'One day I'll take you sailing. We haven't time this morning, we'll take the speedboat and look at Palma before anyone else wakes,' he said.
Ros was preoccupied as they scrambled down the steps to the little beach. Lorenzo unlocked the doors of a large boathouse where several boats of different sorts and sizes were moored. She smiled faintly as he helped her to scramble in, and sat beside him without speaking as he headed the boat towards the open sea. He swung round to circle past the hundreds of boats which were anchored in Palma Bay.
A few other people were awake and active. Some were swabbing down decks, others preparing to set sail, and most of them waved cheerily as Ros and Lorenzo swept past.
Soon they were back and Ros needed all her breath for the climb to the chalet. They parted outside with no more difficult questions, and no hint from Lorenzo that he wished to continue what he had begun earlier. Perversely she didn't know whether to be relieved or offended.
*
Chapter 3
Ten minutes later, dressed in a pale yellow linen dress, Ros was about to pick up her bag when there was a firm rap at the door. Lorenzo was outside, now wearing casual but beautifully cut fawn slacks and a red open-necked sports shirt. He must make a great deal of money out of his guitar playing to be able to afford such obviously expensive clothes, Ros thought.
To her embarrassment she recalled their first meeting that morning, and his kisses. Her heart beat more rapidly, her throat constricted at the sight of those regular features, and as a slow burning stained her cheeks she was unable to meet his eye.
'Breakfast, and I'm hungry, so let's go,' he said cheerfully, and without waiting for her to reply calmly took the key from her hand, slipped his other arm round her waist and propelled her out of the chalet, pulling the door closed after them and locking it. Ros felt a stab of renewed anger at his self-confident, dominant male attitude.
'Why was I given a chalet when I'd booked a room in the main building?' she demanded.
'As my apology for almost running over your luggage. The chalet was empty, so why not?' he replied easily.
'Who arranged it?'
'Does it matter? Be content, it was arranged. Don't make a issue of it, Ros. I for one am most grateful for our being such close neighbours.'
Ros was dubious about whether she wanted this too. Being next door to one another in a secluded part of the hotel complex would inevitably throw them together. It might also lead to speculation within the hotel and this was certainly something Ros could do without. She needed to be as unobtrusive as possible until she knew more of the circumstances surrounding Tim's mysterious disappearance. Being made the object of Lorenzo's attentions would have the opposite effect.
And she didn't want his attentions in any case. Of course she didn't. Admittedly he was far pleasanter than she had at first supposed. He was less aggressive, and the inexplicable, barely concealed antagonism of their first meeting had vanished. He was still arrogant, however, utterly confident of his own attractiveness. His kisses, his very lightest touch did something to her which no other man, not even Larry, had achieved. Certainly she'd never felt so ready to forget everything and surrender to the enchantment of just being with him in Larry's arms.
He knew it. That was partly why she felt so wary. Such a man, in such a job, was bound to make hundreds of conquests amongst young female holidaymakers ripe for an exhilarating romantic episode. Ros had no intention of forming one in the no doubt long string of Lorenzo's girls. Nor had she time for such interludes. She would have to make this perfectly clear to Mr Romeo Lorenzo.
She recalled his crack about being an expensive Romeo, and a reminiscent smile curved her lips. Her eyes were sparkling, and she still had a touch of colour in her cheeks when they entered the restaurant.
*
Relatively few of the guests were down so early, but Veronica in red and another girl, pretty and auburn haired, dressed in a smart green uniform, were already at the table they had used last night. Veronica waved and Ros crossed the room towards her.
'Why don't you join us?'
The table was laid for four and as Ros slipped into the seat next to Veronica Lorenzo paused beside the other girl.
'Ros Farleigh, Mandy Browning. Is Pete in bed, the lazy dog?'
Mandy smiled a welcome at Ros and turned her attention back to Lorenzo.
'Yes it's his day off and we got back very late last night from the barbecue. There was a marvellous singer there, Lorenzo. You must go and hear her. Why don't you join us?' she added, glancing up at him from big china blue eyes.
He pulled out the other chair, asking about the previous evening.
Veronica turned to Ros. 'You're looking better this morning. You must have been tired yesterday. I'm taking a trip to Palma this morning. Do you want to join it?'
'That would be fun,' Ros replied. She wanted to inspect the harbour, and look for a street in one of Tim's postcards, and no doubt parking in the town centre would be difficult.
'Good. See you later then.'
Lorenzo sprang up as she left with a lithe grace Ros reluctantly had to admire. As he sat down again he placed Ros's chalet key beside her plate.
'You'd better take it in case I'm not around later,' he murmured.
Ros coloured and cast him a furious glance, well aware that Mandy was eyeing her with avid curiosity.
Lorenzo merely looked amused, the by now familiar glint in his eyes. He turned to Mandy and spoke before the angry incautious words on the tip of Ros's tongue could be uttered.
'Is this singer really special?' he asked, and Mandy nodded eagerly.
'A deep husky voice, and a good range. She looks terrific too, tall, superb figure, and knows how to wear striking clothes. She had the men drooling over her, even more when she made it clear she wasn't the sociable sort. Aloof, moody, distant, even sulky. I couldn't judge whether it was part of the act or for real. It was certainly an effective challenge to the poor suckers – even Pete was looking for excuses to go backstage!'
Lorenzo chuckled. 'Could he cope with having her here?'
'That's his problem. The guests – well, at least the men wouldn't complain if Senor Mendez could get her here occasionally. He needs to do something after all the fuss there was last summer about that insipid soprano. You weren't here, were you?'
'I saw, and heard her! I'm surprised there were so few complaints, in fact. I was here just for a couple of nights when I came to the island.'
'Were you? We didn't meet. That wasn't the time your boat was wrecked, was it? No, that was only three months ago, before Christmas.'
Lorenzo grimaced. 'Yes. The sooner people forget the better!'
Ros busied herself with rolls and coffee, lowering her eyes in case the emotions she felt showed in them. Mandy would be bound to know Tim. Perhaps she knew something about his movements, something to give Ros a clue about his disappearance.
She must discover all she could about the accident to the boat, too. It had happened at about the same time. And Tim had mentioned Lorenzo, and boats. Was it remotely possible Tim had been involved in the accident? Could he have been injured? Or even, and here her heart gave a leap of fear, could he have drowned?
She had to abandon these speculations when Lorenzo began chatting about the island, suggesting places she ought to visit, and encouraging Mandy to provide a wealth of information about the excursions.
After a while Mandy excused herself. 'I have to go to the Royale.'
In the foyer Veronica was looking worried. She gave Ros a strained smile. 'I'm sorry. There was some bad news just now, another disappearance,' she said.
'Another?' Like Tim's? Ros wondered apprehensively. What was going on here?
'It's another child, a girl. There have been half a dozen such incidents lately.'
'Incidents! But how dreadful! What happened to them?'
'We do not know. They were all young, about ten years old, and most of them were visitors to the island. No bodies have ever been found, bu
t it would be so easy to throw them into the sea!'
'But surely bodies come ashore,' Ros said in horror.
'Much of the coastline is inaccessible, especially in the north.'
So Tim's body might have been thrown up there too, she thought.
'These children, what is the motive?'
'The police are baffled. It may be murder, but why? If that's so, it's a maniac, because there's been no connection between the various families. It's more likely to be for some sort of prostitution, or the production of pornographic films.'
'But don't people know? Aren't these disappearances reported in the papers?'
'We try to be discreet. We're told, so that we can offer advice to parents of young girls, not to allow them to go anywhere alone. But this is not your problem. Lorenzo has offered to show you some of the island one day.'
Ros looked at her in dismay. 'No!' she exclaimed involuntarily, then saw Veronica looking rather surprised. She was herself aghast at the force of her reaction. But she had no wish to spend a whole day in Lorenzo's disturbing company. 'I – I would prefer to explore alone,' she added quickly.
Soon the coach arrived and Ros went out with Veronica who was shepherding the holidaymakers onto it. On the way to the capital Veronica, mike in hand, briefly recounted the history of the town. It had been under Roman rule until destroyed by Goths and Vandals, then held by the Moors for four hundred years until captured by James of Aragon in the early thirteenth century. She recommended some of the more interesting sights from the huge Gothic Cathedral dominating the harbour, and the delightful palaces of the old nobility, to the narrow streets in the oldest part of the town where the souvenir shops were to be found.
'We have a clear two hours before I have to be back,' she said to Ros after all the passengers had disappeared. 'Let's have a coffee.'
She led the way to a small café near the Cathedral, and they sat at a table outside. After the frosts and dampness of England it was pleasantly warm, sufficiently so to make it comfortable while they sat and watched the life of the streets.
'If you want to stay for the afternoon I suggest you come back here for lunch. They do an absolutely unbeatable Caldera, fish stew, but as they use whatever's available at the time it's never the same.'
*
After Veronica left her Ros thankfully returned to the small café. It was the first moment she'd been alone, able to think calmly and plan her next moves. She'd look at the harbour first, then try once more to identify the unknown street.
She'd discovered from Veronica during the morning that Pete had not arrived in Majorca until January, after Tim had vanished. Mandy, however, had been there, so she must question the girl. The most disturbing fact she had learned, however, was that Lorenzo's boating accident had happened at just about the time of Tim's last letter. She must discover more about it. Mandy might know, but it would be better to question some of the other staff or better still try and look up reports of it in old newspaper files. The local paper would have reported it.
Thinking of Lorenzo made her pulses race. She didn't know whether it was the recollection of his warm comforting arms that morning, and his expert kisses, or the mingled fear and excitement that she could be on the brink of discovering a lead to Tim's disappearance, and Lorenzo might be involved.
Boats implied smuggling, and most likely drugs. That very morning Lorenzo had casually mentioned that he sometimes sailed across to the African coast. That was where most drugs came from, surely?
The café owner greeted her as an old friend, ushering her to a small table in the corner, and within minutes a bowl of the most delicious smelling stew appeared. Ros sipped it slowly, for it was steaming hot, but it tasted as good as its aroma had promised. She had eaten half when a shadow fell across the table. Ros glanced up enquiringly.
'May I join you?' Without waiting for permission Lorenzo pulled out the chair opposite and sat down.
The owner promptly appeared to lay another place, and from his effusive greeting it was plain Lorenzo was a frequent customer.
Ros, startled by his sudden unexpected arrival, restrained her impulse to run away. It would serve no purpose, and she ought to try and discover more from him.
'Why did you come here?' she asked blankly.
'It's a popular place. I didn't follow you, but as it's such a fortunate coincidence we can do some exploring together. I'll show you the Cathedral first as we're so close to it.'
Ros shook her head in instinctive denial.
'I promise to behave impeccably,' he said softly. 'You need never fear I'd do anything you objected to. I don't need to force women,' he added, and Ros glanced at him in amazement. But he was serious, and she blinked at his supreme egotism. 'I will even apologise for kissing you if you wish, and if you think I took advantage of you. Yet since I enjoyed it immensely and had the impression at the time you did too, apart from the fact it was helping you, I'll not be hypocritical and pretend to regret it happened. But even if you detest me I don't think you should be alone today.'
She wanted to refuse his company, to reject that half apology, but she could find no words with which to say so. Before long she was walking beside him, arguing fruitlessly at his high handedness in insisting on paying for both of them.
He took charge as though she were a child, Ros thought later, incredulous at her meek acceptance of it. She was a high-powered business woman, with her own flourishing company, and not even Larry had treated her like this.
He took her arm to guide her through the narrow streets, apparently unaware of how the slightest contact between them sent shivers chasing up and down her spine. He told her what she must do and see and was generally overbearing.
Afterwards Ros marvelled at her docility, but at the time it had seemed perfectly natural, too difficult to make a fuss, and anyway the places he took her to see were all too tempting to miss. She couldn't spend all her time searching for scenes depicted on Tim's postcards. The afternoon sped by as they inspected the vast Cathedral and its treasures, rode in a taxi to Bellver Castle on its hill, and looked over the whole of Palma, admiring the town and the many boats in the lovely harbour.
Ros wanted to compare the scene with the postcards, which she suspected had been taken from much the same position, but she could hardly do that with Lorenzo by her side. She took many photographs, telling herself she'd be able to study them on her laptop at leisure later on.
After walking down through the enchanting gardens, along narrow twisting paths, they took another taxi along the Pasco Maritimo back to the centre.
Once she'd overcome the breathlessness induced by his nearness, the searing sensation on her flesh as he held her arm to guide her, and become accustomed to the sharp, tangy scent of him, Ros found with a mixture of helpless astonishment and wrath that she was actually enjoying herself.
*
Their initial mutual hostility had evaporated. His had been inexplicable. Ros realised her own reaction had been in response to his curtness, but even his arrogance was less objectionable than at first, now she knew him better.
She was still wary, though. Lorenzo was a stimulating companion, full of fascinating facts and anecdotes about the island and its people, but she had no intention of becoming just another conquest.
'You know so much. Have you always lived here?' she asked.
'I spent holidays here as a boy. My family home is near Madrid.'
'Oh, yes, you said you'd been born there. Do you work here every summer?'
He shrugged. 'I move around, but I'm usually on the island for a week or so each year.'
A week or two? Ros was puzzled. How could Tim have known him three months ago and he was still here? Should she ask him directly, or wait until she could find out more from Mandy?
'Entertainers don't have contracts for the whole season?' she probed.
'It depends. Sometimes a better offer comes along, and we don't care to be tied down too rigidly, it's tedious to remain in the same place unless, of course
, a vast fee is offered,' he added with the lopsided grin Ros was beginning to find hard to resist even while she reminded herself it was a professional trick.
The time passed so quickly she was surprised when he suggested returning to the hotel.
'The car's in the park below the Plaza Major, do you mind walking through the old town?'
'No, I'm fascinated by those narrow twisting streets. There are centuries-old palaces with quiet, shady courtyards, so cool and gracious, right next door to bustling, noisy souvenir shops crammed full of local crafts. It doesn't seem real.'
'Tourism has become indispensible to the economy of Spain, as well as its islands,' he said as they wove their way through the narrow, often traffic-free streets.
Suddenly Ros halted. They were walking down the very street she'd tried so hard to find that morning. And there was the building and the window Tim had marked.
Lorenzo raised his eyebrows. 'Are you tired?' he asked. 'Shall we have a drink?'
Ros wanted to see what was inside, and took no persuading to enter the small, dimly lit bar some steps down from street level, where wooden partitions provided discreetly secluded booths.
Through an archway there was a large, well furnished restaurant, its soft lights gleaming, reflected a hundred times in the copper ornaments and silver tableware. The tables were widely separated, screened by banks of greenery and flowers. It was clearly expensive and exclusive, the modest entrance had given no hint of such sophistication. The enticing scents wafting through, together with the sherry Lorenzo had, once again, ordered made Ros feel light headed, aware of how hungry and tired the afternoon's exertions had made her. She closed her eyes as she leaned her head against the partition. What connection did this place have with Tim?
'Tell me about your job in England.'
Lorenzo's voice brought her back to the present.
'I took a degree in Computer Studies, and after a year working for another firm I set up my own, designing web sites for firms who want to advertise on the Internet. I have a junior partner, and we employ three more people.'
Island Quest Page 3