“Hey, now you listen to me. What you did all those years ago was to protect her. Yes if she’d have known it would have saved her a lot of stress but there is nothing we can do about that now. When she wakes up, you can tell her. She’ll be happy to hear it’s all over”
Christopher always the voice of reason.
“She’ll also love the Martin got the shit kicked out of him for good measure too. Although not happy it wasn’t me that got the satisfaction.”
“Me either bro. Probably saved his life that it wasn’t you though Alex. I don’t know that you could have stopped”
“I wouldn’t have but it would have been worth it”
“Looks like mums here with Rayne”
“We owe her everything, if she hadn’t got into Leilani’s flat, I don’t even know what would have happened”
“Don’t man. Just don’t. She did get in and she saved her. That’s the end bro.”
“Hey boys, how’s my girlie?”
Does everyone say the same thing every time?
“She’s the same, but Malcolm is positive”
Honestly put it on a sign on the door. Leilani is the same. No change. But Malcolm remains positive.
I can smell Rayne, her shampoo or body lotion something that’s all her. It’s familiar and makes me warm.
“Bitch face” she slavers a kiss on my cheek. “Now come on and wake up, you’re taking valuable room up in this place, people who are really sick need this bed so come on”
“We’re going to take mum to get a coffee, dad says she brought half of Leilani’s bedroom with her and he wants us to talk her out of building a shrine.”
All three of them laugh. Christopher is so deadpan but can be hilarious.
The door closes again, and Rayne lays her head on my arm.
“I really need you to wake up Lei, I can’t do this thing called life without you. You scared me. You scared the shit out of me when I found you. I flew round when Ma told me what had happened, and you’d stayed at their house, God. She’s being hella dramatic by the way, reckons she should have stayed with you. Told her you’re a big girl and as stupid as you were, I know you didn’t want to kill yourself. You’re too damn competitive, if you’d have wanted to do it, you would have succeeded. So I know it was an accident. Now we’ve established that will you wake up. Come on Lei.”
Sugar Tits believe me I am trying. I am fighting to give you a cuddle, a booby squish, I want to move so badly.
I don’t succeed. I can’t move.
“We have so much to talk about, like how you thought I didn’t know about you and Guy. I mean I figured it out ages ago. Why didn’t you tell me? I can’t believe you slept with Guy and I don’t know all the details? I bet he’s good in bed? I want to know everything, so you’ve got to wake up Lei. You have to”
So she knows about Guy. Interesting. How did that all come out. I wonder if he knows I am in here? I wonder if he will come and see me. Depends if he’s still disgusted with me.
Alex comes back into the room.
“Brought you a coffee Rayne.”
“Thanks”
Alex takes my other hand.
“I should have told you Leilani. I should have told you.”
“Alex. Stop. Now. This is not helping anyone. Positivity, remember. That’s what she needs. It’s over. Stop it.”
I wonder if I still have a business to go back to. I wonder how much of me is out there. If I have been here a few days the deadline has passed and given that Martin had been beaten up by Ethan, I assume it’s all out in the open. I feel a sudden calm at the realisation. My family are all still here even though they know.
“Until she wakes up Rayne I can’t be positive. I just can’t.” Alex breaks and so does my heart. In the movies this is the point where I would move my hand or something, but nope. Nothing.
“Come on Alex, you’ve got to be strong. Stronger. Don’t you dare fall apart. Imagine if she could hear you now?”
Err Hello? She can hear you. She hears you loud and clear!
“She’d probably kick my arse for being a wuss”
No, she’d hug you and tell you she loves you more than life.
“Probably, your sister is a fighter. She’s my best friend in her entire world and there is no way I am giving up on her, she wouldn’t give up on me and she sure as hell won’t give up on herself. We get her out of this and we all do it together”
I hear a kiss. My brothers treat her like another sister.
I feel drowsy, and their voices start to get quieter.
“How is she?”
Ahhh for fuck sake, is this still happening? Come on. Plot twist can I just wake up already.
“The same”
Ok people let me tell you something. This is torture. Get some imagination. Oh, actually hang on. Is this Groundhog Day? Have I woken up and started all over again?
“It’s 2 days now Dad, 2 days. Can’t they do something?”
“Alex, stop. She’s going to wake up”
“Will everyone stop saying that! Nobody knows that will happen. It’s all fucking guess work”
Someone slams something.
“Dad, you need to take mum and go home. She’s never on her own. We’re all here. Get some rest. Please”
I suspect Dad leaves butI am not sure untilI hear Alex,
“Leilani, if you can hear me, we love you and we need you home. We need you back. I should have listened to Trent and told you that we knew about the video’s years ago. But we wanted to protect you. We set up a trust for you with the £7m they made from the video. Everything was destroyed before it even started. I should have told you that we destroyed it all. I shouldn’t have kept it from you. Why didn’t you come to me Lei? Please wake up so I can tell you it’s ok. Please.”
I desperately want to tell him that I can hear him, I try to move a hand to tell him that I am here, but I can’t. I want to open my eyes, I want to see him, let him know I haven’t gone anywhere. Damn it. I hate this prison that I am in. LET ME OUT!
I scream. Not physically but internally. I can’t do this anymore, it’s suicide.
Alex lets go of my hand. I don’t know what’s happening. Someone else is in the room. I can’t hear any voices. But I can feel someone else.
I hear the door close. Someone has left the room.
“Hey my gorgeous girl”
It’s a whisper and I can’t be sure.
“I wish you’d wake up Leilani. Please. Wake up for me baby”
I am sure. Alex left the room. Guy came in the room.
He keeps talking
“I want you to come back to me, I am so scared. Scared that I won’t ever hear your laugh again, that I won’t ever look into your eyes and melt like a fool, that I will never be able to tell you how I feel. Leilani, I am ready. I am so ready to have you back. I have to have you back. I need you back. You can’t leave me, not now. Not ever.”
If I could feel my heart beating it would beat out of my chest.
He’s here.
He wants me
I’m wrestling with the suffocating feeling of helplessness. Sadness overcomes me. I want to see him. I need to see his face just once more. I try to move my hand. Nothing, I try again. Nothing.
“Leilani, if you can hear me, I am sorry. Sorry I never gave you all of me. You have my heart. There is no one else for me, you are it. Always.”
What’s happening? I feel strange. I feel like I can’t breathe. It’s going black. NO! NO! don’t take me. Not yet, please.
I see myself, I can see Guy. His head is down on the bed next to my body. Oh my god. NO! I don’t want it to end like this. It can’t end like this.
There’s a loud noise, it’s an alarm.
Ringing. Constant Ringing. It’s so loud. It’s my machines. The ones helping me to breathe. The ones keeping me alive.
The picture fades and I can’t see Guy anymore.
Just one more time I want to hear
“How is she.”
>
Everything fades to black.
Gone.
Guy
I made it back home from Trent’s in record time, I needed to read through each page of the docket thoroughly. I need to handle this carefully.
I grab a pad and my trusty highlighters. I could do with some help on this. I contemplate groveling and calling Leilani to help. It is work after all. But this is probably not the best way to apologise. I need to work that one out later.
We’re meeting tomorrow with Rayne and Malachi – perhaps I’ll take her out after? I make a note to call her office in the morning and book a slot out of her diary.
I fold over the docket in front of me and start to compile the information I need. McDavis is a large corporate firm. They’ve got branches all over the country. Nothing specialist. They seem to acquire business on a regular basis and this is how they have gotten so big.
I scan through the board of directors, nothing. I check out their staff, nothing. I cross reference a few names with my firm. Nothing. I look through their client list and one name stands out.
Van Kempen Enterprises.
Alexander Barros’ old business partner was Martin Van Kempen. It must be a coincidence because they were building houses together not making low budget movies.
I google the Enterprises company. Just to satisfy myself that there is no link.
Judging from the search results they are pretty well known and seemingly dominate the lower end of the porn industry. Their own website has links to probably the most popular free porn site in the world. You can subscribe to their web page – “Voyeur City – watch what she did next” Do people actually pay for this shit? There are other links to their “Celebrity Leaked videos” as well as numerous other cheaply set up scenarios.
I open a new browser and search the owners. 10 years ago Mr. Van Kempen was sentenced to 15 years in prison for sex trafficking and extortion, it seems he had avoided prison a few times before. Girls claiming they didn’t know they were being filmed, some accusations of nonconsensual intercourse. This man is nothing short of a scumbag.
Despite his reputation and incarceration, the company is still being run, his wife is the current COO. She lives Switzerland by the looks of things. I search the case files. The nonconsensual intercourse case, interesting reading. He got off on a technicality. His legal team were McDavis, and his barrister William Pearce Morgan.
My father kept him out of prison. Charges were brought shortly after that case. Extortion and sex trafficking. Willie was not part of that case; his defense team were again McDavis but not my father.
The CPS were able to make the charges stick this time. I look through the evidence – a witness statement was the key in the conviction. The witness. Alexander Barros. His solicitor. Mr. Trent Fitzgerald.
I check the dates; Willie stepped down from the bar just before the last case. He took the job as government adviser. I remember it all being very sudden. I was still at university in Durham and not really paying much attention to Willies work.
I draw up my own timeline to see how it slots in:
William Pearce Morgan – leaves position 4 months after Mr. M Van Kempsen SENIOR walks away from charges of rape.
Trent Fitzgerald helps the CPS prosecute Mr. M Van Kempsen with a witness statement signed by Alexander Barros.
Alexander Barros – dissolves his partnership with Mr. M Van Kempsen JUNIOR 12 weeks after Mr. Van Kempsen SENIOR is imprisoned
McDavis – try and fail to have Trent Fitzgerald struck off. They receive a warning about conduct 18 months after their client Mr. Van Kempsen is imprisoned.
Van Kempsen Enterprises have a number of small cases brought against them, all of which are settled out of court. Their legal team McDavis.
Mr. Van Kempsen Junior becomes CEO of Van Kempsen Enterprises in 2016.
November 2017 Mc Davis lodge a request for dissolution of Van Kempsen Enterprises, claiming an outstanding legal bill of £3m
Van Kempsen Junior has managed to keep delay proceedings for the last 8 months.
Van Kempsen claims it was McDavis negligence that cost the company £7m and they have failed to recover.
McDavis withdraw the petition, they have reached an agreement with their client.
£7m. Alexander Barros had £7m. He made payments to a company owned by his sister totaling £7m.
I close my laptop and grab my keys. It’s about time Willie and I have this out once and for all. There are too many holes in this, and he can fill at least two of them.
My head is spinning as I buzz myself in.
“Evening Guy, we were not expecting you. Your sister is upstairs”
Willie always is one of those men who always look stuffed. He’s wearing a polo shirt and khakis. His shirt tucked into this waistband, the waistband hiked up too far. It hurts to see his stomach fit against the cotton. We get our blonde hair from him. His is slightly receding at the sides, a few strands falling over his devil’s peak. His face is weather beaten, but clean shaven. His wire frame glasses perched on the end of his nose and newspaper in his hand. He’s obviously been doing the crossword. Keeping his mind as young as his wife I suspect.
He walks towards the lounge, almost dismissing me upstairs to Kelsey.
“It’s you I am here to see; can we talk somewhere please?”
“Oh Guy, didn’t know you were coming over. We’ve just had supper – can I get you something?” She stands staring at me brightly. She’s wearing a silk blouse that has a bow at the neck, her hair is coiffed to within an inch of existence. Her trousers are exceptionally wide, as she walks towards me I can see her heels. Who walks around like that at home?
I think back to her offer of food.
Esther is the worst cook known to man. She buys everything from Waitrose and keeps the pantry full of easy fixes. Father doesn’t question it. He loves the effort she goes to, the charade. She is everything my mother wasn’t. Except blonde. They were both blonde. My grandmother was Scandinavian, she came to the UK to help train horses, that’s how she met my grandfather. She worked at his family’s stables in Newmarket, Suffolk. They had my mother the same year they married. My mother loved riding. We would often go to the stables for the weekend and ride. I preferred those weekends away more than the lavish holidays abroad my father insisted on. She met my father on a night out in Newmarket. He was at Cambridge and she was studying to be a vet. They were very much in love from my mother’s account. Gloria loved my father. She gave up her dream, so he could fulfill his. They left her beloved home and came to London. She always said when we used to go back to the stables that she’d come back one day and never leave. She was right. She’s buried there, next to my grandparents and my great grandparents. My heart pangs at the thought. I need to go and see her. I miss her.
Kelsey is the spitting image of her. Everyone used to say Gloria’s sprit was in Kelsey. Kelsey is named after the trainer who helped our mother ride. John Kelsey. He died when she was pregnant with Kels. It seemed right she said. I don’t think Willie was as happy, but he did worship our mother. He told us she was his world and he lost that the day she died. I don’t think he has ever been the same. This guarded, selfish man became that way the day he became a widower. I don’t realise that until today.
“No thank you Esther. I need to speak with my father and then I will be leaving. But thank you anyway”
Esther widens her eyes. She spins her head to Willie. Her mouth is pursed. Fixed in a disapproving line. Her thin lips almost disappear beneath a map of fine lines.
I catch her glance as she turns her head back. The beaming smile is back.
“Of course. Well let me know if you need anything from me. I will be in the den”
She clips away on the marble floor. I wince at the sound. Like nails on a blackboard.
Willie opens the lounge door and steps aside for me to go in.
“We play this game well don’t we father?”
Willie looks confused. I go on
“This whole, pretense, that everything is good, everything is perfect, like we are not falling apart at the seams. But we are”
I know I am raising my voice, the emotion of being here, of the last few days is eeking out of every pore.
“You have stood back and given me half-truths, you always said you wanted me to follow in your footsteps – why? Why would I choose to be anything like you? You’ve lied to me and everyone around you. But that stops today. Now”
I expect him to raise his voice, to strike back, but he doesn’t. He gently places his glasses on the mahogany side table next to his high back chair and pinches his nose.
I throw the docket over to him and it lands next to his glasses.
“Tell me the truth. What do you know about the audit, and what did you have to do with it?”
He sighs deeply and picks up the docket.
“I had nothing to do with its Guy. McDavis, approached me, offered me a lot of money to give them information that might leverage their offer. They pushed me because you are my son, they wanted me to convince you to sell to them. The day you brokered that deal. I called them and told them I wouldn’t help them. I told them find another way. They told me they did. Guy, they went back to every single last person who had a grudge against your firm. Against your crusading predecessor. As good as Trent was he has a lot of enemies Guy. A lot. People who are in prison because of him. Families of people who are in prison because of him”
I move towards him and stand in his immediate space.
“Families like the Van Kempsen’s?”
Willie nods.
“Guy, you have to be careful. That family is dangerous. The people they have been involved with are desperate damaged people, at least they are after they use them.They use everyone, they used me.”
I sit on the edge of the chair opposite him.
“They used you how? To defend them”
Willie shakes his head.
“The son, Martin, he convinced me that he was different to his father, he told me about his new venture, property development. He was working with someone else, Alexander Barros. They had already secured a number of buildings. The plan was to hold onto the property and once the capital had increased sufficiently, they would loan against the property to develop it – never going below the original purchase price. They were sitting on a gold mine. I invested. I was seeing a return straight away. What I didn’t know was that Martin was using the properties to film unsuspecting people having sex. People who signed up for an experience. He made them all sign contracts once he confronted them with the evidence. They would be paid for an act they had already committed. He would give them a cash payment for the rights and they would go off happy. Except he was setting people up, drugging them and worse. I only found out recently from Trent how low they would go and how they have damaged people you know and love. Back then Alexander Barros was tipped off about activity on one of his sites. He found the cameras and after an investigation had enough to break away from Van Kempsen. Martin kept this from us, kept it from a number of us. I found out that they had agreed a settlement but because of the contracts Martin had drawn up”
Vantage Point (The Point Series Book 2) Page 13