Memories In The Dark

by Dawn Tamayo

  Helen stopped. She stood still gripped by fear as she heard shouting coming from the deck above her. She strained to hear what was being said.

  “I told you I was taking care of it and I am.” She heard a man shouting. She could have sworn it was Oliver. She would have taken a sigh of relief if he hadn’t sounded so angry.

  “You are not taking care of it. She is not even with you anymore, how is that taking care of it? She’s a liability and she has to go.” A man with a strong Spanish accent shouted back.

  Cold ice ran down her spine, she knew they were talking about her.

  “I will talk to her, she won’t be a problem. I will have her back with me by the time we get back into the marina.” Oliver sounded certain of himself. Helen didn’t know if he actually believed it or if he was just trying to buy himself some time, but whichever way she had no intention of going anywhere with him or anyone else.

  “Not good enough. You should have done the job right in the first place. You’re getting sloppy in your old age Frank.” The Spanish voice came again.

  “Watch what you say.” Helen heard another voice enter the conversation, she swallowed back the bile in her throat when she recognised it as the man who had forced himself into her apartment and kidnapped her, she could still smell the sickly sweet chemical on her skin.

  Desperation filled her as she ran to the door. Then she stopped. She realised if she ran out of the bedroom then she would run into everyone upstairs. She went over to a small cabin window and looked out, but all she could see was darkness and waves bobbing up and down. Her head was still pounding, the headache still hadn’t gone away from earlier, and if anything it only seemed to be getting worse! She looked around the room for some clue as to how she was going to get out of this, but nothing seemed to come to mind, and then she froze.

  Helen heard the heavy footsteps in the corridor getting closer until they stopped right outside her bedroom door. She heard a key turn in the lock so she grabbed the closest thing to hand: a heavy bronze based lamp. As the door opened she raised it above her head and brought it down as hard as she could on the man’s head. She watched as Frank went down, crumpling to the floor, but she didn’t wait to see if it had done much damage to him, she hoped it had, but right now she had to get out of there. Helen jumped over Frank’s groaning body and ran out of the door. She headed up the winding stairway, her mind speedily running through her intended escape route - she would run straight for the life-ring, grab it and jump overboard with it, then swim ashore. Helen had no idea how far out to sea they were, but as long as she had the life-ring she hoped she would be able to get away from the boat and stay afloat until she got ashore, or someone else found her – she knew there were always boats sailing just off the coast of Spain all through the day and night. Of course it was a dangerous plan but she didn’t see any other option. She would have to be quick and catch Oliver and the other man off guard. She couldn’t believe she was having to think about doing something so crazy! How on earth had it come to this? But even with this newly revealed side to Oliver she still didn’t believe he would intentionally hurt her! She hoped that maybe, just maybe, if they saw her then he would stop the other man and give her time to make her escape.

  Helen ran up the stairs. Her heart was racing as she saw the opening to the middle deck with the life-ring ahead of her. Then it all stopped! She felt the huge hand grab at her hair and her head flung backwards as she screamed out in pain. She felt the hot sticky breath of Frank next to her ear as he yanked her hair even harder. “Did you really think a little hit on the head would stop me? You stupid girl, I’ve had murderers try to take me down and no one has yet.”

  If Helen thought she was scared before she didn’t know fear until now - it seared through every inch of her body. With a big hand clutching her hair she stumbled up onto the main deck and sat down hard on the seat as Frank finally let her go. She looked around and saw Oliver standing across the deck from her. Her eyes moved to the other man and for a split second she was relieved to see another familiar face, Marcus Martinez. But her relief was short lived when she realised there was no one else other than Frank around, so Marcus must have been the other voice she had heard. And that meant Marcus wanted her dead!

  “Oliver, what’s going on?” Helen asked as she watched him slowly turn around to face her. He didn’t make any effort to check to see if she was alright, he just stood back by the yacht railings, occasionally looking out across the expanse of the dark sea. “I told you that you needed to stay with me, that you would be in danger if you left. But you wouldn’t listen to me. You should have listened to me Helen. If you had, then you would be safe at home right now, not here.” Oliver said as he shook his head seemingly resigned to this pitiful situation.

  “You told him to bring me here?” She said incredulously.

  “No, I would never do that Helen. But Marcus and Frank knew you left me. I made them guarantee your safety for as long as you were with me, but after that….. well.” He shrugged coldly.

  Just then Helen felt a searing pain shoot through her temple and she put her head in her hands trying to rub the agony away. Something was wrong, other than the dire situation she was in right now. Her head hurt like hell and she felt like it was going to explode. She rubbed it harder, drowning out the sound of another boat as it neared, and then the memories came flooding back like a tidal wave:-

  Helen woke up and felt the bed empty next to her. She looked around and wondered where Oliver had gone. The bedside clock said it was only two thirty in the morning and it was pitch black outside. She could feel the gentle sway of the yacht and she felt all warm and cosy. It was hot in the bedroom and she wondered if Oliver had gone up on deck for some fresh air, knowing he preferred that to cranking up the air conditioning. Helen slipped out of the comfortable bed, pulled on a pair of pants from her bedside drawer, and pulled her little silk nightdress down lower over her bottom - she didn’t want to give one of the crew an eyeful if one of them happened to be awake too. As Helen climbed the stairs and rounded the corner to the main deck she stopped, surprised to see that Oliver wasn’t alone - two men stood with him, surrounded by what looked like black rubbish bags bound with duck-tape. She recognise the two men with Oliver, the first was his head of security Frank Hodges who she wasn’t surprised to see as he was normally around the yachts and Oliver’s business, but she didn’t like him, not one bit; she thought he was smarmy and far too cocky for his own good. She thought that sometimes Frank forgot he worked for Oliver, and actually it wasn’t the other way round! But Oliver had always assured her that Frank was very good at his job so she let it go - she knew Oliver was a great businessman and he wasn’t about to be taken for a mug by anyone, not even his own head of security. The other man Helen recognised to be Marcus Martinez - a very wealthy Spanish businessman who they both knew through their yachting business back in Estepona. She was surprised to see Marcus, she had no idea he was on board and could have sworn he wasn’t there when she boarded the yacht earlier in the day. Not only that, but she wondered why he was there at all in the middle of the night on their weekend away cruising the coastline off the Costa Blanca.

  Helen turned around intending to return to her cabin, she would find out what was going on in the morning from Oliver, but for now she thought it was best she went back down below, but it was too late. The three men stopped what they were doing and turned around to look at her.

  “Helen, go back down below. Now!” Oliver boomed at her, taking her by surprise, he had never raised his voice to her before, not once!

  Helen nodded and tried to walk away, but quick as lightening Frank moved and grabbed her by the wrist, pulling her further onto the main deck. Helen was shocked, she had never seen Frank move so fast before, he was quick for a big old guy.

  “Let her go!” Oliver shouted at him.

  “It’s too late for that, she has seen too much.” Frank said pulling her roughly across the deck.

  Helen tried to shake hi
s hand off but he wasn’t letting go.

  “I told you to leave her out of it.” Oliver told Frank, “Didn’t you lock the bedroom door?”

  “I thought you had. After all she isn’t usually here on these runs. You shouldn’t have bought her with you, that was careless!”

  Oliver turned to Helen, she could see the sadness in his eyes. “Why did you have to come up here Helen?”

  “I wondered where you were.” Helen answered, looking at the big hairy hand which held her arm and wondered what the hell was going on. And what did he mean by locking her in the bedroom? Were they crazy? In fact what were they all doing on the main deck in the middle of the night, and what were these huge black packages for? There must have been at least twenty of them taking up most of the floor space.

  “Get rid of her Frank.” Marcus said coldly as he set about moving one of the packages into position and sliced the top open with a sharp knife.

  Helen watched as the opening revealed white powder and Marcus put his finger inside and then touched it to his tongue.

  “Es bueno!” He called out to the small boat tied up alongside The Princess.

  Helen realised she hadn’t noticed the little boat before now. And then it dawned on her, the twenty-something large packages were drugs, heroin or cocaine probably, and they were being loaded onto The Princess in full view of Oliver.

  “No! Stop Frank. Let me talk to her for a minute. We can work it out, I’m sure of that.”

  Helen could see fear in Oliver’s eyes, and she could hear the blood rushing through her head pounding against her eardrums in time to the thumping of her heart.

  “Look I vouch for her, she won’t say a thing. We can take her on as a partner, she could be useful. It won’t affect your cut, I’ll take it out of my share. You don’t have to kill her!”

  Helen froze, kill her? What? Were they crazy, they couldn’t possibly be serious. She watched in silence, paralyzed with fear as they continued to discuss her as if she wasn’t even there, as if she was a spider Frank was about to splat under his shoe.

  “Come on Oliver you know she’s too much of a goody-two-shoes for that. Sorry mate.” Frank said as he pulled out a gun and put it to Helen’s head, leaning her backwards over the railings of the boat.

  ‘Oh my god he is really going to do this!’ Helen though as she let out an ear piercing scream and struggled to hold onto the railings.

  “No!” Helen heard Oliver shout. She could feel Oliver’s hand pull at her arm as Frank pushed her overboard. She tried to hold onto him, but she couldn’t - Helen felt Oliver’s hand slide off hers, taking her engagement ring with him as she fell backwards for what felt like an eternity before she hit the choppy water.

  Helen felt the water hit hard, it was cold against her warm body and despite the shock she tried to tread water to stay afloat. She could hear Oliver shouting her name and thought surely he would throw the life-ring overboard at any moment, but then as she looked up she saw Frank leaning over the railing with his gun poised at her, taking aim. She tried to swim backwards but the current was too strong. She took a deep breath and forced her body down just as she heard an ear-piercingly loud bang and felt a searing pain scrape her head. Then everything went black until she dragged herself along the warm sand and stumbled off in the direction of lights.

  Helen gasped and looked up at Oliver in shock. She remembered! She remembered it all. Everything! She must have somehow managed to float in towards the beach and was washed ashore. She vaguely remembered stumbling up from the beach and into the arms of a policeman. And then the next thing she remembered was waking up in a hospital with no idea of who she was, just an anklet which said the name “Helen”, and the face of an intense looking policeman staring at her from across the emergency treatment room.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Romero listened to his ear-piece and looked through his binoculars intensely as he sat in the small boat half a mile away from The Princess. His blood ran cold as he heard the conversation between Oliver Chapman and Marcus Martinez. His gut instinct had been right to follow The Princess, because even though he hadn’t seen Helen yet he knew she must be on there somewhere. He heard a commotion, and then had his first glimpse of Helen being manhandled by the big Englishman onto the main deck. For a moment he panicked, he wanted to start up the engine and rush to the yacht, but he knew that was probably the worst thing he could do; they would hear him well before he got near the yacht and would probably kill her before he could get to her. He saw Detective Spencer look across at him from the other boat bobbing on the water next to him. Romero didn’t acknowledge the detective, he kept his eyes and ears trained on Helen, waiting for the tiniest opportunity for them to get closer.

  Maria’s voice cut into his earpiece telling him there was a small boat approaching from the Moroccan border and she would follow it in.

  Romero looked across at the detective, this could be their chance. “If this is the trafficker again then we should go as soon as they start loading packages onto The Princess. That will give us time to get closer and there’s a chance we won’t be heard then.” Romero whispered across the gap between their boats.

  “No, we need to wait until they get back to shore, we can’t take the risk of them dumping the packages overboard and losing them.” The detective said not moving his eyes away from his binoculars.

  “We can’t wait that long. There is no way they will take Helen back to shore with them. You heard what Marcus Martinez said, they will dispose of her right here at sea!” Romero said sickeningly.

  “We wait.” The detective said firmly.

  Romero didn’t say another word. He knew he would lose his job and probably face some sort of disciplinary for it, but if he had to go it alone then he would. There was no way he was going to let anything happen to Helen, even if it cost him everything. His attention was caught by the sound of Helen’s voice, it was coming through his earpiece from the listening-devise on-board the yacht.

  Helen looked at Oliver incredulously, “Oh my god you’re smuggling drugs! And you tried to kill me!”

  “I tried to save you Helen, but I couldn’t stop Frank. I’m sorry.” Oliver said sounding remorseful. “When Frank said he saw you alive and well in Benidorm I couldn’t believe it. I thought you were dead, I really thought I had lost you. And now that I have you back I don’t want to lose you again. Say you will stay with me and I will work all this out with these two. I know it can be done, but you have to say you will stay with me, permanently.” Oliver pleaded walking over to Helen.

  She could hear another voice coming from the side of the yacht and saw Marcus leaning over the railings talking to someone

  “Frank go and deal with the goods, get Omar to help you, I want a minute with Helen.” Oliver instructed.

  “It won’t do any good mate, Marcus says she has to go. It doesn’t matter if she agrees to stay with you or not now, he won’t have it.”

  “Who the hell do you think you are talking to? You work for me, not Marcus.” Oliver snapped.

  “We are equal partners in this!” Frank pointed out, “I introduced you all. I put you all together. I have just as much say in this as you and Marcus do, and I agree with Marcus - she’s a liability and she has to go. She knows too much. I should have done away with her when I saw her in Benidorm and not told you. It would have saved us a lot of trouble that way.”

  “Just go and help Omar.” Oliver said, turning away from Frank and back to Helen.

  “I can’t believe you’re smuggling drugs!” Helen said wondering how she had managed to miss it throughout the last eighteen months.

  “Oh come on Helen, you must have had some idea. You have seen our accounts, where did you think all my money came from? The yachting business is good but not that good. I need these runs to finance my fleet of yachts – we’re still building the business and I need this money to finance it. After that I can be done with all this, and the business will fund itself. But until then this is necessary.”
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  “I thought your money came from your other businesses Oliver! From other legal businesses, not drug smuggling!” She said feeling stupid that she hadn’t seen any warning signs. “And to think that I stayed with you because I thought you were a nice guy and I didn’t want to hurt you. All this time I had been trying to make myself love someone that I don’t love. And in doing that I have lost the most important person to me. All this because I didn’t think any of my so-called-accident was your fault and I felt sorry for you. I genuinely didn’t want to hurt you.” She laughed almost hysterically. “If I had any idea of what you were up to and were really like, then I would have been out of here long ago.”

  “What do you mean you lost the most important person to you?” Oliver asked.

  “It doesn’t matter.”