Be quiet Vicky!
My mind was focusing on all of the wrong things. I needed to focus.
I dropped a sugar cube into my cup and it hissed. I stirred my coffee hard, facing away from them,
“Oh, sorry to hear that,” I said
There was a pause and she seemed to be waiting for me to finish what I was doing. Maybe what I was doing was unnatural.
Shit! Am I fucking this up already?
Control Vicky, control.
I lifted my drink and sat down, ready to face the music. I fiddled with my dressing gown, pulling it over my ankles, as it had ridden up when I sat down.
“I am afraid there has been a death,” she continued, her tone unfaltering.
“Goodness.”
“Yes, I believe you knew the victim.”
“Oh my,” I said, trying to hit the correct expression and reaction.
“Yes, I am sorry to inform that Ivan Bradley was discovered dead a few hours ago.”
I gasped, clamped a hand to my face and said nothing. I was shocked. I was actually shocked. It seems silly, but she was telling me that the nightmare had been true. Santiago instinctively got up off his seat and fetched me a glass of water. He handed me it and sipped it, thanking him. I tried to calm myself. I hoped that only the right amount of emotion was escaping from me, enough to appear justified.
Then Perez quizzed me about when I had last seen Ivan and Richard. I told her the truth up until last night, saying I had seen neither of them since the meal. She told me that it appeared to have been a mugging and that Ivan was attacked and seemed to have fallen down some steps. I made noises about how sad this must be for Richard. I tried to sound as convincing as I could, to live that role.
She has to believe me. I don’t want to end up in a Spanish jail.
What if I never saw my Auntie again?
I felt like an ageing actress, shooting for her last chance to be in a daytime soap. This was my only chance.
What I tried to do the most was to avoid looking at the floor where Ivan had lay. I felt compelled to look, convinced that some obvious clue had been left there for all to see. I knew that I mustn’t. If there was something there, I would only alert them to it.
You’re being stupid Vicky, calm down.
After a few more minutes of questions and Santiago making notes, they rose to leave. She flashed me the closest thing to a smile as I held the door for her.
“Can I ask, what did you do to your face?” she asked suddenly.
I raised a hand to my face and cursed myself inside for not already having an answer prepared. There must have been some cuts visible through my slept-in makeup, maybe some bruising. She’d be unlikely to have seen the small cuts on my scalp from where Ivan had yanked me along. I tried to compute all this quickly, I don’t think I really succeeded. I probably looked like I had just been asked to divide 119 by 7.
“Oh this,” I said, as if cottoning on and smiling sweetly, “I’m afraid it’s a bit embarrassing. I had a little too much to drink I suppose, with my dinner last night – it’s this all-inclusive malarkey,” I said with a chuckle.
Neither one gave any reaction.
Malarkey? Why did I say that? – jeez.
I continued, “I came home for a cool shower, ‘cause I was too hot and slipped and fell.”
I held my breath for a reaction.
“Okay, thank you for your time,” she said with a curt nod and left.
Santiago tipped his head to me also as he followed her out.
I shut the door, locked it and collapsed against it. I didn’t know what to think about what had just happened. But I knew before dissecting it, I’d need a cigarette and a drink.
21
I took a shower and managed not to fall in it, despite having just downed several drinks. It wasn’t even midday yet. I dried off, catching sight of my unmasked face in the mirror, my hair also tied back. I hardly recognised myself. It wasn’t the marks and the bruising; it was look in my eyes.
I dressed, trying to keep myself together. Once I tried to approach somewhere vaguely close to reality, I picked up the hotel phone and rang Richard’s room. I felt my heart quicken and my breath sounded thunderous, echoing back to me, as I held the receiver close.
“Hello?”
His voice sounded fragile, but as if trying to add a slice of normality to it.
“Richard, it’s me.”
“Hi, yes, u-huh,” he said sounding odd; particularly odd, considering the situation.
“Are you okay? …It’s Vicky,” I added, in case that was in doubt.
“Yes, yes, thank you, I appreciate it. I’m just with the police again right now. Can I call you later?”
“Oh, right… right, okay,” the penny finally dropping.
It didn’t just drop, I swallowed it whole. It lodged in my throat and almost choked me.
I passed the next hour with the sponsorship of Golden Virginia and Smirnoff. Then the phone rang.
“I’ll come to you,” he said and hung up.
He appeared a few minutes later. I was standing with the door ajar and he slipped past me, then I closed it across on the prying sunlight.
“You look terrible,” he said.
“Thanks,” I shrugged, making a face.
His own face warmed, “I didn’t mean…”
I waved it away with my hand, “Drink?”
“Yeah, coffee? Please.”
I turned away and reached to fill the machine with bottled water, after noticing he wasn’t looking so great himself. His blue and white striped shirt was wrinkled and his shorts had at least seen a few days of use.
I turned and glanced in his direction as he plunged heavily down onto the sofa,
“Are you alright Richard?”
His face straightened into a narrow smile and he shrugged both shoulders.
“I’ll be alright,” he responded, blinking once, then picking up my lighter from the table and flicking it a
