“Oh,” I said simply, feeling oddly deflated, but also strangely giddy.
“Look, you just need to go back to your hotel and…”
“I’m not going back there!” I interrupted, “Maybe I am wrong, but maybe you are. I’m not waltzing back in there just to have a pair of handcuffs slapped on me.”
My tone was confident, if a bit diva-ish. I heard him sigh, then say,
“Alright Vicky, look, ring me back in five minutes and I’ll try and get something else sorted.”
I agreed and went and had another drink. Was I being crazy? I gave him ten, then rang back.
“Okay, so I have a business associate who’s going to let us use a place to meet up in. You can stay there tonight too if needs be. It’s empty.”
“Right, well okay I suppose, who is this guy?”
“Just an industry friend of mine – he has a rental house of his free. Remember that’s why we’ve been coming out to Lanzarote – we’ve business out here. I have business out here. Anyway, have you still got the money I gave you?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, good. Still got my little holdall?” he asked with a short laugh.
“Yeah, I got it.”
“Alright, I’m going to give you the address here. Book yourself a taxi and get over there when you can, then I’ll come meet you. It’s up in the mountains, so it’ll take you a little time to get there, okay?”
“Yeah, I guess,” I said, unable to get any kind of rational thoughts from my brain. I was too tired, too drained.
“Good. See you soon Vicky, be careful.”
He hung up. I needed another drink. I needed another smoke. Then I needed to believe that I would have a good night’s sleep sometime soon, or even just ever again.
27
Dusk was rolling in when the taxi finally pulled away from the bar. I had taken another drink or two and had eaten a paella made in a tiny family café next door. It tasted great. Anything would have, especially anything eaten outside of a jail cell.
It didn’t take long before the faded yellow taxi was climbing up through the more rural areas of Lanzarote. We rose up through the mountains, travelling a different route from where I had gone before. There were more giant formations of cooled lava scattered everywhere. Huge areas were speckled with puddles of the mammoth formations, covering whole sides of mountains. There were no street lights up there and I couldn’t even make out the many vineyards I knew were there, as the light faded and we ascended higher. Darkness then fully dropped and there was a cool breeze, a contrast to the usual warm, dry days down at sea level. My young driver had been cordial enough at the start and spoke a couple of times, but for the most part he was mute. That suited me fine and it left me to my own thoughts. The silence wasn’t uncomfortable, but as we burrowed further into the mountainside, I did feel a sense of foreboding. The driver told me we were almost there, before the road forked and he turned up a steep incline towards nothing but shadows. His full beam lit our way along a rugged secondary road. There were no houses at all and the faint lights from the towns below were very far away now. The road was narrow and I tensed as he sped along at pace, little orange pebbles shooting over the cliff edge as we went. Then the headlights picked out a white washed house off to the right. As the car slowed, I saw that it was an average sized two storey house, with a small rocky garden, that sat next to stony fields on all sides. He pulled up and when he switched the engine off, all around was silent and still. I paid the driver and then he was gone, setting off down the road at speed, soon disappearing altogether. There I was with my bags – completely alone and left in darkness. I felt a chill on my neck and realised I felt nervous and exposed. I flicked on my mobile to home and used the light to cross over to the house and open the gate, then walk along the short path. Richard had said there would be a key under the mat and I supposed there wouldn’t be too many robbers taking a chance on a house out in the sticks all by itself. I pointed my phone down at the thick, black bristled mat. It cast a shadow against the exterior. The wall looked yellowed and badly chipped in places. I pulled the mat across and there, sure enough was the key. Once I got inside, I slammed the door behind me and was glad to find a light switch and turn it on. There were large windows on three sides and I still felt very exposed, lit up like a Christmas Tree. I crossed the room and pulled the heavy curtains across each one. Then I looked about me properly. There was no hall and I had come straight into the main living room. It was furnished in a dated, but comfortable way. There were faded fabric sofas with throws on them and a glass coffee table in the middle. There was a pine dining room and chairs off to the side and through the door was the kitchen. I switched the light on in there too. It looked clean enough, with a cream kitchen that may have been fashionable fifteen years ago. The place had a mustiness. I supposed it was a rental that had been sitting empty for quite a time. Padding back into the living room,
