Claudia's Big Break

by Lisa Heidke

  ‘Thanks, but I had no business sleeping with him.’

  ‘It takes two. Anyway, how are you feeling? About Jack?’

  I burst into tears. Jack! I couldn’t get over the fact that he’d used me as well. He’d been following me since Brisbane airport, maybe even before.

  ‘Jack never liked me,’ I said coldly. ‘He never fancied me.’

  ‘I really do think Jack liked you,’ said Sophie.

  ‘Whenever the two of you were together he did seem attentive,’ observed Tara.

  ‘Of course he was fucking attentive,’ I yelled, finding my fury and pushing away the almond cake Angie had given me. ‘He was pumping me for information. That’s all he cared about. It wasn’t a coincidence we met in Brisbane or in Athens or again in Santorini. How dumb am I? Why couldn’t I see he was following me? I was vital to his investigation. Prick. Pratt. Pig face.’

  The three of them sat there, mouths open, staring at me.

  ‘Feeling better?’ said Tara finally.

  ‘Yes, actually.’ I blew my nose, wiped away my tears and sat up properly in the chair. ‘I swear, as God is my witness,’ I said, crossing my heart, ‘I will never have another boyfriend! I’m going to become a nun.’

  ‘Now, now,’ Sophie said.

  ‘Why not? My life’s fucked anyway.’

  Sophie knew better than to try to reason with me.

  ‘He fooled us as well,’ Tara said. ‘Men, hey?’

  ‘All this time he was just stringing me along. Doing his job.’ I was so furious, I was practically spitting. ‘I was part of his investigation.’ I stopped, thought for a moment, then screamed, ‘Which makes the fact that he slept with me an absolute disgrace!’

  I was exhausted and ashamed. I wanted to go home to Tara’s cosy little terrace on the other side of the world and hide from everyone for a month, a year — as long as I could. Who cared that I was destined to end up wearing Sophie’s knitting, surrounded by cats? I’d had enough. I was defeated. I never ever wanted to think about Jack Harper again.

  ‘Have you done a poo today, Mummy?’ Levi asked Sophie when she and I walked back inside to check on the boys. Sophie pretended she didn’t hear him. He followed us into the kitchen where we retrieved two enormous chocolate blocks from the fridge.

  ‘Poo? Did you do a poo, Mum?’

  ‘Levi, I really don’t want to talk about this right now.’

  ‘Mine was huge. The biggest poo I’ve eber done. Bigger than a dragon’s. I watched it swirl down the toilet. Now Harry’s doing one and I’m watching him. We neeb toilet paper.’

  Sophie retrieved a roll of paper from the kitchen cupboard. ‘I really don’t want to know.’

  As we walked out of the kitchen, Levi ran ahead to the bathroom, presumably to check on the state of Harry’s bowels. Then I noticed Sophie’s shocked expression. ‘You okay?’

  ‘There,’ Sophie said quietly, pointing out to the terrace. I looked. Tara and Angie were locked in a passionate embrace. It was a sweet, intimate moment and I felt as though we were intruding on it.

  I turned a very rigid Sophie around and marched her back towards the kitchen.

  ‘What was that about?’ she exploded, moments later.

  ‘Well, they evidently like each other.’ I paused. ‘A lot.’

  ‘But how? When? Where? When did all this happen?’

  ‘A few nights ago,’ came a voice from around the corner. Tara helped herself to a piece of chocolate, then wrapped her arms around us. ‘Isn’t it great? I think I’m falling in love.’

  As she twirled back out to the patio, Sophie and I peeked outside. Angie was nowhere to be seen. But there were voices coming from the bathroom. Angie was on toilet duty. Sophie and I saw our chance and ran out onto the terrace with our chocolate.

  ‘So this is where your inspiration has sprung from?’ I squealed to Tara, hugging her. ‘Angie!’

  ‘I’m stunned,’ said Sophie, dropping the chocolate onto the table and flopping into a deckchair.

  ‘I can’t believe you kept this from us,’ I said, lunging at Angie when she rejoined us. ‘Spill!’

  ‘We wanted to tell you,’ Tara said, holding Angie’s hand, ‘But what with Levi disappearing yesterday and your arrest today, Claud —’

  ‘Apparently I wasn’t arrested,’ I corrected. ‘I was detained.’ I’d momentarily forgotten about the whole humiliating debacle. ‘Anyway, enough about me, tell us about you two.’

  ‘I knew Angie was special as soon as we met,’ admitted Tara.

  Angie smiled. ‘Same.’

  ‘Those first few days when we all hung out together with Harry and Levi, we just clicked.’

  ‘Obviously.’

  ‘Then that night after the beach, after you left, Soph, we kissed.’

  ‘I had no idea,’ I said.

  ‘I thought you might have guessed something was up when I didn’t come home,’ Tara said.

  Sophie and I looked at each other and I slapped Tara’s arm. ‘We had no idea you didn’t come home.’

  ‘You didn’t come home?’ Sophie said. ‘At all?’ Sophie’s jaw was still lying rigid on the floor.

  ‘Nope. After we put Harry to bed, we stayed up all night talking, kissing . . .’

  ‘Making plans,’ Angie continued.

  ‘Plans?’ I repeated, raising my eyebrows.

  ‘Well, we have to do something,’ said Tara excitedly. ‘Angie lives in London, I’m in Brisbane. We have to sort it out, and pretty damn quickly.’ Tara seemed so together, so relaxed. ‘Kissing Angie’s the best thing I’ve ever done in my life. You know when we kissed, the earth really did move.’

  Angie swooned. ‘My heart was laid bare.’

  Tara wrapped her arms around Angie and together they danced around the patio.

  They were happy and I was happy for them, truly. But a part of me couldn’t believe Tara had fallen for a woman who lived on the other side of the world. Now I knew how parents felt when their child waltzed into the family home one day and announced that they were leaving boring Brisbane and moving overseas, having been seduced by fantasies of bright lights, fame and fortune.

  Tara couldn’t leave me. We’d been a team for too long. She was my plus one.

  25

  For a split second when I woke up the next morning I was happy. Thrilled for Tara and Angie. Thrilled to be on holidays in beautiful Santorini. Thrilled to have met Jack.

  Jack. Suddenly I remembered everything and my happiness evaporated. I couldn’t believe a holiday that had started out so well could end so sadly. All I wanted to do was go home. I couldn’t enjoy it here any more. I didn’t even want to try.

  Why had I thought Jack liked me? Hadn’t I learnt anything from George and Marcus and all the rest of them? Men were not to be trusted! Ever!

  ‘Fucking prick. I hate you!’ I shouted.

  ‘Claud,’ Sophie gasped, flinging open my bedroom door. ‘Are you okay?’

  ‘No, I’m not. I’m a loser. I used to joke about people like me. Well now the joke’s on me. T-shirts across the globe will be printed with my face — Claudia Marie Taylor, the ultimate loser.’

  Sophie sat down beside me on the bed. ‘You’ll get through this.’

  ‘Unlikely. I can’t ever show my face in public again. I’m an imbecile, nitwit, moron, dimwit, jerk, fool, simpleton, dunce, dolt.’

  ‘You forgot idiot.’

  ‘Thank you. Idiot.’

  ‘Okay, I get the picture, but don’t you think we’ve all felt like that before?’

  ‘Once, maybe, but with me it’s every couple of days.’

  ‘So you were caught handing over illegal papers. It’s not the end of the world. I know your heart’s broken and I’m truly sorry about that. Whatever’s happened, it doesn’t make you any less the great person you were yesterday or the day before.’ Sophie kissed me on the cheek. ‘We’ll get through this together. You, me and Tara, if you let us. Except, of course, when you’re in the loo, or the shower. With all that’s
happened with Tara, I want you to know that this is purely a best friend thing.’

  And I thought I was paranoid.

  ‘Oh, Sophie, and here I was thinking you were wanting to share my firstborn!’

  Sophie grinned. ‘Are you sure you’re okay?’

  ‘Yeah, I just need to be by myself for a while, but before that, I want to say how truly sorry I am about sleeping with Marcus —’

  ‘It’s none of my business. You’re both adults. I had no right to react the way I did or to tell you how you should live your life.’

  Sophie left and I stayed in bed until I heard them leave the apartment. When all was quiet, I slipped out of the bedroom. It felt good to have some time alone and pad about the place in my pyjamas. Eating a bowl of yogurt, I walked outside and squinted out across the Mediterranean. It was a sunny, wind-free, very pleasant twenty-seven degrees. Maybe my life wasn’t too shabby. I had two amazing best friends and a very cute, if poo-obsessed, godson. I could survive without Jack Harper and I bloody well would.

  But just then Jack walked down the stairs and onto the patio. ‘Hope I’m not interrupting?’

  I couldn’t believe it.

  ‘Jack,’ I said coolly. When would this nightmare end? And when would he realise that it was impolite to walk in on a lady who was not yet dressed for the day? Jack Harper had no holiday etiquette. ‘I can’t talk to you now. Please leave.’

  ‘I will but I need you to sign the transcripts from yesterday,’ he said, giving me the once-over as he handed me several pieces of paper. ‘Nice pjs.’

  ‘You disgust me. Do you have to wait? Can’t I send these to you?’

  ‘No, I need them today.’

  I ignored him and began reading. As I did, Jack tried explaining his inexcusable actions.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he began.

  ‘You had a job to do, Jack.’ Arsehole.

  ‘Thanks for understanding.’

  ‘That’s where you’re wrong,’ I said, getting up and poking him in the chest. ‘I don’t understand at all.’ However, I couldn’t be superior whilst dressed in pink satin. I backed away and headed inside to change, hoping he would do the decent thing and leave. Ten minutes later he was still on the terrace.

  ‘So you’re a private investigator, not an engineer?’ I said.

  ‘Did you have your heart set on an engineer?’

  ‘Excuse me?’

  Jack managed a weak smile. ‘Marcus’s wife, Trish, hired me initially. Although she knew about some of his affairs, she also knew that the business wasn’t going as well as he made out. With a divorce looming, she wanted to get the financial side of things squared off. She knew there were dodgy transactions going on. And most of them were heading to bank accounts in Switzerland. But the USB flash drive was the real biggie.’

  I glared at him, wishing he’d leave but also keen to hear the full story.

  ‘The papers in the envelope were actually a furphy. The flash drive was what Con needed. Once he had that, the deal was he’d hack into the nominated Australian accounts and transfer vast sums of money out of Australia and into several Swiss bank accounts. Of course, once Con had the code, he was going to snatch everything for himself. Why Marcus couldn’t see that — but, then, his business was going down the tube. He was desperate. I guess he thought he had no choice other than to trust a criminal. Desperate and stupid.’ Jack took a deep breath. ‘Had the transaction gone through, Trish would have been left with nothing.’

  I felt ill.

  ‘Claudia, can’t you see why we thought you were involved in the scam? There were a few nights there when you and Marcus were the only ones who stayed back after everyone else had gone home.’

  ‘You were watching me in Brisbane?’

  ‘No. What I mean is my company had the building under surveillance. We’d been monitoring Marcus’s actions for five months. According to our notes, you were usually out the door at five o’clock, sometimes earlier.’

  Well, that was true. I couldn’t argue but I wanted to explain myself. ‘Yes, but —’ But what? Those nights I worked back late I was bonking Marcus? I knew it. He knew it.

  ‘Think about how it looked from our point of view. Next thing we know, you’re booked on a flight to Athens. We suspected you had something on you. It looked suspicious. We had to notify the Australian police, who in turn related the information to their Greek counterparts.’

  ‘Why didn’t you just tell me who you were and ask me for the envelope? I would have given it to you.’

  Jack put his hand underneath my chin and raised it so I was forced to look into his attractive brown eyes. ‘I thought about it. When we went up to Oia that day, I was going to ask you about it, but then you hurt your foot and the moment passed. Then, while you were chasing Con a couple of days later when we were at lunch, I got word that twenty thousand dollars had been transferred into your bank account.’

  ‘I can see how that might look a little —’

  ‘Suspicious?’

  I nodded.

  ‘I wanted to tell you who I was and what I was doing. When I first saw you at the airport, I thought you were cool. But I couldn’t jeopardise the operation. Had there been the slightest hint that you were involved, which there was because of the surveillance tapes, it would have blown the entire investigation.’

  What dickhead says cool any more? It was so 1992.

  ‘Besides, I had to stick to the facts. You were a suspect.’

  ‘A suspect you slept with?’

  ‘That was before I knew about the money —’

  ‘It was very unprofessional.’

  ‘Yes, I’ll admit I got too close to you. It was definitely the wrong thing to do.’

  He was the jackass after all. There was nothing personal about this. Any more. ‘Do you sleep with all your suspects?’

  ‘Of course not! Do you sleep with all your bosses?’

  I glared at him.

  ‘Claudia, as I got to know you I realised you couldn’t possibly be involved, and by then I’d started to fall for you — really fall for you. But then when I found out about the money transfer I didn’t know what to think. It seemed like I’d totally misjudged you and you were guilty.’

  ‘How did you know about the money?’

  ‘The Australian police were monitoring Marcus’s accounts.’

  We sat in silence for a good minute before Jack spoke again. ‘Claudia, I’m sorry, but can’t you see that this wasn’t about you? Or about Marcus for that matter, although I am sure Trish will be very pleased. It’s about Con Kafentsis.’

  I gave Jack one of his go on looks.

  ‘Once we notified the Greek police that it was Kafentsis we were looking for, they filled me in. Con has been involved in this sort of thing for years. However, the wheels of justice take a bit longer to turn over here. They’d only come on board the day before we caught you handing over the evidence to Con. And now they’ve finally got the hard evidence needed to put him away.’ Jack puffed himself up and continued without my prompting.

  ‘From what I know of Marcus and my conversations with the Queensland police since his arrest, he’s a white-collar criminal. He had no idea who he was dealing with. He’s a complete amateur. I’d say he’ll crumble quickly and cooperate just to try and save his own skin. Most importantly, he’ll give the cops the information they need to put Con away for a very long time.’

  ‘So Con doesn’t make the best olive oils and organic wines in Greece?’

  ‘Afraid not. He makes shabby oil as part of an elaborate business front for his illegal operations.’

  ‘Good on you,’ I said with all the sarcasm I could muster. ‘Your mother must be very proud. Country boy from Yackandandah makes good.’

  ‘That part of it is true, I swear.’

  ‘You also told me you were an engineer.’

  ‘I never said I was an engineer. I told you I studied engineering at university.’

  ‘So you deliberately lied to me?’

 
‘No. You didn’t ask the right questions.’

  ‘Jack, you wouldn’t have told me the truth even if I had asked.’

  ‘I might have.’

  ‘What? Are you here on holidays?’

  ‘Well, no. On that front I’ll admit I was being economical with the truth. But I really am an investigator.’

  Big deal.

  ‘I’m sorry we didn’t meet under better circumstances,’ I said graciously.

  I lowered my eyes and read the rest of the transcript. On paper, I sounded like a five-year-old. Talk about stranger danger. I had no idea.

  ‘It’s not too late, is it?’ Jack asked.

  Was he trying to sweet-talk me? Lure me back to the cot for one more romp before departing Santorini’s shores? I might not have had a lot of dignity where Jack was concerned, but I was doing my best to salvage some self-respect.

  ‘How dare you? I was a suspect you slept with to get information out of.’

  ‘I told you, sleeping with you was never part of the investigation. By then I’d fallen for you and wanted to be with you. I —’

  ‘Get out, Jack.’

  I threw the signed papers at him and went back inside the apartment, locking the door behind me. I watched from my bedroom window as he walked away. No doubt there were other ladies on the island who’d succumb to his charms. The day was young. If he hurried, he could bed at least a couple before sundown.

  I allowed myself another ten minutes to wallow before mentally slapping myself and pulling on sensible walking shoes. (I’d taken Tara’s Birkenstocks from her room.)

  Then I was out the door and walking towards Oia. I trekked up the narrow path that overlooked the cliffs. At one particularly hairy point along the way, I stared out across the perfect sapphire sky and the turquoise ocean. Moving as close to the edge of the cliff as I could, I looked down and began throwing pebbles over the precipice, one by one. I watched as they bounced against the cliff face and into the ocean. Maybe if I threw myself off, my death would be quick and painless.

  On the other hand, knowing my luck, I’d survive the fall and be left with hideous injuries . . . scarred for life and feeling even sorrier for myself than I already did.