by Susan Lewis
‘What happened when you got home last night?’ Corrie asked minutes later.
Annalise lifted her head, and Corrie gently brushed away the hair that was plastered to her cheeks. Annalise’s lovely luminous blue eyes, now red-rimmed and sore, were searching Corrie’s face. Corrie smiled her encouragement, then lowering her eyes, as though in shame, Annalise whispered,
‘He raped me, Corrie.’
‘Oh no!’ Corrie groaned, closing her eyes as though to block out the horrifying spectacle Annalise’s words had conjured.
‘I told him that I would let him make love to me,’ Annalise went on, ‘but he didn’t want to. He said he was going to fuck Siobhan, and that I was Siobhan, and he was speaking in this awful Irish voice. I always loved his Irish voice before, but this was so horrible, I was so afraid …’ She covered her face with her hands. ‘Oh Corrie, I can’t tell you the things he did to me. They were so degrading, so … No, I can’t think about it! He said that if you’d been here it would never have happened, but seeing that you weren’t he was going to rape me and make me suffer all that Siobhan had suffered … He just wasn’t making any sense … First it was you, then it was Siobhan … And he was shouting so loud I thought I was losing my mind. I begged him to tell me who Siobhan was, but he started to rape me and …’ She was gasping for breath and though Corrie could see how confused she was, she could only guess at the torment that had been inflicted on her body, now reliving itself in her mind.
‘If only I knew who she was,’ Annalise wept. ‘It’s all to do with her, I know that. But he’s blaming you … Why is he blaming you, Corrie? Do you know who she is? If you do, tell me, please!’
‘I only wish I did know,’ Corrie sighed. ‘But you’re right it is all to do with her, it has to be. Where is he now?’
‘I don’t know. He left at the same time as I did this morning. He kept saying he was sorry, that it would never happen again … He said I should set a date for the wedding, but I don’t want to, Corrie. I can’t marry him now, not after what he did to me.’
Corrie rested her head back against the shelf behind her. It was terrible to think of how much Annalise had been suffering while she and Cristos … But it was no good thinking that way! What had happened wasn’t her fault. She could never have known that Luke would show up that way. But if she’d been there … If she’d been there then so too would Cristos and Annalise might not be sitting here now, like the wreck of a child … But she was, and Corrie could only thank God that for some reason Annalise had decided to trust her again.
‘Corrie?’ Annalise whispered tentatively.
‘Mmm?’
‘It’s not true about you and my father, is it?’
It was more a statement than a question and Corrie squeezed her tightly, almost smiling at the way Annalise seemed to have read her thoughts. ‘No, it’s not true,’ she said, and wondered if she should tell Annalise precisely why it couldn’t be true. But as soon as the thought came into her head she discarded it – Annalise had enough to cope with right now.
‘I never really believed it,’ Annalise said. ‘But Mummy got me so fired up about it … She’s like that sometimes and I hate her for it … She says things that aren’t true … But … I have to ask this, Corrie, why were you there that night, at the Ritz, with him?’
‘I was talking to him about you,’ Corrie said. ‘I was worried about the way Luke was treating you … You see, all those things Luke has said to me – and to you about me … Well, I don’t even pretend to understand them, but there’s something going on inside his head … I thought that maybe your father could help, that perhaps he could throw some light on why Luke is like he is.’
‘And could he?’
Corrie shook her head. ‘Not really. I’m afraid your mother came in at the wrong moment, so we never really got anything sorted. But your father’s very worried about you, Annalise. We both are.’ She paused, not really knowing whether her next question was a wise one, but in the end decided she must ask it anyway. ‘Will you come with me to the police to tell them exactly what Luke did to you last night?’ she said.
Almost immediately Annalise shook her head. ‘I can’t. I don’t want to tell anyone, not even you.’
Deciding that now was not the time to try and persuade her, Corrie bit down hard on her disappointment. ‘Will you at least stop seeing him?’ she said.
‘I don’t know.’
Again Corrie had to swallow her frustration. The programme they were working on now told her in just about every frame how very difficult, almost impossible, it was to make a woman break away from a man who repeatedly abused her. For a woman like Corrie that was hard to understand, but so it was for any woman who had never been in that situation. All Corrie knew was that she had somehow to make sure that Annalise didn’t end up as one of those tragic victims, who not only lost their hearts, but sometimes their lives.
‘Would you do something for me?’ Corrie asked Annalise. ‘Would you take the rest of the day off and go home to your parents? I’ll ring your father and tell him you’re on your way … No, don’t worry, I won’t tell him what happened … Just you go to him, and let him look after you while I finish the programme.’
Fresh tears started in Annalise’s eyes. ‘I don’t deserve you, Corrie.’
Corrie smiled. ‘Do you know, sometimes I think I don’t deserve me either,’ she said. ‘But I’m stuck with me, and so are you.’
When she had seen Annalise to her car Corrie ran back up to the office, closed Bob Churchill’s door behind her and called Phillip. Fortunately he answered, since Corrie hadn’t even begun to work out what she’d say if she got through to Octavia.
‘Phillip, it’s Corrie,’ she said, when she heard his voice. ‘Annalise is on her way to you. She’s not too good I’m afraid …’
‘What happened?’ Phillip said, his voice stilted with concern.
‘Luke, what else? But I think she’ll be all right. At least for the time being.’
‘What did he do to her?’ Phillip demanded.
‘I’m not sure, but I think he might have gone far enough this time to destroy whatever it is she feels for him. I’m not certain of that, but I live in hope. Anyway, I’ve been thinking … I don’t know if this is feasible, but if you could manage to take her away for a while … On a holiday or something …’
‘I’ll do it!’
Corrie almost smiled at his readiness. ‘Just one thing, Phillip. Please don’t tell her it was my idea, with the way things are, if Octavia gets wind of it then she might end up persuading Annalise that I’m just trying to get her out of the way to further my own ends.’
‘OK,’ Phillip agreed. ‘But what about you, Corrie? We both know that he’s trying to involve you, or has he stopped that?’
‘No, he hasn’t. But the main thing right now is to get Annalise away from him – if she’ll go.’
‘No, No!’ Phillip declared. I’m not leaving you behind. You have to come too.’
‘I can’t. But I’ll be all right, I promise you. He won’t hurt me, not while …’ She was going to say not while Cristos is around, but since Phillip knew nothing about Cristos, and Corrie couldn’t say for sure if Cristos would still be around, she stopped herself. ‘He won’t hurt me,’ she said firmly.
‘Where is he now?’
‘I don’t know. Just try your best with Annalise,’ and before her father could say anything else she rang off.
With a marathon effort, considering how behind schedule they were, Corrie and Colin managed to get the editing finished by eight o’clock that night. It was due to be dubbed on Thursday, meaning that the entire show would be complete in time for the weekend – and Corrie could go to Wiltshire. If there was going to be a weekend in Wiltshire!
Two more days passed and there was still no call from Cristos. Neither was there any sign of Luke. He was in contact with Bob, though, since Bob was constantly complaining about having to relay instructions, but when Corrie casually enquired whe
re Luke was, Bob’s response was, ‘Don’t fucking ask me!’
Annalise was still at her parents’ house, where Corrie spoke to her at least three times a day. So far though Phillip hadn’t managed to persuade Annalise to go on holiday, but he had succeeded in getting her to agree to a trip up to Scotland with him that weekend to stay with an old aunt of his. Which, Corrie thought, left her even freer at the weekend than she was before, but still that didn’t change the fact that Cristos hadn’t called her.
‘Then bloody well call him,’ Paula told her angrily. ‘You’ve got his number, haven’t you? You know which hotel he’s staying at …’
‘If he wants me,’ Corrie responded tartly, ‘then what’s to stop him calling me? After all, he was the one who walked out without leaving so much as a note. And he’s just too damned fond of doing that.’
‘Oh God! Listen to that pride! Just get on the damned phone!’
‘No!’
‘I don’t understand you, Corrie! He tells you he loves you, that there’s something special happening between you, and then, just because he goes off early in the morning to start filming you won’t ring him.’
‘There’s more to it than that, and you know it!’
‘What, this business about Angelique Warne that you’ve concocted all on your own? Go down there and ask him about it, for God’s sake!’
‘I’m not going unless he calls me. And it’s already Wednesday, so it doesn’t look like he will, does it?’
‘So you’re going to spend the weekend tearing yourself to pieces over what might have been, holed up there in that studio like a sitting duck for Luke Fitzpatrick …’
‘No one knows where Luke is,’ Corrie interrupted.
‘Oh he’ll turn up,’ Paula said scathingly. ‘You can bank on that.’
And she was right, he did, the very next morning, at the office.
When Corrie found the note on her desk asking her to go and see him she was tempted to throw it in the bin, but knowing that she couldn’t get out of it that easily, she started towards his office whispering to Alan Fox, ‘Do you know where he’s been these last few days?’
‘Not a clue. Why should I?’
Corrie shook her head. ‘No reason.’
‘Have you seen him at all this morning?’
Corrie shook her head.
‘Then you could be in for a bit of a surprise,’ and with a peculiar sort of smile Alan Fox picked up the phone to answer an incoming call.
‘Come in,’ Luke called, when Corrie knocked.
Corrie pushed the door open and the instant she saw his face she felt her own freeze with shock.
‘Is something the matter?’ he said.
Was something the matter? Only that he looked like a corpse! That even the tan he must have taken from a sun bed couldn’t hide the jaundiced hue of his skin, or the lifelessness of his eyes … And his hair! He’d virtually been scalped. ‘Are you all right?’ she asked before she could stop herself.
‘Yes, I’m very well, thank you,’ he snapped. ‘Come in, close the door.’
‘Did you see the programme?’ she asked in an effort to sound casual as she turned back to him. ‘We finished it on Sunday. It’s …’
‘Annalise informs me that you left the editing session at least two hours early on Saturday,’ he said.
‘That’s right,’ Corrie answered.
‘Is that all you have to say?’
Corrie looked directly into his yellowed eyes. ‘What else is there to say?’ she asked, with an ambiguity he couldn’t fail to detect.
‘I think you should know that Annalise has been pressing me to fire you. You’re giving her plenty of grounds, Corrie. If you walk out on an edit session again, I’ll do it. You were with Bennati?’
‘Yes.’
‘Yes,’ he repeated. ‘Then I think you should know that you’re wasting your time. He’s not anywhere near over Angelique Warne. He’s just using you.’
Corrie gritted her teeth. How could he have known that Angelique Warne would be the one name she didn’t want to hear right now? ‘I think,’ she said, ‘that’s for me to decide.’
‘Oh no,’ he barked, ‘it’ll be Bennati who decides. Just like he was the one to decide when she died.’
‘What!’ Corrie hissed. ‘What the hell are you talking about?’
‘Ask Bennati.’
‘No, I’m asking you! Just how come you know so much about him when he can’t stand the very sight of you? That like me he wouldn’t trust you any further than he could throw you! And while you’re at it, perhaps you’d like to explain what that farcical performance was all about in the edit suite on Saturday night?’
‘I came here to find you! You weren’t here!’
‘I don’t call that an explanation. You frightened the life out of Annalise and Colin’s calling you a fucking madman. And quite frankly I think you are!’
‘You’ll be calling me your husband before much longer,’ he stated.
At that Corrie was so stunned she couldn’t respond at all.
The telephone rang then and snatching it up he snapped a yes into the receiver. Then his voice suddenly softened as he said, ‘Yes, it’s me.’ He listened for some time then said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll come. I’m getting it sorted now. No, I won’t let you down … Yes, I understand …’ then he rang off. ‘I’m going away for a while,’ he said to Corrie. ‘Just a couple of weeks, but I want you to know that when Bennati lets you down you can contact me …’
‘I don’t want to know where to contact you!’ Corrie spat. ‘Whatever happens between Cristos and me has fuck all to do with you.’
‘Like my relationship with Annalise has fuck all to do with you?’ he said pointedly.
‘What relationship with Annalise? After what you did to her Saturday night I’m frankly amazed and disgusted you’ve got the gall to face me with that.’
At last Luke showed some signs of discomfort. ‘She told you what happened?’ he said.
‘Not in graphic detail, but I know you raped her! That you used her body calling her Siobhan and telling her it wouldn’t be happening if I’d been here. So what’s all this about, Luke? Just who the hell is this Siobhan?’
His momentary unease was over, and with total composure he said, ‘So you don’t know the actual details?’ and he nodded in apparent satisfaction.
‘Who is she?’ Corrie seethed.
Luke continued to look up at her, then with a smile so pleasant it was almost sinister he said, ‘You’ll come to me in the end, Corrie.’
Corrie’s head started to spin. ‘Are you listening to me?’ she cried. ‘Just watch my lips: I want nothing to do with you, neither does Annalise, as far as both of us are concerned …’
‘You can go now,’ Luke interrupted. ‘And be grateful that I’m overlooking the way you’re speaking to me. From a subordinate I would never take it, from my future wife I’ll suffer it.’
‘Is there no getting through to you?’ Corrie screamed.
‘I’m leaving tonight,’ he said, ‘I’d like to see what ideas you have for your next programme before I go.’
Corrie had already drawn breath to speak again, but realizing she was wasting her time, she turned and walked out of the door.
That night she was back on the phone to Paula.
‘He’s insane!’ Paula declared. ‘He has to be if he thinks you’re going to marry him. Have you told your father about this?’
‘No. He’ll only worry, and to be frank I can do without that right now.’
‘Well I expect those prostitutes could have done without being murdered,’ Paula responded fiercely.
‘For God’s sake has the whole world gone mad?’ Corrie cried. ‘Where did that suddenly come from?’
‘From you! Where do you think? It wasn’t long ago that you seriously believed he might have killed those women … Think back, remind yourself of the way he’s tied up Annalise and Felicity – and you, come to that! All those prostitutes were tied up whe
n they were killed. Then look at the way you thought he knew Bobby McIver … How he beats up Annalise … How he throws a raging fit about you. Add it all together Corrie and what have you got?’
‘Paula,’ Corrie said, ‘as far as Bobby McIver is concerned the police interviewed Luke and cleared him. And plenty of men are into bondage, and beating up women come to that. That doesn’t make them …’
‘Murderers?’ Paul finished for her.
Corrie shrieked with exasperation. ‘OK, he’s weird, he’s a pervert, I’ll be the first to admit that …’
‘Then admit what he really is. It’s staring you right in the face, Corrie, so why do you keep shying away from it. Just how much danger do you want to put yourself in for Christ’s sake?’
‘paula, let’s stop this, right now! Luke is going away, he tells me. No, I know what you’re going to say, that it doesn’t make any difference. But it does. I need some time to think, because my rational mind is telling me that men in his position, as the anchorman of a national current affairs programme, just don’t go round killing people. And much less do they interview the investigating officer. OK, I know what I said before, and it’s true my irrational mind says that he could have done it …’
‘Talk it over with Cristos! He’s known the man …’
‘No!’
‘Listen to me! You said yourself Luke as good as accused Cristos of being responsible for Angelique Warne’s death. Now doesn’t that suggest to you that those two men have a history worth knowing about? Cristos might be able to tell you something that could sort this out for you once and for all. And even if he can’t, you’ll at least be with him at the weekend …’
‘Paula! Stop! I told you, I want to think about this.’
‘All right, have it your way. You think about it all on your own, but you just make sure you don’t keep your head buried in the sand for too long, because as far as I can see, Luke going away is only postponing the crisis not avoiding it. And you know as well as I do that there’s one hell of a crisis boiling here! So do something, Corrie, speak to someone before it turns into a fucking catastrophe!’