Intimate Strangers

by Susan Lewis

  ‘It’s OK, you don’t have to tell me,’ she said. ‘It’s between you and Sherry, and I don’t want to know something she doesn’t.’

  In response he squeezed her hand.

  After a while she said, ‘You’ve had too much to drink to drive home.’

  He merely continued to look into her eyes.

  ‘There’s a spare room if you’d like to stay,’ she told him.

  His eyebrows arched. ‘I don’t think I could control myself, being under the same roof.’

  She swallowed, started to speak, then raised his hand to her throat. ‘Please stay,’ she said in a whisper.

  He took a breath, and afraid he was going to say no, she started to unbutton her blouse.

  ‘I want you to make love to me,’ she said. ‘Please.’ She was unfastening the front clasp of her bra. ‘Just tonight,’ she whispered, lifting his hands to her breasts. ‘Don’t say no, Nick. Please don’t say no.’

  Chapter Twenty

  SHERRY PICKED UP her supermarket bags and walked outside into a clammy, overcast day. The forecast was for thunder tonight, then sunshine again tomorrow. She’d like to think it was a metaphor for her life. She’d call Nick tonight, they’d have a damned good row about why he hadn’t been in touch, then tomorrow he’d send flowers and all would be well.

  Two days had passed since she’d visited Brussels to interview the Interpol agent, and the only time she’d spoken to Nick was when she’d rung him to say she was back. He’d stayed on the line a matter of minutes, saying he was in the middle of something and he’d call back. There was still no word.

  There was no excuse. He knew he’d told her he’d call, and he knew he hadn’t, so what had suddenly changed his mind about her? Unless there had been some kind of accident. His daughter might have been hurt, or he might. Maybe she should show some concern and find out if he was all right. If he was, and he didn’t want to speak to her, that was OK, she could just hang up and get on with her life.

  Were it only that simple!

  What advice would Dear Molly give? Dear Molly would say, ‘You’re giving him all the power, and that’s not good. It shouldn’t matter that he hasn’t called for three days, at this stage of a relationship it’s no time at all. So get on with your life, or better still, get a life.’ And that would work if their relationship were as simple as a new romance, but it was a far cry from that. They had a history. They were connected in a way that went beyond the mundane level of heart and mind, they were on a life journey that had destined them to be together. Though she could see that quite plainly, she understood that maybe he couldn’t. He was still cluttered from the breakup of his marriage and now moving back to England, starting a new life, having to deal with his daughter … He had a lot going on, whereas she was much clearer in her life and in her outlook. She was also a woman, and women usually caught on much faster to these things than men.

  ‘Stop doing this to yourself,’ both Rhona and Anita had told her. ‘Just call him. If he’s not interested any more you’ll soon know, and better to find out now than later.’

  Clearly they didn’t understand. Maybe they’d never really been in love. Nick van Zant meant more to her than anything or anyone else alive, and now he was back in her life, she couldn’t just let him go. He wasn’t someone she could simply cut off from, or replace with some stranger she had absolutely no desire to know. He was the person who understood all the pain she had suffered, was bringing love back to the emptiness she’d been left with, healing the wounds that were still open and raw.

  As she descended the steps on to the river path the first drops of rain began to fall. Remembering she’d left her French doors open, she quickened her pace. By the time she reached the gym the rain had vanished and the sun was out again. Anita would probably be doing her workout at this hour, but though Sherry longed for some advice, she kept on going, feeling an inexplicable need to get home.

  She was just crossing the footbridge behind her apartment block when her mobile started to ring. She put down her shopping, and seeing it was Laurie, she clicked on. ‘Hello, stranger,’ she said, nestling the phone on her shoulder so she could pick up her bags and carry on walking. ‘Are you still at your mother’s?’

  ‘No, I’m back in London now,’ Laurie answered. ‘Sorry I didn’t call before. It’s been, well, a difficult few days.’

  ‘Rhona told me how he let you down the other night. I’m sorry. Have you spoken to him since?’

  ‘No.’ There was a pause, then Laurie said, ‘How are things with you and Nick?’

  ‘I’m not sure,’ she answered. ‘I haven’t heard from him since I got back.’ Her heart thudded hard as the coincidence of not hearing from either of them suddenly flared horribly in her mind. It made her feel sick and light-headed, until she managed to push it away again.

  ‘Why don’t you call him?’ Laurie suggested, echoing everyone else.

  ‘I might. Later.’ Needing to get off the subject, she said, ‘Did you read my notes from Brussels yet?’

  ‘Yes. They’re very informative. We need to get some maps made of the smuggling routes the Interpol guy gave you. Did he agree to be interviewed on camera?’

  ‘He said he would.’

  ‘Good. What news on the stripper?’

  ‘Barry said she’s got cold feet, so I don’t think we should rely on her now.’

  ‘But we don’t have any other lead,’ Laurie pointed out, ‘and after your showdown with the Ghosh woman there’s a good chance they’ll be moved again, or sold on, or whatever he does to get rid of them, so we need to start speeding this up.’

  ‘I’ll call Barry as soon as I get home,’ Sherry promised, deliberately not going on the defensive. ‘I met someone from the Vice Squad this morning,’ she continued. ‘She wouldn’t go into detail, but apparently there’s an extremely involved and widespread undercover operation going on concerning forced prostitution. I asked if Eddie Cribbs was involved, but she wouldn’t confirm or deny it.’

  ‘Did you tell her about the women we’re looking for?’

  ‘Yes. She accepts they probably exist, but Vice’s focus in this instance is on the pimps and perverts, as she put it, who should lead them to the women.’

  ‘Then it’ll be interesting to see what comes of it,’ Laurie commented. ‘Let me know if there’s anything I can do, won’t you? I’m your able-bodied assistant on this.’

  Knowing this was a sop to her ego, Sherry’s smile was weak. ‘I will,’ she said. ‘Actually, what are you doing now? Would you like to come over for dinner? We could discuss our next moves.’

  ‘I’d love to, but I’m meeting my godmother at seven. She’s been really worried about me since all this blew up …’

  ‘I didn’t know you had a godmother. That’s nice.’

  ‘She’s my mum’s best friend. They were at school together, so she’s more like family. Do you have a godmother?’

  ‘No. There’s just me these days. And Aunt Jude, of course, my dad’s sister.’ She allowed a few seconds to tick by, then, bracing herself, she said, ‘I don’t suppose you’ve seen or heard anything from Nick yourself, have you?’

  ‘Me? No,’ Laurie answered. ‘Nothing.’

  Sherry could feel herself turning cold. The response had been too quick, and held no conviction. ‘OK,’ she said lightly. ‘I’m just about to go in the door now, so I’ll have to ring off. Talk to you later,’ and she abruptly ended the call.

  As she rode up in the lift she could already hear Rhona’s voice, telling her to stop being ridiculous. Laurie was still far too involved with Elliot even to be looking at another man, least of all one who was in a relationship with such a close friend. And if anyone in the world knew what it was like to be betrayed right now it was Laurie, so no way would she do it to Sherry. Of course Rhona would be right, and Sherry was in danger of becoming paranoid, but even so, the suspicion had taken root and it wasn’t going to be easily plucked out.

  After dumping her shopping in the kitch
en she turned back to close the front door, and was just coming through again when her heart suddenly jolted in shock. There was someone standing on her balcony – a man, whose face she couldn’t see because the sun was behind him.

  She said nothing, only stared at him. An appallingly neutral voice in her head was reminding her that she’d always known someone would come, that it had only ever been a matter of time. She could feeling herself starting to shake as her two worlds collided. She hadn’t expected it to be now – nor, for some reason, had she expected a man.

  ‘Hello, Sherry,’ he said. ‘It is Sherry, I take it.’

  The cockney accent threw her. She blinked, drew a breath, then suddenly realized she had it wrong. This wasn’t someone stepping out of her past, like a corpse rising up from a grave, this was someone from Eddie Cribbs. The situation was no better, yet it was slightly easier for her to breathe.

  ‘I think we need to have a little chat,’ he said, stepping into the sitting room.

  Though her limbs were still weak with fear, she managed to walk forward, keeping her eyes on his face, until it was finally visible. Though she’d never seen Eddie Cribbs she knew this man, with his strangely scarred face, was too young to be him in person.

  ‘I’ve got some advice for you,’ he told her, sliding his hands into his pockets. ‘You can take it or leave it, but if I were you, I’d take it.’ He flashed a quick smile. ‘It’s not a good idea to keep going on with this snooping around you’ve been doing,’ he said. ‘Let’s say, it’s not in your own best interests.’

  She stared at him, pale-faced and silent.

  ‘We know you’ve got secrets,’ he told her amicably, ‘and we respect that. Everyone has some kind of business they don’t want no-one else poking around in, and a mother who’s a murderer isn’t something anyone would want advertised, now is it? Particularly not when that mother’s somewhere she can be got to nice and easy.’ He tapped the side of his nose. ‘Know what I mean?’

  After a pause she gave a brief nod of her head.

  ‘Good. I’m glad we understand each other,’ he said, ‘because we don’t want anything turning nasty, now do we?’

  She made no response.

  ‘No, course we don’t,’ he answered for her. ‘So you just let all this go now, like a good girl, and we’ll forget you and your mother ever existed.’

  As the door closed behind him she ran to the bathroom and threw up. There was no food inside her, but the bitter bile of fear just kept on coming. Deep down inside her a child was screaming for her mother, wanting to save and protect her, to push it all away and pretend none of it had happened. The voices in her head were chattering, faster and faster, her father, her mother, strangers swarming all over the house … She had to make them stop. She just had to. She wasn’t in that house. It was all in the past where it couldn’t hurt her any more. But it could, the man who’d just come here had proved it.

  She’d have to call Laurie, tell her she couldn’t go on with this project. Though she passionately wanted to be the one to find those women, she was too scared now. But what excuse could she give? She thought of Nick and suddenly realizing she had a good reason to call him, she rinsed out her mouth, dried her face and ran back to her desk. To her surprise and relief he sounded pleased to hear her.

  ‘How are you doing?’ he said. ‘I was about to call you.’

  ‘I’ve just had a visit from one of Eddie Cribbs’s people,’ she said breathlessly. ‘He’s telling me to back off …’

  ‘Did he hurt you?’

  ‘No. He just said I … I don’t want to tell you on the phone. Can you come over?’

  ‘Sure. I’ll be there as soon as I can.’

  Rhona was shaking her head and looking at Laurie in incredulous dismay.

  ‘I didn’t mean it to happen,’ Laurie cried, throwing out her hands. ‘I was drunk. Elliot had just let me down …’

  ‘I’m not having a problem getting the picture,’ Rhona assured her. ‘I’m just wondering what the hell we do now. I take it Sherry has no idea.’

  ‘For God’s sake, no! I mean, I don’t think so. How could she? I can’t imagine he’d tell her.’

  ‘Probably not. And she’d certainly have mentioned it if he had, so I guess we can safely assume she’s still in the dark.’ Her eyes narrowed as something else occurred to her, and treating Laurie to a curious scrutiny, she said, ‘I know this isn’t very likely, but is it … Well, is this something that might go somewhere? I mean, do you have any feelings for him?’

  ‘Rhona! I don’t know how you can even ask. It’s just something that happened. It was one night – on the rebound.’

  ‘What about him? Does he have feelings for you?’

  ‘Of course not. I don’t think so. He … Oh God, I don’t know. I just wish it had never happened.’

  ‘Well you certainly will if Sherry ever finds out. Now, tell me again what he said about her mother. I can still hardly believe it. In prison for murder. No wonder she never talks about her. Let’s hope it doesn’t run in the family, eh?’

  ‘That’s not even funny. Now, please, can we concentrate on what’s really at stake here?’

  ‘Well, you have to admit, she is a little odd, especially where Nick’s concerned.’

  ‘Rhona!’

  ‘Sorry.’ Then, after a pause, ‘Are those flowers from him, by any chance?’

  Laurie looked at the simple but beautiful bunch of lavender-tinged pink roses. ‘Yes,’ she answered. ‘As a matter of fact they are. I threw the card away, just in case, by some horrible fluke, Sherry ever got hold of it.’

  ‘What did it say?’

  Laurie blushed. ‘To Miss Universe,’ she mumbled.

  Rhona’s eyes lit up.

  ‘It was a joke,’ Laurie cried. ‘Something that … Look, never mind that. It doesn’t mean anything, what I want to know is what the hell am I going to do?’

  ‘Has he called at all?’ Rhona persisted.

  ‘Only once.’

  ‘And he said?’

  ‘That he doesn’t want to rush me, that he understands about Elliot, so he’ll leave it for me to call him, should I ever want to.’

  Rhona looked impressed. ‘So he does have feelings for you,’ she declared. ‘Did he mention Sherry?’

  Laurie shook her head.

  Deciding to take a moment to think, Rhona strolled over to the huge picture windows, where she gazed up at the traffic to-ing and fro-ing over the bridge.

  ‘There’s something else,’ Laurie told her quietly.

  Rhona turned round, eyebrows raised. ‘That’s not enough?’ she responded.

  ‘Actually, it’s part of the same thing. It doesn’t make it any better – I suppose it makes it worse, in a way.’

  ‘I’m intrigued to know how that’s possible.’

  Laurie slanted her a look, then thinking it might be easier if she wasn’t actually in eye contact for this, she turned aside as she said, ‘When we woke up in the morning, we … Well, I expect you can imagine, I felt really bad. I couldn’t believe he was there. It was awful … I wanted him to go straight away … I told him he had to …’

  ‘You ended up doing it again,’ Rhona interrupted.

  Laurie stared at her miserably. ‘It still didn’t mean anything,’ she insisted. ‘It was just a comfort thing. I was upset, and he wanted to make me feel … well, better, I suppose.’

  ‘I’m sure Sherry’ll understand completely if you put it like that,’ Rhona remarked.

  ‘Don’t,’ Laurie snapped. ‘Sarcasm’s not helping. We’re supposed to be working together, for God’s sake, and I can hardly bring myself to speak to her on the phone, never mind look her in the face. She thinks I’m with my godmother tonight. I couldn’t go over there. I’d feel such a hypocrite. And she hasn’t heard from Nick. He’s stopped calling her. Oh God, if he ends their relationship now, because of me,’ she cried, clasping her hands to her head. ‘This is all such a mess, and it’s his fault. Elliot’s. If he’d come that
night, none of this would have happened. What am I saying? If he hadn’t got the hots for that fat cow …’

  ‘I think,’ Rhona said, coming to a decision, ‘that we need to get you out of the way for a while. Call Sherry, tell her she can take over the story completely – it’s what she wants, then you and I will disappear off to Hydra and stay there until the wedding and honeymoon period are over.’

  Though Laurie took a breath to protest, she hesitated, as it actually didn’t seem such a bad idea. It was certainly preferable to facing Sherry right now, and it wouldn’t exactly be leaving her in the lurch, because Rose was due back any day. And she was so deeply dreading being here, in London, in this flat, while he was in New York with Andraya, on the very day they should have been getting married – no, she couldn’t do it, she just couldn’t. She had to be somewhere else too. ‘How soon can we leave?’ she said.

  ‘I’d say right away,’ Rhona replied, with a smile, ‘but I’ve just agreed to a two-day tour with an author next Monday and Tuesday. So do you think you can keep yourself in check for another week?’

  ‘One day I’ll find your jokes funny again,’ Laurie responded. ‘But it’s not going to be today.’

  Nick was sitting with his elbows resting on his knees, staring down at his drink as he thought over what Sherry had just told him. Sherry was perched on the arm of a chair inside the French windows, gazing out at the thunderous sky, and vaguely registering the first fat blobs of rain dropping into the river.

  She was much calmer now. It had taken a while, but eventually she’d realized that to remain in a panic would be just about the most disastrous course she could take. Level-headedness and reason were vital if the situation was going to be resolved with any degree of success, though the fact that Laurie had called half an hour ago to ask her to take the story over completely had complicated matters considerably. However, it was only until Rose came back, and as Laurie wouldn’t be leaving until the middle of next week she shouldn’t be in charge for long.