‘Go and find Solomon, darling. He needs someone holding his hand.’
She argues for a moment, then rushes inside. Exhaustion floods over me like a tsunami. I fall asleep bolt upright in the chair, lulled by the storm’s parting song, as it spins back out to sea.
62
NILE CAN’T GUESS how long he’s been asleep. When his eyes blink open, a drip is feeding colourless liquid into his arm. There’s pressure in his side, but hardly any pain. His mind is a vacuum until Dr Pakefield walks through the door. The medic still looks deathly pale, as if the sunlight filtering through the blind is slowly killing him. Pakefield studies his watch as he presses two fingers to Nile’s neck.
‘You’ve got the constitution of an ox, Detective Nile, but you caused me problems last night. Your blood group’s quite rare. Lyron donated two units and so did Keith Belmont; you owe those men your life.’
Nile stifles a laugh – he’ll be blood brothers with the lead singer of Blue Heaven until the end of his days – but Lyron’s gift doesn’t surprise him. He feels a moment’s guilt for all the people he suspected during the case, while the true culprit lay right under his nose.
‘I’m sorry, doctor. All you did was break a rule to try and help someone out. I shouldn’t have been so accusatory.’
‘Apology accepted,’ the doctor says, with a narrow smile. ‘A team of officers is coming over from St Vincent tomorrow, to take your suspects to Belle Isle Correctional Facility. Your boss has agreed you should take a week or two to recover from such a serious wound. He’ll interview Phillip Everard in the morning.’
Nile struggles to sit upright, a blast of pain making his head spin, until the doctor’s cold hand settles on his shoulder.
‘Rest now, or you won’t heal properly. Press the buzzer if you need anything.’
‘How’s Sacha?’
‘She regained consciousness last night, and I apologised for my actions. I’ll let her recuperate at home from tomorrow if she carries on improving.’
‘I should be at the station. Can someone drive me there?’
‘Don’t be stupid.’ The doctor fixes him with a hard stare. ‘You’re staying in bed for the next forty-eight hours. Sleep now, I’ll come and check on you later.’
Nile lets his eyes close again. Mama Toulaine may just be part of his dream when she appears at his bedside, carrying a bunch of orchids. She looks like an African queen, her vivid blue dress covered in yellow brocade. Her expression’s tender when her fingertips caress his face.
‘How are you doing, young man?’
‘Better, Mama. I’ll soon be fit again.’
‘Gede’s still at the crossroads, Solomon. There will be one more death before he leaves the island in peace; don’t let it be yours.’
When Toulaine kisses his cheek, Solomon falls into the deepest sleep of his life. The quality of light has changed when he wakes up. It’s softer than before, turning the room a dull ochre. It hurts to sit up, but he doesn’t care; there’s a jolt of eye-watering pain in his ribs every time he moves, yet he can’t stay in bed. He makes a phone call to Lily, then drags himself upright, just as Lady Vee appears in the doorway. She’s dressed in her usual pale attire, elegant as ever, with only a few bruises on show.
‘I hear you saved my life, Lady Vee. You’re the bravest woman on Mustique.’
She gives a gentle smile. ‘You saved mine too. I’m glad I learned first aid in the Girl Guides. No matter how big the wound, you have to staunch the flow of blood.’
‘If I’d lost much more, I wouldn’t be here now.’
‘That would be a pity, for all of us,’ she says, coming closer. ‘This is a dreadful mess, isn’t it?’
‘At least we found our killer.’
‘What’s our next course of action?’
‘My boss plans to interview him tomorrow, then he’ll be held in jail until his trial.’
Lady Vee’s face hardens. ‘He can’t take all the credit, when you and I have done all the work. You deserve a promotion on the back of this, and I need to hear Phillip’s confession from the horse’s mouth.’
Nile manages to grin. ‘I knew you’d see it that way. Lily will be here soon, in your buggy. Let’s go to the station together.’
‘Perfect. Your brother brought you clean clothes. Why don’t I help you into that shirt? You can rest here again after we’ve seen Phillip.’
‘The doctor won’t like us leaving the building.’
‘Who cares?’ She leans closer, her clear gaze assessing his face. ‘After last night, nothing can stop us.’
A fresh wave of pain cuts through Nile’s core as he dresses, but Lady Vee’s triumphant tone lifts him. He’s so focused on the task ahead, it barely registers.
63
STORM CRISTOBAL HAS attacked the police station with full force. The roof over the reception area has torn away, the yard littered with dead branches, an old bicycle dangling from a tree, but Solomon appears too focused to notice. DI Black will take over tomorrow, but today he’s still in charge, and we both need to know why Phillip committed such unspeakable crimes. We limp through the door together, leaving Lily waiting in the buggy.
I’m not prepared for the emotional pain of seeing Phillip again. I have known him for thirty years, believing he was sensitive enough to require my support, but he must be the finest actor on record. He fooled me so completely, my emotions are in freefall.
‘Are you ready, Lady Vee?’ Solomon asks.
‘I’ve had better days, but he can’t harm either of us now, thank God.’
‘We need a complete confession; he may give us more if you pretend to feel sympathy. I’ll record everything he says.’
‘I shall do my best.’
When Solomon and I walk through the door, Phillip is sitting cross-legged on the floor of his cell, gazing up at the skylight. He doesn’t acknowledge either of us when we position ourselves on the bench opposite, giving me time to look at him. Fragments from the stories he’s told me over the years drift through my head, from the poverty of his childhood, to painful relationship break ups that he never fully explained. Phillip’s temper cost him acting jobs too, over his tendency to start vendettas with his co-stars, in case they stole his limelight. Why didn’t I notice that his violence had never truly gone away? A few minutes of silence pass before he speaks at last.
‘Not a cloud in sight. That shade of blue is called cerulean, isn’t it?’
‘Azure, I’d say,’ Solomon replies. ‘Turquoise, with a hint of yellow.’
‘You could be right.’ A relaxed smile crosses Phillip’s face. ‘I’m sorry you got hurt last night, Solomon. Collateral damage is always a pity.’
The detective keeps his mouth shut. He seems to understand that silence is the best route to information; very few people can handle its yawning emptiness.
‘I’m glad you’re here, Vee. I was going to ask for you, because our conversations always comfort me.’ He turns his head by a fraction, but still doesn’t meet my eye. ‘I don’t care about anyone else’s opinion. You were the only one to work it all out.’
‘The things in your desk drawers gave you away. They showed how much you’ve kept hidden; not just occasional cigarettes, but your yearning for theatrical roles. You started out on stage, with Ibsen and Chekhov, didn’t you?’
‘Hollywood typecast me. They put me in rom coms, and nothing else.’
‘Very few people have enough talent to win an Oscar, like you.’
‘You’ve always been so kind. Can I speak to Vee alone, one last time, Solomon?’
‘I’m afraid not. Everything has to be on record.’
Phillip carries on gazing at the patch of sky above his head. It seems that I’m his desired audience, so I drop my voice to a whisper, mimicking past intimacy.
‘You poor darling, you must have been in so much pain.’
‘It was unbearable, Vee, I hate myself for all of it.’ He swings round to face me at last. ‘But I knew you’d understand.’
<
br /> I muster a smile. ‘It explains why Jose’s been so upset, doesn’t it? He must have seen you do something frightening, or following Lily home. The boy was only trying to protect me.’
When I catch a glimpse of Solomon from the corner of my eye, his pain is obvious; his handsome face is sheened with sweat, like last night, when I believed he was dying. I want to help him get the confession, after all his bravery, but it’s difficult to meet Phillip’s eye, while I carry so much anger. He’s seated himself on a hard plastic chair in his cell, directly opposite me, only a few metres away. It looks like a film set for a new blockbuster, where a veteran movie star is framed for crimes he didn’t commit, and I wish the truth was that simple. There’s so much misery on his face, instinct makes me put my hand through the bars, and he reaches for it instantly.
‘I’m sorry, Vee. I guessed you were close to finding the truth, because you’re always so perceptive. I only wanted to throw you off course for long enough to escape on my boat, but now everything’s lost.’
‘I have to understand why you did it. Was it something in your past?’
He looks on the verge of tears. ‘My family tore itself apart, but I can’t blame them for all my troubles. I was born with too much darkness in me. I tried to strangle one of my brothers when I was fifteen, until my father pulled me away. They never listened to me. It made me so angry that I physically hurt whoever stood in my way. When I attacked one of my sisters, they sent me to live with an uncle of mine. I got beaten almost every day. I started skipping school, getting involved in drugs and petty crime.’
‘It sounds terrible.’
‘Something switched off in me. I was driven to escape, and acting allowed me to become someone else, but the damage was done. I could tell people were scared of me and the power was intoxicating. I didn’t care how many people I stamped on along the way. The hurt and violence in me was out of my control.’
‘I only got to see your light side, didn’t I?’ I pause. ‘Were you planning to sail somewhere in particular on the Aqua Dream?’
‘Venezuela or Ecuador. I could have disappeared into the mountains …’ His voice trails into silence.
‘Tell me how it happened, Phillip. It might make you feel better.’
He withdraws his hand suddenly, sitting taller in his chair, head tipped back, like he’s under a spotlight. ‘I loved it here at first. I was a big noise then, getting huge roles, invited to every party. That all changed when Emily Calder arrived. She was New York royalty; utterly mesmerising and I fell for her completely. But to her I was that dirt-poor farm boy all over again. She looked down her nose at me, from day one.’
‘You’re mistaken, Emily was very fond of you.’
‘People talked about her reef project, like nothing else mattered. She was everyone’s blue-eyed girl.’
‘You killed her for what?’
‘I loved her and she rejected me. I’ve swallowed a lifetime of feeling second-best. People overlooked me for lack of class, always cutting me down to size, never giving me roles I wanted. That’s why I adore you and Jasper. You’re aristocrats, yet you treat me with respect.’
Phillip carries on; his feeling of exclusion chimed with his childhood suffering, triggering his campaign. Emily Calder spurned his advances, so he waited outside her villa, then strangled her in the gardens. He waited until the island slept, then dragged her body down to the sea, leaving her dress folded on the sand.
‘Lily and her friends invited me everywhere, until she began working on Emily’s coral project full-time. Lily knows I can’t dive, but she went on regardless. The young, beautiful ones chose to spend their time on that damned boat, leaving me alone. They turned away from me, one by one.’
‘Starting with Amanda Fortini?’
‘She fell for me after two French lessons, then rejected me just as fast as Emily had all those years ago. All she really wanted was to hang out with her younger buddies and dive down to that bloody reef. It was like history repeating itself, and my rage came roaring back.’
‘What about Tommy Rothmore?’
‘I thought he’d guessed the truth about me and Amanda, so I told him about leaving her body underwater. I tried to finish him in the Fortinis’ summerhouse, but he got away. I didn’t catch him again until the night I torched the Fortinis’ villa. That got rid of Amanda’s phone, camera, and the idiotic love letters she gave me at the start. I also planted the photos of her on his wall.’
‘You had no need to attack Sacha Milburn or break into Keith Belmont’s house.’
His eyes glitter with fury. ‘Sacha was always spying on people and scribbling in that stupid notebook so I tore out the sections about me. I gave the notebook to the doctor, because she’d written about their one-night stand. I told him I’d copied each page, to keep him quiet. I couldn’t risk him blabbing about seeing me on the Aqua Dream. My friendship with Keith fell apart when he became obsessed by saving the coral, just like the rest. I wanted to give him a warning.’
‘You tried to frame Dex Adebayo, didn’t you? The Obeah symbols made us suspect anyone who followed the religion.’
‘Dex and I are old friends; we’ve had a little side business running for years now. But everyone’s disposable. He lost his way when he got hooked.’
‘Why are you still so full of hate, after all your success? Your childhood was a long time ago.’
‘Don’t you understand, Vee? No one’s ever cared for me unconditionally, from childhood until now. Sacha, Amanda and Tommy were all born millionaires, and they looked down on me, like Emily Calder, because I scraped my way up from the gutter.’
‘That doesn’t explain why you targeted Lily.’
His expression sours again. ‘She becomes more like her mother every year – beautiful and thoughtless, obsessed with coral. I left those messages on her boat.’
‘She loved you like an uncle and trusted you completely.’ I can hardly bear to look at him. ‘How did you get a key to leave the coral outside Lily’s room?’
‘Don’t you remember giving one to Emily Calder, all those years ago? It was so she could stay at Eden House, when you were away. You never changed the locks after she died.’
I can only just remember handing a key to Emily, at a lunch party with Jasper and Phillip, while Lily played in the pool. ‘Why did you carve those symbols into the coral?’
‘Obeah’s full of gods and demons that reflect human nature. We’re all a blend of good and evil, aren’t we?’
Solomon asks quietly: ‘Did your boat hit Amanda then? And how did you persuade the men on the Aqua Dream to leave the victims’ bodies on the reef?’
He releases a slow laugh. ‘Those fools would do anything for money, but they’re not bright. The fools chose the worst place to drop anchor in the storm last night, without consulting me. I did the work on land, in the villas and stealing what we needed from the medical centre; and they did the work at sea. They made the firecracker for the police station. I found them both in Hollywood. Tinseltown’s full of failed stuntmen, has-beens, and fantasists. You’ll see their faces in the background of old soap operas and cop shows. I let them both choose new names then gave them fake passports. For a time it was just moving shipments around, but the last few weeks have been more of an adventure.’
‘Is that how you made enough cash to keep the Aqua Dream?’
‘I spent my Hollywood wages on the purchase, but kept it secret. I needed funds to keep it going, so I did whatever it took. Why accept a minor part when I could make ten times more from a drugs pick-up at sea?’
‘Ironic for someone who hates the water.’
Phillip laughs as if I’ve told a first-class joke. ‘My sea legs were always a little sturdier than I let on. That’s how I managed to reach the boat last night ahead of you.’
‘How did you get diplomatic immunity?’ Solomon asks.
‘It didn’t cost much, my friend. I bought a favour from your boss; he oversaw the whole thing for me, no questions asked.’
>
‘That explains why he was so keen to keep me off the Aqua Dream.’
Phillip turns to face me. ‘None of that matters now. Tell me I’m forgiven, please, Vee. That’s all I care about.’
Our years of friendship pass before my eyes, through all the good times on Mustique, to now. Reality wipes my memories away, like chalk from a blackboard. Tears form in my eyes.
‘Do you really believe I’d forgive you? Lily lost her mother when she was five years old. Then you killed two more innocent young people. Solomon and Sacha almost died, and you spiked my drink at the beach party. You’d have let those men kill me, without a second thought.’
The look of hatred on his face when I refuse to pardon him makes me glad that iron bars separate us. How did I miss the psychotic glitter in Phillip’s eye, or his abject narcissism? My old friend is crying and shouting my name when I walk away. Solomon murmurs encouragement in my ear, supporting me to the exit. Old loyalties pull at me, but I won’t allow myself to look back.
64
Monday, 23rd September 2002
SOLOMON NILE IS sitting in a deckchair on the porch while his father takes his afternoon nap. The island looks as it did before Storm Cristobal arrived, apart from a few damaged roofs, which his neighbours are busy repairing. He’d like to help out, but his wound is still healing, after three days at home. Mustique appears to have returned to normal, the sea a vivid blue, not a cloud in the sky, but things are already changing. Lyron is growing up at last; he plans to labour as a handyman for a higher wage, then follow his dream of becoming a pilot.
Nile watches a small fishing boat drifting back to harbour, content to observe the island’s beauty until his wound heals. He sips his iced tea while the inhabitants of Lovell go about their business. It’s a surprise to see Lily Calder walking up the path, dressed in shorts and a white top, a canvas bag hanging from her shoulder. She still looks like a dancer, with her long-legged stride. He assumed their paths wouldn’t cross again after Phillip Everard was flown to St Vincent to await trial, Mustique free to breathe easily again, yet she’s heading straight for his cabin.
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