by Susan Lewis
‘I told you the last time we talked, there’s not even a role for you in what I’m writing now,’ Louisa snapped. ‘So it’s you who’s in a fantasy world, not me. In fact, I can see quite plainly what’s going on here, even if you can’t.’
‘Then tell me!’ Danny demanded savagely. ‘Tell me what’s going on, because I’d really like to know.’
‘OK, I’ll tell you,’ Louisa said, her dark eyes once again glittering with rage. ‘You’re accusing me of everything you’re guilty of yourself. You’re the one who’s making things up. You’re the one who’s lying to herself. And you’re the one who’s lying to me to try to keep me away from the one man in the world who doesn’t want you. Your ego is so damned big, Danielle Spencer, that quite frankly I’m surprised there’s enough room for you all in the bed.’
‘For Christ’s sake, let’s just stop this!’ Sarah shouted. ‘You don’t mean what you’re saying, either of you, so shut up before I knock your damned heads together.’
‘Then tell her to sort herself out and keep her fucking hands off what’s mine,’ Danny spat.
‘How can he be yours if he’s married?’ Louisa shot back.
‘Is he married?’ Sarah demanded, glaring at Danny.
‘Yes. I told you, ask Consuela, ask my mother. Ask Erik, they’ll all tell you, Jake is married. His wife’s name is Martina. OK? Do you believe me now?’
Sarah looked at Louisa.
‘Yes, I believe her,’ Louisa said grudgingly but still angry. ‘It makes sense of some of the things he’s told me.’
‘And do you believe that I’m sleeping with him? That I slept with him last night? That he brought me back here this afternoon?’
‘I can’t think of any reason why you would lie, except to try and come between us. But if he’s married then you don’t really have to bother, do you?’
‘At last I seem to be getting through to you,’ Danny sighed in exasperation.
‘I think we all need a drink,’ Sarah declared, turning towards the kitchen.
Louisa and Danny eyed each other, hostility still crackling the air between them. Danny was the first to back down and as the rancour melted in her eyes and her face started to soften she stepped forward to put her arms around Louisa. ‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered. ‘I shouldn’t have said all those awful things. I didn’t mean them, honestly I didn’t. I don’t know what comes over me sometimes, it’s like it’s not me talking. You’re the best friend I’ve ever had and we shouldn’t let a man come between us like this. He’s just not worth it.’
‘No,’ Louisa said, standing woodenly in the embrace. It was going to take more than an apology to heal the hurt of the past twenty minutes though, she knew that, but for now she would go along with the charade of forgiveness. If she didn’t, it would mean going back to London and despising herself for it as she did, she just couldn’t go without seeing Jake again. She had to find out the truth for herself. She had to confront him with his marriage, with the cruelty of his ridicule, with his continuing relationship with Danny.
‘So what’s happening with you and Erik?’ she asked stiltedly as she and Danny followed Sarah into the kitchen.
‘I don’t know,’ Danny answered. ‘I haven’t seen him since Tuesday. Maybe I should give him a call.’
‘If you do, then tell him from me I don’t much appreciate being stood up,’ Sarah retorted. Then smiling as she handed them a glass of wine, she said, ‘Are we all friends again now?’
‘Yes, I think so,’ Danny said, looking at Louisa for confirmation.
‘Yes,’ Louisa nodded, tears of angry betrayal burning the backs of her eyes as she thought of the wonderful moments she and Jake had shared this past week that had now been tainted beyond standing by Danny’s outburst. They had laughed so easily together, he had seemed to treasure every minute of what little time they could spend together and even now she could almost hear the way his voice seemed to deepen when he called her to tell her he was missing her. He couldn’t be lying, he just couldn’t be, but so much of what Danny had said rang true. Like how he would get her to the point of begging him to sleep with her, like how he wouldn’t make a commitment to Danny the way he wouldn’t with her, and like both Danny’s mother and Consuela telling Danny he was married. She just couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t have told her that himself, but there again, if he really was treating his wife the way Danny said he was he wouldn’t have considered her even worth mentioning. But this wasn’t the man she was getting to know, this was a stranger, a monster, a pathological liar and in her heart she just couldn’t believe that Jake was any of those things.
‘So what were you doing over at Consuela’s?’ Sarah said as they strolled out onto the terrace with their drinks. ‘Availing yourself of the pleasures of the bathhouse, no doubt.’ As casual as she sounded, she was extremely interested to hear the answer after what had happened earlier in the day when Aphrodite had hissed her accusations of blackmail. That all seemed such a long time ago now after the drama of the past half hour, but she was going to wait until she and Louisa were alone before tackling that.
‘Actually, no,’ Danny laughed. ‘I was just relaxing by the pool most of the time, being waited on hand, foot and finger and trying to eavesdrop on the rows she was having with Jake.’
Sarah’s eyebrows rose in surprise as Louisa flinched at the mention of Jake’s name. ‘Did you hear anything?’ Sarah asked, tearing her eyes from Louisa.
‘Not much. Except I did hear her trying to warn him away from me once. She’s not at all keen on my getting involved with him, neither is my mother. Well, considering the way he treats his wife I don’t suppose you can blame them. The trouble is, the more they try to turn us against each other the more determined they’re making us to be together. Which is what I meant earlier, about he and I being two of a kind. But still, we don’t want to get into that again, do we?’ she said, closing her eyes and letting her head fall back against the chair as Louisa’s lips tightened. ‘Anyway, I think the main gist of what Consuela and Jake were rowing about has something to do with Mexico, but I couldn’t quite catch what. I would imagine though, it was why Jake went there recently, but he won’t tell me anything about it. I don’t suppose he’s told you, has he Louisa?’
‘Why would he tell me when he’s so much closer to you?’ Louisa answered tartly. Then catching Sarah’s admonishing look she said, ‘No, he hasn’t said anything to me and quite frankly I don’t think I want to know what it’s about anyway. How did you get on with Morandi this morning, Sarah?’
Sarah had just taken breath to answer when Danny said, ‘Oh yes, Morandi. That reminds me. I know I’ve only ever seen him the once, but I’d swear it was him I saw driving into Consuela’s as Jake and I were leaving this afternoon. He wasn’t driving that beaten up old Renault then though. Oh, no, he was driving a dirty great big Mercedes saloon. You’ll have to talk to him about that, Sarah, tell him you’d rather go out in style if it’s all the same to him.’
Louisa turned to Sarah whose cheery face had turned stony, but with a quick flash of her eyes Sarah told Louisa to say nothing.
‘I’ll do that,’ Sarah said, topping up their glasses. Then after a pause. ‘Tell me, Danny, it must have occurred to you, what with these rows between Jake and Consuela and everything you’ve heard about him, that there’s something not quite right going on in that house.’
‘In what kind of way are you thinking?’ Danny asked, her eyes still closed.
‘In a kind of blackmail way,’ Sarah answered, feeling the curiosity burning from Louisa’s eyes. She lifted a hand as though to say, I’ll tell you later, and continued to wait for Danny’s response.
‘Well,’ Danny said thoughtfully, ‘it’s funny that you mention it, because it has crossed my mind that something like that might be going on. Which was why,’ she went on, sitting forward and picking up her wine, ‘I took it upon myself to take a look around that bathhouse when no one was about. There’s no sign of any cameras or anythin
g like that though, no sign at all.’
‘But what made you think that something like that might be going on?’ Sarah pressed.
‘Actually, it was something I overheard Erik saying to Jake,’ she answered, screwing up her face as she tried to remember what. ‘He said, “there’s more money coming out of that bathhouse than ever goes into it,” or something like that. And Jake said, “it can’t go on much longer, we’re going to get found out.” Or he might have said, “she’s going to get found out.” I can’t be sure. But anyway, when you come to weigh it up that sounds pretty much like some kind of blackmail to me, doesn’t it to you?’
Sarah was nodding. ‘Did you mention what you’d overheard to Consuela?’
‘Yes I did as a matter of fact.’
‘Well what did she say?’ Louisa urged when Danny didn’t continue.
‘She said that yes, there was something going on which was why she didn’t want me getting involved with Jake. And that was when she told me she knew my mother and felt sure that my mother would expect her to do all she could to keep me away from him. I couldn’t get any more out of her than that, except that he was married, so when I went back to England I asked my mother what she knew about him. All she said was that she didn’t want me getting involved with married men, and that she was glad to think that Consuela was keeping an eye on me.’
‘Did your mother know anything about the bathhouse?’ Sarah asked.
‘No. And now, given that there was no sign of cameras or anything, I’m wondering, this is assuming someone is blackmailing someone, if it’s got anything to do with the bathhouse at all. My guess is it’s just between Jake and Consuela, ’cos she gets pretty upset every time he goes there and neither of them ever goes anywhere near the bathhouse. Or not that I saw. But they did disappear into her bedroom once or twice and I saw him stroking her legs once out by the pool, just like they were lovers. It turned into a row pretty quickly and he actually belted her one, but before that, well, like I said, to see them you’d have thought they were lovers.’
Louisa’s head was pounding. Her emotions were too embroiled in this for her to be able to see anything clearly or rationally. She so desperately wanted to believe Jake, but things were becoming so confused now and so horribly unpalatable with this talk of blackmail, wife-beating and some kind of bizarre relationship with Consuela and with Danny that she could feel herself recoiling from the blind trust she had placed in him.
‘Did your mother tell you anything, well anything untoward, about Consuela?’ Sarah asked, seeing the anguish on Louisa’s face and wanting somehow, if she could, to ease it by casting the shadow of suspicion in another direction. But she wasn’t only doing it for Louisa, she was doing it for herself too, for whatever Jake was implicated in here, so too was Morandi.
‘She didn’t tell me anything we don’t know already,’ Danny answered. ‘That Consuela’s husband died a couple of years ago leaving her squillions and she’s been a virtual recluse ever since. She really seems to like Consuela though, said most people do. She was one of the great hostesses of her day apparently. Had time for everyone, did all kinds of wonderful things for charities and the like. She’s still quite a legend in Argentina, by all accounts.’
‘Argentina?’
‘That’s where she’s from.’
‘Not Mexico?’
‘Why Mexico?’
‘Just a thought, since that’s where Jake was.’
Danny shrugged. ‘My mother seemed pretty certain she was Argentinian. So apparently was her husband.’
‘Weird, isn’t it?’ Sarah remarked later to Louisa, when Danny had gone off to take a shower. ‘Nothing seems to add up at all. There are no nice neat little coincidences that are taking us any further down the line, if anything I’m more confused than ever.’
‘You and me both,’ Louisa sighed. ‘But then, how do we know we can believe anything Danny says?’
‘I suppose we don’t, and I have to confess the way she went for you just now has made me extremely suspicious about this so-called relationship she’s supposed to be having with Jake. It all happened so fast that it’s only now, when I really think about it, that I can see how many questions she managed to avoid. She turned it all around to say what she wanted, but even then she was contradicting herself. Like suddenly deciding to concede that he might find you attractive, when up to that moment she’d been telling you he was turning you into a laughing stock. And why is she so afraid that you’re going to waltz off with him if, as she claims, he’s only using you to make her jealous? It doesn’t make sense.’ She stopped for a moment and looked into Louisa’s bewildered eyes, wondering whether she should continue. In the end she decided to. ‘You’re not going to want to hear this,’ she said, making what she knew was a futile attempt to soften it, ‘but all that doesn’t mean that I don’t believe she’s sleeping with him, because unfortunately I do. It could just be that she’s like Everest, he’s mounting her because she’s there. But even though there are obviously bigger things at issue here, for what it’s worth, I reckon Jake really has fallen for you. Not only because of Danny’s behaviour this afternoon, but because if he hasn’t then he’s not only got you fooled he’s got me fooled too. OK, I know I only saw you together for a few minutes the other day, but I’d have had to be blind not to have noticed the way he was looking at you and, take it from me, if that wasn’t genuine then my name’s Trev Trubshaw.’
Louisa giggled. ‘Trev Trubshaw, father of many?’
‘Seven including the steps,’ Sarah smiled wryly, then sighed and shook her head. ‘I know I saw the pictures, but quite honestly they could as easily have been his nieces and nephews. Though why he’d lie about having so many kids beats the hell out of me. But why do you suppose he changed his name when he came here? I know Trev is a handle any of us would be glad to shed, but there’s nothing wrong with Deighton. And there’s nothing wrong with being British either, is there? Or am I missing the point somewhere?’
‘Search me,’ Louisa responded. ‘It’s all so way beyond me that I’m almost inclined to give up on it and never see any of them again.’
‘Common sense tells me that’s exactly what we should do,’ Sarah said, contemplatively. ‘There’s no question that Danny’s in it right up to her eyes even if she doesn’t know it herself, but she’ll just breeze through and come out the other end completely unscathed, the way she always does. It’s a bit different for you and me though. We’re the monogamous types who like the same thing from our men. We don’t thrive on mistrust and intrigue the way Danny does, we’re just plain and simple women who like to know what we’ve got and make the most of it.’
‘God, don’t make us sound too exciting, will you?’ Louisa commented, making Sarah laugh.
‘The thing is,’ Sarah went on, ‘this all started out as a bit of a lark, really. I mean, I don’t know if you did, but I didn’t take it all that seriously to begin with, you know the amateur sleuth bit. And let’s face it, we’re not exactly Holmes and Watson are we, ’cos we’re just getting more and more confused as time goes on. The trouble is though that I don’t think I could bear to give up now, if for no other reason than once it’s all over, or solved, or whatever it’s going to be, I just couldn’t stand to look back on it and still not know what the hell it was all about. On the other hand, we’re not only woefully inexperienced when it comes to playing detective, we’re both of us too emotionally involved with the main players to be able to take an objective look at it all.’
‘You feel that strongly about Morandi?’ Louisa said.
‘Yes, I think I do. I mean, I could wish that he wasn’t mixed up in anything sordid and criminal, but there seems little doubt now that he is, that they both are, wouldn’t you agree? The strange thing is that it doesn’t seem to be putting me off him at all. And don’t tell me it’s making you change your mind about Jake, because I know for a fact it isn’t.’
‘You’re right, it’s not. I wish it were, but if anything it’s mak
ing me want him all the more. And do you know why? Because in my mind I’ve cast him as the hero in all this. That somehow, in some corny, sixpenny novel way, he’s going to turn out to be the dashingly handsome victor of all that’s being levelled against him and that’s got to make me about as blind and as stupid and as far from reality as Danny accused me of.’
‘Oh, don’t take any notice of her. Why shouldn’t you have your fantasies? Everyone else does, including her. Especially her! And besides, I don’t think you believe that at all. I think, if the truth be told, you’re just as appalled as I am to think that there’s every chance we’ve both managed to fall for, to put it as mildly as possible, a pair of confidence tricksters.’
It seemed such an incongruous label to hang on someone like Jake that Louisa just couldn’t take it in and they were both quiet for a while as they contemplated the extraordinariness of the situation. It was a situation that neither one of them would ever have dreamt of finding themselves in when coming to what they had assumed was a little pocket of paradise, except, as Sarah remarked curiously, ‘Nothing seems quite right down here, does it? I don’t know if it’s something in the air, or because we don’t speak the language and therefore can’t help feeling as though we’re not part of real life, or if there’s just something odd about the whole place. I mean, I honestly don’t know if we’d be taking the same view of all this if we were in London, though somehow I don’t think we would. Because, to my mind, the entire Côte d’Azur is like one great big film set and I sometimes get the feeling that one of these days someone is going to shout “cut” and a thousand technicians will rush in and fold up the sky, uproot the trees, carry off the mountains and pull the plug on the sea.’
