Sleeping Cruelty

Chapter seventeen

Max had been waiting almost an hour at Suicide Point and was about to give up when he saw her running, her skirt held high in her hands and her wonderful hair flying loose like a silver wave. His heart leaped with joy as he held out his arms. She threw herself into them and hugged him tightly. ‘Oh, I have missed you so much, but I just couldn’t get away to see you. We have to be so careful.’ They embraced and then she eased him forward.

‘Laura, take care, we’re very close to the edge,’ Max said.

She laughed at him. ‘Don’t be afraid. Are you scared to look down?’

‘Terrified,’ he said, holding her hand tightly.

They linked arms and, from a safe distance, looked over the edge to the swirling water thrashing the rocks below.

‘Would you jump if I asked you to?’ she asked.

‘No, because it would mean I had to leave you.’

‘Would you jump if I was dead?’

He drew her close. ‘Don’t say things like that, even as a joke.’

‘I’m sorry.’ She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.

Justin saw them embracing like lovers and his face tightened with jealousy but he couldn’t look away. He called her name. Laura drew away from Max and listened.

‘It’s Justin,’ Max said, pointing, and they looked along the narrow pathway to where he stood.

‘We’re going to Tortola tonight. Are you coming?’

Max looked at Laura, who hesitated. ‘I can’t,’ she said, then smiled at Max. ‘You go. It’ll be fun.’

‘I want to be with you,’ Max said.

‘I can’t, I have to... see someone. It’s arranged.’

‘Is it Justin?’ asked Max. ‘You don’t want to come because of him?’

Justin was jumping the rocky surface, getting closer. ‘Yes, yes. We must keep our love secret. Trust me. I don’t want William to hear any rumours about us, not until I’ve told him face to face.’

Justin was beside him. He hooked his arm around Max. ‘You coming?’

‘Er, yes, why not?’

‘Run along, then. Go get your glad rags on. You’ve got about twenty minutes to get that fluff off your chin.’

Max looked at Laura, but she averted her eyes and he had no option but to leave them. He hated the way Justin had spoken to him, as if he was a twelve-year-old.

As soon as Max was out of earshot, Laura punched her brother. ‘You needn’t have done that,’ she said.

‘I did! Sneaking off to places you know I can’t film or record. I’d say you were doing it to make me jealous.’

‘Don’t be silly.’

‘I’m not being silly. We don’t have much time and we have an agenda to keep. Next minute William’s gonna be back, before we’ve done the dirty deed. Or deeds.’

‘I’m on schedule. Haven’t you seen the videos from this afternoon?’

‘Not yet.’

‘I’ve done the deed with Angela Matlock so I’m getting the job done. Are you?’

‘I’m sorry,’ said Justin, pulling Laura towards him. ‘It’s just this Max thing. I don’t want you distracted, and you are.’

‘I’m fond of Max and I don’t see what’s wrong with that. And with him it’s fun. It’s always horrible with everyone else. I notice you seem to enjoy teasing the Matlocks’ son.’

‘So you’ve fallen for him?’

‘I have not. He’s young, he’s naïve, and sometimes it’s nice to get screwed without a hidden agenda,’ she lied.

Justin lifted her hair away from her face and kissed her neck.

‘No, Justin, not here.’ She had never rejected him before.

‘I want you.’

She felt like weeping: lie was beginning to follow lie. ‘I want you too, but please not here. Someone might see.’

Justin nuzzled and kissed her cheek. ‘You’re right. It’s me who’s dumb. It’s just that seeing you screwing everyone else keeps turning me on.’

‘Never bothered you before.’ She was calming down now, more in control. ‘You get into such bad tempers, don’t you?’

‘Maybe because I know we’re about to reach the big climax, and I don’t want anything to distract us. We’re so close, Laura, so close. I just want everyone gone, off the island so we can be together. But we can’t until it’s done.’

He turned away from her, his eyes brimming with tears, and she could barely hear what he was saying. ‘I get scared. I know I couldn’t do it on my own, not without you. I’ve always needed you.’

She linked her arm with his. She could never resist him when he was like this, vulnerable. ‘If anyone’s around I’m not going inside your room with you.’

‘There’s no one,’ he whispered, but he knew there was. He knew the lovesick boy was watching them.

As they were heading for Justin’s bungalow, James looked out of his window. Although he didn’t spot Laura and Justin, he saw Max approaching, pushed open the shutters and shouted to him, ‘Hey, Max, you coming with us?’

Max whipped around, startled. He wanted to follow Laura and Justin. ‘Bit tired. Listen, I’ve got to go.’

Max tried to walk on, but James was still talking to him. ‘You were waterskiing with Justin again today, weren’t you?’

‘Yes, I was. Listen, James, I really have to go.’

‘Where to?’

Max sighed with impatience. ‘For Christ’s sake, James, I’m gonna see my parents.’

James hesitated, then said, ‘Is he coming on to you?’

‘What?’ Max was confused.

‘You heard. Is Justin hitting on you?’ James’s face was flushed.

‘You’re talking like an idiot, James. Why? Has he been coming on to you?’

James shouted, ‘You calling me a poof?’

‘Jesus Christ, James, what’s the matter with you?’

James leaped from his veranda and swung a punch at Max, who staggered and fell. Before he could get to his feet, James kicked him in the groin. ‘Stay away from him, you hear me? Just stay away from Justin.’ He went back into his own room and straight for the cocaine. He didn’t bother to chop a line, but stuck his nose over the vial and snorted till his eyes smarted and ran with tears.

Justin’s attentiveness to James had gone unnoticed by the others, although he had made sure he constantly brushed against the younger boy as he helped him up into the ski-boat from the water, or to put on his sub-aqua gear. At times, he casually laid an arm across James’s shoulders. James was quicker on the uptake than Justin had expected, an easier fish to bait than his father would be. The truth, of course, was that Justin was not at all interested in James.

Justin was sure that James was bisexual and had had more than a few experiences beyond schoolboys’ hot kisses. It would have been fun breaking Matlock’s son in to some sex games, but he doubted the boy would need much encouragement, which took all the enjoyment out of it for himself. What Justin had not contemplated, though, was that James would become obsessed with him, as Oliver Bellingham had. Perhaps he would die like him too.

Max wiped his bloody nose on his sleeve and took his time getting back on his feet. His balls felt like they were on fire. He rubbed his crotch then headed to his own room, grabbed some ice, wrapped it in a napkin and held it over his face. James was obviously as high as a kite.

‘That Justin is a prick,’ he muttered, then flopped back on to the bed. He decided he had to talk to Laura. He didn’t want to go to the nightclub.

James ran to Justin’s bungalow and kicked open the front door, shouting his head off. Hurriedly Laura drew the sheet across her bare breasts, but before Justin could get out of bed, the bedroom door burst open and James barged in. Laura flipped the sheet over her head; she didn’t need this, didn’t need anyone seeing her being intimate with Justin, let alone naked in bed beside him.

‘You lost something?’ Justin said casually, leaning back on the pillows and reaching for his cigarettes. ‘Don’t tell me you’ve run out of the four grams I gave you last night?’

James shifted his weight from one foot to the other then pointed to the bed. ‘I know who’s there. I know you’ve been playing us off against each other and I don’t like it. You’re a piece of shit.’ His face was red with fury.

Justin tossed his lighter on to the bedside table. ‘Get out of here, James, before I lose my temper.’

James stuck out his bottom lip like a spoilt child. ‘No, I won’t.’ He dived round the bed and snatched off the sheet. When he saw Laura he stumbled backwards. Confused, he looked from her to Justin, who was smiling, the smoke drifting from his nostrils. ‘What’s she doing here?’ he said. ‘She’s your sister!’

Justin inhaled deeply and his eyes narrowed. He glanced at Laura, as if to give her a signal. She caught it and, even though she was furious, she controlled herself, stretching her arms above her head, finally dropping the sheet to reveal her breasts.

‘Come here,’ Justin said to James, the cigarette stuck in the corner of his mouth. James hesitated but then, as if he was hypnotized, walked slowly towards Justin and stood a foot away from the bed.

‘Closer,’ Justin said, tilting his head so that the cigarette smoke drifted into his eyes.

‘No,’ James whispered.

Justin reached out and hooked one finger into the leg of James’s shorts. ‘Naughty boy, come here.’ He drew James towards him and began to undo his zip. As he did so he glanced at the bedside clock. ‘We don’t have long. We’re going dancing tonight, aren’t we?’

‘Yes,’ James croaked.

‘Mmm, Laura, I think I might need some assistance here.’

James closed his eyes and his legs trembled, but he couldn’t move as Laura crawled over the bed towards him. Justin stubbed out his cigarette, eased off the boy’s T-shirt and began to pour oil into his hand. Laura drew the frightened boy to lie between them.

Max looked at his bruised eye in the bathroom mirror. The ice had reduced the swelling so he rinsed his face with cold water and patted it dry. He put on a clean shirt and light trousers, and slipped his feet into rubber flip-flops. Returning to the bathroom he caught his reflection in the mirror. His blond hair was silvery now from the sun, his pale skin tanned a light golden brown. He was struck at first by his resemblance to his mother, and then became rather pleased by the change in his appearance. He could see the effects of his love affair, as strong as the effect of the sun on his slender body. He would have been embarrassed to admit it, but he suddenly realized that he was, as his mother called him, ‘a beautiful boy’.

James lay face down on Justin’s bed, sobbing into a pillow. He had crossed a line in his life that he had always known was there, but was too afraid to face. He was still weeping as Justin came out of the bathroom, showered and changed. He looked at James, annoyed to see him still lying there. ‘You’d better get yourself together. We’re leaving in five minutes.’

James rolled over painfully. ‘Come on.’ Justin hauled him upright. ‘Get down to the jetty. I’ll see you there.’

James stumbled out of the room. Across his back were deep red welts, and in some places the skin was broken, leaving small beads of blood.

Laura came out of the bathroom, buttoning her blouse. She was angry. ‘I said that was risky, but you wouldn’t listen to me. What if he starts talking about us?’

‘Don’t be a fool. You really think that Master Matlock is going to rush to Mummy!’

‘Or Daddy,’ she said coldly.

‘No way is he going to spill the beans on us. I’ll make sure of it by the end of tonight.’ He left for the boat, and Laura returned to her room. She looked out of her window and could see Clarissa and Justin boarding the speedboat. She wanted to see Max, and be alone with him without Justin monitoring them. She had an agenda, worked out by Justin, but she would follow her own now too. She dialled Max’s number.

He sounded so pleased to hear from her that her spirits lifted. They agreed to meet by the waterfall.

‘We need to talk,’ he said.

‘Yes, I think we do,’ she said softly, and hung up.

Max flopped back on to the bed. ‘She wants me,’ he said aloud. ‘Laura Chalmers, my beautiful goddess, wants me.’ He was unaware that James had overheard him from his adjacent veranda, and had realized he’d been wrong about Max and Justin.

Laura was shaking with nerves, but had almost made up her mind. She was unsure if she had the strength to do it. It would be up to Max to persuade her. Laura was forming a plan to leave the island and Justin. He had said he doubted that he could handle Matlock on his own, and she was sure he couldn’t. She was not intending to back out of the murder, though: she just had to make it happen faster than planned. It was imperative to get the Baron and Baroness off the island, leaving Max with her. She knew Justin could easily handle Clarissa and James, and Daphne, that fat, foolish woman, wasn’t the problem. Laura’s problem was Justin. She had got away with lying to him already. Now she planned on doing much more, because she knew she had to escape him.

‘Yes, yes,’ she whispered, and told herself that she had made the right decision, unaware that she was pacing up and down the room. If Marta or Justin had seen her doing this, the rapid footsteps, the urgent instructions, repeated to herself more vehemently each time, they would have been worried. Marta always knew this was the first danger sign. The second was when Laura made brushing strokes down her thigh. On these occasions, Marta acted fast, and doubled Laura’s medication. But Marta was a long way away. This time Laura was on her own.