‘Have you tried their mobiles?’ Caroline asked, tapping her foot against the polished floor.
‘Yes, and neither of them are answering,’ Lizzie said.
Caroline’s eyes fell back to the phone in her hand. Tap, tap, tap, her foot continued.
Ben leaned closer to Lizzie before he spoke. ‘How many times have you known Samantha to be late?’
‘Samantha?’ Lizzie raised her eyebrows. ‘Never. Jaddi, though, always.’
‘That’s what I thought.’ He nodded, glancing at his watch.
Caroline pulled her wrist up to her face, looked at her watch again and gave a loud sigh. ‘Right, well, we simply can’t wait any longer, so we’d best go without them. I’ve already sent the crew ahead to the launch area to set up.’
‘Hang on, Caroline,’ Ben said. ‘We’ve still got a few minutes. Let me run up and check the suite. I bet they’ve fallen asleep and forgotten to set an alarm.’
‘Fine, but be quick.’
‘I’ll come too.’ Lizzie sprung from the chair and jogged after Ben. The urgency of his movements caused an unease to worm its way around her.
‘Maybe you should wait down here,’ he said.
‘Why?’ she asked. ‘What’s wrong? Do you know something I don’t?’
He paused and stared at her for a moment before answering. ‘I’m sure it’s nothing.’
Ben jabbed his finger against the button causing a red light to illuminate behind it. He pressed it several more times anyway.
‘You know that doesn’t make it come any faster, don’t you?’ Lizzie said.
He shrugged, his gaze fixing on the plain white door next to the lift.
‘Don’t even think about it,’ Lizzie said. ‘Waiting a minute for the lift to arrive will be a lot quicker that sprinting up forty-two floors.’
He nodded but didn’t speak.
As the lift doors began to open, Ben darted in, almost tripping over a woman and her suitcase. She tutted and gave a shake of her head as she wheeled her luggage out of the way and walked into the lobby. Lizzie stepped in after him.
The key card was in Ben’s hand as the lift arrived and the doors slid open. Without a word, he ran into the corridor.
‘Ben?’ she called, her feet sinking into the plush red carpet as she chased after him. He didn’t stop until he reached the door of the suite.
She made it to his side just as he whipped the key card out of the lock. They waited for the small red bulb to illuminate green. It didn’t.
‘Here,’ Lizzie said, brushing his hand aside and feeling the warmth radiate from his body as she stepped closer. ‘You’re doing it too fast.’
She repeated his action, pulling the plastic card slowly from the lock. A split second later, the bulb flashed green. Ben gripped the handle in his hand and pulled it as far down as it would go before pushing his weight against the door. It opened without a sound. He touched his finger to his lips as they entered the suite.
Lizzie frowned but did as he asked.
They stepped into a living room area with sofas and a glass coffee table. To one side was a small kitchen, but it was the expansive floor-to-ceiling window and the view over Las Vegas that drew Lizzie’s eyes, and Ben’s, she noticed a moment later, as his body froze beside her.
All of a sudden, Ben’s upper body lurched forward, his hands gripping the back of the sofa. It seemed as though his feet were encased in concrete and someone had pushed him.
‘Ben,’ she said, her voice low as she followed his gaze to the window. ‘Speak to me, what’s going on?’
With his eyes still fixed on the window, he pushed himself to standing and nodded. ‘I forgot we’d travelled up so high. I’m fine.’
Lizzie stepped closer, and placed a hand on his cheek, guiding his gaze away from the window and on to her. ‘Focus on me for a second,’ she said, staring into the depths of his eyes until she felt the muscles in his body begin to relax. ‘Let’s find Samantha and Jaddi and get out of he—’
Out of nowhere a scream pierced the air. Lizzie spun towards the corridor and the direction of the noise.
‘Please let Jaddi go,’ she heard Samantha beg. ‘I’ll play your game, but please let her go.’ The fear in Samantha’s voice sent a shiver down her spine.
‘Enough!’ a man’s voice replied.
Lizzie jumped towards the noise, but Ben grabbed her arm and pulled her back towards him.
‘Wait,’ he mouthed, picking up the phone on the coffee table. A moment later, he spoke into the receiver. ‘I need security, now!’ he said, his voice a low, urgent whisper.
‘Stay behind me,’ he said, darting along the corridor.
Another screech rung in the air. The door to the second bedroom was pushed closed but not shut.
As they reached the door, Ben stopped. Panic and frustration gripped Lizzie’s body. She wanted to barge into the room but Ben’s frame blocked her path. Slowly, Ben pressed his fingers against the door and pushed it open an inch.
Through the gap, Lizzie could see Samantha’s face and body. Her right leg and right arm were bound to Jaddi’s left, whilst her other hand was pulled out at a right angle to her body and tied to a taut wire. She couldn’t see where the wire ended, but she guessed a radiator below the window.
A figure passed in front of the gap. Lizzie’s heartbeat began to pound in her ears, and in front of her she felt Ben steady his feet.
‘That should do it,’ the man said. ‘Don’t you think, ladies?’
Lizzie knew the voice instantly. David. His back was to the doorway as he waved a small object in the air. Metal glinted in the light from the window. A knife? A blade? Lizzie couldn’t tell. This couldn’t be happening, she thought over and over.
David placed the object on the edge of the bed and moved his hands to the bottom of his T-shirt. As he pulled it over his head, Ben made his move, rushing into the bedroom and shoving David to the floor. With his arms and his head still immobilised inside the T-shirt, David lashed out with his legs.
As Lizzie dived past them and onto the bed, Ben rolled David onto his front with his face to the floor and sat down hard on the centre of his back. David grunted and tried to buck his body upwards, but it was no use. Ben’s hold on him was too tight.
‘Oh my God!’ Lizzie panted. ‘Are you OK?’ Her hands shook as she began pulling at the plastic knotted around their hands. Samantha had a long cut on her arm, and Jaddi had a smear of blood on her neck, but they were conscious and nodded their heads.
‘Where’s Suk? Is she OK?’ Jaddi asked, rubbing the wrists of her freed hands.
‘I haven’t seen her,’ Samantha said.
‘You don’t think he …’ Jaddi’s eyes widened as she allowed her sentence to trail off.
‘I’m not sure, but I don’t think so. He didn’t say anything,’ Samantha replied. Her body began to shake. For a moment Lizzie thought it was the shock hitting her, but then she drew in a wrenching breath. ‘I’m so sorry.’ Tears streamed down her face.
‘It’s not your fault,’ Jaddi said, placing an arm around Samantha. ‘It’s that pig down there who should be sorry.’
David kicked against the floor. ‘Fucking bitches were asking for it,’ he said, his voice muffled behind the T-shirt.
A ball of fire ignited inside Lizzie. Her body moved without thought, spinning towards the figure on the floor. Her fists were clenched so tight she could feel her nails digging into her skin, but she didn’t care.
‘How dare you hurt my friends,’ she hissed, jumping onto the floor and raising her fist.
‘Hotel Security,’ a man’s voice shouted from along the corridor. ‘Las Vegas PD are on their way.’
Three men burst into the room.
CHAPTER 55
Lizzie
Lizzie opened the door to her bedroom and waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. ‘Samantha?’ she said.
Objects came into focus: a dresser with a flat-screen television mounted on the wall above it; a night tab
le with a light on top; her backpack resting against an armchair. The room was the mirror image of Samantha’s, without the paraphernalia of David’s attack – the phone wires, the blood, the broken lamp.
Lizzie’s eyes fixed on the bed and the shadowed profile of Samantha, sat bolt upright on the edge, staring at the blank screen of the television as if immersed in a film only she could see.
Lizzie kicked off her sandals and padded bare feet across the carpet.
‘How are you doing?’ Lizzie asked as she sat down next to Samantha.
‘I can’t stop shaking,’ Samantha said. ‘Look.’ She released her hands from their position clamped between her thighs and held them up. Even in the darkness it seemed as if an electrical current was running through Samantha’s body, causing her hands to judder back and forth, and her teeth to chatter.
‘It’s the shock. It’ll pass.’ Lizzie rubbed Samantha’s back and tried to formulate the words that would make Samantha all right again, before realising with a stab of pain to her chest that there weren’t any. Nothing she could say or do could wipe away the fear and hurt David had caused.
The last few hours had slipped away in a blur of police, crime-scene technicians and paramedics. The police had arrived minutes after the hotel security men had barged into the room. David had been dragged away by two uniformed officers, leaving behind a plainclothed detective to ask them question after question after question.
Only when they’d each told their part in the event three times, and each been given the all-clear from a paramedic, did the detective leave. Lizzie had guided Samantha through the living room to her own room, before going back to check on Jaddi.
‘I’m so sorry, Lizzie.’ Samantha dropped forward, burying her face in her hands and unleashing loud, weeping cries.
‘It’s not your fault, Sam.’
‘If I’d have known what David was capable of … I’d never …’ she sniffed and sat up. The whites of her eyes shone bright against the darkness as she stared at Lizzie. ‘This was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime for you, and I’ve ruined it. I’ve ruined your time with your family. I’ve ruined everything. I’m so sorry.’
‘Sam.’ Lizzie gripped her friend’s shoulders. ‘You have to hear me when I say this – this was not your fault. You had no idea David was a whack job, and you had no idea Channel 6 had invited him to Vegas, and you had no idea he’d do what he did. You’re the victim here. Understand?’
She shook her head, drawing in a shuddering breath. ‘I did know. Sort of anyway. In London, the day we left, when Caroline gave us the afternoon off, I saw David.’ Samantha paused for a long time before she continued. ‘He called it his game,’ she said, emotion rippling through her words. ‘God knows how he convinced me to do it—’
‘You don’t have to tell me now, Sam, if it’s too hard.’ Lizzie squeezed her hand tighter and wished again that she could take Samantha’s pain away.
‘It’s OK, I want to. It wasn’t like this; he didn’t attack me or anything. I agreed to it. I let him tie me to the bed and cover my mouth with tape. I let him … I let him hurt me. So I did know some of what he was capable of, and if I’d just said something, anything, they wouldn’t have flown him out here and he wouldn’t—’ The rest of her words morphed into a wailing cry.
‘I’ll say it again, Sam. It wasn’t your fault. Not even a little bit. And you haven’t ruined anything, I promise,’ Lizzie said in a voice she hoped masked the sudden rage pounding through her. How could he do that to her? Lizzie touched her head against Sam’s. ‘I would never have agreed to this trip without you, Sam. The only thing you could have done to ruin anything would be to have stayed at home.’
A gentle knock sounded from one of the inside doors. A moment later, it opened and Ben appeared, his profile illuminated from the light in the bedroom behind him.
‘Hey,’ he said.
‘Is that your bedroom? I thought that was a closet,’ Lizzie said.
‘Adjoining rooms. How are you holding up, Samantha?’
‘I’m OK. I can’t stop shaking, but I’m OK.’
Ben stepped forward. A moment later, a bedside lamp flicked on. He stepped around the bed and leant against the dresser opposite them. ‘Has someone looked at that cut?’ He nodded towards the line running from Sam’s elbow to her wrist, where it connected with the red bracelet grooves of the ligature marks.
She nodded. ‘One of the ambulance guys cleaned it. It’s not that bad.’
‘How about your head?’ Ben asked, glancing at Lizzie and causing a rush of gratitude to wash over her. How different would today have been without Ben? She couldn’t begin to formulate the answer.
‘Just bumped and bruised. I’ve got a headache but the paramedics said it wasn’t a concussion.’ Samantha touched her fingers against the top of her head and scrunched up her eyes. ‘Do I need to go to the police station?
Ben shook his head. ‘The detective’s gone. He has all of our contact details, but considering that David recorded the whole thing, and the statements we’ve already given, it’s more than enough to prosecute him.’
‘Will he go to jail?’ Samantha lifted her face and stared at Ben.
‘Definitely.’ Ben nodded. ‘I heard the detective talking on the phone. It seems David put up quite a fight getting into the police car. By the sounds of it, he bit a policeman’s ear. So even if they didn’t have enough evidence for what he did to you and Jaddi, he’d still be going to prison for attacking the officer.’
‘Good,’ Lizzie said.
‘Lizzie, your mum and dad, and Aaron, have gone to bed, by the way,’ Ben said. ‘They fell asleep on the sofa in the lobby waiting for us to come back.’
‘Oh,’ Lizzie said. ‘The helicopter ride, I completely forgot. We missed it. Is Caroline pissed?’
Ben laughed. ‘You’re kidding, right? She’s already fighting to get her hands on David’s video camera, so she can include it with the documentary. Obviously she’s glad everyone is OK too.’
Lizzie raised her eyebrows. ‘Obviously.’ Their eyes connected. For a split second, Lizzie found herself trapped in his gaze, like a piece of metal being pulled towards a magnet. She had a sudden urge to jump up from the bed, step forward and lean her body against him. She held his gaze for a moment more as her stomach flipped and turned inside of her.
‘Will they give it to her?’ Samantha asked.
Lizzie dropped her eyes to the carpet and tightened her hold on Samantha.
‘I can’t see how,’ Ben said. ‘The police are taking a look at the Channel 6 footage from earlier today. Caroline has sent Sandy and Bill down to the police station with them to protect the footage, but since David had nothing to do with the documentary, and considering that his camera didn’t belong to Channel 6, there’s no reason for the police to give it to Caroline.’
A lone tear escaped one of Samantha’s eyes.
‘Hey,’ Lizzie said, pulling Samantha closer. ‘It’s OK now. You’re safe. We’ll stay with you as long as you need. You can sleep with me tonight.’
Samantha nodded. ‘Thanks. I think I’d like to have a very hot bath and be by myself for a while.’ She stood up and stepped towards the door.
‘The maid service are cleaning the rooms now,’ Ben said. ‘Use my room.’ He pointed towards the door he’d come through. ‘You could practically fit my entire flat in the bathroom alone.’
‘Thanks,’ she said, wrapping her arms around herself and shuffling away.
‘Shout if you need me,’ Lizzie said as the door closed.
CHAPTER 56
Lizzie
‘How’s Jaddi coping?’ Ben asked Lizzie.
‘She seems to have shrugged the whole thing off. She washed her face and went down to the lobby to look for Suk. I think they had a fight earlier. Knowing Jaddi, she’ll say she’s fine for the next few days, then she’ll get drunk and cry it out. What about you, are you all right?’
‘I think so. My hands are shaking a bit from the adrenaline, b
ut I didn’t really do much.’
‘Don’t say that. If it wasn’t for you …’ Lizzie’s voice trailed off. It was happening again – the magnetic field. The unstoppable force. The desire to stand up and move closer to him. Lizzie swallowed hard and dropped her gaze to her hands. She traced her fingers over the outline of the petals on the floral bedspread, then stopped as a growing awareness of the bed filtered through her. She was alone, in a bedroom, with a man she had a sudden desire to be close to.
Lizzie pushed her hands under her thighs and focused her gaze on her feet. The dregs of adrenaline in her system were mixing up her signals, that was all. This was Ben. Ben, who’d pulled her out of her seizure, and whose voice she still heard in her sleep. Ben, who she’d woken at 3am and dragged halfway across Cambodia, just to watch a sunrise. Ben, who’d guided her in from the water when she’d lost her sight, made her laugh after the whole Harrison thing, and who’d sat through a lunch listening to her mum and dad tell stories from her childhood.
‘Are you sure you’re all right, Lizzie?’ His voice reverberated through her.
She drew in a deep breath and stood up. ‘I’ve been trying to figure out how you knew something was wrong earlier,’ she said, taking a step towards him. ‘At first I wondered if there were cameras in the suite and you’d seen something, but then I thought, you’d have called security straight away. So now I’m wondering if you’re psychic?’
Ben smirked and rubbed his hand against the stubble on his face. He shook his head. ‘I’m not psychic. I just had a feeling that something wasn’t right. Call it cameraman intuition.’
His eyes stared into her – deep brown with flecks of green, enlarged by the lenses in his glasses. It felt like a dozen ping-pong balls had been unleashed inside of her and were bouncing against the walls of her stomach. Her feet moved another step towards him as if they’d been commanded to do so by an outside force.
One Endless Summer Page 25
