Summer Madness

by Susan Lewis

  ‘So Martina asked her to go and I don’t ever want to have to live through another scene like that again in my life. Of course Consuela told her she and I had been sleeping together and I made the mistake of denying it. So Consuela proceeded to describe me in the minutest detail, my technique, the way I kissed, everything. Obviously Martina had to believe it then, but it was her mother she turned on, not me. The only good thing to come out of it was that Consuela had blown it. She couldn’t stay now and she had nowhere else to go, except France. I offered again to give her money to keep the villa running, but Martina wouldn’t let me. She said her mother could sell the villa and live off that, but we weren’t going to give her a penny. When Consuela had gone I explained to Martina what had happened. She said she forgave me and we never talked about it again.’

  His face was grey and haggard in the glow of the room, his beer still untouched. Louisa’s eyes were steadily watching him, but in some strange, inexplicable way it was like looking at a shell. He was no longer there in that room, he was back in San Diego, reliving the nightmare.

  ‘The sickest part of it then,’ he continued, ‘was that I had kept it all from my father so that when we threw Consuela out it was to him she went and it was he who gave her the money that, as we found out later, went into creating the bathhouse. The money was legally documented, more fool my father, and the first we found out about the bathhouse was when Consuela contacted me threatening to reveal where her funds had come from, thereby insinuating that my father was behind the blackmail she had gotten into, unless I gave her a sum equivalent to Martina’s inheritance. I went to my father, we consulted lawyers and between us we decided to ignore her. That was the gravest mistake of all, but we didn’t realize just how grave until a couple of months down the line when, to punish me, or to let me know that she still had power over me, or God only knows why, she paid to have Martina, her own daughter, her own flesh and blood, killed. You might ask yourself how any sane person, how any mother, could do that to her own child just to get back at me, but we’re not talking about a sane person here, because she’s totally insane and that’s what makes her so damned dangerous. She doesn’t look insane, most of the time she doesn’t act insane, but take it from me that woman is as close to being a psychopath … What am I saying here? She is a psychopath. That’s why I told you to stay away from her. I don’t want her finding out about you because if she does I don’t even want to think what she might do. And that’s why I say that Danny’s not doing herself any favours going around telling people she’s sleeping with me, particularly when she’s not. My eye,’ he said, touching the loose flesh of the disfiguring scar, ‘Consuela did that. More accurately, she paid someone to do it about six months after Martina died. At the time of Martina’s death Consuela told me, as brazenly as you like, that she’d keep the murder covered up if, after a respectable amount of time mark you, I’d marry her. That way she’d have me, the Mallory fortune and Santini’s fortune too. I told her to go straight to hell and six months later someone broke into my house with instructions to cut out my eyes, both of them, so that I’d never be able to look at another woman again. Consuela got someone to call me up on the phone while I was still in the hospital to tell me that.

  ‘We, my father and I, knew then that we had to do something to stop her doing any more damage, not only to our family, but to her so-called friends, the one’s she was bleeding a fortune from. We already knew how she’d started giving the evidence of what these women were doing in the bathhouse to their husbands just to see those women end up with nothing, the way she had, worse than she had. We had lawyers in the States, in Argentina, Mexico and in France, working on building up a case against her. It wasn’t hard, she’d hurt a lot of people by then who were more than willing to talk, but Consuela is no fool, she’d covered her tracks much better than we’d realized. Then she got wind of what we were doing and the next thing we knew my father received an anonymous call telling him that Martina was still alive and that if we didn’t back off she really would be killed.

  ‘At first we didn’t believe it, but since neither of us had ever seen the body I wasn’t prepared to take the chance that she might be lying. So we called the lawyers off and set our own investigation in motion. My father greased the right palms in Buenos Aires and we had the body exhumed. And that was when we found out that there was no body. Oh, there was a grave all right, and a coffin, but inside the coffin was just a pile of ash. So someone had died, but whoever it was had been cremated and there was no way of telling whether or not it was Martina.

  ‘Then the people working for us started to come back with reports that Martina had been seen. It was a goddamned nightmare. I didn’t know which way to turn, I was driven half out my mind. Then my father came up with the idea that I should go to France and tell Consuela that unless she came up with the truth about Martina we were going to put the whole thing into the hands of the FBI. It was a bluff because neither of us was prepared to contact the Bureau when there was a possibility Martina was alive. Then one of the lawyers came up with another idea, that I should try to get myself in on Consuela’s operation. If I managed it and it then came to a point of law obviously I’d be as guilty as she was, but that was the point. She had to think that I was prepared to commit the crime too otherwise she’d never let me in. The only problem was why would I do it, when it was common knowledge that I didn’t need the money. But that was easily overcome by getting her to think that she was coercing me into doing it to find out what I could about Martina.

  ‘So I sailed the Valhalla over to France – taking the boat made my stay seem a bit more permanent than if I’d flown in – and what I found when I got there turned my stomach. There she was surrounded by young kids, all boys, getting them slaving for her, innocently screwing her friends and looking for all the world like Miss Benevolence herself. The boys didn’t have a clue what they were into, though a couple of them did get to find out and as far as I know she paid them off and sent them on their way. But when I got involved she wanted me to give them the Hobson’s choice I expect Morandi told Sarah about.’

  Louisa nodded then cleared her throat. ‘Yes,’ she said.

  ‘Well, the hell I was going to do anything like that. She had to be crazy if she thought I’d even entertain it, but I let her think I was going along with it, though my guess is she knows that I’m paying them off out of my own pocket – like all the rest of her goddamned spoils are coming out of my pocket, but I don’t think she’s wise to that. But she doesn’t really care what I do with those kids just so long as nothing disturbs her nice, cosy, little set-up and she manages to keep me on the run. Anyway, like you must already know, Morandi’s brother was one of the kids who found out what was going on and when I met up with him here in Corsica – which I do with most of them, together with a lawyer, so’s to get out of them everything they know – somehow it came about that this kid had a brother who was making low-budget movies over in Britain. So the lawyer and I took the boy back ourselves so that I could try to get this brother to come work for me. I needed someone who could put those videos together and who could keep a record of everything and everyone involved. Morandi agreed, fortunately he spoke Italian and French, so we gave him a bogus identity through some dubious Sicilian contacts of the lawyer’s. Being Italian helps when you’re setting up business in Nice. I’ve never been too comfortable about keeping Morandi out of the whole picture, but I was always afraid that if he did know everything he might just go and blow it.’

  ‘Sarah tells me that he doesn’t know which one of you to believe,’ Louisa said. ‘Apparently he’s considered going to the police, but he’s afraid to in case something happens to his family.’

  ‘Shit,’ Jake muttered under his breath. ‘Well, I guess it’s better that he stays afraid for the moment, because we’re pretty close now to finding out where Martina is.’

  ‘You mean she is alive?’

  Jake nodded. ‘Yeah, I think so. It’s still hard to know whether
or not Consuela is paying people to give me false information, but the last time I was in Mexico …’ He stopped, looked down at his hands, then getting up from the chair he walked over to the window. ‘The last time I was in Mexico,’ he said, staring blindly at the bobbing white lights of the yachts in the bay, ‘I heard that the woman they’re saying is Martina has got a child with her. Martina was seven months’ pregnant when she disappeared.’

  ‘Oh my God, Jake,’ Louisa murmured, wanting to go to him, but knowing that right at that moment he wouldn’t welcome it.

  ‘It’s a … It’s a girl,’ he said, his voice breaking up on the fear and emotion lodged in his throat. ‘I’m haunted night and day about what they might be going through,’ he went on gruffly, disguising his grief with anger. ‘But even now I still don’t know whether it’s some cruel, twisted trick on Consuela’s part to torment me, or whether there really is a woman and child. A woman and child who are mine, who I have to keep looking for until I know for sure.’

  They were both silent for a long time then, until Louisa got quietly up from the bed, went to the bar and poured him a brandy. She handed it to him, wordlessly, taking the warm, stale beer away. She didn’t have to look at his face to know that he was crying, neither did she have to be told that he needed to be left alone for a while.

  Dressed in her shorts and top she pulled the door quietly closed behind her and went downstairs to order some sandwiches. They took a while to be prepared by which time she knew it would be all right to go back.

  She found him standing where she had left him, a dark profile in the moonlit window, his brandy finished, the tears gone.

  He turned to her and smiled as she came into the room, then watched her as she laid out the sandwiches on a small, round table.

  ‘Come on,’ she said, holding out a hand towards him. ‘Try to eat something.’

  He came towards her, took her hand, but instead of sitting down he put his glass on the table and pulled her into his arms. ‘I love her, Louisa,’ he said, his voice once again choked with emotion. ‘I love her more than I’ve ever loved anyone in my life. She was my whole world. Nothing, just nothing, mattered more than her. We were so happy …’

  ‘It’s all right,’ Louisa whispered, tears of unbidden envy and loss and overwhelming pity burning her eyes. ‘I understand.’

  ‘Do you?’ he said, pulling her back to look into her face.

  She nodded, then biting her lip to try to stop the tears she turned away.

  ‘I don’t know why we had to meet when we did,’ he said, watching her walk over to the bed. ‘All I know is that being with you has been the best thing that’s happened to me since all this began.’

  ‘Then I’m glad I happened to you,’ she said, sitting down.

  ‘But you’re not glad that I happened to you.’

  ‘I don’t know,’ she said honestly. ‘But I do know that I’m glad we made love before you told me.’

  ‘To be truthful, Louisa,’ he said, ‘I wasn’t intending for us to make love at all. I knew that once I told you you wouldn’t want to and then I’d have gone back to spend the night on the Valhalla.’

  ‘Then why did you bring me all this way?’ she asked, more hurt than she wanted to think about by what he’d said.

  ‘I brought you because I wanted to take you on the sea. I wanted to share something with you that was special to me, something that we could both hold in our memories and never forget.’

  She smiled as her heart tripped on the pain and used her fingers to wipe away the tears. ‘Have you thought about what you’ll do if Consuela is lying?’ she said.

  ‘Yeah. I’ll go back to the States and pick up again. But that doesn’t mean there’s a future for us, Louisa. I can’t marry again now, not after all that’s happened.’

  ‘No,’ she said softly, wishing that this didn’t all sound so final.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I didn’t want to hurt you.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘Do you want that I leave now, come back for you in the morning?’

  She shook her head. ‘No, I want you to hold me and tell me you’re a bloody fool who should have told me all this in the beginning.’

  ‘I would have,’ he said, pulling her into his arms, ‘except for one thing. I met you at Consuela’s. I didn’t know who you were, what she might have told you, what you might tell her. All I know is that I looked across the room and saw the most beautiful pair of eyes looking back at me and for the first time since Martina I allowed myself to think about what it might be like to hold a woman again.’

  ‘But you’d been with Danny the night before,’ she reminded him.

  ‘That doesn’t even begin to compare,’ he said. ‘That was nothing more than a release. With you I knew it would be different. But I couldn’t allow myself to make love to you when I knew something was happening between us and I couldn’t carry it through. I didn’t want to do that to you, but neither could I stop myself seeing you.’

  ‘But we have made love now,’ Louisa said shakily.

  ‘Yeah, we sure did that,’ he smiled. ‘But it’s not going to happen again.’

  ‘But why?’ Louisa protested. ‘You’re not going yet. It’s not all over yet. There’s still some time left for us.’

  ‘I know that, but I don’t want you falling in love with me.’

  ‘Oh God,’ she laughed through her tears, wanting to scream that it was already too late for that. But she didn’t, because she knew that even though she’d thought he was falling in love with her too, that in reality whatever he did feel paled by comparison with what she’d seen in his eyes and heard in his voice when he talked about Martina.

  Letting him go she walked into the bathroom and turning on the tap she splashed handful after handful of cold water on her face. When finally she looked up again he was standing at the door watching her in the mirror and as she looked back her heart seemed to twist from its roots. Would she ever get over this? she asked herself. Would she ever find anyone else who would look at her that way, who could make her feel so happy and so goddamned miserable?

  ‘Are you OK?’ he said.

  She nodded. ‘Yes, I’m fine, but I want to talk to you.’ She turned to face him, knowing she was going to sound a good deal stronger than she felt. ‘I asked you once before not to make me beg,’ she said, ‘and now I’m asking you again. I don’t want this to be the end. I want to make love with you again, I want to take everything from this that I can so that when you’re gone I’ll have more than just memories, I’ll have the knowledge that I really did mean something to you.’

  ‘You’ve got to know that already,’ he said, picking up her hand and squeezing it.

  ‘Please,’ she said, ‘don’t make me beg.’ Then she laughed. ‘I think I’m already doing it, aren’t I?’

  ‘Not quite,’ he smiled, lifting a hand to tuck her hair behind her ear.

  ‘If I promise not to fall in love with you, if I promise to take responsibility for myself …’

  ‘Sssh,’ he said, pulling her against him and kissing her forehead. ‘Like I told you before, I’d never let it go so far as making you beg. If you want that we carry on, then that’s what we’ll do. You know what you’re up against now, you know that I can’t love you …’

  ‘Don’t say any more,’ she interrupted. ‘All I need to know is that when it does all end you won’t just disappear without seeing me before you go.’

  ‘No, I won’t do that,’ he said.

  For a long time then they stood together, holding each other and letting the comfort they got from each other wash over them.

  ‘So what do we do now?’ he said, when finally he let her go.

  ‘We go to bed and we see …’ She shrugged. ‘We see what happens, I suppose.’

  ‘I think I know what’s going to happen,’ he smiled.

  An impish light pushed its way through the sadness in Louisa’s eyes and holding her close he turned and led her back into the bedroom.
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  ‘LOOK, WHY DON’T you just talk to Consuela and hear what she has to say?’ Sarah pleaded. ‘At least then you’ll have both sides of the story straight from the horse’s mouth.’

  ‘I don’t want to talk to Consuela,’ Louisa said through her teeth. ‘I don’t need to talk to Consuela, but maybe you’d like to talk to Jake then you can hear both sides?’

  ‘It’s not me who needs to hear it, it’s you,’ Sarah cried, thumping a hand on the dining-room table. Then regretting her moment of temper she continued in a more placatory tone. ‘OK, I understand that all he told you rang true,’ she said, ‘it does for me too, but I’ve spoken to Consuela and I have to be honest, Louisa, I don’t know which of them to believe. Maybe if you spoke to her then we could come up with the answer together.’

  ‘Sarah, it’s out of the question. I am not going near that woman and that’s my final word.’

  ‘Danny, you speak to her,’ Sarah said, turning away.

  ‘Look, Louisa,’ Danny began calmly, sitting forward and folding her hands on the table, thinking she might enjoy this role as mediator, would probably like to chair television debates, now she came to think of it. ‘I know you and I have had our ups and downs about Jake, and it’s true, I did lie about sleeping with him. OK, I fight dirty when it comes to getting what I want, but we have to put that behind us now. He’s rotten, I always knew he was rotten and now you know …’

  ‘Danny, you’re wasting your breath,’ Louisa interrupted. ‘I’m not speaking to that woman, even if you bring her here, I’m not speaking to her.’

  ‘God, you’re so stubborn,’ Danny seethed, though secretly she was quite delighted with Louisa’s refusal to see Consuela since it kept her, Danny, at the centre of things. On the other hand though, she didn’t want Louisa spending any more time with Jake, because there was no question in her mind who was telling the truth and now she was going to tell Louisa why.