The Girl from Lace Island

by Joanna Rees

  Because Blaise must have known about this. This is what the big deal with Lace Island was all about. It was nothing to do with a luxury resort. How naive that sounded now. She felt dread make her tremble. Because her curiosity about Lace Island had put them both in serious trouble. Because if anyone found out they were here . . . With all the surveillance, someone must have spotted their yacht. She’d brought them straight into a trap, she realized.

  Suresh was thinking the same thing. His eyes were wide as they met hers.

  ‘What do we do? Should we call the police?’ she whispered. ‘Or shall we just get the fuck out of here? Like now.’

  He pulled out his phone. ‘I’ve got no signal.’

  ‘Take some pictures anyway,’ Jess said.

  Another engine. They ducked down as the vehicle sent an arc of light into the trees.

  ‘Where are they going?’ Jess asked.

  Running crouched alongside Suresh, they made their way along the tarmac road until the land curved up and away. Jess was out of breath as she reached the top of the hill to join Suresh, who was standing motionless.

  ‘What?’ she asked, standing by his side.

  And then she saw what had made him stop.

  Down below them were mile upon mile of poppy fields. And beyond them, in the distance, on the other side of the island, a ship was docked in a floodlit port. He took another photo and then another.

  ‘I’m sending these to Kareena,’ he said, but he sounded scared. ‘If they’ll go through . . .’

  Suresh grabbed her hand and ducked down and pointed. Round the bend from where they were was a heavily guarded compound with a huge wire fence. Guards with weapons slung across their shoulders laughed and played dice in the dust.

  ‘What the hell is this—’ Suresh didn’t have a chance to finish his sentence, his phone dropping into the dirt.

  She saw his eyes widen, and that’s when Jess felt something metallic and cold press against the back of her head and the unmistakable click of a gun being cocked.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

  Lace Island, present day

  Do it. Do it, Leila urged herself, squeezing her eyes shut in the heat of her cramped room. She had to be fast. She’d left Tapi’s hut five minutes ago, but he might discover the missing gun any second. She had to grab this opportunity.

  Now.

  In all the years that Chan had kept her captive, she’d never had the chance to end it all. And now it was here. She felt the bundle of photographs pressing against her heart.

  I love you, she said in her head, beaming the message to her daughter. She wanted it to be the last thought she had.

  But even as she did, she knew it was useless. Jessica would never know that Leila had even existed. Her longing all these years had been utterly futile. It was time to let the past go and move on for good. Even so, she said it one more time to herself. I love you . . .

  Leila felt every fibre of her being tense, waiting for the inevitable, as she counted down in her head.

  Three . . .

  Two . . .

  One . . .

  She squeezed the trigger with all her strength.

  Click.

  It took her a moment to realize what had happened. She took the barrel of the gun out of her mouth, gasping, realizing her lips were so dry they’d stuck to the cold metal.

  It hadn’t worked. She retched, not just shocked that the attempt at taking her own life had failed but that she had finally been brave enough to attempt it in the first place. She was shaking violently now as she cocked the gun, staring into the barrel, seeing five bullets, the empty hole for the sixth. The bullet that should have just blown off her head.

  She could still do it. There was still time to end it all. But something stopped her. What kind of sick joke was it that had made the empty barrel the one for her? She felt tears bubbling up and she patted her chest, scared by the emotions flying around inside her. Relief? Shame? Disappointment? It was hard to name them all.

  The sound of the siren made her cry out and drop the gun in shock. She twirled round to face the door, convinced the siren must be something to do with her.

  She raced out of her room to the steps outside, amazed that Hakem hadn’t been yet to lock her in. She’d been hoping that he’d find her with her head blown off. She’d hoped he’d be the first to slide in the mess of her blood and brains, and have to be the one to tell Chan that he’d failed in his duty.

  Instead, the sound of the alarm siren shrieked through the night.

  She ran over to the bunker, knocking on the door.

  ‘Who is it?’ she heard Tapi call, but he must know it was her from the knock.

  ‘It’s me.’

  The door opened and Tapi stood in the doorway, looking worried. He pulled her inside, quickly looking around him.

  ‘What’s happened?’ she asked.

  She still felt shaky and frightened. Could he tell that moments ago she’d nearly taken her own life?

  It felt weird even talking. As if this was all new. Borrowed somehow.

  ‘A break-in. A couple on a yacht. Hakem has them now in the jeep and is taking them up to the house.’

  Intrigued, Leila followed him over to the screens and stared at the grainy images.

  ‘There. See,’ he said.

  On one of the screens, Leila saw a view of the beach, the old jetty in the distance, a white sailing yacht bobbing on the black water. On the screen, it was almost possible to believe that Lace Island was once as it had been. Back in the old days. Back when Rasa used to fix the blue boat.

  But that Lace Island was long gone. As soon as the people from the yacht had stepped on shore, they’d have found out the truth. They would have been marked long before they’d even tied their boat up at the jetty. And now there would be no escape.

  But who the hell had sailed here? she wondered. And what would Hakem do to them now? Why hadn’t he killed them straight out? That was his usual style. Or maybe he fancied a bit of torture with these newcomers.

  She watched another two screens as the jeep sped up the tarmac road and then bumped onto the dusty track up towards the house. It stopped by what was left of Bibi’s house. A close-up now of the front of the house, lit by floodlights. There was still the well there and the stone steps, but the building behind was only one storey and ugly.

  She watched on the screen as Chan waddled down the front steps. The jeep had stopped now and a couple were getting out of the back. An Indian guy and a girl.

  The girl looked upset, a guard pushing her roughly.

  Who were they?

  Leila felt something shaking inside her as she leant in towards the screen.

  ‘Boy, they’re in trouble,’ Tapi said.

  Leila was silent, her eyes glued to the screen and the back view of the slim girl with her long, dark hair in a ponytail. The guard pushed the couple towards the steps, and that’s when the girl looked up. For one split second, her face was caught in close-up and Leila felt saliva rush into her mouth.

  She felt her heart contracting.

  It couldn’t be. It wasn’t possible . . .

  That face . . . that face . . . she knew that face better than she knew her own . . .

  She felt something fizzing around her. Something she’d never felt before. A sure knowledge that fate had saved her for this moment.

  This moment right now.

  The images on the screen changed now, the camera switching, and Leila turned away from them. It took every ounce of her strength to pretend what she’d just seen meant nothing. When the truth was that the world had just shifted on its axis.

  ‘You’d better go back,’ Tapi said, ‘or there’ll be trouble.’

  He sat down in his seat, pretending to be officious. She saw him reach under his desk for the gun, but she was already shutting the bunker door and quietly wedging the lock shut.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

  Lace Island, present day

  In the stifling heat of the cramped off
ice they’d been left in, Jess jumped, hearing what sounded like a distant gunshot.

  ‘What was that?’ she whimpered.

  ‘It’s OK,’ Suresh said. ‘Try and keep calm.’

  There was a large desk and chair, but hardly any other furniture, apart from a day bed, which Jess was sitting on now. A gecko scuttled up the wall next to the buzzing bare light bulb.

  Suresh was on the other side of the room, inspecting the high window, which had bars on it but no means of escape.

  Jess put her face in her hands. ‘How can I keep calm? Oh my God. This is all my fault. This is really fucking serious . . .’

  Suresh came over and sat next to her, putting his arms round her.

  ‘What if they kill us?’ Jess implored.

  ‘If they were going to kill us, they would have done so by now.’

  ‘I’m so scared. That man . . . I met him with Blaise in London. He’s the one who must have paid Blaise to find me. This is bad, Suresh . . . really bad . . . I had no idea about the heroin.’

  ‘Come on. We have to think. There must be a way out of here,’ Suresh said, but Jess knew he was scared too. She thought of his mobile phone, which was still in the field where the guards had captured them. That guy – the one with the evil eyes – Jess had been convinced he was going to kill them. She’d never experienced fear like it.

  Jess felt sick at the thought that Blaise had known about what happened here on Lace Island the whole time. She’d wondered since she’d left Miami why he’d done what he’d done to her, but now she realized just how high the stakes had always been. How terrifying what he was involved in actually was.

  They were silent for a moment; Jess stared into Suresh’s eyes and she knew that he was thinking the same thing.

  ‘If anything bad happens – really bad, I mean – I want you to know that I’m truly grateful you helped me out, Suresh,’ she said, her voice shaking. ‘And I’m sorry. I’m sorry for dragging you into all of this—’ But she couldn’t finish, because his lips were on hers in an urgent kiss. She felt the same feeling rush through her as when she’d first seen him.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he gasped. ‘If anything happened and I hadn’t kissed you, I would never have forgiven myself. But timing is really not my strong point.’

  She grabbed his face, closing her eyes, savouring the sensation of the kiss, her heart hammering.

  Suddenly, a stone fell in through the bars behind them and Suresh jumped up. ‘What was that?’ he said, backing to the wall to look out of the window. ‘I think someone is there,’ he whispered.

  Jess felt her heart hammering, her mind still reeling from Suresh’s kiss as she heard something moving over the roof outside. Then silence. She stared at Suresh and they both looked at the door.

  The handle was turning.

  Very slowly and quietly, the door opened. An Indian woman in dirty trousers and an old army jacket came in. She stared at them, then turned the key, locking herself in with them.

  Suresh held out his hands, shielding Jess. ‘Please,’ he began. ‘We mean no harm.’

  Jess peered round Suresh to the woman. She looked nervous, her gaze darting to the door. She was filthy, her fingernails black with dirt. She put her fingers to her lips, telling them to talk quietly.

  ‘Do you work here? What is this place?’ Jess asked, confused about what was going on.

  ‘This is an illegal heroin plant,’ the woman said. She had good English, but with a heavy Indian accent. Her voice was husky and strained. ‘It’s run by Chan. He will be here soon. He is a very bad man. You are in great danger.’

  ‘We know. We saw him,’ Suresh said. ‘Can you help us?’

  ‘I can, but first, you must tell me . . . why did you come here?’ the woman asked, stepping closer to them now.

  ‘Because—’ Jess began, standing next to Suresh.

  He frowned at her. ‘Don’t, Jess,’ he said. ‘We don’t know we can trust her.’

  ‘I don’t care. She’s here,’ Jess told him. ‘She might be our only chance.’

  She saw the look of understanding pass across his face and he nodded.

  Jess turned to the woman. ‘We came here because . . . because . . . Oh God, it’s complicated, but I was engaged to be married to someone, but I found out that he was trying to marry me because he thought I had some connection to here and that by marrying me . . .’ She fizzled out, realizing how crazy she sounded. She turned to Suresh.

  ‘We had no idea that all this was here.’

  ‘This is Suresh, my friend,’ Jess explained. ‘You cannot imagine the danger I have now put him in, and—’ She stopped, startled by the woman’s face. Her eyes were shining brightly and she crept towards Jess, holding out her hand.

  ‘It is you,’ she said, in an awed whisper. ‘When I saw you on the camera, I didn’t think it was possible, but . . .’

  She put her hand to her head and for a moment Jess thought the woman was going to faint. She stared at Suresh, who looked as confused as she felt.

  ‘Hey, are you OK?’ Suresh asked, taking the woman’s arm. He pulled a face at Jess.

  ‘I have to go,’ the woman said suddenly, as if his touch had burnt her. She made for the door.

  ‘Wait,’ Jess implored, catching her by the door. ‘Please can you help us? This island is privately owned, right? Or at least it was. That’s what we know. It was owned by someone called Bibi.’

  ‘And she had a daughter, Leila . . . .’ Suresh said slowly.

  ‘Are you . . . are you . . . Leila?’ Jess asked, shocked to see now that the woman was crying.

  And that’s when Jess realized. Without knowing why, she felt her breath catch. ‘You’re Leila, aren’t you?’

  The woman nodded wordlessly, then reached inside her jacket. Jess watched as she pulled out a haphazard bundle of well-thumbed photographs in a dirty pink ribbon, which she handed now to Jess, without looking at her.

  Jess gasped, the air leaving her lungs as if she’d been hit.

  Each photograph was of her. At every age. Loads of them. Ones of her and Angel. In the care home. Even one of her at Angel’s funeral. That guy she’d seen . . . he’d taken a photo of her. She hadn’t imagined it.

  ‘How do you have these?’ she whispered, staring at Leila, who was half smiling now, tears making her cheeks glisten as she looked at the photos.

  ‘They gave me one a year,’ Leila said, but she sounded like she could hardly speak. ‘Taken on your birthday. To keep me here. To make me stay. Because as long as I did, you’d be safe.’

  Jess could hardly take in what Leila was saying.

  ‘But I don’t understand. Does that mean you’re . . . you’re . . .’ she began, but she couldn’t say it.

  Leila stared at her and nodded, just once.

  ‘Oh my God,’ Jess gasped. ‘You’re my mother?’

  CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE

  Lace Island, present day

  And then it was happening. The thing Leila had feared never would come to pass: she was in her daughter’s arms. She felt Jessica’s slim arms wrapping around her, as if she was catching Leila from falling, but at the same time, she felt as if she’d been borne up, like she was floating way up in the air.

  And to think . . . to think that this might never have happened. That not even an hour ago, she had a gun in her mouth, ready to end everything. Even moments ago, she’d almost lost her nerve. Almost had to run from the shame of the truth. But the truth was out and now . . . now beyond all her wildest dreams . . . this.

  She was so aware of the time – how little they had of it – but it didn’t matter. It felt to Leila as if time had stopped. In the most delicious moment of her life, Leila held her daughter and closed her eyes.

  ‘Is this really happening?’ Jess said, pulling away, trying to gasp for air. She shook her head, as if she couldn’t take it all in, but Leila felt a new calmness. Nothing else mattered. Only that they were finally together.

  ‘You have your grandmother’s eyes, Jessica,�
�� Leila said, filling her senses with how beautiful her daughter had grown. ‘I knew it from when you were tiny. There’s that picture of you with that girl . . .’ Leila said, pointing to the pictures in Jess’s hand.

  ‘Angel.’

  ‘Is that her name? I’m glad you had an angel with you,’ Leila said, and she stroked Jessica’s face as the tears rolled from her eyes.

  ‘You had all these photos?’ she whispered. ‘And I never knew?’

  ‘This is all I’ve had. All I’ve treasured. All these years. And now you’re here.’

  ‘But I don’t understand. Why didn’t you escape?’

  Leila shook her head, stunned now by the magnitude of the task to make her understand.

  ‘How could I? They’ve locked me up at night. Kept me prisoner for years and years, so they could make me sign everything off and they could carry on their trade. They would be ruined if I left and told anyone what happens here. They ensured I stayed by giving me your pictures. They told me they’d kill you if I didn’t do what they said.’

  Jessica stared at Suresh, who shook his head, clearly as astonished as she was.

  ‘Jess, we have to get out of here,’ Suresh said. ‘Leila, can you help me get to a phone that works? A computer with email?’

  ‘What’s email?’ Leila asked.

  Jess and Suresh exchanged a look.

  ‘It doesn’t matter,’ Suresh said. ‘I have to get word out. I have to—’

  But at that moment, the door burst open, as if it had been kicked from outside. Leila, Jess and Suresh jumped back.

  There was a moment of silence as Leila stared at Chan and Shang. Hakem was close behind.

  ‘Oh look. How touching,’ Chan said, and Leila hated him in that moment more than she’d ever hated him. He waved a gun between Leila and Jess. ‘Did I miss the reunion?’

  ‘Let them go,’ Leila shouted at him. ‘Let them go. You have no right—’

  ‘I have every right. What I say happens here.’

  He pushed them further into the room. Jess and Suresh had their hands up, but Leila was determined to protect them. Chan didn’t scare her. Nothing scared her now. She felt invincible.