‘Unless you tell them. You see what I’ve just done? I’ve put my life in your hands.’
‘I have promised that I will protect you.’
‘Why? What makes you want to do that? Or, for that matter, what will stop me killing you? Now that I know you know, and you are the only one apart from Laura who does, what do you think will stop me killing you?’
William met Justin’s eyes, and this time he didn’t look away. ‘Because I love you, and you have made a difference to my life. I am prepared to—’
‘Be my lover?’
‘No! Stop that! I am offering to be... like a father to you.’
‘My father is dead,’ Justin said. Suddenly he stood up and his chair fell behind him. ‘Just give me Laura’s diamonds, the ones you promised, and we’ll both leave. I don’t want to hear any more crap from you. You’ve had too much to drink.’
William stood up too. ‘The diamonds are under your sister’s pillow.’ He noticed this freaked Justin. He continued, ‘I’ve also destroyed the tapes. You will never be able to use them against anyone.’
‘Oh, I see. So you want to destroy me next,’ Justin snarled.
‘No, I don’t. You’ve not been listening to what I’ve been saying. I’m offering—’
‘What the fuck do you want from me? What do you expect me to say to you? Do you want to keep me here like some fucking plaything? What’s happened, Willy? You still afraid to come out of your closet? Why don’t you admit it now? Go on, look at me. Tell me you want me to fuck you. Do you think that’s what I want? You? With your wispy hair and flaccid belly? I don’t want you near me, you repel me, and this bullshit about protecting me is all for one reason. You want my body just like that prick Maynard did.’
William hit him hard across the face. Justin stumbled to one side then laughed and started to give William a slow handclap. Then he glared and became the waspish, lisping man Laura and William hated. ‘Well, well, how the worm turns!’
‘What did I say that was so bad, Justin?’ William was not going to be drawn into a shouting match.
Justin pushed his face forward so that he was almost nose to nose with William. ‘You wiped my precious tapes. I needed them. You’re a liar and a two-faced bastard. And you, Willy-boy, are not my father. If you were you’d have a knife stuck in your chest. As it is, if you keep me prisoner on this island you’ll never be safe. I’ll hurl your body off Suicide Point. Just another accident.’
‘You wouldn’t do that to me.’
‘You want to bet?’
Justin turned and walked out, knocking aside the waiter as he carried in their tray. The dishes crashed to the floor but Justin did not turn back. William sat up and shook out his napkin, anything to stop his running after Justin. He had just seen the madness in him, the killer, and it scared him. Whatever he had dreamed up about being a fatherly figure to that wild creature was insanity, and he knew it. But he did not want to back away. He had come to see Justin and to explain himself. But explain what? The reality was that he was in love with Justin. He wanted that love reciprocated, and for a moment when they had embraced, he had felt sure that it was. But instead of telling Justin this he had offered to be a substitute father, and Justin had snarled in his face. And he did want to lie naked beside him, to make love to him. He wouldn’t let Justin’s rejection alter the fact that he was still the most important person in his life, and he would stand by what he had offered: his protection.
William forced himself to eat his dinner. Each mouthful was hard to swallow, but he was not going to chase after Justin. He needed to cool off. They had to talk again.
Dahlia put her finger to her lips and pointed to the bed. Laura was propped up with pillows. Her hair had been combed and tied with a ribbon, and there was a plaster across the cut on her head. However, her eyes were clear and bright and her cheeks slightly flushed. She looked like a little girl. A square of black velvet lay across the white sheet. It was covered with sparkling diamonds.
‘She’s had a sedative,’ Dahlia whispered, gesturing for William to move to her side. ‘She doesn’t seem to know where she is.’ Dahlia showed William the tablets, vials and hypodermic needles in Laura’s medicine box. ‘Justin was here. He told me she sometimes reverts back to childhood. It takes time for her to readjust, he said. He also said—’ She faltered.
‘Said what?’
‘That in the past she had electro-convulsive therapy if she remained in her own world. But it was a last resort.’
William nodded then asked her to make him some coffee. As she left, he took her seat by the bed. ‘How are you feeling, Laura?’ he said softly.
She turned and gave him a sweet smile. He was uncertain whether she knew who he was: there was a deadness in her eyes. She blinked slowly at him, then turned her attention back to the sparkling stones.
‘They are diamonds,’ she said slowly, as she began moving them from one side of the black velvet to the other. ‘One for Lord Cedric, one for his wife, one for Clarissa, one for James, one for the Baron, one for the Baroness, this big one for Matlock, and this one for Angela.’ She counted them again, moving them back to the other side of the velvet, her brow furrowed.
Dahlia returned with a tray. ‘She’s been doing that for quite a while. She remembers who was here, so she can’t be that bad,’ she said.
They both turned as Laura spoke. ‘One missing! There’s no diamond for Max. Max should be the biggest.’ She turned to William. ‘Are you jealous, like my brother, because I love Max? I’m going away with him.’ She busied herself again, smoothing the black velvet.
William leaned forward. ‘I must have miscounted, Laura, I’m sorry. You’ll have another tomorrow, the biggest one of all. And then Marta’s coming to look after you,’ he said.
‘Thank you,’ she said.
‘Do you like being here?’ he asked. She made no reply. ‘If you want to stay on the island for ever, I will always take care of you, Laura.’
‘Thank you,’ she said.
He turned to Dahlia. ‘Is that true, about Max?’
‘They were planning to elope, but I think the boy changed his mind.’
‘Thank you,’ said Laura, to nobody.
Dahlia stood behind William and put her hand on his shoulder. ‘I have never heard anyone say those words so sweetly, or so sadly. When Justin said he was leaving, that was all she said to him. She looked up, smiled just as she did now and said, “Thank you.”’
William gasped. ‘Justin said he was leaving? But he can’t have! The mail-boat went ages ago.’
Dahlia nodded. ‘I know, but it stops off at all the islands. Fifteen minutes ago he said he was taking the speedboat with one of the boys to catch it up.’
William left the room and ran panic-stricken to the jetty. The speedboat was just returning. There was no sign of Justin. His heart sank. He called to one of the boys swabbing down the decks on the cruiser. ‘Have you seen Justin?’
‘He left, sir. I took him to the mail-boat. He went aboard at Mustique. He and the young man, Max, left for Tortola together.’
William felt as if his panic would spiral out of control. He shouted orders for the crew to come immediately to the dock and get the speedboat ready.
‘But, sir,’ said the boy, ‘look at the sky! There’s going to be a storm.’
‘Just do it!’ he shouted.
He had to sit down, his legs were shaking so much. Why had he said it all? He had forced Justin to run away. Then he thought of what Justin might do to Max. He knew he had to get to the mail-boat — had to reach Justin before he killed Max.
Chapter twenty-two
The storm that had been threatening made a spectacular entrance with a terrifying crack of electricity. Lightning lit up the sky and the ocean, before everything was plunged into darkness again. A second later, a shorter bolt flashed, heralding the thunderclap that followed, and showing Justin in silhouette on the deck, as he waved farewell to the speedboat crew. Max was already worried about the storm and was sure Justin had come after him. He moved closer to one of the men on board, expecting some kind of argument to break out. But Justin never even looked at him.