Vengeance

by Susan Lewis

  Kirsten laughed. ‘She does seem quite pleased about it, yes. And she’s getting a bit more time off now which Laurence and I are thinking up ways of helping her to fill. It might be easier if she weren’t quite so shy.’

  ‘Is she still seeing the Ken doll?’

  ‘On and off. Between you and me I think he wanted to go to bed with her and it frightened her a bit.’

  ‘A bit!’ Helena cried. ‘With that thing he carries between his legs I should think it scared her half out of her wits. I know it would me. The man’s a walking tripod.’

  Kirsten laughed. ‘Laurence says I should sit down and discuss things with her, see how she really feels about it all. What do you think?’

  Helena nodded. ‘Sounds like a good idea. It’ll embarrass the hell out of her, of course, but she needs someone to help her out. Mind you, with the size of Billy the Ken it might take surgery. Where is she tonight, by the way? I thought she was coming too.’

  ‘She was, but they’re all spending the night at Laurence’s parents before we go off tomorrow and I didn’t want her to have to tell Thea that she was with me. It would only put her in an awkward position and it’s not fair that she has to deal with problems that aren’t really hers.’

  ‘So you and Laurence are spending the night apart?’

  ‘For the first time since Christmas,’ Kirsten grinned. ‘But he’s threatening to turn up in the middle of the night, so we’ll see. And what about Dermott? Aren’t you seeing him before you go?’

  ‘I’m going over to his place straight from here. As usual he was pretty pissed off that I was seeing you when I’m going to be spending the next few weeks with you anyway. I don’t suppose I helped much by telling him to grow up, but I wish the hell he’d stop putting me in a position where I feel I have to choose between you.’

  ‘I’m afraid I’ve been guilty of that too,’ Kirsten said.

  ‘With justification. But sure, I was pissed off about that too. Still, the main thing is that we know we’re there for each other now.’

  It was Kirsten’s turn to take Helena’s hand. ‘And that will never change,’ she smiled.

  It was around one in the morning that Kirsten came awake with a jarring suddenness. All her senses were alert, prickling beneath the surface of her skin as her heart thumped heavily in her chest. She lay very still in the darkness, wondering what it was that had woken her.

  Her eyes moved over the shadowy silhouettes in the room, half expecting them to move. There was no noise, even the wind had dropped. Her body was rigid as she pulled herself up. A strange, yet muted panic was rising through her.

  ‘Is anyone there?’ she said softly. ‘Laurence, is that you?’

  There was no reply, yet to her horror she realized she could hear someone breathing. Her own breath froze and instantly the gentle rasping sound stopped. Closing her eyes with relief, she gingerly pulled aside the duvet and swung her feet to the floor. Then, lifting her hand she reached out for the lamp and a gentle light filtered into the room. It was exactly as she had left it, her half-packed suitcase on the floor, her dressing gown draped over the armchair, her make-up bottles standing innocently on the dressing table.

  Slowly she made her way to the door, feeling the silence as though it were a living presence. Her heartbeats were pounding in her ears as she took hold of the door handle and twisted it downwards. It opened without a sound.

  The landing was lit by the soft, greyish glow from a street-light. Everything was still.

  ‘Hello?’ she called, then suddenly she screamed as the telephone shrilled.

  She turned to look at it. Not since she was in New Orleans had she had one of the calls with the woman crying nor had there been a repeat of the chilling tinkle of baby chimes she had heard before.

  Her eyes were wide as she moved towards the bed. Something was telling her not to answer, yet already her hand was reaching out for the receiver. As she lifted it she turned to look at the door, terrified someone might come in behind her.

  She put the receiver to her ear and listened. There was nothing, the line was dead.

  ‘Oh my God,’ she sobbed, dashing a hand through her hair, then quickly pressing the connectors she started to dial. She didn’t care if Thea answered, she had to speak to Laurence.

  ‘I’ll go wake him for you,’ Don told her sleepily.

  Kirsten waited, still glancing nervously around the room.

  ‘Hi, sweetheart,’ Laurence’s voice came over the line a few minutes later. ‘I just tried to call you.’

  ‘That was you!’ Kirsten cried, sinking onto the bed.

  ‘Sure, who else calls you in the early hours?’

  ‘But why did you ring off?’

  ‘You were taking such a long time to answer I thought you’d switched off the phone.’

  ‘Oh,’ she said, a sob of laughter breaking through her relief.

  ‘Are you OK? You sound kind of edgy.’

  ‘Yes, I was a bit.’

  ‘You want me to come over? It was why I was calling.’

  ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Yes, come over. I miss you.’

  ‘I’ll be right there,’ he said. ‘And Kirstie, don’t let’s do this again, huh?’

  ‘What? Do what again?’

  ‘Spend the night apart.’

  ‘No,’ she laughed. ‘No, don’t ever let’s do it again.’

  29

  Being back in New Orleans, Kirsten quickly discovered, was nothing like she had expected it to be. Gone were the sinister feelings of before, though she realized that the fact she was so warming to the city had a great deal to do with seeing it through the eyes of a woman who was in love. And as she, Laurence and Tom took the first couple of days to explore she became so entranced by the sheer magic of the place that she could almost have wished that there was no movie to shoot and that they could just go on and on the way they were.

  While the sets were being made ready, the equipment was checked and actors were refitted for their costumes, the three of them roamed the French Market buying up spices and cookbooks, fancy knick-knacks and painted masks and gorging themselves on po’boys, jambalaya and gumbo soup. Tom was enthralled by the street entertainers on Jackson Square and even joined in one of their stunts. Kirsten clicked away with her camera while Laurence protested loudly at being dragged into the stunt himself. They took a horse and carriage ride through the cobbled streets, revisited the captain of the steamboat who remembered Tom from the last time and joined in the impromptu dancing to a lively saxophonist outside the Café du Monde. At least Kirsten and Tom did, Laurence decided to sit that one out and joined Jane at a table for café au lait and a beignet. This was the first time they had managed to persuade Jane to come along with them and it was only as she and Laurence were talking now that he learned the reason for her reluctance. She had believed that Laurence, Kirsten and Tom needed some time for themselves and hadn’t wanted to intrude.

  ‘But how can you think that?’ Laurence cried, amazed she was thinking that way. ‘You’re a part of the family, Jane. You know that.’

  Jane smiled and for the first time Laurence noticed that she wasn’t shrugging quite so much lately. ‘I hoped I was,’ she said. ‘But I didn’t want to presume.’

  ‘Presumptuousness is just about the last thing you could be accused of,’ he laughed. ‘And this little holiday’s going to be over at the end of today so I’m glad you changed your mind and came along. There won’t be another one till Kirsten and I honeymoon, I reckon, and you definitely won’t be invited along on that.’

  ‘That’s good,’ Jane laughed. ‘So when are you planning to get married?’

  ‘First things first,’ Laurence answered. ‘I’ve got to get divorced and she’s got to finish the movie. I won’t ask her till it’s over, she’s got enough to think about. My guess is that there’s some kind of conspiracy going on right now to give us this break,’ he went on, ‘because no one seems to have any problems they want to discuss with us.’

  Jane
’s smile widened. ‘You guessed right,’ she told him. ‘There is a conspiracy. Helena told me. In fact I think she was the one who came up with the idea.’ The music suddenly crescendoed and she had to raise her voice to be heard above it. ‘It was partly why I didn’t come with you before,’ she shouted. ‘Helena didn’t exactly tell me not to, but I thought if everyone else was keeping out of your way then maybe I should too.’

  ‘I can’t hear a goddamned word you’re saying,’ Laurence shouted back. ‘We’ll talk about it later . . .’

  ‘Talk about what later?’ Kirsten cried, flopping down beside Laurence as Tom, made-up like a clown, climbed into Jane’s lap.

  ‘You got to take more exercise,’ Laurence told her, seeing how breathless she was.

  Kirsten threw him a look which made him laugh and taking her hand he turned to watch Jane and Tom who were trying to work out how a toy on a stick worked.

  It was nearing the end of the day when Laurence flagged down a taxi to take Jane and Tom back to the hotel. Tom was so sleepy by then he didn’t even protest at not being able to go with Mummy and Daddy. It was only over the past couple of days that he had taken to calling Kirsten that and neither Kirsten nor Laurence were too sure what to do about it. On the one hand they were delighted that he could think of Kirsten that way when to all intents and purposes that was exactly what she was going to be, but on the other neither of them wanted him to shut Pippa out.

  ‘I guess,’ Laurence said as they strolled hand in hand along Moon Walk, ‘that I’ll have to talk to Pippa about it.’

  ‘Then I’d make it soon,’ Kirsten said, watching the fiery sunset ripple dreamily over the Mississippi, ‘we don’t want him referring to me as Mummy when he’s speaking to her on the phone.’

  ‘No, you’re right,’ Laurence sighed, then as a lone busker started to play ‘Walking Through New Orleans’ he let go of her hand and pulled her into the circle of his arm. ‘You ready to go look at the sets tomorrow?’ he said after a while.

  ‘Yes. I wouldn’t have swapped this time for the world, but I’m looking forward to getting started again now.’

  He nodded. ‘Me too. You know we have your friend Helena to thank for the break?’

  ‘Really?’ Kirsten said, looking up at him in surprise.

  ‘Apparently, so Jane tells me. It seems she’s been going round telling everyone not to bother us unless they have to.’

  ‘Well that’s what I call a friend,’ Kirsten smiled, resting her head on his shoulder.

  ‘Mmm,’ he murmured stopping to take her in his arms. ‘You know what?’ he said, smiling into her eyes. ‘I love you so much I don’t want this day to end.’

  ‘It’s a perfect end though,’ Kirsten smiled back. ‘We’ve even got the sunset.’

  ‘I know,’ he said, touching his lips lightly to hers, then turning her in his arms and circling her waist they stood quietly on the banks of the river watching the blazing sun until it disappeared over the horizon.

  The next morning everyone set off early to go and view the new location for the strangulation scene. Both Kirsten and Laurence had felt it wiser, given the circumstances, to relocate the setting and now, seeing what Alison and her crew had done to a derelict shack which had once been a part of the slave quarters of a tragically neglected plantation house, all were agreed that the new location was even better than before. The shack itself was almost hidden by reeds and brambles and the bayou running alongside it, with its viscous coating of duck-weed and shimmering glints of winter sunlight, twisted its way towards the solid mass of swamp trees barely more than half a mile away, where Tom insisted that Jane took him to watch the diamond-backed water snakes slithering into the marshy depths.

  They wouldn’t be shooting the scene until the end of the week, but already Kirsten could sense an unease creeping into the unit. Not surprisingly it was Elizabeth Bradley who was feeling it the most so Kirsten went out of her way over the next few days to try and calm the nerves Elizabeth wouldn’t actually admit to. That was until Ruby took it into her head to join Elizabeth one morning on the brink of the hill where Elizabeth was gazing thoughtfully down at the slave quarters.

  For a while they stood together in silence, two solitary figures in an endless landscape of wind-blown fields. It was several minutes before Elizabeth realized that Ruby was muttering something under her breath and leaning towards her she tried to make out what Ruby was saying.

  ‘“. . . humbly commend the soul of this thy servant, our dear sister, into thy hands, as into the hands of a faithful Creator . . .” ’ Ruby chanted.

  Elizabeth gaped at her in horror. This was such bad taste and so ill-timed it defied words and only just managing to stop herself slapping Ruby’s puffy face, she turned and marched back to her chauffeur driven car which took her straight to Oak Alley, the Plantation House a mile or so along the road, where Kirsten was shooting.

  ‘That’s it!’ she said to Kirsten as Kirsten left the set to come and find out what was wrong. ‘I can’t stand any more of that woman! She’s got to go, Kirstie. I’m sorry, but it’s her or me. She’s mad! Stark raving mad!’

  ‘Would I be right in thinking we’re talking about Ruby?’ Kirsten said, taking Elizabeth’s arm and starting to walk her through the magnificent archway of live oaks that formed the avenue to the house.

  ‘You would. What in God’s name is she trying to do? I mean, does she get some kind of kick out of scaring people or something?’

  ‘What did she do?’ Kirsten asked.

  It was a moment or two before Elizabeth answered, but when she did there was the ghost of a smile crossing her handsome face. ‘She only started gabbling the last rites to me while I was looking at the set over by the bayou,’ Elizabeth said. ‘OK, I know it might sound funny, but honestly, after what happened to Anna, that was just about the last thing I needed.’

  Elizabeth was right, it did sound funny, but Kirsten wasn’t in any way ignorant to the seriousness of it. ‘I’ll speak to Laurence,’ she said. ‘He has more influence over her than most. And please, Elizabeth, don’t worry about the scene. It’s going to be all right, I promise you. Anna died of natural causes, remember? There was nothing underhand, no plot to do away with her . . .’

  ‘Yes, I know all that, but honestly, Kirstie, there’s a part of me that’s starting to regret taking this on. It’s got me really spooked, at least Ruby Collins has. Or I don’t know, maybe it’s something about this place. Even with the size of the cast and crew, with all the people running around and making so much noise, there are still times when I could feel like I was at the end of the earth out here. I don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere that makes me feel quite so desolate. Do you know what I mean?’

  Kirsten did, for she could remember thinking precisely that the last time she was there. ‘It can be pretty bleak on a day like today,’ she smiled, looking up at the colourless sky, ‘and I can imagine how Ruby’s religious chunterings are getting you down. They don’t do much for me either. But like I said, I’ll speak to Laurence. In fact I don’t think it would be a bad idea to send her back to London.’

  ‘Neither do I,’ Elizabeth agreed. ‘That woman needs help if you ask me. I mean apart from everything else, you have to have noticed the way she keeps slurping at that gin bottle she’s got stashed in her bag. And a bible bashing alcoholic isn’t exactly conducive to calming the nerves.’

  Kirsten was silent for a moment as she wondered if Laurence had noticed that Ruby was drinking again. She certainly hadn’t and surely if Laurence had he’d have mentioned it as soon as he realized. It was a sad reflection on how engrossed they had become in each other not to have noticed Ruby slipping off the rails and it made her wonder how many other things they might have missed.

  ‘Hey, you two!’

  Both Elizabeth and Kirsten turned to see Jake standing in the open doorway of the splendid Greek Revival house.

  ‘Everyone’s yelling for you in here, Kirsten,’ he called out. ‘We’re about ready for
a take.’

  ‘Join Laurence and me for dinner after rushes tonight,’ Kirsten said to Elizabeth and giving her arm a quick squeeze she ran back towards the house where she was about to do the first shot in a scene that was going to take all day to shoot.

  By the time the three of them sat down at a window table in the Court of the Two Sisters around nine thirty that night, Elizabeth was in a far better frame of mind and told them that she just didn’t want to discuss the strangulation scene any more. She was already in danger of getting it out of proportion and to dwell on it would only make matters worse.

  ‘Just let’s get it over with and get things back to normal around here,’ she said, tucking into her seafood. ‘I just wish we didn’t have to wait until Saturday, that’s all. And as for Ruby, well she’s obviously waiting for Kingdom come and making a stop-off in oblivion along the way, and as far as I’m concerned she can get on with it. But like I said, I’ll be glad when all this waiting’s over.’

  It wasn’t until they were back in their suite at the Richelieu and taking a nightcap before going to bed that Kirsten said to Laurence, ‘I’m going to see about getting some of Elizabeth’s scenes pulled forward. She shouldn’t have to be waiting around like this, not considering the circumstances. I know we can’t do the strangulation scene until Saturday, but we can slot in some of her Plantation House scenes a bit earlier than scheduled. If nothing else it’ll keep her mind occupied – and it’ll keep her away from Ruby.’

  ‘Sure,’ Laurence sighed, lifting his feet on to the coffee table. ‘Good idea. I guess I’d better speak to Ruby though. If she’s really back on the gin she’ll be better off in London where she can’t go about the place upsetting the cast.’

  ‘Do you think she’ll go?’ Kirsten said, settling Tom’s head a little more comfortably in her lap.

  ‘Not without a fight. I’ll try and speak to her some time tomorrow or the next day, so stay out of her way if you can because she’s almost certainly going to blame you for being sent back.’