegriffo, and he wasn’t about to give Mimi’s location away. It was a miracle that he himself knew where she was. With some regret, he knew what he had to do. There was only one way.

  ‘So where do you think she’s gone?’ Montegriffo asked, his voice tense. ‘Not with some other man, I trust.’

  Sebastian almost smiled at the pathetic attempt to mislead him. ‘Look, I didn’t want to have to do this,’ he said, rooting in his bag. ‘I was hoping you’d confess what you’d done and reassure me in some way, but I knew I was hoping in vain. You will always pose a threat to my sister, and I can’t have that.’

  Montegriffo sprung to his feet when he saw the claw-hammer. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’ he gasped.

  Sebastian was faster and caught up with him half way to the door. With a wild downward swipe, he caught the man on the shoulder. Something snapped, perhaps his collarbone. He half sank to his knees, but regained his balance. His arm went up to shield his face.

  For a second they stood there.

  ‘Calm down, man. Don’t do this,’ Montegriffo said, his eyes wild. ‘You needn’t worry. Imogen doesn’t want me. She’s adamant there is no future in it.’

  ‘Where is she?’ Sebastian said, panting. ‘I am guessing, but do tell me.’

  ‘How should I know? Honestly, I don’t where she is.’

  Montegriffo’s open hands patted the air in a calming, reconciling gesture while his gaze shifted from the hammer, then left and right, looking for an escape route or some weapon with which to counterattack. With sudden speed and agility, he was sprinting for the door. Sebastian sprang forward and, as the man ran for the hallway, Sebastian lunged. The two-pronged claw went in cleanly as if his skull was a melon. With a choked gasp, Montegriffo began to fall forward, but the claw was well embedded and Sebastian did not react swiftly enough to let go. He was yanked forward and crashed headlong on top of Montegriffo on the floor.

  It took a moment for him to realise what had happened. Scrambling up into a kneeling position, he still had the hammer in an iron grip, knowing that to release it would jeopardise his advantage. He tugged to get his weapon free and on the third pull, it came away with a squelch, bringing with it a palm-sized wedge of skull from behind Montegriffo’s ear. He stared at the man’s bared brains in horror. He’d put the hammer in the bag for a good reason, but never did he imagine it would be used quite like this.

  It seemed an eternity before the hole in Montegriffo’s head began to fill with blood. Once it began, it was soon gushing in rivers to the floor. Dark stains spread on the knees of Sebastian’s jeans and he stood up.

  God almighty, it had all been so quick, so easy. Too easy. Wide eyed, he ran his forefinger along the edge of the claws. With one stroke the danger had been eliminated and just lay there, while the pool of blood spread outwards over the floor. This time it was no wishful impulse played out in his imagination. He smelled the blood, and when he looked down, he saw that it was all over his clothes, soaking his hands and forearms.

  Leaving the prone body where it had fallen, he walked to Montegriffo’s bathroom, carrying his weapon. He turned on the tap in the walk-in shower and waited for the warm water to come through. Stepping in, he turned his face up to the spiky assault of the shower, letting the water rinse his entire body, his clothes, sandals and the hammer. The whole incident seemed to run off him in streams and rivers of red, and was sluiced down the drain into the sewers beyond.

  Eva

  She had heard nothing from Sebastian, and it was late afternoon when she called his mobile. Within seconds she heard a faint ringing somewhere within the apartment. She walked towards the sound, and found his mobile tossed onto the bed. She smiled faintly. It was rash of him to have left it at home, but clearly he wasn’t in his right mind, half-crazed with worry as he was. She wondered when – and if – he might return. She had no way to contact him with any news of Mimi.

  The wait was starting to tear at her nerves. She took both her own phone and his, and went to the front door, flinging it open. She put the wooden wedge under it and walked out onto the terrace. Out in the open, the world looked normal. She breathed in deeply, and felt the air on the back of her neck which her abundant hair had once protected. The sun was low in the sky and no Levante cloud darkened the sky. The views were clear except for the industrial smoke rising from Algeciras across the bay. The ships, tankers and ferries continued to plough their way across the waters as though nothing in the world were wrong.

  She turned around and looked up at the Rock as it rose sharply behind the upper town, covered with wild olive trees and an array of old military bunkers, lookouts and other signs of centuries gone by. The Moorish castle – latterly a prison but now a tourist attraction – looked severe, rising over the edge of the buildings with its massive wall descending right down through the
town. The drama of the backdrop never failed to stir her. Would she stay in this place if Sebastian left her? Perhaps. It had gotten under her skin, after all.

  ‘Miss Eva?’ A voice came from the hallway.

  She turned around and saw a young man standing there. He was obviously of Arab origin, with a slender physique and delicate face. Instinctively, she knew it had to be Mohammed, Mimi’s new love-interest.

  ‘Are you Mohammed?’

  ‘Yes. I am.’

  ‘Come out here,’ she said, motioning him to approach.

  He came and for a moment they just stood there looking out over the city.

  ‘All right. Where is Mimi?’ she said quietly, turning to him. ‘I truly hope you’re here because you know where she is.’

  ‘I don’t know where she is,’ he said and suddenly sunk to his knees in front of her. ‘I’m so sorry. I didn’t do what I’d pledged to do. I didn’t keep her safe. I could have been more watchful.’

  ‘What pledge? What are you talking about?’

  ‘I’ve looked everywhere, all over the Rock. I’ve asked Mr. Montegriffo a hundred times, but I’m almost sure she’s not with him. I’ve been to his place in Both Worlds, I even broke the lock, but she’s not there. I’ve been to all the pubs and bars.’

  She felt cold rush across her back. If Mimi wasn't with Mohammed, then where? She didn’t believe him yet, even though his angst seemed sincere.