Trust Me to Know You (39 page)

Mr Lucas: Will you require any further information?

DI Clark: It can wait a few days. We’re following up the forensic scene and there have been developments in the assault on Trudy Belling.

(Recording stopped.)

***

The fear had gone now. The screaming had left me too. The gurgling noise he made when she had stabbed him in the throat was still lingering somewhere, as was the memory of the handcuffs clattering on the concrete ground as he dropped them. Her frenzy of blood lust I
had not witnessed. I had kept my eyes tightly shut while she had gone
crazy throwing herself at him. At least I
would not
have to see the blood in my dreams.

Jason had gone to the police station to give his statement. I was lying in bed, resting, my eyes shut.

I did remember Jason taking me in his arms, letting me bury my face in his chest as I shook violently and painful, like a cramp all over my body. I had to stop the screaming with my fingers, shoving them in my mouth. Jason had held me tight, his breath was so rapid and I could hear his heart pounding like mine.

~

“
Oh God,
Gemma! I thought... I never want to lose you...
I need you. I need you forever
, Gemma. I love you so much, so much.” His voice broke through to me and I clutched him tightly, not daring to open my eyes.

“I’ve always loved you, Jason,” I rasped at him, my voice barely audible.

I could hear Martinson’s voice, gently speaking. “Just give me the knife, Libby. It’s over.”

“Keep your eyes shut, baby. I’m going carry you back indoors.” He lifted me gently and I hooked my arms around his neck.

I sat for a while in a small side room. There were police officers and hotel staff coming and going around me and I ignored them. I had a ringing in my face from Libby’s slaps and there was a pain in my side. Even with a blanket around me, I could not stop shivering. My right hip was stinging and there was a wetness to my side
.
I recollected Jason touching down there and his fingers had blood on them, not much. He wiped it off quickly.

One of the hotel first aiders took a look. “Not deep, I think she’s been nicked.”

“I don’t want to go to hospital.” I looked up Jason’s concerned face. I had
never seen such worries etched on to his handsome features before now. With his lion mask
gone, his emotions were fully exposed to me.

“Take me home, please,” I whispered.

He did, ignoring the commotion at the entrance to the hotel
we went out another back exit. Johnson had arrived to take us home as Martinson was helping the police make sense of what had happened. I lay in the back of the car, a cotton wad taped to my side. Jason stroked my hair. I
could not stop the sense of fear. The screaming in my mind was deafening and refused to cease.

He carried me in and Brooks held the door open for Jason. “The doctor is on her way as you requested, Mr Lucas.”

I lay on the bed. I was so cold and the duvet was not
helping. I sipped a mouthful of water, but I was left with
a need to vomit. I could hear voices outside the room.

“Thanks for coming so late,” Jason’s voice.

Then a woman had replied and I could not make out what she said. The bedroom door slowly creaked open. “Hi, Gemma, I’m Dr. Mead. Jason has asked me to check you over. I’m going to be real gentle.” A pleasant voice I could trust.

With cool, confident fingers she examined me.
My face first
, checking the cheekbone and telling me softly my face would be a bit bruised but otherwise there was no damage to my bone. She shone a light in my eyes. The torch’s shaft of light was too bright and I had shut my eyes. She then took my pulse and blood pressure. I was rolled on to my side, which was when I noticed Jason sitting cross-legged
on the bed next to me. He looked at me reassuringly as Dr. Mead inspected my wound.

“Um. It is small but a little deeper than I like. It will need a couple of stitches to close it properly or else it could get infected.” She replaced the wad.

“Can you do that here? Gemma doesn’t want to go to hospital. I don’t want her in an A&E department on a Saturday night.” Jason was persuasive.

“I can do the procedure here. I have suture kit and lidocaine. What concerns me is she is in shock and she needs to rest. She’s not going to keep still in this state.”

I was shaking so badly, my heartbeat would not calm down and my head throbbed
. All I could hear was screaming and I
did not know if the sound stuck in my head was Libby’s manic shriek or mine.

“I can give her a mild tranquiliser to get her to go to sleep. I can put the sutures in while she sleeps.”

“Do it,” Jason spoke with that calm authority again.

I looked at Jason and he held my hand as the needle slipped into my arm. Then the lights gradually went dim and the screaming faded.

Sunday proceeded to wash away in a haze. I stayed in bed all day while Jason watched me like a hawk. He insisted I had soup and juice to combat my
nausea. I
then
swallowed the tablets he gave me and lay there floating in a dream like trance, never fully awake or deeply asleep. I suspected the tablets were valium or something similar. Occasionally I would hear his voice on the phone or his fingers tapping on the keyboard of his laptop,
perched on his knee next to me in bed.

The Sunday ended with the winter frost forming on the sash window
. I slept an unnaturally deep
dreamless sleep.

***

Monday morning I felt better and I was sitting up sipping the sweet tea
Jason had left for me. My head was clear and my thoughts rational. No calming tablet was necessary and I was waiting for Dr. Mead to return to check up on me. Jason had left instructions for
Mr
Brooks to let her in to see me. The doorbell
rang and I heard her greet Mr
Brooks below in the hallway. There was a knock on the bedroom door and without waiting
, she came in, medical bag in hand.

“Hi, Gemma. Oh,
you’re looking so much better this morning. The colour is back in your cheeks. Good.”

She placed the bag on the end of the bed and propped herself on the edge next to me. She was in a smart grey trouser suit with her hair tied back behind her head. I did not recollect what she had worn
in the middle of Saturday night.
A very attractive woman and probably in her mid-thirties. She took my pulse and flashed a light in my eyes. Then she inspected my knife wound, removing the dressing careful so I barely noticed her do it.

“That’s healing nicely. You won’t need a dressing anymore and you can shower or bathe, the
water won’t do it any harm. Any pus, blood or a fever and you will need to seek medical help. Understand?”

I nodded, hoping none of what she said would be necessary.

“I’ve brought you more antibiotics, a short course as a precaution against infection. When was your last tetanus booster? Less than ten years ago?”

I thought hard and recollected one at the end of my last year of university. “I’m pretty sure I’m covered at the moment, thank you, Dr. Mead.”

She smiled at my politeness. “Well I best be off. You’re free to get back to normal activities.” She paused looking at me carefully. “If you need counselling I am sure Jason can arrange it for you. Don’t let things get bottled up inside, it is dangerous for your health.” She patted my hand and started to pack her bag leaving the tablets on my bedside table.

I could not
help notice that she called him Jason. She also came out in the middle of the night without any fuss. I was curious about
her; I needed to know why she came. Was I jealous of her?

“It is very kind of you to come out in the night, are you an on call doctor?” I sat up a bit more in bed. She shut her bag and smiled at me in an oh-here-we-go sort of way.

“No. I’m a hospital registrar. I wasn’t on duty at the weekend. I’m back on shift this afternoon. No. I owe Jason a favour and we’re old friends. We go back to university. We met when he was an undergraduate and I was finishing off my PhD. I then went on to start practising medicine.”

Oh
! The penny dropped. I knew precisely who she was. We held each other’s gaze for a minute, as if acknowledging the significance of her statement.

She hesitated, then as if as an afterthought she added.
“I studied medicine with someone you know. I believe she helped you recently, a few months back. I remember her concern over what had happened to you. I hope these unfortunate incidences don’t mar your happiness, Gemma.”

Nothing more needed to be said. She said goodbye and good luck to me before heading downstairs. At
last,
I knew how Jason had been given my name as a potential submissive for him. The chain of people has been connected together.

I smiled.
He had kept that quiet!

I heard more voices downstairs. Jason was back. There was a brief conversation with Dr. Mead and then she was gone. I carefully climbed out of bed and headed for the bathroom. I was desperate for a shower, fresh clothes and something more substantial to eat. Jason would be pleased with me.

***

The rest of the day was subdued. I was up and in the drawing room. Jason was not forthcoming about his police interview. I asked when I would have to do mine. The thought filled me with trepidation.

“In a few days. Don’t worry about it. It is an open and shut case.” He tossed the newspaper on the coffee table. He was staying at home with me, though I suspected he would work most of the time in his study.

“Do I tell them about the previous attack, what he did to me? I don’t want them to know the nature of my relationship with him.”

I rubbed my hands up and down my thighs. I had a sense of dread at the thought of dealing with unpleasant memories.

“I don’t think it serves any purpose. The police are happy that he was a possessive ex-boyfriend with a grudge. They have enough forensic evidence to link him to Trudy’s
assault. Though there won’t be any criminal proceedings,
she can be assured that he’s not coming back. You need to find a way to put it all behind you
.” He reached over and stopped my trembling hands, holding them steady with his own.

“How though did he track me down to the ball?” I asked.

His hands withdrew.

“I want to know!”

“Babe...”

“Please,” I implored.

Jason sighed. “Martinson has speculated much. What we do know is he found out about your internship from one of your old work colleagues - someone called Nigel?”

I leaned back in my seat
. Nigel
had been my cubicle neighbour in my previous job, before I had joined Jason’s company
. Unimaginative, very literal and occasionally imprudent
when it came to social nuances. I had been convinced he had Asperger’s. On the other hand, he was kind and unassuming of the worse aspects of human nature.

“I contacted Nigel
about references for my CV. Told him about the application for the internship at your company.
Nigel would have blabbered to him. The poor man isn’t blessed with a sense of discrimination.
How did
he
meet Libby?”

“Libby has not provided any details of how he contacted her,” continued Jason. “She’s not subtle about her connections to me via her father
and boasts outside of work. It’s possible he hung out around the office hoping to catch you. You were working your notice. Instead he came across Libby and her big mouth....”

“And took her to bed. He knew how to get women into bed...”

“Stop with the recriminations, babe. That wasn’t the weak link in all of this.”

“What do you mean?”

“I found out about his desire for retribution. The evening I came to your flat, I took a call and then left – remember? I lied to you about needing to work. I had to be sure that the threat was real and I met with Martinson to discuss what I had been told by my contact. That was when I found out that he was after you. You’d left the company by the time he wrapped Libby around his finger. Well,
they both were manipulative. She’s not stupid. She suspected the rumours about
us were true; your sudden departure and me being seen at the same nightclub as you.”

“He was there?”

“Outside the Jinx club on the Wednesday? Probably close by and waiting to see who came and went. He must have seen you arrive with Trudy and guessed you two were together
.
It was a familiar haunt of yours for vanilla nights out. Might Libby have overheard you planning?”

I groaned, I had definitely mentioned my night out to the others in the office. A last ditch attempt to impress them with my virtually absence social life. “He didn’t get me there though.”

“Martinson escorted you to the car, remember?”

“Christ. That close? She brought cakes in! The last day of my job, Libby fucking brought me cakes knowing he was after me!” I went to stand up in fury but Jason’s hand pressed me back down. My fingers clenched with anger.

“He went after Trudy to get your contact details. Libby didn’t know where you had gone. No forwarding address for work and no proof you were with me. He hung about the Jinx hoping to catch you there and on Saturday found Trudy
.
You hadn’t told Trudy about me, so still no location for you and all he gained was your mobile number.”

“They asked, in the office, where I was going, but of course I couldn’t tell them anything. I made up a fib about going to my parents.” I hung my head. “The ball?” I went back to my original question.

“Ah. As I said, she’s not an idiot. She had her invite to the ball, via her father and she guessed you might be there too. She approached somebody in my hospitality group; they organise the ball along
with the foundation and obtained a copy of the guest list.”