The Holiday (52 page)

He had always viewed Mark as the brother he had never had. Well, now he felt like calling in a brother’s privilege, that of knocking Mark’s teeth out for stealing his girl!

He drained his glass, left what he owed Michalis on the table, and crossed the harbour to the shops. It was time to get on. Time to stop feeling sorry for himself and maybe even admit that, on this occasion, he had lost to a better man.

 

Izzy was in the shower after her swim and, knowing she would be there for some time yet, Mark went outside. Taking a deep breath, he steeled himself and pulled an envelope from his pocket.

It had been waiting for him when they came up from the beach, casually left on the doorstep for anyone to see. Luckily Izzy hadn’t spotted it - she had been hanging her towel over the line between the two olive trees at the side of the house, and he had stuffed it into his pocket before she reappeared.

Glancing over his shoulder to check that she hadn’t cut short her shower, he ripped open the envelope.

I’VE CHANGED MY MIND. IT WON’T BE YOU.

That was it.

It might not appear much, but in essence it paved the way for a whole new nightmare. The stalker was writing his own script now.

I’VE CHANGED MY MIND. IT WON’T BE YOU.

It could mean only one thing. The deranged person had changed his mind over his choice of victim.

With shaking hands he slid the note back inside the envelope. What the hell was he going to do? The intent of the threat could not be clearer. Whoever it was must have been spying on him and Izzy and decided to hurt him in the worst possible way. He was going for Izzy, he just knew it.

How could he protect her?

He paced the terrace, his thoughts tumultuous and chaotic. He forced his brain to think straight, to conjure up a credible solution.

Home.

That was it.

Get Izzy home to England.

Hide her.

Keep her safe.

But as fast as these thoughts flitted through his head, he knew it wouldn’t work.

Hiding, running, how long could that go on? How long could he live with the uncertainty? He suddenly thought of the day he had confessed to Izzy about using her in his latest novel, when he had also admitted that he didn’t know what would ultimately happen to her character. He remembered her smiling and saying, ‘Oh, well, if it’s all the same to you, I’d prefer to live.’ He recalled too, his response: ‘I’ll see what I can do.’

The memory of those glibly spoken words made him feel physically sick. Sick, because when confronted with the real thing he didn’t know how the hell he was going to protect her.

As if realising he was still pacing the terrace, and that it served no purpose, he came to an abrupt stop, spun on his heel and bolted inside the villa, fear and despair driving him to make sure Izzy was all right. He banged on the bathroom door and called to her, ‘You okay in there?’

The door opened almost instantly. ‘Yes, why, have you come to soap my shoulders for me?’ She smiled at him as she wrapped herself in a towel. ‘Because if so, you’re too late. Or maybe there was a certain scene from Psycho you wanted to run through with me?’

He couldn’t think of anything to say, so he forced himself to smile and pulled her hot damp body to him. He squeezed his eyes shut, blocking out the gruesome image to which she had just alluded and the indisputable and painful truth in all this mess: if anything happened to Izzy, he would never know peace of mind again.

 

Theo had been in the villa only a short while - he had scarcely exchanged his suit for a pair of shorts to go swimming - before he knew that something was wrong.

At first he had put it down to the three of them feeling uncomfortable with each other and, given the circumstances, it was perhaps to be expected. But he had soon realised that he was picking up on a much greater problem. Had the happy couple had a falling-out already?

‘You are acting the part of a genuinely possessive lover, eh?’ he said to Mark, when they were alone by the pool, and alone only because Izzy had insisted that she returned to Max and Laura’s villa to be there to greet them when they arrived from the airport. Theo had been surprised at the strength of Mark’s vehement objection to her going, but had said nothing, watching instead the agitated manner in which he had tried to dissuade her. He had even suggested that he go with her.

‘No,’ she had laughed, ‘that’s not fair to Theo. You stay here and chat while I make sure everything’s ready for Max and Laura.’

‘But Sophia and Angelos have seen to that. They were there this morning. What else needs doing, for pity’s sake?’

But his words hadn’t detained her and she had gone with an assurance that they would all be together that evening for supper.

Getting no response from Mark about him being a possessive lover, Theo said, ‘You will scare her off if you continue to treat her like a caged bird.’ He floated on his back, stared up at the cloudless blue sky and waited for Mark to say something. A tiny, wholly unworthy part of him was pleased that all was not well between him and Izzy.

‘When you’ve finished your swim, I want to show you something,’ Mark said.

Theo rolled over on to his front and swam to the shallow end of the pool where Mark was looking down at him. ‘You sound serious. What is it?’

‘Finish your swim, then I’ll tell you.’

He raised himself out of the water, shook the water from his hair, and wrapped a towel around his waist. ‘It is finished. I am at your disposal.’

Mark led him across the garden, up the steps of the terrace and inside the villa. To Theo’s surprise, Mark took him into his study where he opened one of his desk drawers. ‘I hope you don’t mind me hiding these here, but I didn’t want Izzy to see them. You’ll understand why. The first came yesterday, the other today.’

Theo took a crumpled piece of paper from Mark’s outstretched hand, a neatly folded one too. ‘Tell me this is a coincidence, Mark,’ he said, after he had read the two letters. ‘Or, better still, convince me that all authors get strange mail like this when they’re on holiday.’

‘I wish I could. I wish, too, that I didn’t feel so genuinely scared by whoever is behind them. He must have seen me in the newspapers back in England and come out here straight away. I might just as well have mailed him your address. God, Theo, if this lunatic’s intention is to frighten me, he’s doing a bloody good job of it.’

All the petty, rancorous thoughts of a few moments earlier were gone as Theo stared at the letters. Now he felt nothing but protective concern. ‘His actions prove beyond doubt that he is serious, Mark, and I’m afraid I don’t believe that he only wants to frighten you. My instinct says that his intentions go further than that.’ Theo understood now, all too clearly, that what he had thought were the actions of a possessive lover had been a rational man’s attempts to keep the woman he cared for safe, and without alarming her. ‘Mark, if this person really wanted to hurt you, how do you think he would go about it?’

There was no hesitation to Mark’s reply. ‘You know the answer to that as well as I do. He would try to harm somebody who mattered to me.’

‘Then we have to act. We must go to the police.’

‘Other than providing us with a round-the-clock guard to catch our stalker red-handed as he plays Mr Postman again, I don’t think they can do anything.’

‘If that is what it takes, then that is what I shall insist upon. You must bear in mind, Mark, that the Greek police are not the same as your soft English bobbies. Here on Corfu they take a firm line with anyone they consider to be having a detrimental effect on another person’s well-being. They enjoy a very real sense of power, and because they carry a gun they have a bark that is as fierce as any bite, believe me.’

‘Okay, if you think there’s a chance of them helping, then so be it.’

‘Good. Tomorrow morning we will go together into Kassiópi and show this stalker that he has made a gross error of judgement by coming here to play his sadistic games. This man has to be found, he has to be confronted once and for all, or this madness could carry on for ever. If he is allowed to, he will keep you dangling by threatening to kill those closest to you until he has driven you insane.’

‘Thanks for making it such a stark reality for me.’

‘I am only saying aloud what you must have already thought. Now, why don’t we go and see how Izzy is getting on? She should not be out of our sight. We need to ensure that somebody is always with her. I would suggest also that you do your best to settle her mind. I could tell from her manner and the way she was looking at you that she is worried about you. Try to make light of the fact that you have been acting strangely. And while the police are hunting your stalker, I think it would be a wise precaution if I take you both to stay with me in Athens.’

‘But won’t that alert Izzy and make her think something is wrong?’

‘I will word my invitation so beautifully she will not be at all suspicious of our motives. Come, Mark, trust me, have I not always taken good care of you?’

Darkness had closed in around them and in the soft glow of candlelight Izzy could feel the anxiety of the last twenty-four hours gradually loosen its hold on her. Max and Laura were in wonderfully high spirits, laughing and joking throughout dinner, bouncing their good humour off Theo, and making it impossible for the rest of them not to respond with equal ebullience. Even Mark seemed more relaxed. She glanced at him over a flickering candle; his eyes no longer held the tense, distracted look they had worn earlier. She wondered if Theo’s arrival had helped him resolve whatever problem had been bothering him, because since Theo’s return he had been a lot less edgy. He caught her watching him and, giving her a small smile, he extended a hand across the table. She reached out and touched just the ends of his fingers with the tips of hers. It was a deliberately discreet and intimate gesture, which Izzy had thought would go unnoticed by the others. But she was wrong.

‘No, no, no!’ cried Theo from her left. His voice was so loud, so sudden, it made her start, and without any warning, he slapped his own hand down on top of theirs. ‘I will not allow it,’ he said sternly. ‘I refuse to sit here playing the hairy green gooseberry. Is it not bad enough that I have to put up with watching Max and Laura acting like a couple of young teenagers? Must I endure your mishy behaviour as well?’

‘It’s
mushy
behaviour,’ laughed Max, putting an arm around Laura’s shoulders. ‘And, anyway, a man can’t help loving his wife, especially one as beautiful as mine.’ He kissed her cheek, then with his lips against her ear he whispered something. Laura gave him a small nod, and Izzy noticed a particular smile on her lips that she now realised had been there ever since her friends had arrived at the villa that afternoon. Except now it was bigger.

‘We only found out yesterday,’ said Max, his face breaking into a grin that widened by the second, ‘and it just goes to show that you’re never too old. Laura and I are doing a Tony and Cherie Blair, we’re going to be parents all over again. And just so that you know how to react, we’re both as pleased as punch. Well, now that the shock’s wearing off, we are,’ he added.

Izzy went straight to Laura and hugged her. ‘That’s such amazing news. Congratulations. I suppose that explains why you were so tired all the time. Did you have any idea?’

‘None whatsoever. At my age pregnancy isn’t the first thing that springs to mind when you’re feeling under the weather, especially as I’ve been taking the pill all these years, if a little slapdashly at times. I thought perhaps the heat was getting the better of me. Or, worse, that I was entering the twilight zone of hot flushes and dizzy moments. But Max insisted I saw a doctor when we were in England and, hey presto, one pregnant geriatric mother diagnosed.’

Shaking Max’s hand and smiling broadly, Theo said, ‘You old dog, Max, it seems I have thoroughly underestimated you!’ Then he leaned across the table and kissed Laura. ‘Congratulations, my darling, I’m so pleased for you. It is indeed heart-warming news.’

Laura smiled. ‘You don’t think we’re too old?’

‘Heavens, no!’ said Izzy. ‘Though Max might have to start his training sooner rather than later if he isn’t going to bring shame on the family name at all those school sports days you’ve got to look forward to now.’

Max groaned. ‘Oh, thanks, Izzy. But I’m hoping by then they’ll have invented the three-legged zimmer-frame race.’

‘And what does Francesca have to say to this good news?’ asked Theo.

‘Her exact words were: “Well, Dad, I always wanted a baby brother or sister to boss around, so I guess this is better late than never.”’

‘And Corky and Olivia, what do they think of you two rascals?’

‘They’re delighted. As are my parents. My mother is thinking that perhaps she could go in for some kind of fertility treatment and get in on the act.’

‘Well, I think it is quite brilliant what you have done,’ said Theo, ‘and I look forward to next year when you spend your summer here with little Sinclair junior.’ He suddenly clapped his hands. ‘This is definitely something to celebrate. Champagne it is! We must drink to your good health and for a baby boy as even-tempered as his beautiful mother.’

‘You wouldn’t by any chance be ignoring the possibility that it might be a girl?’ suggested Mark.

Theo shook his head decisively. ‘No. My intuition says that it will be a sturdy little boy to keep his father on his toes.’ He rose from his chair.

‘Would you like some help, Theo?’ asked Izzy, also rising to her feet and hoping he would say yes. It seemed an ideal chance to get him on his own and talk about Mark: until now there had been no such opportunity.

‘Thank you, Izzy, that’s very kind of you.’

But they were alone only for a few moments, and before Izzy had so much as decided on her opening gambit, Mark appeared in the kitchen with a stack of dirty plates.