Fatal Slip

  Libby began to feel scared, out of control. 'I have to go home now. Please get me a taxi.'

  'We'll go home, to my pad, like I said.'

  'No!' She was beginning to panic. 'I'm not coming there with you. I'm going home. On my own, Jake!'

  'Don't you want to go on having fun? Look, here's a taxi, in you get, darling.'

  'No, Jake, I won't. Stop it, I won't go with you! Oh, please let me go!'

  Suddenly he released her. Libby glanced over his shoulder and saw her father, his normally pleasant face grim, one fist travelling rapidly towards Jake. It connected with his face and the sound was audible. Libby gulped, looking with both disbelief and a certain glee as Jake subsided gently to the ground.

  Alex grinned reassuringly at Libby, whipped out his wallet and had a swift word with the doorman and the amused taxi-driver, helped them heave Jake into the back of the taxi, and waved them off before turning back to her. Another taxi drew up and before she knew what was happening Libby found herself in it, Alex beside her and eyeing her with what looked like exasperation.

  'How could you get involved with that creep?' he demanded.

  'I didn't mean any harm,' Libby protested. 'Where are we going?'

  'Straight back home, and if your grandfather doesn't thrash you I will.'

  'You daren't,' she challenged, swiftly recovering. 'I'll tell them I saw you and Emma coming out of that hotel.'

  He stared at her for a moment, then shrugged. 'So what? I'm not the only person having a meal or a drink.'

  'It isn't the sort of place you normally use. Not for drinks or meals,' she added insinuatingly. 'Nor Emma. I wonder what her new husband would say?'

  'Don't try silly blackmail with threats you can't possibly prove. I made enquiries about a school while I was in England, one that sounds more like a prison. I've arranged to send you there after Christmas, whatever your mother says.'

  'I want to go to drama school. Look, school fees for two years would cover the cost and keep me in London. How much is schooling going to cost you? Thirty grand?'

  'Forget it. You're not going to London.'

  She was silent for some while. Then, as they drew near home she glanced across at him speculatively. 'Do you have to tell Gran?'

  He raised his eyebrows. 'You actually mind her knowing what a fool you are?'

  Libby flushed. 'OK, don't go on about it. It's all so tedious. I just wanted a bit of excitement.'

  'You promise to behave properly, and go to this school, and this time I won't say anything.'

  She sighed. 'You win.'

  'I always do. We're almost home. Shall I walk down with you? How do you intend to get back into the house?'

  ***

  Chapter 4

  'Where have you been?' Bruce demanded.

  Emma tossed her head. 'I wouldn't have thought you were in the slightest bit interested!' she snapped back. 'You vanish with just a casual note, and we all know where you've been.'

  Bruce took one step across the kitchen and grasped both her shoulders, shaking her slightly. 'You were out, Emma. I had an urgent phone call about this prize I've won. They'd set up some interviews in New York. Then I got home late last night, and you were out. You roll home at ten in the morning, reeking of sex. Have you been making a fool of yourself with some local gigolo? I've seen the way you've been eyeing them.'

  'What's sauce for the gander. Ouch, let go. You're hurting me!'

  He shook her, slowly and deliberately. 'I will hurt you much more, my darling wife, if you don't tell me the truth.'

  Emma suddenly flared at him. 'It's perfectly all right for you to dash off to New York and dear little Tanya's bed. Right under my nose! If I choose to spend time with a man who appreciates me more than you do, I don't think you have any right to complain.'

  'I'll do more than complain. I'll kill any bastard who thinks he can bed my wife.' He went on in remorseless detail to describe exactly how that would be achieved, while Emma squirmed under his hands, powerless to escape. 'And then I'll make sure no man ever fancies you again.'

  'What – what do you mean?' she gasped, breathless as he continued to shake her.

  'You cherish your beauty, don't you, Emma mine? Centuries ago adulteresses used to be branded with the letter 'A'. Would you like it if I carved it on your cheeks?'

  Suddenly he dragged open a drawer and snatched up a wickedly sharp knife. Emma screamed and began to struggle, but Bruce held her easily and she stared at him, helpless and petrified, as he lovingly drew the point of the blade across the taut skin of her cheek.

  'One little bit of extra pressure, and I'd draw blood,' he remarked coolly. 'Well, Emma, is it to be your sacrifice? Do you think men would look at you again if you were mutilated?'

  'I – Bruce, let me go!'

  He deliberately, slowly, slashed her dress from neck to hem. 'Promise you'll never be unfaithful again?'

  She gulped, shivering. Beneath the very real terror a frisson of excitement stirred, and unconsciously she swayed towards him. 'I – haven't been, I was at the Casino, truly I was,' she said swiftly, feeling the blade cold against the heated skin of her thigh.

  Bruce smiled and replaced the knife in the drawer. 'The Casino shuts at three. I'll make you see reason. Now, my dutiful wife, let's go to bed and you can prove your good intentions.'

  Emma sagged against him, releasing a flood of tears. 'Oh, Bruce,' she wailed. 'I was so miserable, so afraid you were going to leave me. We didn't seem able to talk, I thought you were tired of me.'

  Slowly he was stripping off her clothes, his hands following as he pushed aside the flimsy, silky garments. When she was naked, her clothes strewn about the kitchen floor, her fingers clumsy in their haste to pull off his jeans, he uttered a crow of triumph and swept her into his arms.

  'You're not going to catch up on your sleep today, Emma my love. You'll have to work hard to please me, very hard!'

  *

  Jake waylaid Libby two days after the visit to the Casino, when she was shopping in the market hall. He'd been racking his brains for another scheme to raise some cash, and if only he could placate Libby he might succeed and at the same time pay back some old scores on Alex Ross.

  'Libby, I want to apologize. I was drunk. I didn't know what I was doing.'

  She glared at him. 'You've got a lovely black eye,' she said, her voice filled with satisfaction.

  Jake ignored this. At least she was still prepared to talk to him. 'I deserved it,' he admitted, and smiled. He knew few women who could resist his smile, rueful, roguish, and intimate. 'Look, someone will see us. Who's with you?'

  'I came with Gran, but she's absorbed choosing flowers at the far end.'

  He glanced round at the lavish, colourful display of fruit and vegetables on the stalls in the central square, and drew her back into the side aisle. 'Let's go up into the balcony, she won't see us there. This is important.'

  Libby followed him up the steps and they leaned on the rail overlooking the fish hall. She stared in fascination at the long eel-like espada displayed on several stalls.

  'I love the taste, but those heads with the massive jaws and hundreds of teeth are disgusting,' she said with a shudder. 'Aren't they dangerous to swimmers?'

  'Like sharks? No, they live miles deep, and always die when they are caught, they can't take the lower pressure as they are brought to the surface. But talking of sharks, what did your father say the other night?'

  'About you? Nothing, except to abuse me for seeing you, and threaten to send me to some ghastly school. But I won't go, so he needn't think he can force me!'

  'It wasn't that made him hit me. It was jealousy over my new part. How can you stop him?'

  'If I had some money I'd run away to England, try to get a job in TV, office girl or something until I can find a way of acting.'

  'Look, I know there's no reason for you to trust me after the other night, but I was drunk, I didn't know what I was doing. Your father must have some money if he can pay school fees.
Why shouldn't he give it to you for drama training instead?'

  'He says he'll never pay for that.' Libby shook her head, but she looked interested.

  'And when I get established, surely there'll be a small part I could wangle for you.'

  'If only you could,' Libby sighed.

  'Make him.'

  'Give me the cash? How?'

  'Blackmail.' She looked startled and he almost bit his tongue. She would not know about his sideline suggesting to her grandfather that he knew about his affair with Dodie, and the probable outcome. 'Well, not exactly. A ransom, I suppose you'd call it. If you hid away, pretended you'd been kidnapped, he'd fork out. So would your mother and grandparents.'

  'But – how on earth could I manage that? I'd have to have somewhere to stay, and if I telephoned or wrote notes they'd know it was me.'

  He sensed he'd partially overcome her distrust and pressed on. 'I'd be the go-between. You could stay in the place I'm supposed to use. Oh, don't worry, I wouldn't be there.' He explained about the cottage in the grounds of Gloria's house, and that she was still in Paris doing her Christmas shopping. 'I have to stay in the house while she's away.' Libby, he saw with amusement, was eyeing him speculatively although she looked rather shocked.

  'She's old!' she exclaimed.

  'She looks a lot older than she is, she'd had a hard life,' he said mendaciously. 'It would only be a for a few days, I promise. It could be your last chance of drama school, and without that you'd have no hope of an acting job. Well, how about it?'

  'You promise you wouldn't touch me?'

  'Cross my heart,' he said, and meant it. He'd been drunk at the Casino, but if there was the slightest possibility Libby might be related to him he wouldn't touch her. Although Bill had scornfully rejected the suggestion, he hadn't believed him. Besides, Gloria was insatiable the night he'd got back, he was still exhausted. He hadn't even wanted to see Isabella, resentful of her increasingly hysterical messages. They had angered him, he didn't like his women to try and pressurize him. He'd sent her a curt note saying that on reflection he didn't feel it fair to her to continue asking her to deceive her parents.

  'When?' Libby asked.

  *

  'This place is too public,' Emma complained. 'I know Libby saw me the last time. And Bruce is already suspicious.'

  'Does it worry you? Libby won't give you away,' Alex said.

  'Have you bribed or threatened her? She could, quite easily, without meaning to. Your daughter usually says the first thing that comes into her head without a second thought.' Emma shivered. 'If Bruce found out, he'd go berserk!'

  'I thought you said he was fooling about with Tanya, and you meant to pay him back in his own coin?'

  Emma looked startled, and he laughed and pulled her to him.

  'I didn't.'

  'Not in so many words, but you need to think before you speak, too. I haven't the slightest misapprehension about your feelings for me, Emma, though you shouldn't have left me, we understood one another.'

  'Alex,' she began to protest, but he laughed and silenced her with a deep kiss.

  'Who cares? We have fun together, no strings. But how will you get your own back on Bruce and Tanya if they don't find out?'

  'I – I'll have the private satisfaction,' Emma said at last.

  'But if we can't meet here too often, will that satisfaction last?'

  'Look, if we're careful I can come to your studio in the daytime. I've been thinking about it, I was being too cautious. There isn't much danger of being seen, and if I were I could say I was going to see Valerie. She's asked me to try and talk some sense into Libby, after all. And the danger of discovery will add spice, won't it?' she whispered, running her hands over his chest.

  *

  'Alex, do you know where Libby is?'

  Alex groaned and sat up in bed. Thank goodness Emma hadn't been with him. 'Bill? What time is it?'

  Bill explained that Libby's room was empty, her bed unslept in. Alex pulled on jeans and a sweater and they searched the garden and the surrounding lanes, and were on the point of calling the police when a taxi arrived. The driver handed Bill a letter and had departed before he could be questioned.

  'What is it? Is it from Libby?' Valerie asked.

  Bill swallowed hard. 'No. Not really.'

  'What do you mean, "not really"?' Alex demanded and took the sheet of paper away from him. He skimmed the few lines and looked up, his expression grim. 'I don't believe it.'

  'Give it to me,' Valerie ordered, and despite Alex's attempt to pull the paper away secured it. 'A kidnap? Thirty thousand pounds, and we're not to inform anyone else apart from her father, and especially not the police.'

  'Pounds? Not euros?' Bill asked. 'That's interesting.'

  They sat looking at one another for a few minutes, then Bill reached for the telephone. 'Be damned to that! I'm getting on to the police at once.'

  'No. Let's think,' Alex said. He paced restlessly up and down the room. 'How did they get hold of her?' he asked quietly. 'Why didn't you know she was out?'

  'She was in bed, went before ten last night,' Valerie said slowly. 'That's a point, I hadn't considered that. They could hardly have snatched her from bed, we'd have heard.'

  'Then she went willingly. With that bloody Jakes, no doubt.'

  'Jakes? You mean Dodie's son? But she doesn't know him,' Valerie said, bewildered.

  Alex gave her a long look. 'He lives a few doors away, doesn't he? She could have met him.'

  Bill nodded. 'That's true. Anyway, we can ring him, and David Holmes, and find out if she was planning to meet either of them. Whoever's got her could have been on watch, or might have enticed her out with a false message.'

  'Whoever it is. Who could it be, and why do they put her price at only thirty thousand?' Alex asked quietly.

  'Only! It's more cash than you or I could raise at the drop of a hat,' Bill exclaimed. 'Though we could manage it in time.'

  'Precisely. It's someone who knows we're none of us exactly plutocrats. If they hadn't known, they'd have asked for much more.'

  'It would seem a huge sum to a Madeiran peasant,' Valerie said slowly.

  'But he'd ask for euros. And would a Madeiran peasant be able to abduct her, even if he knew how to demand a ransom? Besides, I thought you said the natives were all so law-abiding?' Alex said.

  'I can borrow it from the bank,' Bill interrupted.

  'Your house and businesses are worth far more than that, Bill, so why didn't they ask for more?'

  'Why is that important?' Valerie snapped. 'It's far more urgent to decide what we're going to do.'

  'Thirty thousand is exactly what my delightful daughter asked me for when she said she wanted to go to drama school.'

  Bill stared at him. 'You mean she might be doing it herself? That's impossible! Where could she be hiding?'

  'She didn't jump at the notion of a new school, did she?'

  'That was your fault for making it sound like a concentration camp! Oh, why did you have to threaten her with that?'

  'I don't believe it's Libby herself,' Valerie declared loyally. 'I think we should call the police. They'll be discreet. They have experience with this sort of case.'

  'The note doesn't say what we're to do about the money. They intend contacting us tomorrow and will tell us then what to do with it. They'll want cash. We need to stall them.'

  'But in the meantime, we ought to tell the police.'

  *

  'I wish Sally was here,' Valerie said worriedly. 'She'd have more idea of how Libby's mind works, what she's likely to have done. I'm just not in tune with that generation!'

  She'd phoned Dodie first thing the following morning, and was sitting in her hotel suite, telling her what had happened.

  'Do you think Emma might have some ideas?' Dodie suggested tentatively. 'Libby likes her, and she's not all that much older. We were going to see her, remember, but got sidetracked.'

  Valerie nodded slowly. 'It's possible.'

&nbs
p; 'She couldn't be helping Libby, could she?' Dodie pondered.

  'Surely not!' Valerie looked startled. 'Come on, let's go straight up there. I won't even ring to say we're coming. If she's out that's too bad.'

  Valerie had driven to the Cliff Bay. She almost ran to the car, swung dangerously out of the car park, and joined the stream of traffic inching down the road. She tapped the wheel impatiently as they threaded their way towards the centre of Funchal, then when she turned onto the wider road past the hospital Valerie trod on the accelerator and shot some lights at the last second, then changed down to overtake a lumbering lorry which was having difficulty up the long hill.

  Dodie gulped. Valerie was normally a careful driver, but she seemed oblivious to everything except the need to get to Emma. Dodie couldn't see the urgency. 'The house isn't on fire,' she muttered and closed her eyes as Valerie shot across an island, causing a taxi to slam on the brakes.

  Valerie cast her a puzzled glance, and then swerved to the right onto the Via Rapida, and Dodie breathed a sigh of relief.

  'This is the way to the airport, isn't it? Where's this villa?'

  'It's a development on the way to Caniço. Rather attractive, a sprawl of villas on one of the few gentle slopes in the island, overlooking Point Garajau. That's the headland where that statue of Christ is, which looks like the one in Rio de Janeiro.'

  'I saw it when we flew in.' She'd better distract Valerie by talking, Dodie decided, and demanded information about the rest of the island.

  None too soon for Dodie's nerves Valerie swung off the main road, and soon they were negotiating narrower ones. Valerie stopped to ask the way, then a few minutes later drew up outside a white bungalow which was smothered in lush climbing plants.

  They could see a wide terrace to one side of the building, and a naked foot on the end of a lounger. As Valerie was about to press the bell Dodie shook her head.

  'Catch her unawares,' she suggested, and Valerie, after a slight pause, nodded.

  They walked slowly round the corner of the building, and saw Emma, clad in no more than a couple of minuscule scraps of black material, lying face-down on the lounger, her head buried in her arms. Dodie considered her appraisingly. She had a superb body, and it was shapely, not skinny, but without an ounce of surplus flesh. Then Emma abruptly sat up, grabbed a pair of powerful binoculars from the ground beside her, and trained them onto a distant point of hillside. She watched intently for a second, then gave a sob and flung herself down again.