Two Years After ; Friends Who Lie ; No More Secrets

by Paul J. Teague

  Becky was initially more concerned about Matt’s bruises than she was thrashing out their differences. She was terse with Harriet – that was only to be expected – but they were civil with each other, at least. Matt suggested that they take a walk outside, away from the others.

  Kasey dismissed the waitress, requesting an extra half hour before they ordered food.

  ‘We’ll just get drinks in for now, and start on the Prosecco,’ he’d said, surveying who was left of the group.

  Harriet, Gina, Wes, Rhett and Naomi. He did a quick run-through in his head. As far as he was aware, there were no ongoing tensions between this small group, they ought to be safe for an enjoyable twenty minutes or so before the others started coming back.

  He pulled up a chair next to Wes, just as Gina came over to join them.

  ‘Good evening, Wes, nice to see you still here. No guitar this evening, I see. Not planning to go up on stage and steal the show from Brotherhood of Man then?’

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Benidorm: June

  When Caitlen woke the next morning, it took her a little while to recall the events of the night before.

  It had been a good night, she remembered that much. She’d actually felt some sympathy for Terry in the end. They were both as much to blame. And he was no worse than her, she had slept with Luke after all. In spite of what she’d told herself, when push came to shove, it really didn’t make that much difference if she’d cheated once or a hundred times. The simple truth was, neither of them was happy in the relationship and they hadn’t been for some time. The money was just the thing that rocked the boat. And they both agreed that it needed rocking.

  ‘We should have ended it ages ago, Terry. It was fun for a while, but it never should have carried on. We’re both to blame for that. I hope things work out with Emmy, really, I do.’

  Terry was unusually subdued, like he had things on his mind. There were no wisecracks, no attempts to gloss over what was going on. Caitlen wondered if he had hidden depths. She doubted it, this was no time to be romanticising Terry.

  ‘What about the money?’ Terry asked.

  ‘What about it?’ Caitlen replied. She’d thought they’d got through the worst of that night, but maybe there was more to come.

  ‘I had this in my pocket. It’s yours isn’t it?’

  Terry was holding her USB drive.

  ‘Oh thank God, Terry, how did you find that?’

  ‘I was going to throw it away, it had got mixed up in the clothes that were on the floor when ... well, you know. When you walked in on me and Emmy.’

  ‘I thought I’d lost it! I can’t tell how pleased I am that you’ve found it. Gina and I were going spare trying to work out where it was.’

  She took the USB drive, placed it in her pocket and gave Terry a huge hug.

  ‘Looks like somebody has made up!’ Kasey observed as Caitlen and Terry returned to the table.

  ‘Look what Terry had!’ Caitlen said, mainly to Gina. ‘He had the USB drive. It had got mixed up with his clothes last night. He’s had it in his pocket all day, no wonder we couldn’t find it!’

  ‘You’d best keep it safe from now on,’ Kasey scolded.

  ‘Well it was in my bra until last night. It’s staying in my pocket now, at all times. Gina, let’s get it safely stored in one of those secure mailboxes tomorrow, I can’t take the strain of carrying it around with me.’

  Caitlen looked over at her bedside table. She had to think things through again. Where was she? Gina’s apartment, they’d made up the spare room, that’s why she didn’t recognise it.

  All things considered, the night had gone as well as could be expected. Porter and Emmy had as good as come to the same conclusion as she and Terry. Neither of them was happy in their marriage, it was time to move on. Things were tense, understandably, but life would continue. They’d get to the end of the holiday and try to figure things out. It was an opportunity for change.

  Matt and Becky were last to rejoin the main group. Becky looked fraught and upset, but they had clearly managed to make their peace. She even managed an uncomfortable and awkward hug with Harriet.

  ‘It’s as good as we’re going to get,’ Kasey had whispered to Caitlen. ‘I think we might just get through this evening without any murders.’

  Caitlen replayed the rest of the night in her head. Damn the metal shutters on Gina’s apartment windows, it made the room so dark. Caitlen couldn’t tell if it was an only hour after she’d gone to bed or if she’d been sleeping for the past two days. She hadn’t a clue what time of day it was.

  She thought back to the meal. The food had been good, and when Brotherhood of Man had come on stage the whole room had gone wild and they’d had an amazing time enjoying all of the hits from the 70s. So why did she still have an uneasy feeling about the night before?

  There were some strange things going on, that’s probably why. Wes looked like he’d got food poisoning, the easy charm had left him and he seemed uncomfortable and agitated. She’d seen both Porter and Becky having words with him, but the music was so loud, she couldn’t catch what they were saying. She’d had a brief conversation with Wes – he seemed very interested in her bitcoin story – but it wasn’t long until Gina intervened and encouraged him to move on.

  Terry and Kasey too, disappeared while the band was on. Harriet was involved somehow, but she didn’t go with them. She was urging Kasey to do something or other, but she stayed with Matt, claiming her territory as if she didn’t quite believe that Becky was off the scene.

  Naomi appeared to have something weighing on her mind as well, but she was too fast with the Prosecco and tipsy before they’d even finished the meal. It had been a strange evening. All of their issues were supposed to have been tackled, yet she had a lingering feeling that there was still unfinished business.

  Caitlen’s phone began to vibrate. She switched on the light at the side of the table. Why had she set the alarm so early? She searched her brain, wondering why on earth she’d even set it in the first place. Then she remembered. That was the other part of her conversation with Wes. He’d asked her if she wanted to take the walk up to Benidorm Cross the next morning. Everybody had been talking about it at some point during the holiday. She’d been a bit tipsy herself at the time, but had agreed to meet him up there after his run. To hell with it, the night had gone well, she was still feeling a bit groggy. A walk up to Benidorm Cross to meet up with Wes was just the thing she needed to clear her head.

  Epilogue

  Benidorm: July

  ‘I’d forgotten what a climb this is,’ Caitlen laughed. ‘I must have been half-drunk still when I came up the first time.’

  She stopped and Gina followed her cue. She took Caitlen’s hand and squeezed it.

  ‘It’s okay, it’s going to take some time before you get used to it. A lot has happened in the past month. Your life has taken a complete turn.’

  ‘I’m just thinking, I came up here that first time ... I hadn’t any idea the body was there. It was just in front of me in the bushes. I honestly had no idea. I’m just thinking of him lying there ...’

  ‘Are you sure you still want to do this? We can go back down if you want to?’

  ‘No, I want to do it. I need to get up there again. If I’m going to be buying a villa out here, I need to get over it. I’m not to blame for any of this. I’d rather it hadn’t happened like it did but ... well, he was playing with fire.’

  They sat on one of the large concrete blocks that lined the road. It was definitely not a climb to complete without regular breaks. Particularly in that heat.

  ‘Are you ready to speak about it yet? I thought it might help coming up here. I can barely believe what happened myself.’

  Caitlen’s phone cheeped and she took it out of her back pocket.

  ‘It’s Luke. He says he’ll be over at the weekend. The paperwork is all sorted and he’s got a place to stay.’

  ‘You’re not moving in together then? I just
assumed ...’

  ‘No, it’s a bit soon for that, don’t you think? After Terry I just thought it would be better to get to know each other again first. I don’t want to repeat that mistake. So we’ve decided to play it cool and see if we still have as much in common as we used to. I think it’ll be okay – but once bitten and all that!’

  ‘What do you think will happen to Terry?’

  ‘Can you believe it? A bent copper! And with Kasey too. I hadn’t got a clue what he was up to. Well, he’s been suspended, of course. And it looks like they’ll prosecute. Stupid idiot, what on earth was he thinking? At least it’ll all work out well for Kasey. Poor guy, he must have been scared as hell all these years. Who would have thought? I just accepted him as a friend, I never even thought about visas and all that stuff.

  ‘It’s a complicated issue, I think. It’s dead easy in Europe, but when you get into the US, life gets more complicated. Are you ready to move on?’

  Caitlen stood up, took a swig from her water bottle and continued the long climb up the winding road.

  ‘I can’t believe what a bunch of idiots we all turned out to be. I wonder what would have happened if I’d never found the money on my computer. Would we have carried on oblivious to it all? Or does money bring out the worst in us?’

  ‘Well, I think it just accentuates existing traits. Terry was on the take before he found out you had money. He was already doing it in a small way. And as for Wes ...’

  ‘It’s so hot out here in summer, I can see why everybody goes crazy over air conditioning.’

  Caitlen changed the subject. She wasn’t ready to talk about Wes. Not until they reached the top.

  ‘Anyhow, I’m going to help Kasey with his legal fees. Harriet reckons that he’ll be able to stay. Nobody needs to know about the forged identity, the visa issue should be sortable.’

  ‘Well good,’ said Gina, ‘I liked Kasey. I think he was about the only member of the group who didn’t have a row with anybody!’

  Caitlen smiled.

  ‘I think you’re right. This walk felt a lot easier when I came up here that morning. I was just thinking about it when Luke’s text came through. You realise that you saved my life, don’t you?’

  ‘No, how? You haven’t told me this.’

  ‘Well, it’s been a crazy few weeks. But I only figured it out the other day. If it wasn’t for you, it would have been my body they found up this hill.’

  ‘We’re nearly there now, this is the car park. We follow that dirt path over there and it takes us up to the cross. Last chance. You’re sure you want to do this?’

  ‘I’m sure. Let’s get it over with. Next time, we take a taxi though, right?’

  The path to the Benidorm Cross was marked by a wooden fence. There were three cars parked there, it was a steady flow of tourists coming and going.

  ‘Just look at that view!’ Gina said. ‘It never gets stale, this is the way to see Benidorm. People liken it to Blackpool with sunshine, but it’s so much more than that.’

  Caitlen stood next to Gina, the sea breeze now cooling their faces, the glimmer from the sparkling sea forcing them to squint.

  ‘The body was over there, by those bushes,’ Caitlen said, without warning.

  ‘What, beyond the fence?’

  ‘Yes, a dog found it. Some woman who lives at the bottom of the hill walks her dog here in the mornings. The police were already here when I arrived. I knew something was up the moment I arrived.’

  ‘How come you got so lucky then? Have they worked it out now?’

  ‘Yes, they got a confession. I still can’t believe it. Wes said he’d meet me up here, he’d be out for his run first. I fully expected him to be up here already. But all I found was a crime scene.’

  ‘I still don’t understand how it happened though. How did I save you? I was snoring away in the next room. I didn’t even hear you leave the apartment that morning. As it turns out, me and Prosecco don’t mix well.’

  ‘That’s just it. I remembered that Wes and I had agreed to meet at the cross, then go for breakfast afterwards. Nobody else wanted to join us, so we agreed to go alone. Fuck ‘em I thought, I’m going up to the top of that bloody hill if it kills me. I didn’t want to miss this amazing view while I was here.’

  ‘I wish I’d come with you ... I’m sorry I was out cold.’

  ‘But Gina, you saved my life. When you changed the clock on my phone, that day I got taken away by the police after wrecking that bar. You changed the clock on my phone to Spanish time. I was an hour late to my meeting with Wes. I couldn’t work out how I’d messed up the time, but I got up here sixty minutes after I was supposed to. I rolled over and went to sleep for an hour when my alarm went off. I figured it was UK time and that I still had an hour to play with. Silly cow, that I am. But it saved my life.’

  ‘Bloody hell, I thought I was doing you a favour when I set your clock properly, I didn’t realise I’d done that. So he was waiting up there for you?’

  ‘Well, he thought it was just me and him, but that’s not how it played out.’

  ‘Porter?’

  ‘Yes, Porter. He’d been trying to get my attention all night to tell me something about Wes. Well, with all the distractions going on, he never got to tell me. Once Naomi started spilling out her heart about their debt problems, I kind of got waylaid.’

  ‘How are Rhett and Naomi?’

  ‘Well, the insurance agreed to cover their fine as they’d been with them for so many years. They got lucky if you ask me, if they’d let it lapse any more than a month I don’t think they’d have agreed to pay it. I’ve bailed them out on their mortgage arrears, I’ve no wish to see them down on their luck. She should have told me sooner. Rhett managed to win back an old contract, so it’s early days, but they don’t have to work in that burger bar any more. I think they’ll recover, I’ve told them that I’ll help them if they get into trouble again.’

  ‘And Porter?’

  ‘Not so good. He’s undergoing psychiatric assessments, but it’s not looking good for him. I went to see him, you know. To thank him. If he hadn’t done what he did, however misguided, we wouldn’t be here now. I just feel so sorry for him. He’s clearly a troubled man.’

  ‘So he was waiting for Wes all the time?’

  ‘Yes, he walked ahead, even with that bandaged leg of his, so he could watch out for me. How kind is that? He can’t be all bad if he did that. He was hiding in the bushes apparently, he just wanted to make sure Wes wasn’t up to anything. You know Wes had got hold of my passwords don’t you?’

  ‘From Becky’s phone?’

  ‘Yes, she emailed me and told me what was going on. She’s been to see Porter too. It seems she has some mental health issues of her own. I would never have known.’

  ‘We’ve seen glimpses, I think. But Becky’s alright, I’ll keep in touch. She’s ended up using Porter’s psychologist, how ironic is that?’

  ‘How did Porter do it?’ Gina asked. She hadn’t pressed her friend, but she was dying to know.

  ‘Porter had walked up here to confront Wes, if he was up to no good like Porter suspected. He was just expecting to lurk in the bushes, and make sure I was okay when we met up. Turns out Porter’s had some personal issues that he’s been dealing with for some years. The suspected murder of his own brother. They’re looking at the case again, now this has happened. He admitted it all. He reckons he’s had a compelling urge to kill all this time. Who would have thought it? Porter, the man whose arse caught fire at Erin’s Bar!’

  Gina and Caitlen burst out laughing.

  ‘Poor Porter,’ Gina said, ‘I’ll never forget looking at him and watching that smoke coming off his trousers. Well, he did you a big favour. I never warmed to Wes, he was a chancer. I take it he worked out that if he had the codes already all he had to do was get his hands on your USB drive and he was good to go.’

  ‘Yes, remember we saw him with the airport bag? He’d got his flight booked already. He hadn’t figured out
how he was going to do it, I don’t think, but when stupid here told everybody that Terry had found the USB drive with all my money on, he hatched his plot. As you say, he’s a chancer. He’d got the passwords from Becky’s phone, stupid here had told him where the USB drive was. He was planning to take the drive off me and do a runner on the next plane.’

  ‘Would he have killed you for it?’

  ‘It’s highly likely. Will we ever know? Porter says Wes had a knife with him, but they haven’t recovered it yet. That’s what made Porter strike him with that rock. He says he saw Wes handling the knife and the anger got the better of him. Just like that. And there’s an investigation going on about something that involves Wes in the previous resort he was staying in when he was in Thailand. They think he may be connected with a woman who was found strangled. I think things just got the better of Porter when he saw Wes all alone up there. And you heard how he behaved with Becky. Wrong place, wrong time for Wes, I think.’

  ‘You don’t think Porter would have ... if you’d been on your own?’

  ‘No. No chance. I asked him that when I visited him at the psychiatric unit. It was Wes he wanted, not me. It was never me. He was angry with Wes.’

  ‘What a group you are!’ Gina said, taking Caitlen’s hand. ‘I’ll bet Benidorm has never seen anything like it!’

  ‘Well, I doubt that,’ Caitlen replied, ‘But what a carry-on. And I thought we’d all have a lovely, relaxing break out here. How wrong was I?’

  ‘Well, you’re a wealthy woman now and I’m very pleased for you. I’m even more pleased that we’ll be going into business together. I know there have been better starts, but welcome to Benidorm!’

  Caitlen gave Gina a hug and looked out across the sea over towards Peacock Island.

  ‘None of this would have happened if I hadn’t found that bitcoin on my old computer. And look at how it threw the cat among the pigeons, we were all at each other’s throats in no time at all. It just shows you, when it comes to money, you never know who to trust.’