He concluded the meeting.
‘You must continue your search for Father Piontius and surveillance of the convent. Be discrete. I also want to be told if you discover the whereabouts of this girl.’ He held up a picture of Kia. ‘I don’t have copies for you but you all know Kia.’
Grimaces and leers accompanied his last words.
‘I don’t want her to be touched, but, if you find her, I don’t want her to be lost either. Just let me know quickly where she is and I’ll take care of the rest.’
He dismissed the men and sat back in his chair. He was already planning his encounter with Kia, just as he had planned that with Juditta. He picked up the report of their last meeting. It was blunt and objective but, rereading it now to himself, Jalbis contentedly dwelt on the detail that had been omitted.
Juditta had returned to the port. She had so little imagination it was inevitable to Jalbis that she would do so. She was seen knocking at the priest’s house and easily captured. Jalbis had enjoyed her final moments on his boat. He recalled the details of their meeting with precision.
‘Hallo, Juditta.’
‘Jalbis, they’re hurting me.’ She looked at the two men holding her arms.
He ignored the plea.
‘Now, where have you been, sister dear. I told you not to leave.’
She stayed silent. The men tightened their grip.
‘A farmhouse in the hills.’
‘And where is this farmhouse?’
‘I don’t know. We were hidden under a tarpaulin in a cart on the way there.’
‘But you made your own way back here, didn’t you?’
She nodded.
‘Well?’
She hesitated.
‘I’ll give you time to think.’
Jalbis nodded at the two men and sat down to watch as they took turns to rape her.
When they had finished he smiled condescendingly.
‘At least now you’ve been properly fucked.’
She vomited on the floor and he went over to her and slapped her across the face.
‘Show a bit more dignity.’
The men cleared up the mess.
‘Now, let’s start again.’
‘I don’t know exactly where the farmhouse is. I had to cross all sorts of fields and woods until I came to a road. I’ve no idea which direction I was going in.’
‘And when you got to the road?’
‘I got a lift in a car. I was exhausted and fell asleep on the back seat. I didn’t wake up until we got to the port so I can’t even tell you which direction I came from.’
‘You’re lying.’
‘No, Jalbis. It’s the truth. Please don’t let your men have me again.’
‘I don’t suppose they would want to.’
‘Let’s go back a bit.’
‘You said, “ We were hidden under a tarpaulin”. Who else was with you?’
This time she didn’t hesitate.
‘Kia.’
‘That’s better. Is she still there?’
‘I suppose so.’
‘Now let’s talk about the other documents. Thanks to you the will has been destroyed. All I need now are the confession and the codicil. Where are they?’
‘I really don’t know, Jalbis. I told you. You’ll have to ask Father Piontius.’
‘Ah, Father Piontius. He appears to be missing. Now where could he be?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘At the farmhouse perhaps?’
‘No.’
‘You’re lying.’
‘No.’
‘Let’s help you to remember.’
‘What are you going to do?’
‘It’s a new toy I’ve discovered.’
He handed an object to the men who pinned Juditta to the ground and inserted it into her vagina. Jalbis nodded and they switched on the current. Juditta twitched and screamed until he indicated that they could stop.
‘Now, Juditta, once again.’
Tears were completely covering her face in a thick film, running into her eyes and clouding her vision.
‘All I know is that he wasn’t there when I left. We were waiting for him to arrive. I can’t tell you anything else. Whatever else you do to me I can’t tell you anything else.’
At last Jalbis seemed satisfied.
‘Then I think we should say goodbye.’
‘I can go?’
‘In a sense.’
He took out his handgun.
‘Hold her down.’
The two men did as instructed and Jalbis inserted the gun into her vagina and pulled the trigger. For good measure he put a bullet through her heart.
The boat at anchor gently rocked.
‘Start the engine. We’ll get rid of her at sea, that way she’ll never be far from her precious island.’
17
It was a sigh that filled the room completely. Not a sigh of relief exactly, more a silent statement of reconciliation. Father Piontius welcomed it after the pains of this last week, a week that had begun and ended with the Sunday mass. His enquiries had found no trace of Juditta and he bore this failure with regret. He had not entirely given up hope of finding out what had happened to her but it could all be too late. He had had to report his lack of success every day to Richard who was assiduous in maintaining contact by phone, but could not conceal his concern. It had not been easy to say nothing to him. His chest pain returned and made good company with a physical cross that he now bore. He had just returned from the Sunday mass. It had been well attended. He had spoken the ritual words of the Eucharist with total conviction and no sense of doubt, for the very first time in his life. Afterwards his faith had been immediately tested. He had arrived home to find them at his door. They had come for the confession and codicil. He had asked for news of Juditta. Jalbis and his men had laughed at his request and he had refused to answer theirs. They had rewarded his silence by using their knives to cut a cross over his heart. They had known exactly how deeply to penetrate his flesh to avoid serious damage. His personal stigmata were healing now but it was a warning to him. He had not told Richard about all this but he must do so now. He picked up the mobile phone and called his number. Jalbis was about to return. The priest had no wish to hide and, in any case, there would have been no point. But he had to secure the documents. Richard knew what to do.
The knock came soon afterwards and was answered promptly. Jalbis and two men entered as expected.
‘Will you sit down?’ the priest asked gently.
‘No. We won’t be here long. It’ll only take a moment for you to tell me where the confession and codicil are.’
‘And if I do?’
‘That depends on whether you tell us the truth.’
‘A man of God will not lie.’
‘Not to God perhaps but I can’t lay claim to be Him.’
‘And if I don’t tell you?’
‘We left a clear message last week.’
‘I have nothing to say.’
‘I’ll ask you just once more. Where are they?’
‘I have nothing to say.’
‘Bring him. And bring that too,’ he added, pointing to the mobile phone.
Father Piontius was seized by the two men and marched to the waiting car. It was a large four by four off-road vehicle and their journey was over rough terrain into the mountains. Each bump in the road heightened the pain that was spreading around the priest’s heart. He gripped the edge of the seat in an effort to control it. His left arm began to tingle. Breathing deeply, he watched the road ahead and murmured softly to himself in prayer. The pain eased and his prayers changed from those of supplication to those of thanks. The respite lasted the rest of the journey.
When they stopped, they manhandled him from the car to a clearing in the woods. Jalbis took out his gun and pointed it at the priest.
‘Kneel,’ he said, as his two men disappeared into the wood with axes and a rope.
‘I shan’t try to escape. You can put away
the gun.’
‘That’s for me to decide.’
For not even a second did he take his eyes off the kneeling figure.
Jalbis approached him and held the gun to his head.
‘If pain will not make you talk perhaps the thought of death will.’
‘Death awaits us all, my son, and I put my trust in God.’
He felt a blow across his cheek.
‘There are many ways of arriving at death. We’ll see how you like the one I have chosen for you.’
‘And Juditta? Have you chosen a death for her too?’
‘Juditta is already resting at the bottom of the sea.’
The priest crossed himself and offered up a prayer for her soul, only then committing his own soul into the hands of God.
The two men reappeared. They had bound together two narrow tree trunks into the shape of a cross.
‘I think this an end most fitting for a man of God,’ said Jalbis with a sneer. He turned to the men.
‘Fetch the nails.’
‘They laid the cross on the ground and bound Father Piontius’s hands and feet to the wood.
‘Perhaps you will talk now. They say that crucifixion is a most unpleasant way of dying.’
The priest said nothing. All his words were silent and to God. Jalbis nodded and the men began. The priest felt the first nail penetrate his left hand. As his body struggled to accept the pain, another pain superseded it, a crashing, crushing pain that filled his heart and then his whole body. It grew in intensity until he felt he was no longer flesh and blood but made purely of suffering and the spirit. Behind his closed eyes he saw a uniform brightness. Father Piontius exhaled a long deep breath and died.
His premature death did not escape Jalbis Zachion but he disliked leaving a job half done. He ordered the men to continue their work. He returned to the car and waited for them to finish. The priest’s silence did not trouble him unduly. He was fairly sure he knew where the documents were, and, in his hand, he held the priest’s mobile phone with the one contact number he had used.
18
The fire in the hearth was burning down to embers. The farmer had lit it at Kia’s request. The warmth chased away the damp of the room and the flames had provided an additional visual comfort. Kia had gone to bed early. Richard was left to stare at the fading coals, waiting for the time to phone Father Piontius. He hoped the priest had been wrong. The conversation between them that morning still troubled him. He heard the ringtone on his mobile and immediately jumped up to answer it in a quiet corner of the room. He had not expected the priest to call him.
‘Hallo. Is everything okay?’
A man’s voice answered but it was not Father Piontius.
‘Your priest’s dead. You can talk to me now. Where’s Kia?’
Richard killed the call and switched off the phone completely. He took the SIM card out of the phone and went over to the fire. He threw it in and watched as its tiny shape bent and deformed in the angry crackles.
A short while later he was in Kia’s room, watching the barely perceptible movement of her breasts in sleep. He shook her gently.
She opened her eyes slowly.
‘Richard,’ she cried out.
‘Shh.’ He laid a finger on her lips. ‘We’ve got to leave.’
‘Leave. What do you mean?’
‘I’m sorry to wake you, but something’s not right. I’ve had a phone call. It was Father Piontius’ number but I didn’t recognise the man’s voice.’
‘It might have been a wrong number.’
‘No, Kia. Whoever it was asked where you were.’
‘What do you think has happened?’
‘I think Jalbis may have got to Father Piontius. He came to see him last week and threatened him. He wanted to know where the documents were. When I spoke to Father Piontius this morning he said that Jalbis was coming back today and, if I couldn’t get in touch, that we were to go to the convent and make sure the documents were safe.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me this morning?’
‘I didn’t want to worry you unless I had to. You’ve been so upset since Juditta left.’
Kia sat on the bed and he gave her time to wake properly and take in what he had said. He thought back over the past week. It had taken quite a few days before Kia’s mask of sadness had begun to slip. She had finally told Richard of the last conversation she had had with Juditta, sparing nothing. Since then she had appeared less haunted and he had found her good company. She was intelligent, educated and keen to learn new things. She had been happy to play computer games with him on his laptop and Richard was pleased to get some semblance of normality into this strange moment in his life. He had tried to explain the English sense of humour, but his explanation proved more hilarious to her than the jokes themselves and they agreed that the culture of humour was a difficult thing to interchange. He was curious about her life as a prostitute, but his attempts to get her to talk about it were met by a gentle but firm rebuff. She wanted to leave all that behind her. Still, you could not blame him for trying. He had heeded the priest’s advice and made an effort to treat her as a friend. He had not been totally successful and she had allowed him the odd brief kiss or embrace when they were alone. It was almost more frustrating than a totally platonic relationship and Richard found himself turning to himself for solace once again. Not ideal. Now the routine was about to be broken. He gently touched her on the arm to recall her and himself to the situation that they now had to face. She looked up at him.
‘So what are we going to do?’
‘We’ll have to go to the convent but we must be careful in case they already know where we are.’
Kia looked scared. ‘He’s betrayed us, I know.’
‘No, Kia. Father Piontius was adamant when I spoke to him this morning that, whatever happened, he would say nothing and I believe him. It’s Juditta that I’m worried about. She hasn’t been found. Jalbis could have got to her, and she is much more likely to speak out.’
The fear in her eyes intensified.
‘Don’t worry,’ he said, trying to appear confident, ‘Father Piontius has given me instructions. We just need to wait until it is really dark and then we can leave. We have to make our way to a cave and shelter there during the day. We can reach the convent the following evening.’
‘Will we find our way?’
‘I don’t know but we’ve got to try.’
They left quietly within the hour. The midnight sky was clear and Richard found the clarity of the shimmering stars a comfort. The moon was nearly full and it helped to light their way. Richard held back from using the torch as much as possible as a precaution. The air was chill but they walked steadily, gaining warmth as they made ground. They rested at regular intervals and sipped the water that they had brought with them.
‘I think we’ve followed the right route, if so, it shouldn’t be far now.’
Richard was not as confident as he sounded, but, as the first hints of dawn were just becoming visible over the horizon, they stumbled gratefully into the cave.
‘Are you tired, Kia?’
‘A little.’
‘Look, I’ll try and find something soft to lie on. I’m not very good at this boy-scout stuff but I’ll try.’
‘Boy scout?’
‘Never mind, it’s not important.’
The only camping he had ever done was in France in a fully equipped tent. This was nothing like. They didn’t even have sleeping bags. Still it was only for a few hours. He went off searching the undergrowth and scrub for anything that would ease the hardness of the ground inside the cave. He walked to the edge of a clearing in the wood and stopped still in horror. Disbelief was the first thing that seized him but, as he continued to look ,he knew that what he saw was real. He began to sweat and felt an uncontrollable nausea rush from his stomach into his gullet. He leant over and vomited on the ground. After several deep breaths he forced himself to stand upright and confront the cause. In front of him stood a
makeshift cross and nailed to it, as he had seen in wooden effigies of Christ, was the figure of Father Piontius. With difficulty he lowered the cross to the ground. He had no way of removing the priest from the cross and burial was, therefore, out of the question. He gathered together as many leaves and branches as he could find and hid the gruesome spectacle under their cover. He would have to get help when he reached the convent. He turned sadly away with his bundle of foliage and grasses and went back to the cave. He would keep his discovery secret from Kia for now: at least until the priest was fit for burial. He found Kia sitting on the ground hunched over her knees.
‘Your bed, my lady,’ he said in an effort at humour, and spread the bundle beside her.
‘Go on, try it out.’
She lay down on her back, wriggling a little in an effort to find a comfortable position.
‘Not five star accommodation, I know, but the best I could do.’
‘Actually it’s not bad.’ She looked up at him. ‘Are you all right? You look a bit pale.’
‘I’ve just been sick. Must have been something I ate. I’m okay really.’
He made up a similar bed for himself and lay down next to her.
‘Well this is a first, I must say.’
He closed his eyes but sleep escaped him. He turned on his side and looked at Kia.
She too was open-eyed.
‘Can’t you sleep either?’
‘It’s difficult even though I’m tired.’
She turned towards him. The proximity of her face overwhelmed him. To touch and hold something so beautiful held the promise of exorcising the horror that he had just witnessed. He resisted at first, mindful of the priest’s advice. But the priest was dead, horribly dead, and he was living with all the desires and needs that followed. He moved a little to be closer to her and kissed her on the lips. She offered no resistance and soon their lips and tongues were moving in the silent conversation of passion. They were far from naked but somehow they managed, ignoring the cold, the discomfort and the difficulty, to bring their bodies together. Richard was not disappointed. She moved and touched him in ways he couldn’t have imagined. He held on to his climax for as long as he could; wanting to prolong each sensation that she excited in him. At length he could resist no longer and release came as she too let go. They lay side by side panting from the effort, their breaths slowing over time till a gentle rhythmic rise and fall led them both into sleep.
From Nemesis Island Page 23
