Refuge (22 page)

                ‘Hasn’t he got enough to keep him occupied?’ asked Jenny.

                ‘I’m sure he has,’ replied Jemima, ‘but he has specifically asked me to come and find you. There’s a group of us at the pool, if you want to join us. Or you could grab a drink and join in the conversation. The dancing will start soon. Someone’s just gone to find a gramophone. It’s all very
blaah
at the minute.’ She rolled her eyes and took a swig from the bottle. ‘Hopefully it will pick up soon.’ Jenny looked at Cass.

Cass shook her head imperceptibly. She moved towards the open door and covered Jenny’s hand. ‘We’ll start at the pool,’ she said. ‘Where’s your boyfriend?’

                ‘Leo?’ asked Jemima. She shook her head, the blonde waves never moving, so lacquered in place were they. ‘God knows where he is by now.’ She leaned into the girls. ‘I bet you two will flush him out. He did ask for you.’

Cass laughed. ‘No darling, your other boyfriend,’ she said.

Jemima paused for a minute, a strange little look fleeting across her face. ‘Oh. You mean Stephen. Is it that obvious?’ She smirked. ‘He’s along the corridor. Just a few rooms along.’ She gestured with the bottle. ‘I’m flushing him out next. You can amuse Leo while I’m occupied. Darling Leo is my umbrella, all the girls know that.’

                ‘Excuse me?’ asked Cass. ‘What on earth does that mean?’

                ‘Oh sweetie, if you’re going to be regulars at our parties, you need to learn the lingo,’ said Jemima. ‘An umbrella, darling, is a young man that you can borrow for the evening.’ She winked. ‘He’s not spanking new, though. He’s been through quite a few showers.’ She laughed and blew them a kiss. ‘Oh – those pills I promised you. There should be some in the drawers. If not, there’s plenty outside. Just ask anyone.’ She swanned off along the corridor, bumping into an elegant table on her way.

                ‘I hate her,’ muttered Jenny. ‘I think I hate her the most. She has the morals of an alley cat. They all do. I don’t know about the flying one?’

                ‘He has to go too. He’s part of it. But it’s Leo for me,’ said Cass. ‘He’s the one I want.’

                ‘Darling, he looks just like Will,’ said Jenny, opening her eyes wide.

                ‘All the more reason,’ replied Cass bitterly. Suddenly, the shutters went down in Jenny’s eyes and she began to hum a little tune; slightly off-key and very quietly. Cass knew she’d lost her again. This was the best time, though, when she was like this. She became a killing machine.

                Psychopaths were like that.

***

The newspapers had a field day when they discovered the carnage. Nobody could agree how many people had been involved – it was clearly a gang, they said. No one person could do that. And surely, if it was one person, then they would easily have been overpowered by the partygoers? There were so many drugs and so much booze in the house and the gardens, that one theory was that they had all been served a lethal cocktail: the cocktail had sedated them enough to make them unresisting. Every one of them had chunks of flesh ripped from their bodies – all at main arterial points. The majority of the injuries were to the throats. One of the more outrageous ideas suggested was that a team of vampires had gatecrashed the party: which was, of course, ridiculous. One of the victims was a War veteran. He was found cradling the naked body of Miss Jemima Saunders-Townsend, the fiancée of the householder, Leo Hartley. Once the shock waves of the murders had faded from society, gossips began speculating. The veteran had allegedly had such a look of horror on his face that people wondered whether Leo had found them. But of course, that was ridiculous as well, because, like most of that set, Leo knew all about it.

Present Day

Guy had underestimated Veva; he would even admit that he had been stupid. He pounded across the scrubby grass towards the lime kilns, his sharp eyes scanning the horizon for her.

He spotted the dark figure diving into the sea. He saw the wind lift her dark hair and her slim figure disappear beneath the waves. In an instant, he was in the water, striking out effortlessly against the current to reach her. He was a strong swimmer – stronger than she was. So focussed was she on her quarry, that she didn’t hear him above the storm until he was close behind her. She whipped her head around, her hair slapping through the water, and saw him just as he reached out and closed his fingers around the top of her arm. She pulled against him, but he held her fast. He dragged her towards the shore and across the sharp shale, up onto a slope of the beach. She writhed, trying to escape, but he held her down.

‘Don’t even try to get away!’ he hissed. ‘I know who you are and what you do.’

‘Let me go!’ she shouted. ‘I don’t know you! Get off me!’ She thrashed her head from side to side, squeezing her eyes shut. ‘Get off! Leave me alone! I have to go!’

‘Where are you going, Veva?’ he asked.

                 She shrieked and tried to wriggle free from his grasp. ‘I don’t know you, I don’t know you...’ she kept repeating. ‘I’m not Veva. I’m not her.’

                ‘You do know me, Genevieve.’

                ‘I don’t, I don’t know you. I don’t know any Genevieves. I’m not Veva. She’s dead. She died when Will died...’ The girl opened her eyes and glared at Guy. ‘He’s dead. He was killed.’ Then she started laughing. ‘I think I killed him, you know. It might have been me. She said it was...’

                ‘Who was it?’ he repeated. ‘Who said that?’

                ‘Nobody. Nobody at all.’ She struggled to throw him off, but his hands tightened. ‘No. It wasn’t her. She didn’t tell me.’ She suddenly growled at him, a low, guttural noise that startled even Guy. ‘I saw him. She showed me.’ She bared her teeth and tried to bite him, defending herself. Guy held her tighter; she was completely insane and even more dangerous than he had anticipated.  ‘Get off me, Joseph!’ she cried. ‘Get off me...’ Her body suddenly went limp.     

‘Joseph?’ She stared at Guy, as if seeing him clearly for the first time. ‘You’re not Joseph,’ she murmured. ‘I do know you though.’ She struggled to focus and Guy saw a different kind of madness in her eyes. Suddenly, they hardened and she opened them wide. ‘Montgomery!’ A giggle started somewhere deep inside of her and then she burst out laughing. ‘Damn you, Guy Montgomery. I can remember you. Tell me,’ she said, ‘did I ever thank you properly, Sir Guy? Aren’t you proud of me? Look at what you created! I have you to thank for this. You saved my life; no, you gave me life. I am forever in your debt. Eternally.’ She laughed again. ‘I’m so proud of
me!
’

‘There’s nothing to be proud of!’ Guy fired back.

She wriggled and he held her down.  ‘Let me go!’ she shouted again. ‘I’m not telling you anything else. I
am
proud of myself. I’ve done all this
myself
.’

Guy bared his fangs. ‘I know there is someone else. Who is it? Who’s the red-head?’ He saw her fight within herself, torn between admitting he was right or claiming all the mis-placed glory for herself.

Then suddenly her attitude shifted again and she glared at him, full of hatred. ‘You don’t know me; you know nothing about me. But I am not a liar. That’s one of the things Joseph called me and I never lied!’

‘I didn’t say you were lying.’ Guy forced himself to soften his voice, to cajole her into confessing. ‘I want to know how clever you are.’ The words choked him. ‘How clever you both are. Who is your friend?’

 ‘All right,’ she sighed theatrically, ‘I’ll confess. It’s nice to be told I’m clever. I have a friend, but you’ll never work out who it is. I bet you don’t. We go a long way back. We’ve got so much in common.’ She giggled.

‘But who is it?’ yelled Guy.

                ‘You already know!’ she screamed back. ‘I told you! Why can’t you remember?’ Her voice changed into a whine, making her sound like a spoiled child. ‘Who else had Will hurt? Who else had he deceived?’

                ‘I’m not here to play games with you!’ Guy snapped, losing patience. ‘Tell me who it is. No-one else need die.’

                ‘Oh, so now you’re all penitent and good, are you?’ she sneered. ‘That’s not what we are, you taught me that. Why, you encouraged me to kill my brother. Can you remember that?’

‘I tried to save you,’ said Guy. ‘You told me yourself it would have been suicide to return home. I tried to give you an escape route but it doesn’t mean I don’t regret doing it. I’ve changed since then. But you - you’d murdered two people, Veva!’ You...’ Suddenly, he realised.

Veva started to laugh, a low, mocking laugh. ‘Oh, very
good
, Sir Guy,’ she said. ‘You’ve worked it out. I say, well done that man. Only I’m not Veva anymore. I told you. She’s gone. I’m Jenny now. Genevieve or Veva or whoever she was died when Will did. He deserved it though, for what he did... ’

                ‘So it was the girl,’ interrupted Guy. ‘His fiancée...’

                ‘Don’t
say
that word!’ screeched Veva. ‘You’ve made me very sad, Sir Guy. Why are you here? Why can’t you just leave me alone? Go on – go off to Hartside and see what you can find. He might still be there. Tell him I said hello. In fact, give him my love...’

                Guy could tell her was losing her again. He had to speak quickly. ‘Will’s fiancée,’ he repeated. ‘What did you do to her? Why?’

                Veva wriggled again, trying to release her shoulders from his grasp. The shutters lifted for a moment. ‘That girl was alive when I went back, I didn’t kill her properly when I killed Will,’ she muttered. ‘I tried to do it again. But I didn’t do it properly - again.’ She glared up at Guy. ‘I knew then that she wasn’t meant to die. She was meant to help me. But it didn’t
work
!’ cried Veva as Guy held her firmly. ‘She just wouldn’t
die
. So she had to come with me.’ She laughed. ‘She feels the same way I do. Will made fools out of us both. Men can’t be trusted, can they? Just look at my brother.’

‘There was no need to do all of this,’ said Guy. ‘I can’t believe I didn’t anticipate it.’

‘You just didn’t know me very well, did you?’ laughed Veva. ‘My brother always told me I was evil. My mother hated me for the way I looked, but Joseph knew my soul was as dark as his. It’s such a shame you didn’t know sooner, Guy. Cass was with me when I met Joseph at the chapel. It was fun.’

 ‘Nobody drowned here, did they?’ asked Guy.

‘Clever boy,’ hissed Veva, ‘They did not. We have been tidying up a little. Cass plans it out. She researches it. She identifies who deserves it. Every one of those men – they’ve all used women and tossed them aside like they were worthless. And me? I just enjoy myself. She won’t let me do anything, she won’t let me, Guy...tell her. Tell her when you see her. But I think she likes this one. I think she does. But I like him too, it’s just not fair...’

‘Where is he?’ said Guy, cutting her off.

‘Oh, he’s safe. Cass is looking after him.’ Veva began to laugh. ‘In fact, you’ve delayed me, Sir Guy. Maybe he’s not so safe anymore. Who knows? Cass isn’t my responsibility. I can’t tell her what to do. It depends if he upsets her. She’ll wait a while then she might just go for it herself. Now wouldn’t that be tragic? Well, it would be for me.’ She pouted. ‘I quite enjoy it. I’m rather good at it now. I’ve had lots of practice since we last met.’ She bared her fangs at Guy. ‘I have you to thank for giving me the gift.’

‘Cass is your responsibility!’ cried Guy. ‘She didn’t have a choice in what she became. Where is she?’

‘Not telling,’ sniffed Veva. Guy shook her in frustration. He threw her aside, and she tumbled into a heap, laughing. Her long, dark hair was matted with sand and she rolled over on the beach to sit up.

‘I will find them,’ swore Guy, ‘and I’ll stop them. But first...’ Guy moved so quickly, that by the time the blade of the silver dagger plunged into her body, Veva had no time to react. She opened her eyes in shock and collapsed back onto the sand, staring sightlessly at the sky. Guy dived back into the ocean, not waiting to watch the body quietly disintegrate and merge with the shale on the beach.