Mind Games

Chapter Twenty-Two

  The Sore Loser

  When Julia had left that morning, all seemed well. But when she returned to the monitoring room later that afternoon, it was to find a smiling Sam Rawlston waiting for her.

  “Look at this!” he said, turning down the sound and pointing at the monitor screen.

  There, on the screen, was Ben Watkins, apparently talking with a wide awake Jayne Middleton.

  Julia stared wide-eyed at the screen. “How could this happen?” she said to Rawlston. “It’s Friday today! Friday! The last day of the third week! Only one more week of tending to sleeping beauty, and then it would have been ‘off with her head!’“ Then realisation dawned on her. “You bastard, Rawlston! You tricked me!” she shouted, pushing Rawlston against the wall of the monitoring room. “You knew! All along, you knew! You bastard! You out and out bastard!”

  Rawlston started laughing, holding his arms out wide as Julia began to punch him ineffectually in the chest. “You didn’t have to take the bet,” he pointed out, then gasped as Julia hit him again, only much harder and lower this time. He quickly moved away, going behind the desk. Julia followed him, hitting him on the back as he kept moving.

  Behind them on the monitor screen, Ben and Jayne were now deep in conversation. But with the sound turned down, Julia’s voice drowned out what they were saying.

  “I should have known those readings were fixed! You liar!” Julia kept chasing Rawlston around the desk, hitting him as she ran.

  Rawlston kept laughing. “I didn’t lie!” he said. “You just never asked me! You knew I was taking the brain scans with Sandra, but you were so sure of yourself you never bothered to question the results!”

  Julia stopped chasing him and shouted, “But they were all negative! I know, I’ve seen them!”

  “That’s because Ben told me to hide the true results until he came back from the board meeting today! Jayne’s been showing increased brain activity for days, but I always gave Sandra the false print outs, keeping the real ones for Ben!”

  “That’s not fair!” Julia wailed. “How was I supposed to know that fucking machine produces two print outs? You cheated me! You rotter! You git! Sod! Bastard!”

  With each verbal insult, Julia struck Rawlston on the back, until he finally turned and grabbed both her hands. “Admit it, Julia, sweetheart!” he said, pushing her down on to the chair. “It’s not the bet, or the money! You’re just upset that you can’t slice sleeping beauty’s head in half next week!”

  Julia almost vibrated in annoyance. “Ooohhhhhh!” she exclaimed, and pulling her hands free, she folded her arms and sat there in a most unbecoming sulk.

  Rawlston glanced at the monitor screen. “Ben’s coming out. What would you like to bet that he comes straight here with the good news?”

  “He’ll go and see Tyler first. He’s in charge now. Anyway, I’m not betting on anything with you, you cad! Taking a poor innocent convent girl like me to the cleaners! I don’t know how you can sleep at night!”

  “Ha!” Rawlston came over to her. Smiling, he swung her chair around and leaned over her, his arms hemming her in, and his hands flat on the table behind her. “You and I both know that the nearest you’ve come to anything religious or spiritual, is when you were shouting, ‘Oh God! Oh God!’ in the Henry V hotel in Paris last year!”

  Julia giggled at the memory. “Remember that fondly do you?” she asked with a cheeky grin. “Maybe you would prefer me to take a penalty rather than pay up on our bet?”

  Rawlston moved closer. “I might be persuaded. For old time’s sake, of course!”

  “Of course!” Julia agreed, putting her arms around him.

  On the monitor screen behind them, Jayne was now on her own. She was sat up in bed. She glanced briefly around the room, and then her gaze fixed on the camera hidden near the ceiling in the corner. As Julia and Sam Rawlston kissed and entered the first stages of love making, it was as if Jayne was staring right at them through the screen.