Black Cathedral

‘Tetchy,’ Johnson said, a slight sneer on his lips.

‘Piss off!’

‘All right, settle down,’ Michael Bennett said. ‘Getting edgy with each other won’t solve anything. We’d better search the house for her.’

‘That’s a bit extreme, isn’t it, Mike?’ Johnson said. ‘She’s probably gone up to her room.’

‘Then we’ll go and check.’ When he needed to be, Bennett could adopt the leader role, he just didn’t choose to do it enough of the time.

‘You can go. I’ve just made myself comfortable. Free booze. What could be better?’ Johnson was being deliberately provocative, fueled by the alcohol.

‘Free booze and no guts,’ Sheila said, glaring across at Johnson.

He raised his glass to her and smiled. ‘Need any photocopying done, Sheil?’

‘Prick!’ Sheila said with anger.

‘Sheila!’ Bennett said.

‘Well he is,’ Sheila said with passion, but hoped no one realized what Johnson’s remark meant.

‘Agreed, but standing here sniping with each other won’t help find Jo. Come with me. We’ll check out her room.’

‘Shouldn’t we all go?’ Casey Faraday looked pale and frightened. She chewed her bottom lip and tears were welling in her eyes.

‘Good idea,’ Bennett said. ‘Best that we all stick together. Eddie, Andrew, come on.’

With a theatrical sigh Andrew Johnson put his glass down on the table and shuffled himself to his feet. ‘Bloody waste of time,’ he said.

Bennett walked over to him and spoke softly so the others couldn’t hear. ‘If you want a job when you get back from here, stop acting like a moron. You may think you’re Jack the lad, but just remember, when we get back to Waincraft, I’m still your superior, and I can make life bloody difficult for you.’

Anger flared in Andrew Johnson’s eyes. His mouth opened, but he bit back the words and forced a smile. ‘No problem, Mike,’ he said.

‘Good,’ Bennett said. ‘Now, come on.’ And to his surprise the whole team moved as one.

Jo Madley’s bedroom, the room all the girls were sharing, was empty. Her bed was neatly made and a few pieces of clothing hung from hangers hooked over the handles of the wardrobe door. On the dressing table was a cluster of her cosmetics; on the bedside table a paperback book, open, facedown, spine straining.

Johnson glanced down at the title of the book and smirked. Change Your Life in Five Days. We’ll she’d certainly done that.

‘We’ll try the other rooms, then move on up to the staff quarters,’ Michael Bennett said. ‘She’s got to be here somewhere.’

‘Has she?’ Sheila said quietly. ‘After what we witnessed on the patio, I would have thought that all bets were off.’

Bennett looked at her tight-lipped and walked from the room.

The rest of the Manse was empty.

‘This is pointless,’ Johnson said. ‘She’s not here. Let’s go back to the bar.’

‘ To do what?’ Bennett said. ‘Sit there and get pissed?’

‘That’s better than roaming about the house aimlessly,’ Eddie Farrant said. ‘We’re not going to find her.’

‘What makes you so bloody sure, Eddie?’ Casey Faraday said. Her voice had a hysterical edge. Bennett looked at her sharply. She was on the edge and the slightest thing might push her over.

‘I would have thought that was obvious,’ Farrant said. ‘This is the second time we’ve searched this place. The staff has gone, Jo’s gone. We’ll be next. One by bloody one.’ He said it calmly but the fear was evident.

‘That’s enough, Farrant,’ Bennett said. ‘ We don’t want to hear your opinions.’ He went across to Casey and wrapped an arm protectively around her shoulders. ‘Take no notice of him, Casey. He’s just sounding off. All wind and piss,’ he added, remembering Jo Madley’s graphic description earlier.

Eddie Farrant glared at him. ‘I resent that,’ he said, his temper flaring. ‘I’m entitled to express my opinions.’

‘Not when it’s upsetting others.’ Bennett stood upright and his posture dared Farrant to take it further.

‘I need a drink,’ Farrant said.

‘So you’re just going to sit in the bar and lose yourself in a bottle. Is that the plan, Eddie?’ Sheila said.

‘Yes,’ Farrant said. ‘That’s the plan.’ He shoved past her and made his way down the stairs.

Andrew Johnson looked at the others, then shrugged and followed Farrant. Michael Bennett stood at the top of the stairs with the two women. ‘Did either of you see a radio transmitter in any of the rooms? They must have had a contingency in case the phones went down.’

Casey and Sheila exchanged looks, and then both shook their heads. ‘There could be one on the boat Lomax has down at the jetty,’ Sheila said after a moment.

‘You’re probably right,’ Bennett said. ‘Let’s go down and tell the others. One of them might know how to use it.’

‘Don’t you?’ Sheila said.

Bennett’s cheeks flushed. ‘No. I don’t. Outside my sphere of experience.’

‘My dad had a CB radio,’ Casey said. ‘Years ago when it was all the rage. Breaker one nine…all that nonsense.’

‘Did he let you use it?’ Sheila said. She’d seen the films and found them boring, preferring her dad’s old tapes of Tony Hancock and The Radio Ham.

Casey shook her head. ‘But I used to watch him. I’m sure I could pick it up if I had a bit of practice.’

‘Then what I suggest is that we all get in one of the Land Rovers and drive down to the jetty,’ Bennett said.

‘Andrew and Eddie won’t want to leave the comfort of the bar,’ Sheila said.

‘That’s up to them. We can still go,’ Casey said.

‘I’d prefer it if we all stayed together,’ Bennett said. But he didn’t relish another run-in with the two men, especially as they’d have drunk quite a bit by now.

‘But you can’t force them to go to the boat,’ Casey said. ‘And if we try to argue with them we’ll just be wasting time. I don’t know about you two, but I want to get off this bloody island as soon as possible.’

‘Amen to that,’ Sheila said.

‘Well, let’s go and see what they say,’ Bennett said, although he had no intention of trying very hard to persuade them.

Eddie Farrant reached the bottom of the stairs. He’d had enough of Michael Bennett. It was bad enough having to suffer his pettiness and rank-pulling at work without having to endure it here.

‘Eddie.’

He glanced round, peering along the corridor, which led to the kitchen. Jo Madley was standing there, her back to the wall. As their eyes met she beckoned him with a quick motion of her hand, then peeled away and disappeared into one of the rooms. Johnson was already in the bar and he could hear the others as they made their way down the stairs. He wasn’t going to wait for them, and Bennett’s inevitable order couched as a suggestion that they all go after Jo together. There had been something in her eyes; something that his mother would have called a come hither look. He’d lusted after Jo ever since she started at Waincraft, though not as obviously as Andrew, and he felt an unmistakable stirring between his legs. That look!

He took off down the corridor, walking quickly, found the room she had entered and slipped inside.

It was dark. The drapes were pulled. His hand reached for the light switch.

‘Leave it!’

He let his hand drop. ‘Where are you? I can’t see.’

And then he felt her body press against him. ‘Here,’ she said, her mouth closing over his.

His hands slid over her back, pulling her closer, whilst his tongue tasted the sweetness of her mouth. Her hands were in his hair, fingers entwining themselves, gripping tightly, almost painfully, her lips bruising his. Finally he broke away. ‘Where have you been? We’ve been looking everywhere.’