Gemma Makes Her Mark

persuade her to stay with him and that he would have been tooupset to consider any alternatives, she didn’t know him as well asshe reckoned. He’d been through absolute chaos and more withJustine, it wasn’t going to happen a second time. He may have beenmisled before, he certainly had taken his eye off the ball with herbut that was then. Musing over things since the early hours and asthe SS Uganda rounded the south-eastern tip of Italy he hadrealised that even though he had been putting his doubts aboutGemma to the back of his mind over the last few months, they hadclearly been there and were clearly merited as well. Mark was wellaware that he had a tendency to put his head in the sand, but overthe last few weeks he had been keeping an eye on Gemma and hadformed the distinct impression that, in spite of her apparentopenness and plausibility, something had been going on. That musthave been why he had checked up on her accounts of her trips toLondon; and even though it went against the grain to spy and washardly the epitome of the coolness and laid-back approach he likedto accord to himself, he was glad he had. Her excuse for staying anextra night on a couple of occasions had started him off: afterall, you could get up to London in an hour from theirs. He had madea point of helping to bring her bags in after her last trip toLondon and managed to have a quick rummage through when she wasn’thovering over them. The laced negligee and matching knickers hardlyseemed the thing for a night or two staying at her friends’ flatand a somewhat crumpled ticket from an AC/DC gig didn’t strike himas the sort of thing her snobby girlfriends would be likely to beinto.

While he hadbeen making arrangements for the cruise, Mark had felt himselfgetting to the point of not giving a damn about the consequences;and it was something of a consolation that whatever came from itall it couldn’t be any worse than what he’d been through before. Itreally had got to the stage where he needed to get something akinto revenge, or at the very least a fair deal; and if as it seemedGemma had abandoned him, that was where he’d get it. The idea ofdealing with Gemma in any way other than financially hadn’t crossedhis mind when he had initially suggested the cruise. However thefrustration and annoyance he’d felt when she had just assumed thatthat was it between them had been smouldering away and developinginto feelings closer to anger and betrayal. In particular, thesense of having been used and having not been aware of it had beenbuilding as he had started to make steps to ensure he wasn’t lefthigh and dry. It had given him some focus as well as justification.If she thought that she could play him for a fool then she neededto be taught a lesson. And what was wrong with revenge? Retributionhad always seemed to him to be the most sensible justification forany form of punishment. However, the main thing was to get what hedeserved and the fifty thousand-plus would fit the billthere.

Of course, hewas well aware that should anything happen to Gemma everythingwould point to him, but no matter what suspicions may and wouldarise, if it came to it he would leave absolutely no trace thistime around. And there’d be no confession either; her mates wouldbe sure to assume it was him but they’d have no evidence. This timethere wouldn’t be a need for any convoluted or slow-burningpoisoning, apart from anything else Gemma would be on the look-outfor that. It would have to be an accident, either in one of theports they visited or, even if a bit dramatic, over the side atnight, maybe a domestic row that got out of hand. He reckoned oneof their stop-overs would be the best bet and from the little bitof reading around he’d had time to do, Dubrovnik seemed apossibility.

Mulling itover Mark couldn’t really explain where it had all that come from.He pulled on his shirt and jeans in a state close to semi-shock.Ripping off Gemma or more accurately taking his deserved share wasone thing, but he had just let his mind wander way beyond that.Sure, it had been at the back of his mind as a possible lastresort, but now, thinking it through, he realised it would be a loteasier without having Gemma to deal with in future; and she washardly likely to let him just walk off with her money. He couldfeel a surge of adrenalin: maybe that was the solution and hemerely hadn’t liked to accept it before the trip. Feeling that hewas in charge of his fate, Mark finished dressing and went up tothe deck to find Gemma. For the time being it was probably best tosee how the next day or two played out.

The cruise hadbeen a bit of a brainwave; they’d be away from England anddepending on how it all panned out he could just leave and go toground in Italy, Yugoslavia, Greece or wherever felt right.Cruising was beginning to become a popular holiday option andliving near to Southampton had helped. Mark had wanted them to beas anonymous as possible and had aimed to get them on as large aship as he could. Initially he had tried to book with P&O onthe SS Canberra. However even though it had been re-fitted sincebeing requisitioned as some sort of troop carrier during theFalklands War earlier that year, and had returned to its civilianrole a few weeks back in September, it wasn’t offering any suitableMediterranean trips that winter. The SS Uganda was a good dealsmaller but there were places available and he felt morecomfortable with the Med than going any further afield. In fact, itwas all beginning to work out better than he had planned or evenfeared. The trip had cost them – and so, effectively, him, giventhat he had just about emptied their account – less than he’dexpected and it looked as if it had been a stroke