The Jump (58 page)

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I

She was sitting drinking a large brandy and Seven Up. Her face was hard. Stephen closed the door gently behind him then said, ‘How much does she know?’

Too bloody much. She walked in here as if she knew everything, Stephen. Told me that she was out here looking over Georgio’s interests. Told me he had sent her.’ Stephen laughed nastily. ‘Oh, she did, did she?’ Candy nodded. There was a bit of trouble and all while she was here. That geek Gainsborough tied up the little girl from Colombo. The stupid prat tied her to the end of the bed by her hair, if you don’t mind. Somehow, during his games, probably as he turned her over, her hair got wrapped around her neck. He crushed her fucking windpipe.’

Stephen frowned. ‘Is she all right?’ Candy shook her head. ‘She’s dying slowly. She’ll be gone by the morning, I’d say. She’s stronger than I thought, to be honest. I think he damaged her inside as well. She’s bringing up blood, and bleeding from the nose. I’ve locked her in one of the rooms in the roof.’ Stephen sat down heavily. ‘And Donna saw all this?’ Candy nodded. She watched as he ran his hands through his thick dark hair.

‘Where’s Jake?’ she asked.

‘He’s still in Colombo. I left him there to sort out the other business. The police tried to close down the bar again.’

Candy closed her eyes. ‘It never rains but it pours, eh? I heard they’ve been shutting down a lot of the gay bars there. Give it a couple of weeks and we can reopen. It’s always the same. It’s just a show, nothing serious.’

Stephen shook his head. ‘Fuck that anyway, I’m more interested in what’s happening with that stupid bitch.’

He poured himself a large brandy. Then he said, ‘She’ll just have to be an accident, Won’t she? Let’s face it, she won’t be the first British tourist to die through drinking and swimming. It happens all the time. Arrack is lethal out here with the tourists. There’s a heavy undertow on a few of the beaches, it’ll look all right. I saw it done myself years ago, in Phuket. I felt more sorry for the tour rep to be honest, she had to sort out all the details.’

Stephen laughed and Candy smiled grimly at him. ‘But that’s murder.’

He opened his eyes wide and said in a childish voice, ‘No! I never would have known! What do you think Gainsborough did today then? Had a little accident? Don’t go soft on me, Candy, I ain’t in the mood.’

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them She shook her head in amazement. ‘You’re as hard as nails, aren’t you?’

As she took a gulp of her drink and lit a cigarette, Stephen said, “I’m harder than that, Candy, and at the moment it’s just as well one of us is, ain’t it?’

‘What about Georgio then? Have you thought about him, what he might have to say about you topping his old woman?’

Stephen laughed nastily. ‘Fuck Georgio. Me and Lewis are rowing him out only he doesn’t know that yet. So just take me to Donna, will you?’

Candy opened the office door, her face a picture of disbelief at what she had just heard.

‘You’re a snidey bastard, Stephen.’ Her voice held genuine admiration.

‘That’s me, Candy - always a step ahead of the competition. Now, where the hell is she?’

‘I stuck her into one of the back bedrooms. Kassim’s outside the door and here’s another lad outside the window. She’s slippery. She is also traumatised at what she saw. Very vestal virgin, is our Georgio’s wife. Where the fuck he got her from I don’t know.’

Stephen grinned. The Roman Road.’

Candy laughed in delight.

‘Amazing what you can pick up on the markets, ain’t it?’

Donna sat in the deepening twilight, her feet curled under her. She could smell the bedding and an odour of heavy greasy food. The kitchen must be nearby. Voices wafted into the room from the grounds and she guessed the hotel was open for business. All she could see in her mind was the child, and the blood. She had a raging thirst, but no appetite. Fear had made her bowels loose and she had had an uncomfortable time trying to hold everything inside her. There was no sanitation nearby. What was supposed to have been an ensuite bathroom was a dust-filled hole.

She could hear the movements of insects in the deepening gloom and had to stifle the urge to scream. As the doorhandle turned, she felt a wave of panic wash over her.

Stephen stood outlined in the glare of the corridor. As he switched on the light, Donna shielded her eyes with her hand.

Candy followed him into the room and said loudly, ‘Why didn’t you put the lights on, you stupid cow? Do you want anything to eat or drink?’ x

She sounded so normal, Donna felt for a split second that she was losing her mind.

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‘How’s the child?’ Her voice felt rusty, as if she hadn’t used it for years.

Candy rolled her eyes. ‘I got one of the men to take her to the hospital. She’ll be fine.’

Donna licked dry lips. ‘No cars have left since I’ve been here, I’ve been listening out.’

Candy looked at Stephen in a ‘See what I mean?’ kind of way and shrugged.

“I’ll get you a drink, all right?’

When she had left the room, Stephen walked over and sat on the bed.

‘Why did you come, Donna - eh? Why didn’t you keep your big nose out of it? You realise that I can’t let you leave now, don’t you? There’s too much at stake here. You saw and you heard too much. You’re like a fucking leech, do you know that? Like the spear in Christ’s side.’

His low sing song voice frightened Donna more than if he had struck her or shouted at her.

‘I see you’ve had a right-hander.’ He touched her swollen cheek softly with his fingers. Donna pulled her head away abruptly. It was almost a sexual act, a caress, and it made her feel sick.

‘Still the ice lady, eh? My God, you make me laugh. Georgio’s little virgin to the last. Do you know something, Donna? He fucked everything that walked. It was common knowledge to all and sundry. Alan Cox could have enlightened you, Georgio took enough of them to Amigo’s. Tall, blonde bimbos were his forte. Oh, don’t look so shocked. You must have known, must have guessed.’

Donna watched him with fearful eyes. Stephen was thoroughly enjoying himself, relishing seeing Miss High and Mighty brought so low.

‘Georgio masterminded all this.’ He lifted his arms to encompass the room. ‘It was after he visited Thailand with me the first time. I took him all over. As you know I love the place, always did. He loved it as well. Loved the girls. “They’re like pieces of meat,” he said. “Faceless, nameless, you can just do what you like and they don’t mind.” He bought bar girls at a dollar a lime, three and four in bed at once. He loved all that, old Georgio, it appealed to him. Some were only twelve or thirteen. He drew the line at the really young ones. Always had that Victorian streak, did our Georgio.’

Donna put her hands over her ears. ‘Shut up! Shut up. Stephen!’

He dragged her hands down and held them firmly on her lap.

‘You know it’s true, Donna. You were the best front he could have for years, and you never realised it. He used to laugh at you behind

your back. We all did, even Big Paddy. He’s in on all this as well as Davey Jackson. You thought they were all protecting you from me and the likes of me, and all the time they were protecting me and Georgio from you. Funny when you think about it, eh?’

Candy came back into the room with three glasses on a tray. She passed one to Stephen and one to Donna. Donna took hers but didn’t drink from it.

Stephen sipped his and then gave it to Donna.

‘Don’t worry, we’re not going to poison you.’ He laughed and shook his head. ‘You read too many fucking books.’

Donna sipped the Arrack and Coke then gulped at it, her throat swollen and sore, needing the coolness of the drink.

‘You’must get that child to a hospital, Stephen, otherwise she’ll die.’

He laughed again and Donna saw the insane glint in his eyes. She realised that Stephen was over the edge.

‘Oh, I must, must I? You have no authority here, Donna. You are in deep shit, lady. It’s you who’ll be going to the hospital, love. Not the kid. You’ll be in the mortuary by morning!’

He saw the fear in her eyes and savoured the sensation it gave him. To see her brought low was like balm to his ego.

‘You’re like my mother, do you know that? All good outside, and wind and water inside. All the mouth and the talk. Oh, yes, it’s like you modelled yourself on old Maeve. Maeve the mother figure, Maeve who talked to us all as if we were kids even when we were grown men and women. I hate her, Donna, almost as much as I hate you. Do you know the funny thing? When the word gets back that you’re dead, I’ll have to identify you, won’t I?’

He laughed again.

“I’ll enjoy that. It will give me a real good laugh.’

Donna was terrified. ‘You’re mad. Georgio will know what happened.’

Stephen rubbed her face with his hand, caressing the swollen cheek once more.

‘Georgio will be grateful, darling. He wasn’t going to stay with you, you stupid bitch.’

As he spoke Donna launched herself at him, hands and nails flying. It was so unexpected it took him and Candy by surprise but as she reached the door, Stephen caught hold of her hair, dragging her painfully back to the bed.

‘You’re not going anywhere, woman. Not yet anyway.’

Just then the door opened and Alan Cox walked into the room with two heavyset men behind him.

‘Hello, all. Entertaining the family, Stephen?’ Donna catapulted from the bed as if on a spring and ran to Alan, her face alight with relief at seeing him, Stephen looked stunned.

‘Surprised to see me, Stephen?’ Alan put his arm around Donna and smiled down at her. Then, pushing her away gently, he walked towards Stephen.

He was still looking stunned as Candy, realising what was happening, went for Alan with her glass. Donna shouted to warn him and Alan turned around and slammed his fist into Candy’s abdomen. The glass flew out of her hand as she dropped to her knees.

Alan Cox stared at Stephen as he sat on the bed, his face a mask of surprise and fear. As Stephen went to rise, Alan began to lay into him, punching him with the full force of his considerable weight behind each blow.

Donna watched in shock as Stephen attempted to crawl across the bed, trying to avoid the rain of blows descending on him with premeditated regularity, battering his head and his face with a ferocity Donna would never have believed possible. As Stephen hit the floor, Alan was kicking him, kicking him so hard he was being shoved across the concrete, and all the time Alan was talking.

‘Hurts does it, Brunos? Frightened, are you? The big whoremaster is frightened, is he?’ In her mind’s eye Donna saw Alan kicking to death a Chinese man in Soho. In her heart she knew it was about to be re-enacted in a squalid hotel-cum-brothel in Sri Lanka.

Grabbing him, she began pulling him away. ‘You’ll kill him, Alan, you’ll kill him!’

He shrugged her off as if she was a fly.

She looked at the two heavies for help. They stood watching, stony-faced.

‘Stop him, someone, for Christ’s sake!’

But no one moved. Even Candy was watching in fascinated silence.

Pushing her way in front of Alan, Donna put her hands up to his face, cupping his chin.

‘He’s not worth going to prison for, Alan, especially not out here. Leave him. It’s over. Leave him alone.’

Alan looked down at her as if in a trance. Then his shoulders slumped inside his jacket, and his body seemed to relax.

His eyes moved to the bloody face below him, and his mind registered that Stephen was still breathing. Inside he was sorry for that fact; he wished him dead. Never had he wanted anyone dead so much.

He glanced over at the two men waiting by the door. Their faces remained devoid of expression or thought.

Donna pulled him away from Stephen’s inert form.

‘There’s an injured child here, a girl, in a lot of pain. Her windpipe’s crushed. We have to find out what happened to her, Alan.’

Candy pulled herself up with the help of the bed. ‘I told you, she’s gone to the hospital.’

Donna looked into the hard face. ‘What hospital is she in then, and we’ll go there?’

Alan looked at the woman and said through clenched teeth, ‘I’m going to raze this fucking place to the ground. My advice to you is to tell the lady what she wants to know or else I’ll kick the truth out of you.’ Candy looked from Alan to Stephen and then to the men by the doorway. She sighed.

‘She’s up in one of the rooms in the roof.’

Donna’s face paled. ‘But she was dying, the child was dying!’

Candy nodded. ‘I’m quite well aware of that fact, Mrs Brunos.’

‘Then you’d better lead the way, hadn’t you?’ Alan’s voice was loud in the room.

He looked at the men by the door and said, ‘You know what to do.’

They nodded and left the room quietly.

‘Come on then, we haven’t got all night.’

Candy led them to the attic room, and as the door was opened, the heat hit them. It was like opening an oven.

The child was on an old blanket on the floor. Her eyes were closed, her mouth slightly open. As Donna ran to her, there was the sound of shouting and Candy made a move for the doorway.

‘Stay where you are, lady, I haven’t finished with you. There’s another few men down there with my two. I came well-prepared. You ain’t going fucking nowhere.’

Alan picked up the child gently and ran with her from the room, Donna and Candy following. He took her to the room he had found Donna in and she saw Kassim inside with a large cut over his forehead, talking to himself in an Indian dialect.

Inside the room, Alan placed the child gently on the bed, but Donna knew as soon as she looked at her that she was dead. Her tongue was swollen, it was noticeable in the bright light, and her lips were blue. Her large brown eyes were half-open.

Donna stared at the broken body for a few moments and then she became aware of a high-pitched keening noise. For a while she wondered where it was coming from, maybe from the child, then she

felt Alan’s arms around her and she realised that it was coming from inside her, and out of her mouth.

Alan stared down into the strained dirty face of Donna Brunos and felt his heart move inside his chest. All her longing and need was written in her eyes, every defeat etched into her face. Yet also, in the back of her eyes, there was an inner light, strength that hadn’t been there before. He had glimpsed it once or twice, but now it was the making of her. Donna Brunos, wife of Georgio, was gone. Donna Brunos, Woman, had taken her place. Holding her tight, he let her cry herself out. The child’s broken body was an outlet for everything that had ever befallen her and instinctively Alan Cox knew that.