by Daisy White
The desktop computer was switched off. As she moved back towards the door, ready for Peter’s return, she saw the blood.
It wasn’t much, just a smear, as though someone had flung a hand out, but shocking against the pristine white wall. Chloe spun around. Had she been wrong about Melissa? She had been so sure she was innocent, but what if she and Jonas were both guilty and she was being lured into a trap? Her pulse quickened and her breathing became shorter, sharper, hurting her chest. She had gone blindly into this, trusting her instincts, trusting her intuition, but what if her trust was misplaced?
As her confidence faltered, Mark’s words came back to her. ‘How can you possibly change career now? It’s far too late. Best get some cats and knitting…’
But she, Chloe, was stronger than Mark had ever known. The magic of her swim in The Blue Hole came back to her, the memory flowing freely, sending a flash of confidence and strength into her veins.
She walked slowly back to the glass entrance doors, treading carefully on the balls of her feet, tense and ready to fight or flee.
Instead of turning right to the side door, she turned left. A glimmer of light showed another fire exit, right at the end of the mall. On the floor, black in the sliver of light, was another smear of blood. Larger this time, and pooling thickly on the concrete tiles.
33
‘Oh God… Melissa? Jonas?’ Her voice came out in a sob of fear.
She suddenly heard Jonas’ voice in her head, once again remembering their conversation in the shadows. He had seemed edgy, scared, and she had been distracted from his actual words, focusing on Melissa:
‘Sometimes for larger deliveries, I use the fire exit at the back. Security don’t like it, but it’s the only way to get the larger, heavier pieces in here.’
Chloe glanced back, sickened by the blood. She should wait for the security guards, for Peter, but a tiny noise drew her attention back to the fire exit. But then she heard it. A moan, followed by a low grunt of pain.
‘Jonas?’ Before she could think, she was moving quickly. The door opened easily when she pressed the bar, and a pile of boxes was sat outside. There was a van, with the back open, and the tailgate down.
Bewildered, she glanced around, seeing nothing but shadows.
‘Chloe?’
He was lying further along the wall, his face contorted with pain, arms outstretched as though he had been trying to crawl away.
‘Oh my God, are you okay? What happened to you?’ She knelt beside him, scrabbling for tissues to blot his cuts, giving up and taking off her shirt.
The wound to his forehead was still bleeding, sluggishly, and she held the soft fabric to this, applying firm pressure.
His mouth was swollen and bruised, but he managed to speak, slowly and painfully. ‘Chloe, you need to go after him. He’s got Melissa and he’s leaving now. You need to stop him…’ He paused, wincing and clutching his ribs. ‘That bastard. He’ll kill her…’
‘Who? Who are you talking about?’ Chloe was looking wildly around. ‘Where has he gone?’
‘Arron, of course. He found out we were planning to leave tonight. God knows how.’ Jonas was gasping in pain, writhing on the ground. ‘I tried to follow but they hit me with something and knocked me out.’
‘Arron? Where has he gone?’
‘Chloe, please, please get the police. He went towards Snorkel Beach. He’s got two of his bodyguards with him… You can see…’ His voice trailed off as he passed once again into unconsciousness.
As he did so Chloe heard a scream, high and clear, carrying across the night air. Again, she responded without thinking. Instead of calling the police, gripped her torch, and ran through the moonlit darkness in the direction of Snorkel Beach.
In the daylight, the beach was a family attraction. A shallow cove sheltered by the high wall of Dockyard. In the evening it became a bar and club where teenagers and cruise-ship passengers partied the night away.
But the venue was closed for maintenance tonight, with a red sign warning tourists to keep away across the entrance. The beach was in darkness now, populated only with shadows. Chloe tried to see what was happening; peering, trembling, into the blackness. She could hear muted voices, splashes, followed by a male voice raised in anger. She slipped through the barrier, and skirted carefully around the main wooden building.
A boat was moored off the beach, with a smaller, inflatable craft now being unloaded onto it. Another scream made the hairs on the back of her arms and neck rise, and she found she was shaking.
Melissa. Chloe sent one desperate glance back up the beach, but could see nothing. It was up to her. She edged along the wall and kicked off her shoes, before easing slowly into the sea. Seaweed on the rocks was treacherously slippery, and she held her breath as the cold water reached up to her chest.
Keeping in the shadows on the wall, she swam out to the point where her cover stopped, as the wall curved away to the west. She blinked salty water from her eyes, breath coming in little gasps.
Final preparations seemed to be being made on board the larger boat, and now she was closer, Chloe could see the outlines of figures. At least four men, and a figure slumped on the deck near the railings, hands tied behind their back. Melissa? And was Arron down below deck?
She hardly hesitated, and so focused on her mission that there was no time for fear as she struck out into the waves. Chloe swam smoothly and swiftly to the right of the boat, keeping out the way of the few lights that decorated the rigging. She was vague on boats, but this one looked sleek and powerful. It also had, she saw as she swam closer, a ladder that dropped down from the deck to the sea. A pleasure craft then or was this a special adaptation to allow goods to be passed up more easily?
The men had finished their task. Two went below deck, and the two others stepped back into the inflatable. The sharp buzz of an engine roared briefly and it shot away, coasting over the breakers, heading out to sea.
Now Chloe was close enough to the vessel to haul herself up the ladder. She was shivering and her muscles screamed with exertion. A cautious look over the top revealed the slumped figure was indeed Melissa. The men were still busy below deck, talking in lowered voices.
‘Melissa!’
Chloe padded over and touched her shoulder. The girl jumped, turning terrified eyes towards her. Her hands were bound behind her back, but her legs were free. A piece of silver tape served as a gag.
Chloe fumbled for a moment with what appeared to be plastic ties holding Melissa’s hands in place. But they were too strong to break. Instead, she ripped the tape off her mouth and spoke quickly in her ear, ‘Can you swim? We need to get over the side now.’
‘Yes,’ Melissa breathed. ‘You might need to help me, but I can use my legs. Is it just you? Have you seen Jonas? Is he all right?’
‘Yes, and he’s hurt but okay. Come on.’ Chloe pulled her to her feet, and urged her towards the ladder. Too late, she realised there was no way the girl could climb with no hands. ‘I’ll have to push you overboard, but I’ll be right next to you. Look, we’ll go through this gap in the rails…’
‘Do it.’
‘Okay, one, two, three, jump!’ Chloe grabbed Melissa’s shoulder, hanging on to her shirt as they both leapt off the boat.
The noise of a double splash brought the men up on deck and Chloe heard yells of anger. But she was too busy hauling Melissa away from the boat to give them any attention.
‘Melissa? What the hell are you doing?’ The man added to his companion, ‘Turn the lights on and get her back.’
He clearly didn’t realise Melissa had a companion in the water. Chloe swam harder, shoulder muscles screaming in pain, towing the girl behind her. Melissa was kicking her legs, occasionally ducking her whole upper body underwater to make it easier for Chloe to pull her along by her bound hands. They were both gasping for breath, straining to get away from the vessel.
But escape wasn’t going to be easy. The noise of an engine starting ripped through the nig
ht, just as the two women reached the outermost curve of the wall. Two powerful floodlights illuminated the water, casting this way and that, like cat’s eyes searching for prey.
‘Stay near the wall, and when I say, duck under again,’ Chloe managed to shout.
Melissa nodded, and as the light swung towards them the boat began to move.
‘Now!’
Chloe held her breath for as long as she could, but the unfamiliar exertion of the night had taken a toll on her body, and she burst out of the waves too quickly. The white glare was unforgiving, and she thought she heard a shout of triumph, followed by another splash.
‘Damian is coming after us!’ Melissa shouted over the noise of the vessel.
The boat turned swiftly and easily towards the trapped women, washing up frothy waves and bashing both of them against the rocks that lay under the wall. Pinned in the floodlight, they were sitting ducks for the bodyguard, who was slicing through the water with a powerful front crawl.
‘Two of you!’ he said, clearly surprised. He reached them and made a grab for Melissa.
Chloe shoved him hard in the chest, lashing out with bare feet underwater. For a second he was caught off balance, and she was able to pull Melissa away, spreading her arms wide to shield her. ‘Leave her alone! The police are coming…’ God, she hoped Peter had found the security guard, and that they had called the police. In her haste to follow Melissa, she hadn’t rung them as Jonas had asked.
Arron was hanging over the side of the boat, and seeing the cowering women, laughed. ‘Chloe, the nosy art lover. Who would have thought? What are you doing down there?’
She shouted, ‘I’ve already seen Jonas. He told me everything. The police are coming, so go if you must, but leave Melissa alone.’
‘Damian, bring them both in. It will be nice for my daughter to have a bit of female company on her long trip. For me too… Come on, man, they are two pathetic women, surely you can deal with them.’
‘Damian, please,’ Melissa gasped out, ‘just let us go! The police really are coming.’
The big man seemed to hesitate, but in that second Chloe saw lights and figures on the beach, and felt her heart leap. ‘Help! We’re over here,’ she yelled.
The large boat and its floodlights had effectively illuminated the scene and uniformed officers were already launching their own inflatable, and some were wading into the sea.
Damian, panicking, began to swim back to the craft. But it seemed that Arron was cutting his losses as he gunned the boat and began to gain speed.
‘He’s getting away!’ Chloe shouted, as she and Melissa staggered into the shallows to meet their rescuers.
A man leant down from the inflatable and offered a hand. ‘Don’t worry, he won’t get far.’
She took his hand and was hauled dripping onto the boat, just as other vessels, blue lights flashing, could be seen zipping across the water.
‘See?’
She turned back, checking Melissa was also safe, and registered that the man was Finn. ‘It was Arron. Melissa and Jonas were trying to get away from him and he…’ It all came out in a rush and her chattering teeth were no help at all.
The silver foil blanket that someone slipped around her shoulders was very welcome as the chill sea breeze cut through her soaked dress.
‘It’s okay, we know. Well, most of it anyway. We saw Jonas on the way down.’
‘You know more than I do, then,’ Chloe muttered, still shaking.
‘Is Jonas really all right? My stepfather said he would get Damian to beat him up because he had double-crossed him,’ Melissa put in. She held her hands out in front now, wincing as she rubbed her wrists. ‘We were trying to leave him. Chloe, I’m sorry for dragging you into this but it seemed like our last chance.’
‘Jonas will be fine. He’s on his way to hospital,’ Finn told her reassuringly.
The boat began to move slowly back to the beach, and when they got out Chloe found her legs were shaky. Finn slipped a hand under her elbow to steady her.
‘Chloe came to rescue me.’ Melissa managed a smile, although, as the light shone on her face, her rescuers could see numerous bruises, and a long cut across her forehead. ‘He always said he wouldn’t kill me, but this time… He was so mad…’
34
Back in Dockyard, amidst the flashing lights, Melissa sat huddled under her foil blanket next to Chloe. ‘He found out about me and Matthew, and he didn’t like it. He never liked me to have close friends or boyfriends unless he had something on them, some kind of blackmail he could use against them. He always said friends and lovers have to be useful or there is no point in them.’
‘Did you plan to run away with Matthew? Sorry, I’m still struggling to keep up,’ Chloe said gently.
‘Arron has always been very controlling. Ever since our father died he has used us in the business. He doesn’t just run legitimate galleries selling artwork, he has all kinds of dirty deals going on. Gradually, as we got older, we realised we were part of it.’ Her grey eyes filled with tears. ‘He has always been violent too. With my mother, with us. She realised far too late what kind of a man he was, but she never had the strength to leave, even when we begged her.’
‘Oh, Melissa, I’m sorry…’ Chloe said softly.
She ran her tongue over her sore lips, and shrugged. ‘He sat us down when I was eighteen and showed us that we had already been part of his stolen art rackets, his drug deals, and money-muling. Of course, we had no idea, because until then it had just been business. If he asked us to pick up a package from the New York gallery and take it to a collector in Sau Paulo then we did, no questions asked. But we were delivering stolen goods, dirty money, all kinds of things. He wouldn’t ever have let us go.’
‘You and Jonas were essential to his dirty business. What happened with Matthew?’ Chloe asked. ‘Was it because he found out about the stolen art and the real business?’
Melissa took a deep breath, gratefully accepting the hot cup of coffee Peter pushed into her hands. ‘Not entirely. The package I gave to you is the original Painted Lady. Matt painted a smaller version before he did the larger copy. He wanted me to have it because…’
‘Because it’s you!’ Chloe exclaimed, suddenly seeing the distorted female body in the scarlet sea, the grey eyes and perfect red lips. ‘You were his muse?’
‘Yes.’ She gave a sad, secret smile. ‘I loved him. We met in New York, dated secretly while he was still seeing Kaila. He broke it off with her for me, and she went mad. She was dealing drugs and tried to get him into the whole scene. He was kind of on the edge until I persuaded him it was a bad idea. But Kaila didn’t kill him. Or poison Sheetal.’
‘Dear God,’ Chloe said.
‘The money and the painting were for us to run away together. He was going to give everything up for me. We would still paint, but not to sell. We loved each other.’ She wiped away a tear. ‘Jonas was going to come too. We would never leave each other with Arron.’
‘But wasn’t Matthew already rich? His work was selling, and The Painted Lady, the large version must have made him enough that he could have whisked you away anywhere he wanted,’ Chloe said, confused.
‘No. My stepfather held all the money, and paid it in instalments. Matt never would sign with an agent, which was a mistake. Once Arron found out about me dating Matt, he told him he could only have it if we split up.’
‘Emma at the shop said you had a fight with Matthew the night he was killed.’
Melissa nodded. ‘We staged it, hoping enough people would see and think we had broken up. By then, we were ready. Matt had bought plane tickets, arranged everything, but my stepfather is so strong and powerful… He knows everyone and can go everywhere. That night he asked me if it was true we were leaving him, that Matt and I were still lovers. I lied and told him I wasn’t but he hit me…’
‘It’s okay, go on.’ Chloe wrapped an arm comfortingly around her trembling body.
‘My phone kept ringing, because Jonas
and Matt must have got worried when I didn’t show up at the meeting point. We had a place to stay and then we were catching the first flight out in the morning.’
‘How did Arron find out you were going?’
‘He tapped our phones and had cameras all over the duplex. He said we were ungrateful… Matt walked in as he hit me, and went mad. He said if Arron didn’t let us leave and then left us alone, he would tell the police about the stolen art, about the money, the abuse, everything.’
‘So Arron was trapped.’
‘He had his bodyguards with him but they weren’t in the room when we were arguing. I think Arron saw at that point he couldn’t control Matt as he controlled everyone else and he didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t even know he carried a knife…’ Melissa was staring into the distance now, her voice a monotone as she recounted the horrors of that night. One pale hand slipped up and rubbed her bruised forehead. ‘…He lunged at Matt and got him in the chest, again and again. I was screaming and someone hit me from behind. I think perhaps it was Frankie… When I woke up it was dark, they had all gone, and there was blood everywhere.’
‘And he came back after he dumped Matthew’s body?’
‘Yes, they all did. Damian and Frankie helped him. They cleared everything up, and Arron told me if I opened my mouth Jonas would be as good as dead. I was… I couldn’t think straight, and I was half crazy about Matt’s death. I couldn’t cope with Jonas being killed too. He insisted we were both back at work that day, the day you came to visit.’
‘You were certainly both very cool,’ Chloe said, looking back at the slightly awkward conversation.
‘We are used to behaving as though nothing has happened after Arron gets in one of his rages. Even murder… but we knew we would still run. That’s why I brought the painting and money to you for safekeeping that night. Jonas distracted Arron and I slipped out. I was back before it was light.’ She half smiled. ‘I hardly slept in your spare bed after all your kindness. I just lay awake thinking about how we could still get away, and yet somehow let the police know Arron had killed Matthew.’