Kiss Heaven Goodbye (9 page)

She breathed deeply, as she had been taught in yoga, and was just beginning to contain her emotions when she saw Miles emerge out of the undergrowth. His shirt was untucked and he looked unsteady on his feet.

‘Where the fuck have you been?’ she demanded irritably.

Miles shot her a look of disdain. ‘Just walking,’ he said.

‘For the past two hours? I’ve been everywhere looking for you, worried out of my mind.’

‘I’ve been with Alex if you must know. What are you doing keeping tabs on my every movement anyway?’

Over his shoulder, Sasha saw a figure appear out of the darkness. She recognised the tall, slim silhouette instantly and her eyes narrowed.

‘Well there’s Alex now with your sister. I thought you said you were with him? Well?’

Miles just waved a weary hand at her, like he was swatting a fly.

‘You’re such a fucking nag,’ he said, looking as if he wanted to strangle her.

Sasha felt her stomach lurch again. Winding Miles up really wasn’t helping matters. She had allowed her feelings to run away with her in that tiny cabin; she mustn’t do it again – not ever. No, now she needed to get back to what she was good at: twisting men around her little finger. She hung her head and nodded.

‘You’re right, I’m sorry,’ she said. It pained her to say it, but needs must. ‘I’m just a bit pissed, you know? And I was worried sick, I thought you’d been bitten by one of those horrid spiders or something. ’

She stepped in closer and put her arms around his neck but he just pushed her away.

‘Not right now, OK?’ he whispered, looking towards the approaching Alex.

Sasha had to struggle to keep her face impassive. What was his problem? Then she had a sudden horrible thought. Surely he didn’t know?
It would be just like the Ashfords to have hidden CCTV cameras around the island,
she thought, suddenly resentful of their wealth.
Or do I smell of sex?

She watched with annoyance as Grace and Alex walked towards them. God, their timing was terrible. Or was it . . . ?

‘All right?’ asked Alex. He looked subdued and slightly embarrassed. Sensing a scandal, Sasha looked at Grace’s face. Yes, she looked a bit upset too.
Hmm, I wonder what those two have been up to
, she thought, making a mental note to do some more digging. You never knew when a little detail like that could come in handy.

‘Well, we’re glad you’re here, aren’t we, Miles?’ said Sasha with a flash of inspiration. ‘It’s much more fun with four.’

‘What is?’ asked Alex.

She crossed her arms and pulled off her dress in one movement. ‘Skinny-dipping.’

She was glad to see that Alex’s eyes practically popped out on stalks.

Grace laughed nervously. ‘I don’t think so. It will be freezing.’

‘Come on, the sea’s lovely,’ said Sasha, feeling Alex’s eyes on her.

‘I’m game,’ he said, looking at Grace hopefully.

‘Has nobody ever seen
Jaws
?’ asked Grace. ‘That bit at the beginning where that blonde girl goes running off into the water and the next thing you know she’s in pieces on the seashore.’

‘Come on, it’s our last night,’ said Sasha persuasively. ‘Let’s have some fun!’

She ran off towards the sea. After a moment’s hesitation, Alex pulled off his top and followed, turning back to look for Grace.

‘Come on!’ he shouted.

‘There’s no way I’m taking all my clothes off in front of my little brother,’ she said.

‘You don’t have to take everything off,’ said Alex playfully. ‘Not all at once, anyway.’

‘Oh . . . all right.’ She grinned, kicking off her flip-flops and running after the others.

Sasha threw her bra and knickers on to the beach and splashed into the cold salty water. That would get rid of the smell of sex for certain. Turning back to the shore, she smiled to herself as Grace coyly stripped to her bra and black cotton knickers cut low across her pale thighs like PE shorts. No wonder she was pale, thought Sasha. She’d been hiding under a sarong for most of the week.

Alex kept his boxers on as he ran into the water, but Miles stayed on the shore, watching. Sasha turned back towards him, standing waist-deep in the water. She knew she looked good, like some exotic mermaid or Ursula Andress in that Bond film.

‘Come on in, the water’s lovely,’ she said, as he waded reluctantly towards her.

As soon as he was close enough, she pulled him towards her and pressed her naked breasts against his chest, then whispered in his ear, ‘We’ve never had sex in the sea.’

Miles glanced at her, a twisted smirk on his mouth. ‘Maybe it’s not in your manual.’

‘What manual?’ She flinched.

Miles laughed. ‘
The Complete Guide to Sexual Ecstasy
, I believe it’s called,’ he said, enjoying her discomfort. ‘I found it in your case.’

Despite the cool water Sasha felt her cheeks flush. ‘What have you been doing rooting around in my case?’

‘I could say the same about you,’ he said with a flash of anger. ‘I came back to the room and all my coke had gone.’

Sasha searched for something to say, but found herself at a loss. She took a deep breath, reminding herself that getting angry would get her nowhere. It wasn’t too late to rescue the situation, especially as she was naked.

She pushed her erect nipples against her boyfriend and stroked his chest. ‘What’s wrong with you tonight?’ she asked softly.

‘Nothing,’ he said flatly.

‘There is. I only want to help.’

He turned away from her. ‘Don’t get all needy on me, Sasha.’

‘I’m not needy,’ she said petulantly.

‘Yes you are, you’ve been pawing at me all night. All holiday in fact. You’re suffocating me.’

Sasha just blinked at him. Her mouth opened, but no words came out.

Miles glanced up at her, then looked away again. ‘Look, I think when we get back to England it’s best if we spend a bit of time apart,’ he said quietly.

What? No!
Her mind cried.
This isn’t what’s supposed to happen.
He couldn’t do this to her! She was naked, in the Caribbean Sea, for God’s sake! How could he resist her?

‘Are you finishing with me?’ she said, fighting to keep her voice even.

Miles didn’t look at her.

‘You shit,’ she hissed. ‘You
are
finishing with me.’

She felt a tear tremble on her eyelash and blinked it fiercely away.

‘Well, fuck you, Miles,’ she spat. ‘I can do better than you and I will.’

She stormed up the beach, grabbing her underwear, tears running down her cheeks, as she heard Alex and Grace whoop and giggle in the surf.

9

Alex got out of the water shivering. He’d had fun splashing about with Grace, but he wasn’t entirely convinced that there were no Great Whites lurking in the water. Just that afternoon in Freetown he’d seen blackboards by the marina advertising ‘Shark Dives: Sightings Guaranteed!’ More importantly, after what had happened with Miles, it just felt a bit too weird being naked in the water with him and that was why he’d kept his boxer shorts on to go skinny-dipping. Was that also why he had nearly kissed Grace back near the rocks? Certainly, holding hands with her had felt nice, so natural and right. But perhaps it had been more than that, he thought as he dried his damp body with his T-shirt; maybe he had been driven by a desire to get back on the heterosexual straight and narrow after his kiss with Miles.

Did I really kiss my best friend?
he thought, unable to grasp it.
What a night.
He watched discreetly as Grace ran out of the sea and disappeared behind a low bush. She returned wearing her dress, her wet underwear rolled up in her hand. Sasha was already out and dressed, sitting hugging her knees up by the path, while Miles stood a little way off smoking a cigarette.

‘Do you think anyone will still be down by the bonfire?’ asked Grace as she walked over to them.

‘Doubt it,’ said Sasha gloomily, getting to her feet. Her earlier buoyant mood seemed to have vanished. She turned and stalked off, her expression stony.

‘For fuck’s sake,’ said Miles under his breath, walking after her. Alex wasn’t sure what had been said in the water but it appeared she and Miles were no longer speaking.

They walked for ten minutes in silence, each wrapped up in their own thoughts, an awkward, fractious atmosphere between all of them.

It was almost 5 a.m. Sunrise was not for another hour but thin light was seeping through the blackness, casting the beach in a cool monochrome shadow. The western side of the island was less lush and there were no palm or mango trees along the beach-front, just sand that led up to scrubby dunes. In front of them, about a hundred feet away, Alex could see a long black object on the path at the base of the sandy bank that ran up to the jungle; a piece of driftwood, perhaps? The sea was always coughing up things that littered the beach. Sasha was several paces ahead of him and she stopped suddenly, letting out a little scream.

‘Oh my God,’ she whispered.

‘What is it?’ shouted Alex.

The whole world seemed to stand still.

Moving closer, Alex could see it was not driftwood. It was a body, lying completely motionless on the sand. All his nerve endings seemed to vibrate and his skin felt ice cold.

Grace stepped in and raised a hand to her mouth. ‘Who is it?’ she gasped. ‘Are they dead?’

Cautiously, Alex walked right up to the body. It was face down, but it was obviously a man and he was wearing the distinctive polo shirt of the Angel Cay staff.

He looked at Grace, then knelt down slowly and peered at the man’s face. All he could see was one closed eye and a gash down the side of his forehead. Blood was congealed around the wound.

‘Oh shit . . .’ said Alex quietly as he noticed one final terrible detail: there was a small, round burn mark on the man’s pale unmoving cheek.

Covering his mouth, Alex turned and fell to his knees, his body ejecting a stomachful of wine and spirits. After retching violently, long strings of spittle hung from his mouth. Wiping them away, he turned back to the body, his hands shaking. He looked around at the faces of his friends.

‘It’s that boat boy. Bradley.’

Sasha’s face was bleached of colour. ‘I think he’s dead,’ she said mournfully.

‘Feel his pulse,’ said Grace quietly, looking at Alex.

He looked back at her, his face pleading, but someone had to do it. Turning back to the body, he reached out to touch Bradley’s wrist.

‘Don’t be a prick,’ hissed Miles suddenly, grabbing his shoulder and pulling him back.

‘What’s the matter?’

‘Don’t touch a dead body. You’ll leave fingerprints or DNA or something.’

Alex sprang back from the prone figure in alarm. His mum watched police shows all the time and he knew how it worked. The hard-bitten cop would cuff him to the table and say, ‘So, Mr Doyle, you were the last one to see the deceased alive. Did you leave him on good terms? Oh, and what can you tell me about these wounds on his face?’

No, Miles was right. Touching a dead body was not a good idea at all.

‘We can’t just leave him here,’ said Grace, taking a small step forward.

‘I mean it,’ said Miles, blocking her. ‘No one should touch it.’

‘It?’ replied Grace angrily. ‘He’s one of our staff.’

‘He’s called Bradley,’ said Alex quietly. ‘He only got here today.’

‘It, he,’ said Miles with irritation. ‘What does it matter if he’s dead?’

Dead.
Alex felt glued to the sand. He could feel his heart pumping wildly.
God, how can he be dead?

How?
he asked himself. He looked at Miles and felt a sense of dread well in his stomach, then pushed the dark thought to one side as fiercely as he could.

‘We need to go and get help,’ he said.

‘I think he’s past helping,’ said Miles in a low, steady voice.

Although he was younger than Alex and Grace, Miles had a natural authority, assisted perhaps by the fact that his father owned the land around them. Sasha seemed happy to toe the line and Alex watched as she slipped her hand into Miles’.

‘What should we do, baby?’ she asked.

He looked at her, then at Alex and Grace. ‘Nothing.’

‘Nothing?’ asked Grace incredulously.

‘Nothing,’ repeated Miles. ‘We should just stay calm and let someone else find it.’

Alex couldn’t believe his ears. ‘We have to call a doctor. The police.’

‘A doctor?’ scoffed Miles. ‘He’s
dead
. And even if he wasn’t, no one will be able to get here for at least half an hour. And the nearest coppers are in George Town.’

Alex pointed to the ground. ‘Miles, our footprints are all over this beach. We can’t pretend we weren’t here.’

‘This is our island, Doyle. And let’s just say my father has a way of making these things go away.’

‘Hang on,’ said Sasha quickly, looking up towards the sandbank above them. ‘We’re assuming this is some sort of attack or something. Maybe it was an accident. I mean, maybe he fell. It looks like he rolled down this bank.’

Miles shook his head. ‘Either way, we should still leave him. Think about it: every one of us is going to look suspicious, running around the island in the dark. None of us can prove where we were every minute of the night, can we? The fact is, he’s dead. The police are going to want to point the finger at someone. Who better than the four pissed-up kids who found the body?’

‘Come on, Miles. That’s a bit paranoid,’ said Grace, but her voice lacked confidence.

‘Listen, Alex and I had a bit of a pop at him earlier,’ said Miles angrily. ‘The guy was being a prick, wasn’t he, Alex? That’s not going to look too good for either of us. I mean, we had nothing to do with this’ – he gestured towards the body – ‘but who would you believe?’

Alex stared at Miles, his eyes wide. He didn’t know when he’d felt more angry and hurt. Was Miles trying to implicate him? He’d always known his friend was arrogant and volatile, but this . . . this was
cold
.

‘I’m going to get someone,’ said Alex, beginning to walk away.

‘I’m coming with you,’ said Grace.