With Mark’ssuitcase safely back under his bed and his planned escape route andstrategy now securely hidden in her own smaller travel bag she gotin next to him. She could arrange getting the money back home indue course; probably through some kind of bank transfer which she’dhave to check out in Dubrovnik before flying home. That was theleast of her concerns; she still had tomorrow to deal with Mark.With the adrenalin still flowing she couldn’t sleep. In fact, thewhole thing had made her quite horny and she tried briefly butunsuccessfully to get him to respond; maybe she’d try again in themorning – after all, she was in charge now, so why not? It wouldhelp keep him off-guard, too. He was always easier to deal withafter sex.
Wednesday 3 November1982
Gemma woke from afitful sleep just after seven. She could just make out a wintry sunalready beginning to catch the higher parts of the old city. Shechecked again that she’d put Mark’s case, and her own travel bag,away inconspicuously and leaned across to wake him up.
‘That was agood night, we really went for it, are you okay?’
Mark sat upabruptly and soon oriented himself. It had always surprised himthat he never had much trouble getting up. Probably his time inprison made that inevitable: the morning roll-call hadn’t allowedany time for luxuriating in bed.
‘Wow, yes, that wasgreat, you were great, we were great from what I can remember. Mindyou, I could do with some water pretty quickly, think I ratheroverdid it.’
Gemma could see thathe really had no idea. That would make it easier to keep hisfantasy going.
‘Let’s go down to thebreakfast bar and get an early start, may as well make the most ofour last day, we can catch the first tender across to the city.It’s strange to think that we’ll be back home tonight, or earlytomorrow at least. And by the way I read somewhere that a decentcooked breakfast is the best cure for any sort ofhangover.’
Their flight wasscheduled to leave just after 10 that evening and it was only acouple of hours or so back to Gatwick.
She gave Mark a quickkiss, decided to give a final bit of pointless sex with him a miss,and hurried him into his clothes. She didn’t want to give him timeto check his luggage before they set off for the day.
‘We can go across toLokrum and still get back to the ship early afternoon, in good timeto collect our stuff and head to the airport – I found out there’sa few of us getting the same flight so we can sort out sharingtaxis later.’
It wasessential Mark didn’t take or even check his suitcase before theyleft the Uganda for Dubrovnik and then the trip to Lokrum. She lefther own case as well, now with her money safely stashed away in it,and just grabbed a small shoulder bag; she told him she could takeanything he needed for the morning with her. Although she didn’tlike leaving the money there, it would look odd carrying a suitcaseon their brief excursion to the island. Anyway, it would be safeenough locked in their cabin.
Gemma knew shehad to get rid of the money before they left Dubrovnik later; itshouldn’t be too much of a problem depositing it at the post officeand hopefully sorting a transfer to her account back home. Maybeshe’d pop into the post office before they got the ferry to Lokrumand check out what she could do; then return later in the day onthe way to the airport with the cash. She’d think of some excuse todo a bit of shopping or something after they docked at the old cityand before heading over to Lokrum; probably leave Mark in a caféfor half an hour or so. At the moment she reckoned she could gethim to do just about anything. He was even giving the impressionthat he thought he’d won her back – bloody idiot, and bloodytypical of him, she thought. For now it was important to keepfocused on what Mark had actually done; in due course he needed toknow she had sussed him out and he hadn’t got away withit.
***
After a quickbreakfast, they managed to get the first taxi boat of the day,along with a few of the Uganda’s crew who generally went towhatever port they were visiting early in the day to stock up onprovisions for the next stage of the cruise. The majority of thepassengers usually tended to take a leisurely, and typically prettyheavy, breakfast and leave the ship mid-morning. As it was, theydocked at the old port just after nine, with the city itself comingto life and preparing for the day ahead. Miguel, the Spanish chef,helped Gemma up on to the quayside with an appreciative glance ather tight jeans. It was never too early in the day for him toflirt.
‘I’m going tomiss your smile, you know. It’s so nice to have some young peopleon the boat, and some pretty ones too. Have a good day.’
Gemma gave him a quickhug, she couldn’t help feeling she would and that things would workout.
‘I reckon I will,Miguel. You take care too.’
She grabbed Mark’shand and headed to one of the
