Bella

Chapter Twenty-one

The waiting was terrible. Bella read stories from Woman’s Own out loud, acting out the dialogue, camping it up to make Chrissie laugh. Finally Chrissie fell into an uneasy sleep. It was amazing to Bella that her violent spasms of coughing didn’t wake her up.

The two o’clock news still had no mention of the kidnapping, but, as the afternoon passed, Bella began to sense an increasing restlessness amongst the gunmen. Just after four o’clock there was a swift crunch on the gravel, three knocks, the front door opening and shutting, followed by raised, urgent voices.

Chrissie woke up.

‘I can’t stand it,’ she sobbed. ‘I can’t bear being cooped up any more.’

‘Hush,’ said Bella sharply. ‘I want to listen.’

She could recognize Carlos’s thick accent, and Eduardo’s deep, authoritative voice, and Ricardo’s oily whine, but she couldn’t hear Diego’s light, gentle drawl. Her palms were soaking; she must keep calm.

The next moment the door was unlocked and in came Ricardo and Eduardo, looking thunderous, and dragged her off into the living-room. Ricardo seized her and forced her arm behind her back, his fingers biting into her flesh.

‘You’ve been talking to Diego, haven’t you?’ he said. ‘Where is he?’

‘Ow, you’re hurting me,’ said Bella, joy bubbling up inside her. ‘How should I know where he is? I’ve been locked up all the time. Isn’t he here?’

Ricardo bent her arm even farther back.

‘He liked you. He fancied you. You’ve talked him round.’

‘I have not,’ said Bella indignantly. ‘It’s more than my life’s worth to talk to anyone here. Where is he?’

‘None of your business,’ snapped Eduardo.

They cross-questioned her endlessly. Had she talked to Diego? What was his mood last night? Several times they gave her stinging slaps across the face, but she was too elated to care.

Finally she asked if she could have a cigarette.

‘We haven’t got any,’ said Ricardo. ‘Diego’s done a bunk with all the supplies.’

She was thrown back into the room with Chrissie.

‘Don’t get too excited, and don’t ask me any questions,’ she muttered, ‘but things are looking up.’

‘Tell me,’ whispered Chrissie.

‘Better if I don’t,’ said Bella. ‘If you don’t know, they can’t beat it out of you.’

Outside the door she could hear the panicking getting worse. Hope grew inside her. If only they didn’t get frightened into becoming violent. She re-read that damn Woman’s Own over and over again. She could crochet that matinée jacket in her sleep now, but she had to force herself to do something or she’d go nuts.

Hours limped by, waiting for a crunch on the gravel that didn’t come. She listened to every bulletin on the wireless, but there was still no reference.

Chrissie’s cough was getting worse, and on Bella’s nerves. She suddenly started panicking that they’d notice her ring was missing. There was a suntan band where it had gone. Could she say it had dropped off because she’d got so thin and she couldn’t find it?

Back came Eduardo and Ricardo to cross-question her.

‘What did he talk about last night? Tell us again.’

‘Nothing much, mostly about his son. He was worried about his health. Maybe he’s telephoned home and got bad news and made a bolt for it.’

‘You know something?’

‘God, I wish I did. I’d have hitched a lift if I knew he was going to do a bunk.’

‘Stop fooling about,’ said Eduardo.

‘We’re going to start cutting bits off you and send them to El Gatto through the post,’ said Ricardo evilly.

Chrissie gave a sob.

‘He should have got your hair by now,’ said Eduardo. ‘What shall we send him next?’ He picked up her hand and examined her fingers. For a minute Bella froze with horror, then she realized it wasn’t her seed pearl ring hand.

Ricardo was waving a razor, making patterns in the air. Then he ran it down Bella’s face.

‘Shall Eduardo and I play noughts and crosses?’ he said.

‘Come on, talk,’ snapped Eduardo.

‘I don’t know anything,’ Bella muttered, cringing away from him.

‘Talk,’ hissed Ricardo.

Suddenly Eduardo stiffened.

‘Listen,’ he said sharply.

And above the thumping of her heart, Bella could hear a faint droning, like a Hoover in a far off room. Then it grew louder, buzzing like an angry wasp, coming nearer and nearer.

A helicopter, thought Bella. Thank God.

It was obviously taking its time, buzzing round and round overhead.

Eduardo swore softly. Both he and Ricardo went out to look. She could hear their anxious voices outside.

‘I think,’ she said to Chrissie, ‘we’ve been located.’

Pablo came and sat on guard in their room and picked up his book, but Bella noticed he was reading with unnatural slowness, his eyes fixed on the same place. Occasionally his fingers drummed on the back of the book, and he kept darting fearful glances towards the window.

They’re rattled, thought Bella joyfully. Really rattled.

Next door she could hear Eduardo gabbling away to Ricardo in Spanish. It was too fast for her.

‘What are they saying?’ she asked Chrissie.

‘They’re arguing about whether to make a bolt for it now, or wait until dark,’ said Chrissie.

Bella’s red and white dress was drenched in sweat. It was impossibly hot. Suddenly there was a flash, followed by a huge clap of thunder, and the storm that had been lingering for days broke over the house. Flash after flash filtered through the boarded-up window. The rain was falling like machine-gun fire on the roof.

People were crashing about next door. Oh God, they’re getting ready to move out, thought Bella. Perhaps we haven’t been discovered at all. Maybe the helicopter was just a farmer going home, or a politician returning to his constituency. Ricardo, probably for something to do, returned to his taunting and questioning.

‘We’ll cut off your foot, I think,’ he said. ‘And send it through the post to El Gatto.’

‘Wouldn’t go through the letter box,’ said Bella. ‘Lazlo’s always out anyway, so the Post Office’d have to send him one of those buff pieces of paper saying we have tried to deliver this foot several times; why not apply to Knightsbridge Post Office?’

She began to laugh hysterically, then clapped her hands over her mouth. She mustn’t crack up, she mustn’t.

Ricardo then tied up their hands and took them into the living-room. Everything had been tidied up, a couple of suitcases packed. Carlos was burning rubbish in the fireplace; Pablo was running a duster all over the furniture to remove the fingerprints.

There was a commercial on the wireless now, a girl’s voice crooning about men loving her shining, lustrous hair.

Lucky thing, thought Bella wistfully, remembering her long mane. What would Lazlo think when he got the parcel, she wondered. Would he be sorry, or just think how ugly she must be now? It’s what you are — funny, talented, beautiful — that matters. Oh, Lazlo, Lazlo. She felt the tears trickling down her cheeks.

Suddenly her musings were interrupted by the calm impassive voice of the newsreader.

‘News has suddenly come to light of a double kidnapping which began in London nine days ago, when Christine Henriques, the niece of Charles Henriques, chairman of Henriques Brothers, the banking firm, was seized as she was leaving her uncle’s house in Chelsea. The kidnappers demanded a ransom of two million pounds, but warned the family to raise the money privately and not to notify the police. Three days later, actress Bella Parkinson, who is engaged to Rupert Henriques, the son of Charles Henriques, was also kidnapped on her way home from the theatre, and the kidnappers stepped up the demand.

‘Today, however, there was a major breakthrough when one of the gang contacted the family with vital information about the whereabouts of the kidnappers and their victims. The men are all believed to be South American, and police have made important steps in tracing the men behind the kidnapping, both in England and South America. The kidnapping is not believed to be motivated by politics.’

There was a long pause, then everyone started shouting and swearing. Bella didn’t dare look at Chrissie.

‘They’ll kill us in a minute,’ said Chrissie in a shaking voice.

‘I don’t think so,’ said Bella. ‘We’re the only card they’ve got left.’

‘I can’t stand the tension,’ said Chrissie.

‘You’ve got to,’ said Bella. ‘Don’t upset them. All we can do now is wait.’

In the silence between thunder claps they heard the helicopter buzzing round again.

‘Come on,’ said Eduardo. ‘We’d better get the hell out of here.’ He put a blindfold over Bella’s eyes, tied it tightly. Then she felt herself being led down the stairs.

Oh why doesn’t Lazlo hurry, she prayed. If we leave here they’ll never find us.

They paused at the bottom of the stairs. Bella could sense the tension around her. The storm seemed to have stopped.

‘I’m going outside to see if the coast’s clear,’ said Carlos. He opened the door and shut it again.

‘What’s that?’ said Ricardo.

There was a crackling and they all jumped at the sound of a loudspeaker.

‘You are completely surrounded,’ said a voice. ‘Throw your guns out of the window. Send Bella and Chrissie out at once, alone, and then come out one by one with your hands up. Do not attempt to escape, or you will be shot down.’

‘They’re bluffing,’ said Eduardo. ‘I’m going to have a look.’ He put his head out of the door.

In answer, a semi-circle of floodlights flashed on, flaring between the trees in an arc nearly a hundred yards long.

‘Jesus!’ said Carlos. ‘We’re done for.’

‘No we’re not,’ said Eduardo. ‘They won’t shoot into the house for fear of killing Bella or Chrissie.’

A policeman moved forward from the lights. The next moment Eduardo opened up with a machine gun. Then he seized the terrified Chrissie, jammed the smouldering gun in her back and, dragging her upstairs, opened the window.

‘Go on,’ he hissed, jamming the gun further into her back, ‘or I’ll pull the trigger. Tell them to go away, that they’re not helping, and they’ve got to do anything we ask.’

‘Go away!’ screamed Chrissie. ‘They’ll kill us, they’ll kill us.’ Her voice dried up on a screeched whisper.

‘Tell them they’ve got to do what we tell them,’ whispered Eduardo. ‘We want a car to get out of here and a plane to take us to South America. Go on.’

‘You’ve got to do what they tell you,’ screamed Chrissie, repeating his message, then breaking down into hysterical coughing and sobbing.

There was total silence.

Eduardo pulled Chrissie inside and shut the window.

They all gathered in the living-room at the back, Bella and Chrissie tied up, Pablo keeping watch at the front, Ricardo with his gun trained on the two girls, Carlos and Eduardo discussing their next move.

Chrissie was still coughing and crying.

‘Don’t worry,’ whispered Bella. ‘They can’t hold out much longer. It must be over soon.’

Carlos found a further news bulletin on another channel. The kidnapping was again the lead story.

‘The hideout of the kidnappers has now been discovered,’ said the announcer. ‘A remote farmhouse just outside Haltby on the Devonshire coast. It has been completely surrounded by the army and the police. Police also know the names of the four kidnappers, and realize they are only the front for a much larger organization. Police and the army now have the whole area cordoned off and are preparing for a long siege.

‘A quarter of an hour ago, one of the gang appeared at the front door and shot at the police. Later a gunman held Miss Christine Henriques out of a first floor window at gunpoint. In considerable distress she appealed to the police not to threaten the gunmen and to agree to anything they ask for.’

Chrissie was coughing non-stop now.

‘For Christ’s sake shut her up,’ said Ricardo.

‘Why don’t you let her go?’ said Bella. ‘If she gets any worse, you’ll have a murder on your hands without trying.’

There was another crackling over the loudspeaker. Another voice was speaking now in fluent Spanish. Bella’s heart gave a lurch; she felt blood rushing to her face. It was Lazlo. Chrissie tried to struggle to her feet; Bella gave a gasp of excitement which turned to terror as Ricardo shoved a gun against her temple.

‘Leave her alone,’ snapped Eduardo, ‘and listen. It’s El Gatto’s voice,’ and she could feel the frisson of loathing around the room. These are men, she thought, with a shiver, who have been taught to hate the name Henriques at their mother’s knee.

Lazlo’s voice went on, softer, more persuasive now. It was too fast for her to follow.

‘What’s he saying?’ she whispered to Chrissie.

‘That the police know who all the men are,’ said Chrissie. ‘And have photographs of them, that there’s no way the police are going to give them an aeroplane, or a car.’ She listened for a minute, then caught her breath. ‘Now he’s saying Juan and Steve have both been pulled in, so there’s no point them resisting any more. If they surrender they won’t be harmed in any way.’

Bella wished she could see the gunmen’s faces to see how they were reacting.

The loudspeaker crackled and stopped.

‘Finally he said the police were in no hurry and intend to wait until the gunmen saw reason,’ said Chrissie.

All very well, thought Bella, but this lot are human time bombs, liable to explode at any minute.

They were arguing violently now.

‘Eduardo doesn’t believe Juan or Steve have been arrested,’ said Chrissie. ‘He thinks Lazlo’s bluffing. Ricardo agrees with him. Carlos is fed up and all for packing it in. Pablo, as usual, says nothing.’

‘They’ve run out of booze and food and cigarettes,’ said Bella. ‘They can’t hold out much longer.’

‘If they get hungry, they’ll get bloody-minded,’ said Chrissie. ‘If they starve them out, there’ll be more chance of a shoot-out.’

There was no sound or sign of life from outside. The transistor was crackling like distant gunfire as they waited for the next news bulletin. It was the same as the one before, except it added that the police knew the gunmen had run out of food and drink, and included an interview with a doctor on the effects of long-term starvation.

‘It is likely to sharpen the wits, but decrease physical efficiency,’ said the doctor in a calm, flat voice.

‘Great,’ said Bella. ‘We’ll all be cracking jokes soon.’

‘Then the pangs of hunger will give way to dull, painless lethargy, probably accompanied by headaches,’ went on the doctor.

‘How soon will the hostages be in any physical danger through lack of food?’ said the interviewer.

‘Man can live without permanent ill effects up to six weeks on water alone,’ said the doctor.

‘Jesus,’ muttered Bella. ‘It’s a hell of a way to go on a crash diet.’

The voice faded and crackled again when Eduardo shook the wireless. The batteries are running out, thought Bella. She moved slightly. Her side ached where the floorboards were biting into her flesh.

She started on The Lord’s Prayer. It was too serious a time to make bargains with God she couldn’t keep. Please let me out, she prayed, and I’ll try to be good for the rest of my life, and try not to want Lazlo too much if he doesn’t want me.

The wind came in a sudden blast, rattling the trees against the roof of the house. Next moment, the arc lights went out.

‘This is your chance,’ said Carlos.

‘They’re trying to tempt one of us out,’ said Eduardo.

Ricardo tiptoed downstairs and slowly opened the front door. The next moment the lights went on and a volley of bullets was fired over the house.

‘Your blackmail has failed,’ said the loudspeaker. ‘Send the girls out at once if you want to save your lives.’

They heard whispering and breathing on the loudspeaker. Then everything went quiet.