Gemini Rain (35 page)

Taking a deep pull from his cigarette he didn’t respond
just simply turned
and
walked
out of the office.

Patricia stared at the closed door, wondering what he had in mind this time.  She shivered remembering Peter and how that little problem was
sorted, will this be the same? 
No he wouldn’t do that, not to the children he couldn’t l
eave them without both parents
but then Patricia knew him as well as she knew Lauren. Expecting his visit, when he arrived he was silent, as per usual never utters a word. Patricia of course knew why he was calling
to her office
telephoning Lauren immediatel
y, not wanting to waste any time
and knowing
how h
e hated delays or hesitations. 
Closing her mind to it, she sprayed her office to try to get rid of the smell of cigarette smoke, ‘he knows I detest that habit,’ she annoyingly stated as she restarted the work she was doing before he called.
Hitting a button on the computer it made a funny sound, ‘Oh Fuck! I’ve done it again,’ pressing a button on her intercom she called for her secretary to come and save her work, ‘I’ve done it again, be a dear and save me.’

Chapter 37

Once Lauren safely installed
Emma
and Keith into bed, her mind started racing. The telephone had four messages on it, she checked them. Two were blank someone hanging up, knowing it was Paul she decided he could wait until she was ready for him. The third was Veronique calling to see if
Emma
was okay after her nasty experience, Gabrielle had told her the story. Lau
ren smiled -
the Co
rvasieur grapevine at work again
.

The fourth was David, Lauren frowned but she soon lost her annoyance at him when she listened to him. His message was about ten minutes long, apologizing for not being in touch and why. He needed to get into character he explained and was thinking about her too much. ‘Playing the bad guy, a lonely heart was not a good basis to work from,’ being used to playing the hero he admitted it was more difficult than other actors would admit. And then there was the problem of being stuck in the hotel residence, ‘it
’
s like a prison,’
he said. With a
rmed s
ecurity guards everywhere; there was
no privacy, ‘We can’t even walk to the local shop to buy anything, it’s all delivered!’ Lauren felt he sounded frustrated and trapped. Asking her forgiveness he said he’d try to phone her again later or tomorrow, ‘The producers are trying to cheer everybody up by throwing a party tonight,’ he laughed adding, ‘I don’t know if I’ll be in any condition to dial all these numbers later. Je t’aime,
Mon
Amie
,’ he hung up.

‘Just don’t drink too much that you’ll end up doing something you’ll regret,’ Lauren’s earlier doubts disappeared, her worst fears now over. She gave out to herself for thinking that maybe he and Jaqueline Orliac were having an affair again, how could she be so stupid!  Did he not propose to her just before he left? No man in his right mind would do that
then sleep with another woman,
or would he
?
Her
thoughts were battling again.  But who could blame her for doubting, remembering how he excitedly described Jaqueline’s new image.

‘I didn’t recognise her Lauren, she actually looked normal even
the muck
as you so lovingly described her make-up is toned down to the bare minimum,’ he laughed. But Lauren was silent he didn’t notice and continued, ‘She looks beautiful, why she carries on the way she does I’ll never know!’ 

She sighed closing her eyes dreaming of the day he would come home then she remembered he didn’t mention about Pierre and his suspension, did he know? Did he telephone his parents yet? ‘Ah so what!’ she said aloud, the news would only depress him more. She knew not to phone him back it was 9pm here and 4pm in Colombia, he was probably in the middle of filming.

Checking the children once more Lauren went down and made a cup of tea. She sat in front of her computer, ‘Right to business then,’ she stated as she delved back into the world of her parent’s shipping business. If she wasn’t handing over that file to Paul then she would try to help him another way. The direction she was taking was in IT, something Dec. Insp. O’Reilly would probably never dream of doing.

It was 2.30am and Lauren was still downloading the files from her parent’s computer. She couldn’t believe her eyes, it was all here! Colombian and Irish names, contacts, how the operation was networked and organised
, it was more detailed than anything she previously had from Peter’s laptop
.

No
body knew of her backdoor access
into the company’s main server
. Using it often when s
he was working at home and with
help from
her IT
friends
it was simple to do. It was how she originally found out about the dirty dealings in the first place, by accident she opened the wrong file
belonging to Peter
and her discovery was made.

‘Jesus Christ!’ she exclaimed. No wonder Paul and the Government want this stopped, there’s millions involved and her mother was using the contract with the Irish Government as cover to transport the drugs to and from everywhere.

‘Mother’s a fool,’ Lauren delighted; surprised at the fact Patricia placed all this information on computer. All the computers in the company were networked, didn’t Patricia realise that, anything she inputted into her own could easily be accessed through the main server
nothing was encrypted
.
At least
Peter
kept his on his laptop and was password protected.
Lauren laughed at her mother’s foolishness and at O’Reilly. With a search warrant he could easily access this information, Patricia didn’t even have a password or make the files read only. After being so careful with everything else, did she not comprehend the easy accessibility of computer data? The computer finally finished downloading and Lauren started her research, copying the information she needed deleting the rest, by 5.30am she decided it was a waste of an hour if she departed for bed now.

Chapter 38

Feeling totally relaxed David showered washing away the grime and cosmetics of another successful days work. Finally he was getting this character inside him, could feel what the character felt, perceiving the anger and evil he so desperately struggled with in the beginning. Many times he sat down with the director, Steven Carly and his coach to work out exactly what was needed and more importantly what Steven wanted from David. Realisation dawned on him, his eyes widened and eyebrows raised in amazement, for practically the first time since David was a young rookie on a film set he actually accepted what the director wanted and not how he interpreted how the character should be.

Of course with American money backing the film the lead character and hero was an American David smiled,
‘
I’m going to die at the end of this one, that’ll be a first as well and the last.
’

Looking forward to tonight the whole crew sang all the way back to their
‘
prison,
’
which was what
everybody now called the hotel.  The only thing now standing in David’s way of having a good night was
the vamp
- one junior technician decided to call Jacqueline the name after surviving a night of passion with her and it stuck ever since.  Now having gone through several inexperienced members of the crew she was turning her attention to David and he couldn’t help but play the game, it was in his nature.  The sex scene today was sensational and David knew everybody on the closed set could see they were hot, he also knew Jacqueline and how to bring out the wildness in her confidently he admitted to himself,
‘
it’s one scene that won’t end up on the editing floor, well maybe one or two bits of it will if they don’t want it
X-rated
.
’
 

But unknown to Jacqueline, David had no intention of spending even an hour alone with her knowing exactly how the gossip magazines worked, this time he wasn’t giving them anything to talk about. No more publicity like that he was determined nothing would come between Lauren and him, he stopped towelling down he asked himself aloud, ‘
and
where the hell is Lauren?’ Normally she would be getting
Emma
and Keith ready for bed when he telephoned at 3.30pm, knowing it was 8.30pm in France.

Having skipped the opportunity to telephone Pierre and Chantal on his 15-minute break that afternoon he opted for Lauren expecting an ear bashing because it was so long since he was in touch with her, but he had good reason and he hoped she would understand. Now it was 9.30pm and too late to phone his children, not wanting to disappoint them he decided to call them before they left for school.

As he dressed he thought about how right Lauren was when she described Colombia to him. From the little bit he got to see he had to agree, it was a mystical country. Okay so it rained, no, downpour was more the word and the nights were cold, but the view from the hotel in the front was a contradiction to the view from the back, both beautiful to the eye. The director occupied the penthouse and on several occasions David and the other main actors attended dinner there. The view over the city was magnificent
and
not far from the beaches everybody hungered for the golden sand and deep blue sea when they got a fleeting glance of them. Then at the back balcony of the penthouse was a view of the distant mountains and rainforest. David smiled as he got dressed, maybe Lauren and I could return on holiday one day and she could show me the sights.

As everybody sat down for dinner, the band was softly playing in the background.  David sat down at his name card quickly glancing at the name beside him, ‘Shit!’ its Jacqueline.  Looking around he saw some of the ground crew involved in the closed set today laughing and holding up their wineglasses in salute. Bursting out laughing he knew when he’d been set up.

When Jacqueline did finally make her late entrance, a familiar habit to ensure everyone noticed her, she looked exquisitely sexy in a black chic, elegant evening dress her now short and rustic hair carefully styled to fall in towards her face.

‘Ah, David,
Mon
Cherie
,’ when she noticed where her name was placed, ‘it is fate that we should be placed together once more.’

‘Actually no, it was the crew who filmed us today,’ David decided that a blunt response was required but she either ignored or didn’t take up the remark as she sat down and immediately placed her hand on his thigh squeezing it.

  Throughout the evening everybody was in thunderous humour and David decided to take it easy on the wine, but the waiters kept topping up their glasses every time th
ey noticed a glass was below it
s full level, he was finding it difficult to keep track.

The crew were wild everybody forgetting the pressure of filming, of keeping to budgets and schedules. Jacqueline was all over David, fondling his inside leg, discreetly rubbing his penis, several times he removed her hand and she would stupidly laugh in his face. David felt extremely uncomfortable and woozy; taking another gulp of the wine everything became a blur.

Waking up the next morning he felt sick, his head thumped but it wasn’t the usual hangover pounding, trying to get up but he couldn’t as a heavy load was lying sideways across his body. ‘Where the hell am I?’ It was too dark to tell with little light coming through from the door, feeling movement beside him he turned to find Jacqueline with her head lying on his arm, ‘Oh Christ, no!’ he moaned, ‘What the hell happened last night?’

Jacqueline lifted her head attempting to sit up, ‘What’s going on?’

David just lay there silent,
‘
wake up David this is just a nightmare,
’
he thought,
‘
this has to be a fucking nightmare.
’

Jacqueline looked at him,
‘
his body is a fit as I remember
,’
she trailed her fingers up his chest.  David suddenly pushed her aside and jumped out of the bed,
‘
What did you do to me last night?
’
he roared.

‘
Darling, calm down, you were fabulous I didn’t need to do anything.
’

‘
You Bitch!
’
David said the words with full vehemence.

Jacqueline giggled in return,
‘
what’s the problem?  Are you now ashamed of our night of passion, it wasn’t what you said last night, it was as we were never apart.
’

David was gathering his clothes together, trying to get his trousers on. Glancing at his watch he knew the others would be beginning to rise for another day of filming.  He was not due on set until late afternoon, gently opening the door he hoped no-one was around.  The door number showed he was on the wrong floor and there was silence in the corridor.  Sneaking out and quietly closing the door he decided he best option was to take the stairs rather than taking the risk of the elevator.