Deception

by Marciano, Jane

  Put it all down to experience and just move on, I told myself, managing to muster a cheerful smile for my reflection in the mirror in the lift as I went back upstairs again.

  As I went into my room to finish packing, out of the corner of my eye I saw a swish of a dark coloured skirt disappear into a room further along the corridor. Obviously the lady in black hadn’t checked out yet. And there I was, bemoaning my fate and my future, when that poor soul had only yesterday scattered her husband’s ashes. I ought to be thankful for the things I had, I berated myself, as I flung open the French doors to the balcony to let in the sea breeze. For a while I just stood outside the room on the narrow balcony, leaning against the iron balustrade, taking in the spectacular scenery amid some deep, invigorating breaths.

  Come on, Bailey, life wasn’t so bad. OK, there were things I didn’t have that I sorely needed - like a job, a home, and some money - even a steady boyfriend would be nice, but slowly slowly…It was strange how optimistic I felt as I brushed out my hair at the sink in the bathroom, and resolved to change back to my natural hair colour as soon as possible. I’d had enough of people telling me that they didn’t recognise me. And I wasn’t at all sure that blondes had so much fun.

  There came a sudden, sharp rap at the bedroom door.

  “Cleaning,” called out a woman in a heavy French accent. “Housekeeping.”

  I came out of the bathroom and turned sharp right into the narrow little corridor that led to the bedroom door, and opened it.

  It’s said that people see what they expect to see. However, what I didn’t expect to see was the woman in black standing in the doorway, still wearing the absurd little hat with the heavy veil that covered her face. I just had time to think how ludicrous it was that she was still carrying the urn around with her and then to wonder why she had said she was the chambermaid when she lunged at me. I opened my mouth to object, and she raised her arms and flung the contents of the urn into my face.

  Blinded and in shock, I staggered backwards down the narrow hallway, gagging at the sand clogging my nostrils and throat. Gasping and spluttering, I heard the door slam shut, and then heard the key being turned in the lock. Even as I choked, and spat and rubbed my eyes, mouth and nose free of the gritty substance I could hear something thud onto the floor. The rustle of skirts stopped for a moment, and I sensed the woman bending down and picking something up from the carpet where it had dropped. Presumably whatever it was that had been hidden in the sand within the vase.

  With my arms whirling like propellers so that I shouldn’t bump into anything, when the back of my legs reached the bed, I spat into my palms again and dug the heels of my hands into my eye sockets and blinked hard. My vision slowly cleared, though my eyes felt raw and rusty. I knew where my box of tissues was, and I reached for them on the bedside table, blowing my nose and spitting out the last of the sand from my mouth.

  Then I turned and faced my attacker, who now stood just a few paces away from me. She held a wicked-looking knife in her right hand.

  Kristie said, “What do you think, Bailey? Do you think black hair suits me?”

  I could only stare at her, horrified.

  She smiled. “Sorry about this.” She lifted the vase, which now I recognised as being one I’d once bought for the flat when I’d lived there with Freddie. “You don’t mind me borrowing it, do you? I promise to take good care of it. Oops.” She let go of it and it fell on the floor and shattered. “Ah well, it’s served its purpose I s’pose,” she said, giggling.

  I didn’t say anything but just slid a foot sideways, away from the bed. Yanking the hat and veil off and flinging it onto the floor, she took a step sideways too, all the while brandishing the knife in front of her, slightly tilted upwards.

  “Going somewhere? I don’t think so.”

  Though the weapon was frightening enough, it was her expression that absolutely terrified me. Her eyes were like huge, dark holes. It was as if all the lights had gone out inside. The person I’d known was no longer there.The make-up she’d used to disguise her youthful good looks was smeared and grotesque, making her a caricature of the older, middle-aged woman she’d pretended to be. I was petrified, and I felt helpless.

  “Don’t do this, Christine,” I said, breaking out into a sweat.

  Her mouth was a sneer. “So some smart arse’s already told you what I did to Freddie and now you know my name. Well, if you know that much, then you know what I’m capable of.”

  “I don’t doubt your ability to do it I just doubt your reason for wanting to do it.”

  She grunted and pointed the knife at my stomach. “Prim and proper Miss Cathcart. Always so clever with the words. Not much use to you now, are they? Not so helpful when you know you’ve only got seconds more to live.”

  Keeping my eyes on her, I inched my way backwards towards the rear wall. I knew there was a table and chair nearby. I remembered having to move them aside to get to the drapes and the balcony.

  I was thinking, if only I could get something solid between me and her, maybe it would buy me some time so that I might be able to talk some sanity into her, make her see sense. Maybe even take the knife away from her - though that prospect was one I found rather too daunting. I was no Lara Croft.

  Wiping perspiration from my upper lip, I edged back a little more and said, “You really don’t want to do this, Kristie.”

  The hole under her mouth moved. “You’re not going to have his baby.”

  The side of my foot hit a chair leg.

  I said, “I’m not having a baby.”

  “You would say that, wouldn’t you?”

  My groping fingers touched the velvet softness of the arm of the chair.

  I said, “It’s true. I never was pregnant. I only said that on the spur of the moment. It was a crazy thing to have said. I only said it to get back at you.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  My hand gripped the arm rest. “It’s true.”

  “I don’t care if it’s true or not. I’m not risking it.”

  “Kristie…”

  “Shut up, Bailey.”

  She jiggled the knife in the air. She was just four or five feet away from me now.

  She said, “I want you out of our lives for good. No remains.” She giggled again. It sounded like hysteria to me, and I shuddered.

  “Please.”

  “Beg all you want. Pleading won’t help. This is the only way. I’m going to cut that baby out of you, just like I cut mine out of me.”

  I felt sick. “For God’s sake…”

  She laughed. “…He won’t help you. He never helped me.”

  My fingers closed around the arm rest of the chair. I said, “Listen to me. Killing me won’t make him want to take you back again, Christine. It’ll just drive him away further. Probably into the arms of another woman. There’ll always be other women for Freddie. You know that. Are you going to kill every one of them?”

  “If I have to.”

  “Face it, Christine. He doesn’t want you. Didn’t he tell you so himself? Isn’t that why you attacked him? Because he got tired of you and told you to get lost?”

  She suddenly let out the most awful sounding, bloodcurdling scream, her face distorting in a frenzy of fury. Then she sprang towards me, the blade of the knife glittering in the sunlight. The chair was heavy, I knew that from having moved it before, but somehow I lifted it and swung it cleanly in a huge arc, hoping it might catch her unawares and knock her senseless, but she leaned backwards just in time and grabbed one of the chair rungs and held on, trying to tug the chair away from me.

  And then it was just like being in the circus, with me as the lion tamer, and Kristie as the mad animal trying to claw its way to victory. She was pushing forward, inch by inch, and I was backing up, not as strong as her, trying to avoid the knife as she slashed with one hand and hung onto the chair leg with the other, trying to pull it from my grasp. It was a tussle. No, it was more than a tussle. It was a battle for supremacy. S
he was crazy, maddened with rage and insanity, but I was fighting for my life.

  I was sobbing and sweating, knowing there was nobody around to hear me call for help, even if I screamed my lungs out. I knew there was no way I was going to get out of that room in one piece, not while she was still capable of inflicting harm and injury on me.

  Or worse.

  Suddenly there was a knock on the door. My head jerked up. I heard a man’s voice call out. I thought it might be Max, coming to look for me, to say goodbye, wondering if I’d checked out yet. Relief flooded through me.

  “Max, thank God you’ve come. I’m in here. Help me, please! I’m locked in here with the crazy woman in black!”

  “Bailey?”

  Recognising the voice, I did a swift reassessment.

  “Ari? Is that you?”

  I was so amazed to hear his voice, I almost forgot about the danger I was in, until Kristie aimed a vicious jab at my hand with the point of the knife, obviously hoping to get me to drop the chair if she managed to slice off a finger or two. She only missed by inches as I raised the chair even higher and rammed it back into her chest. Her eyes glittered like studs in a mask. From her intent expression, it was obvious she didn’t give two hoots that there was someone at the door trying to get in, for she knew she had the upper hand. I doubt whether she was even really listening.

  Panting with the effort at keeping her at bay I yelled louder.

  “Ari, it’s Kristie in here with me! She’s locked the door and taken the key. She’s got a knife! And I’ve no doubt she’ll use it. She says she’s going to kill me!”

  It sounded then as if he was putting his shoulder to the door, as I heard grunting and swearing, and the door shook slightly in its hinges. There was reinforced pounding as he re-doubled his efforts, but it wasn’t going to give way to force. It had been made of good solid oak, and was virtually indestructible. The door shuddered only slightly as Ari then tried to kick it open, but all that happened was that the doorknob rattled and the notices hanging on my side of the door fell to the ground. Otherwise the door still held firm.

  Suddenly all noise stopped, and there was a ghastly silence. I strained my ears. I couldn’t hear a thing.

  Meanwhile I dared not take my eyes off Kristie again, who had barely glanced around at all, despite all the banging and thumping, so focused and confident was she that no one would be able to bust through such a solidly made structure. And maybe, too, she didn’t care so much what might happen to her afterwards, as long as I wasn’t around. I was whimpering at the thought that he’d left me alone with her. Cold shivers were descending down my spine.

  “Ari?”

  “I’m still here, Bailey.”

  “Please, do something!”

  I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold her off for much longer. My arms were already shaking and trembling from holding up the chair, and I knew I was weakening fast. And there was such determination on her scary-looking face. That alone was frightening to behold.

  Ari spoke. “I’ve got to leave you for a couple of minutes. Someone’s got to have a duplicate key to the room. Be brave. I’ll have you out in no time.”

  Kristie spoke up then. She sounded quite unconcerned, and even friendly towards him.

  “Yeah. You do that, Mr Taxi Man. You go look for the key and leave Bailey to me.”

  My throat still hurt from the sand, and from shouting.

  “Ari, for God’s sake, you can’t go! You mustn’t leave me alone with her!”

  “Bailey, it would take a machine gun to get through this locked door. I have to find an alternative way in. But I won’t be gone long. I promise.”

  I was yelling, and sweating, and desperate.

  “I’ll be dead before you get back! I don’t think I can hold her off for much longer!”

  “Trust me, Bailey.”

  I was crying, the tears running down my sandy cheeks and dripping onto the carpet. I was so scared. And so exhausted. And utterly terrified.And he expected me to trust him. A man I hardly knew.

  “Ari, you still there?”

  There was no reply from the other side of the door.

  I yelled even louder. “Ari?”

  Still no reply. Kristie smiled. A slow, complacent smile.

  Standing stock still, she said, “Your would-be saviour’s fled, Bailey. He’ll never find the master key, because I stole it when I stole the knife. It’s just you and me now, baby. Say goodbye.”

  From somewhere I found the strength to rise to the challenge. I risked a quick look behind me. The balcony was now directly behind my back. No way out there, of course, nowhere to go but down. But what alternative did I have?

  I’d already seen she was wearing a long Indian type of cheesecloth skirt that was really way too long for her, and I noticed it had been bunched up around her waist to help shorten it. It was one of those elasticated waistbands that are often quite loose. One size skirts, they were called. To make herself look dumpy on the top too, in an effort to help disguise her figure even further, she was still wearing the same thickly padded jacket I’d seen her wearing before. The whole outfit must have been quite constricting, I thought.

  All the while, I’d been holding her off me by pushing her back, grimly trying to keep her from stabbing any exposed part of my body she could reach. And she’d simply clung onto the bottom rung of the chair and pushed back. Both of us were now grunting and red faced with the exertion. Neither yielding to the other. Both strong in our own way. Now I did the unexpected. I reversed tactics and suddenly stepped back and yanked the chair sharply towards me.

  Completely taken by surprise, Kristie lurched forward, tripped over the hem of her long skirt and fell heavily to her knees, dropping the knife in the process. Unfortunately, though the knife dropped from her hand, I saw to my dismay it only fell onto the carpet directly in front of her. No way could I reach it before she did, she’d carve me up before I got within an inch.

  But she’d let go of the chair, and what my action had done was give me time to leap backwards onto the balcony, swing the doors shut, and tip the chair under the handles, wedging the French doors shut so they couldn’t be pushed open from the inside.

  I leaned back against the iron railings, breathing heavily, trying to get my breath back. That must surely slow her down somewhat, I thought. Though for how long was anyone’s guess.And then what? Hand to hand combat? My blood froze in my veins at the thought.

  I could see her through the glass panes of the doors, slowly getting to her feet and staring out at me. She took her time. She was in no hurry. She was enjoying herself. Her mocking expression turned my legs to jelly. She even had the temerity to wiggle a finger at me.

  Then she bent and picked up the knife.

  “Bailey! Over here!”

  My head whipped sideways. Ari was standing on the balcony next to mine. My relief at seeing him again was overwhelming, and I felt a rush of joy surge through my veins.

  I said weakly, “I thought you’d left me.”

  “I wanted her to think that. People often start to make mistakes when they think they’ve nothing to fear. I needed to find her room. I guessed, I hoped, she wouldn’t have locked her door when she came to find you, as she’d want to make her escape again after…”

  “…After she’d finished with me,” I finished for him. I stared across at him hopefully, then forlornly. “If only we had a rope.”

  “We haven’t, so move aside, Bailey. I’m going to jump across.” He started to climb up onto the railing.

  I watched him, my heart pumping wildly in my throat.

  “Don’t be a fool, Ari, it’s too far, you’ll be killed.”

  He cocked his head to one side. “It’s only about six or seven foot.”

  Just then I heard the glass behind me shatter, and felt a sliver of glass slice through my cheek. Blood dripped down onto my hand and almost in a daze I watched as her hand came through the broken pane of glass and she began to push the chair aside. It scraped on
the concrete, but it began to wobble.

  “There’s no time left,” I screamed.

  He jumped back down onto his balcony, leaned forward and held out his arms.

  “Then you must jump over to me. Don’t worry, I’ll catch you.”

  I gasped in terror, and hung back. I was so aware of the waves pounding against the rocks far below me, like a huge monster waiting for its feed. I was sobbing in fear.

  “I can’t! I’ll fall. Ari, I don’t want to die!”

  “You won’t fall! Trust me!” You’ve got to jump! And you’ve got to do it now! Bailey, move! She’s coming out! I’ll catch you, I promise. Have faith in yourself, Bailey! There’s no more time….”

  Looking into his eyes, seeing the alarm in his face, I manoeuvred myself into a sitting position on top of the railing, and then slowly and cautiously slithered down on the other side, my feet finding purchase on a tiny jutting ledge of concrete that ran all the way around the edge of the balcony. I didn’t look down, and I daren’t look behind me. I could hear her footsteps as she trod over the broken glass. I knew my hands must be slick with perspiration, but I grabbed the top of the railing with a hand on either side of me.

  “Now, Bailey, for God’s sake, jump now! She’s right behind you! Hurry!”

  I launched myself into the space between our two balconies, and at the same time I felt a piercing pain stab me in the calf of my right leg. Simultaneously I heard a shrill and ear-splitting scream that seemed to go on and on. It confused me, as first it was behind me, and then it came from just beneath me, then from far below, before finally fading away into silence.

  All I could hear then was just the wild sea crashing against the bottom of the cliffs.

  I had no more time to think. I flew through the air like one of those damn birds that made their nests in the cliffs, and then I slammed into the side railings of Ari’s balcony and scrabbled wildly for something and somewhere to grab onto. I thought I must fall, and that I’d be dashed to pieces on the rocks below, but then strong arms grabbed me tight under my arms and began hauling me up and over the balcony railings.