Last Resort (39 page)

"I know I shouldn't have done it. I know I should have cleared it with you

..."

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'Why should you have cleared it with me? And did the .world fall apart because you weren't there? Now, come on ..."

"But that's not the point/ she cried, wringing her hands.

"You've done so much for me and I let you down. I didn't call you back at the weekend ..."

"OK, time out,"

he said softly. This isn't about apologizing to me for something you don't have to apologize for. This is about an intruder in the house ..."

Suddenly coming to her senses, Penny spun round.

"It was the man from the Mercedes!"

she said shrilly. The one I told you about. The fat one. I swear it was him.

He was sitting there in my bedroom, watching me."

David's face drained.

"Are you sure?"

he said.

Tes."

Then, shaking her head:

"I don't know. I think it was him. But if it was, then what was he doing here, David? Why did he break into my house?"

T don't know,"

David answered, almost to himself.

"But I'll find out. Did he say anything to you?"

"No, not really. Just that he wasn't going to harm me."

Her eyes came up to his.

"David, do you think he might be having me watched?"

she said. David's eyes bored into hers, but even through her agitation she could see that his mind wasn't really with her.

"Do you?"

she implored.

T don't know,"

he answered. He could be."

"Oh God,"

she groaned.

"I can't stand this. It's like a nightmare. Nothing makes sense any more. Why would he be having me watched?"

That's something else I'll have to find out,"

David said and, putting an arm around her, he led her to the sofa.

"Come on, sit down,"

he said.

"I'll go get some blankets. Where are they?"

"In the cupboard on the first landing. Who is he, David?"

T guess you could call him my nemesis,"

he answered, staring sightlessly at the empty brandy glass beside her.

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'Do you want some more of that?"

he said.

Penny shook her head.

"No. I just want this night to be over."

He found the blankets and brought them back to the sitting room. Penny was hunched into one corner of the sofa, her eyelashes still wet with tears, her face even more strained than it had been when he'd left.

He said nothing as he wrapped a blanket around her as though she were a child.

Penny started to look up, found she couldn't meet his eyes, and turned away.

She knew he was still watching her as he went to sit on the opposite sofa and sensed something in him she couldn't quite define.

"Was it a man?"

he asked softly.

"Was that the reason you took off the way you did?"

Penny nodded. Despite the gentleness of his voice it sounded strangely hollow, as though it was causing him more effort to speak than it was her.

"Where did you go?"

he said.

"Paris,"

she answered, her voice faltering on the word as tears threatened to overwhelm her again.

"Didn't it work out?"

Screwing up her eyes Penny swallowed hard.

"Yes, it worked out,"

she said.

"It's just... It's just a bit complicated, that's all."

His laugh held no humour.

"Aren't these things always?"

He waited a moment, then said, perhaps too casually,

"Anyone I know?"

She shook her head.

"I'm sorry, but if you don't mind I'd rather not talk about him."

At last her eyes came up to his. In the dim light she couldn't make out his expression, but there was a tension about him that disturbed her, brought back the guilt she had felt when she hadn't called him.

"Is there anything I can do?"

she said, hoarsely.

At first he seemed surprised by the question; then, understanding what she meant, he said,

"No. I'll handle

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it. Just you get some sleep. I'll be right here. Do you want me to hold"

He stopped, pulled a hand over his tired face and forced himself to smile. Try to sleep/ he said.

A few hours later, as the first rays of dawn were seeping through the shutters, David got up and went to the phone. It didn't take Pierre long to get there, by which time David was waiting on the front steps, his face drawn with exhaustion as he held Brutus on a chain.

"She's still asleep,"

he said as Pierre, unshaven and warmly wrapped in a fur-lined coat, got out of his car.

"Stay with her until she wakes up. I don't know what she'll want to do today -

it's probably best if she goes to the office. Then we'll have to arrange things so someone stays here with her."

"Not you/ Pierre said. It wasn't a question, nor was it an order: it was a simple statement of fact.

"No, not me/ David said wearily. Then, releasing the dog frorrTthe chain, he said,

"I'll be in touch when I've seen Stirling. Have you got your mobile?"

Pierre patted his pocket.

David nodded, then, getting into his car, he turned it around and drove off towards the gates.

The yacht moored at the far end of the Canto Port in Cannes rocked gently in the water as David strode across the deck, his taut, handsome face showing nothing of what he was feeling inside.

As he banged open the cabin door Stirling looked up from his breakfast, feigning surprise with pleasantly arched brows, but when he took breath to speak David's voice cut across him, a whiplash of fury.

Tou've gone too far this time, Stirling/ he growled.

"I could have you up on charges of harassment..."

"So you've told me many times before/ Stirling answered mildly, leaning back with his coffee.

"So you go right ahead and'

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'I'm not talking about me!"

David seethed.

"I'm talking about Penny Moon and what you're doing to her. She's an innocent party in this, Stirling. You'll get nothing from her."

"No?"

Stirling said, the smugness in his voice inciting David's temper further.

"There's nothing to be got, Stirling! You're wasting your time and you know it."

Stirling was shaking his head.

"No, David, what I know, what we both know, is that I'm pretty close now to getting what I'm after. And from what I've been hearing, Penny the Moon could bring me a whole lot closer."

"Are you crazy!"

David yelled.

"What the hell do you think she knows that no one else does?"

"That's what I was trying to find out last night/ Stirling answered.

"And I might have done if she hadn't tried raising the dead with that fucking alarm of hers. Still, I got outta there before having to face the embarrassment of a break-and-entry charge. That would have given you a moment's light relief, wouldn't it, David? Sorry to have disappointed you. So what did she tell the cops?"

"Wouldn't you like to know!"

David said savagely.

"Not really.

"Cos, you see, I already know she didn't call them."

He cocked his head thoughtfully to one side. Tunny that, wouldn't you say, that she called you and not the cops? But you know what that tells me, David?

It tells me that our friend Ms Moon is trying to protect someone."

"And you don't think waking up and finding the fucking bogeyman in her bedroom that someone might just be herself?"

David snarled.

As Stirling shook his head he was grinning at the description of himself.

"Nah,"

he said,

"what I reckon is she was protecting you."

His eyebrows came up as his smirk widened and he looked at David through 303

narrowed eyes.

"Or someone else."

"You're in fantasy land, Stirling,"

David snapped.

"I told you, she's an innocent party. She knows nothing, because there's nothing to know. Christ Almighty, you've turned my life upside down trying to find something, anything, and you can't do it. So why don't you just back off

..."

"But Gabriella knows something, doesn't she, David? Isn't that why she won't let you see your kids? Isn't that why your mother won't have anything to do with you?"

"What goes on between me and my wife is none of your god-damned business/

David raged.

"But I reckon it is my business, and my guess is when Gabriella gets to hear about Penny the Moon she'll make it my business."

David's face was ashen.

"To hear what about Penny Moon?"

he said quietly. There's nothing to tell, nothing..."

Stirling chuckled.

"Does Penny the Moon know?"

he said.

David knew exactly what Stirling meant, knew too that he was on very dangerous ground now.

"I told you already/ he answered tightly:

"she knows nothing."

Stirling sat forward, helped himself to more coffee, then turned his gaze back to David.

"It's a cosy little setup you got yourself over there with that magazine,"

he said, dropping three lumps of sugar into his cup.

"But it don't fool me, David. Not for one minute is it fooling old Robert here. And I wonder what Penny the Moon will have to say if she finds out how you've been using her?"

David's jaw was like rock.

"No one's using anyone here, Stirling. No one except you."

Stirling seemed to find that amusing and laughed for some time.

"My, oh my, how we do fool ourselves/ he said.

"But this wasn't something you expected, was it, David? You didn't count on falling for that woman, now

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did you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about/ David responded icily.

"But what I will tell you is this: if you don't lay off her now ..."

Stirling's chubby, ringed hand came up.

"Spare me the threats/ he said calmly.

"I'm gonna bust your ass, Villers, and you know it."

"So you keep telling me/ David snapped,

"but you're never going to find what you're looking for, Stirling, because it isn't there to be found."

Stirling licked his lips, as though relishing what he was about to say.

"I guess you know that Penny the Moon's got herself involved with Christian Mureau?"

he said, apparently studying his nails but all the time watching David from the corner of his eyes.

David was very still.

"Christian who?"

he asked.

At that, Stirling started to laugh again. In fact, he seemed to find it so funny that he went right on laughing until eventually he started to choke.

"Nice try/ he wheezed, wiping his mouth with a napkin. Teah, that sure was a good try, Villers. Pull the other one next time, we'll get to hear a host of heavenly angels. Better still, we might get to see a few laurels sprouting their way through those boyish curls of yours."

David's eyes were fixed on him; not even by so much as a flicker of a muscle did he betray what he was really thinking. Tou're going to have to make yourself clearer, Stirling/ he said smoothly.

"Is that so?"

Stirling said, rocking his bulk back and forth. Then let me do just that.

Penny the Moon is seeing Christian Mureau. And you, Villers, just like me, know exactly who Mureau is. And by my reckoning that's gonna do your little set-up over there no end of good. What do you say?"

"What I say is Penny's life is her own affair. It's got nothing to do with me and even less to do with you. So butt out, Stirling, and leave her the fuck alone or you're

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going to have some serious explaining to do to people you won't want to explain to."

Stirling's grin was so wide it was almost painful.

"Did Gabriella ever tell you,"

he said,

"you're kind of cute when you're mad?"

Then suddenly his expression changed completely, and as he leaned forward the darkness of hatred and vengeance clouded his eyes.

"Start counting the days, Villers,"

he warned, and, tightening the belt on his dressing gown, he got up and walked out of the cabin.

"So Italy is still on/ Penny smiled, nestling the phone with her shoulder as she annotated a document in front of her.

"When will you be there?"

"Saturday morning,"

Christian answered. The Delaneys won't be able to take you, I'm afraid. Can you get a train?"

"Of course. How long will you be staying?"

"A few days, maybe a week. Do you think you'll be able to get away for that long?"

Penny hesitated as an unbidden thought of David suddenly flashed in her mind.

es. Yes, I think I can stay that long,"

she answered, pushing the guilt aside and rotating her chair to look out of the window.

"Good."

Then after a pause he said,

"Penny, I wish it didn't have to be this way ..."

"It's all right,"

she assured him, the intimacy in his voice warming her right down to her toes.

Tt doesn't matter which way it is as long as we're together."

T love you,"

he said softly.

The words hit Penny's heart in soft ripples of joy and she was about to answer, when her door flew open and David stormed in.

"I have to go,"

she said, colouring.

"Call me again soon."

She hung up, then turned to David and almost cowered from the rage in his eyes.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

he hissed,

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slamming the door behind him.

What am / doing?"

she cried, guilt instantly inflaming her temper. What I want to know is what you're doing, barging in here'

Tou know what I'm talking about,"

he cut in viciously. I'm talking about Mureau. Christian Mureau. How long have you been seeing him?"

"How dare you speak to me like that! What I do and who I see in my own time is none of your damned business."

"It is when you're associating with the Mureaus of this world/ he told her savagely.

"Don't you care what he is? Shit! Do you know what he is?"