The Tangled Web (32 page)

Flic poured herself a glass of wine from a can and winced
as she put the glass to her lips.  It just wasn’t right – wine in a can.  It
should be in a bottle, with a cork that pops satisfyingly when it’s removed. 

Lumi had offered to go and get some basic shopping from the
mini market next to the aparthotel’s reception area and had come back with
cereal, UHT milk, water, bread, fruit juice, cheese, cold meat and two cans of
wine.  How long did this woman think two cans could last her and Vicky, Flic
wondered.

She was hit with a flash of inspiration and poured in some
of the complimentary honey which had been waiting for them when they arrived
and a splash of orange juice.  She sipped her DIY cocktail and heard a loud rap
on the door.  Flic opened the door gingerly, keeping the security chain
attached, hoping to see Vicky on the other side.  She didn’t want anyone else
to see her with humidity-induced frizzy hair.

‘Good evening ma’am!  Please accept this gift as a gesture
of our appreciation that you have returned to our hotel.’ 

Flic looked the smiling man up and down.  He was wearing
the regulation tan trousers and pale blue shirt and wasn’t sweating at all. 
She wished she could acclimatise quicker and look as neat and fresh as he did. 

She grabbed the bottle he offered out of his hands and
peered at the label.  She was about to correct him and say that she had never
been to this hotel before and Vicky was the only one who had stayed here.  Then
she realised he had brought a bottle of champagne. 

‘Excellent!  Thanks babe,’ she grinned.  She pulled a five
Euro note from her pocket and tipped him before closing the door as he trilled
his thankyous. 

She loved this hotel.  Complimentary drink on arrival. 
Complimentary bottle of champagne.  Complimentary honey.  And hadn’t Vicky
mentioned something about a free drink at a welcome meeting?  They weren’t part
of a package tour but she thought maybe she could tag along next time she saw a
meeting taking place.

She began ripping off the gold foil around the cork.  It
was really Vicky’s booze, but she knew Vicky would have shared it and wouldn’t
mind if she started without her.  The door rapped loudly again and she felt a
surge of guilt.  It had to be Vicky coming back from her visit to the hotel’s
Internet café.

She opened the door, again without unlatching the security
chain and was met with a smiling Adam. 

‘Yassou Flic!’ he grinned. 

She unlatched the chain and grinned back.  She had no idea
what he had just said, but it sounded Greek.

‘Where’s Lumi and Vicky?’ he whispered.

‘Lumi’s in the shower, Vicky’s downstairs trying to write a
blog,’ Flic whispered back.

They heard the hum from the shower stop and Adam’s eyes
shot towards the bathroom door.  He pulled Flic towards the balcony and closed
the glass door over just enough to block out their conversation.

‘Have you noticed her doing anything else suspicious?’ he
asked.

‘No, not really,’ Flic replied.  She felt apologetic and
guilty.   She knew she should have been watching more closely.  The truth was
she didn’t know exactly what kind of activity she was looking for.

Adam shook his head.  ‘She’s definitely up to something. 
Where’s her phone?  We’ll check it quickly before she gets out of the
bathroom.’

‘She took it in with her,’ Flic halted him.  ‘What is it
with you and checking people’s phones?’

He ignored her remark.  ‘You wouldn’t call that
suspicious?  Taking a phone into the shower?’ he scoffed.

Flic looked down at her feet awkwardly.  What made her
think she could ever be a spy?  She was useless at this.

Adam shook his head again, dismissing the beginning of
their conversation and changed the subject.  ‘I visited a few restaurants on my
way here to ask if they needed any staff.  Vicky said Diana’s supposed to be
working as a waitress out here, according to an old message she sent George, so
he’ll be expecting to meet a waitress.  I thought we could get Lumi working in
a restaurant for a night or two and get him to visit her at work.’

‘Right, good idea,’ Flic nodded.  She hadn’t thought of
ways to get Lumi and George to meet each other yet.  In fact, the more involved
Adam became, the more disorganised she felt.  She wasn’t surprised that they’d
gotten themselves into such a mess.

‘The bad news is I didn’t have any luck.  The only business
looking for staff at the moment is a car hire place round the corner.  Office
looks like an old hut.  They need a valeter,’ Adam continued.

‘But that’s no good.  She needs to be a waitress,’ Flic
interrupted.

‘I know, but if we can’t get her a job as a waitress, we
need a back up plan.  She can’t live here without a job, so we should
concentrate on making her look believable any way we can,’ he explained.

‘Right,’ Flic nodded.  It made sense, but she would rather
there were no continuity issues George could find fault with.

‘The good news is, while I was doing that I found a nice
place we could have dinner tonight,’ he continued.

Flic brightened, assuming that he meant the two of them
could have dinner together that night.  Alone. 

‘Once Vicky gets back and the Cheeky Girl gets out of the
shower, we can head over there,’ he added.

Flic tried her best not to look like she was disappointed. 
She kept the smile fixed on her face.  ‘Great!’ she breezed, turning towards
the patio doors and heading back inside.  She picked up the wine and honey
cocktail again and took a large glug.

‘What’s that you’re drinking?’ Adam asked.

‘I’m trying to invent a new cocktail.  It’s not quite right
though, it needs a bit of work,’ Flic winced.  Right now it tasted like the
sweet and sour sauce from the local Chinese take-away, but with a kick.  It
wasn’t quite right.

‘Wonder what Vicky’s blogging about,’ Adam mused, throwing
himself onto one of the creaky sofa beds and picking up one of the tabloid
gossip magazines Vicky had bought at the airport.

‘She’s probably trying to get an explanation out of
Christos and Pamela as to what was meant by Pamela saying she “got him.”  I
think he must have said something flirty to Kayla to call Pamela’s bluff.  He
probably got fed up of her pestering him,’ Flic shrugged.

Adam’s face crumpled.  ‘I hope that’s what it is.  Vicky’s
been really close to him over the last year or so.  I’d hate to think the guy
who helped her so much with her depression turns out to be a rat.’

‘She thinks he’s one of the good guys.  You don’t think he
could be….’ she shuddered and trailed off.

‘I hope not.  But let’s not forget it wouldn’t be Vicky he
would be betraying.  He’s got a girlfriend and umpteen kids, hasn’t he?  I’d
feel sorry for Vicky finding out her friend is a rat, but I’d feel worse for
his partner,’ Adam reminded her.

‘Yeah, of course.’  Flic nodded.  Adam clearly wasn’t aware
of Vicky’s crush on Christos.  Or the fact that Christos was doing nothing to
discourage her.

*****

‘So where is it we’re going tonight?’ Vicky asked.

‘A wee restaurant that does mostly international food, but
some Cypriot food too.  Looks like a nice place.’ Adam attempted to be
reassuring. 

Vicky and Flic exchanged dubious glances but remained
silent.  Flic couldn’t help remembering Adam’s idea of taking her out for
dinner on their first date.  Their only proper date.  She winced, reminiscing
to herself about how she’d had to check the seat for dust before sitting down
and she was sure her feet had stuck to the floor.  The menu was filthy and
sticky and the lightbulbs had blown so they were practically eating in the
dark.  She hoped the place they were going to was an improvement.  Perhaps it
was a good idea to find a nice restaurant on the way to the one Adam had chosen
and suggest stopping there instead.

‘It’s just round this corner, to the right,’ Adam
announced.

Damn!  Flic thought.  It was too close to be able to
suggest somewhere else on the way.  Unless she suggested the fish restaurant
they were just about to pass.

‘Y’know, I’m not into international food tonight.  We can
have that anywhere.  What about a nice local dish?  I hear they do great fish
dishes here!’ Flic suggested.

‘From where?  There?’ Lumi pointed to the restaurant they
were passing.  The stench was making Flic’s stomach churn and she noticed that
the bins outside the restaurant were overflowing.  Some local cats had started
to raid the contents.

‘Live a little!’ Flic commanded.  She wasn’t convincing
herself though and realised she had no hope of convincing anyone else.

‘No thanks.  I’ll take Adam’s suggestion,’ Lumi sniffed.

Flic watched as Lumi checked her phone again and started to
key in a message.  Who on earth was she so obsessed with that she had to check
that phone every five minutes, Flic wondered.

‘Here it is!  I’m for a beef stifado.’  Adam rubbed his
hands together and licked his lips as he eyed the menu displayed under neon
lighting outside the restaurant. 

Vicky read the menu.  ‘So they do chicken and beef?  Flic,
they might do fish too!’ Vicky brightened.

Flic stood back a few paces and looked at the outside of
the restaurant.  It was nice.  It wasn’t Michelin starred, but it was the
definitely the best option in the street.  And there were locals heading in to
the take-away door around the corner.  She knew that if the locals were dining
there, it had to be ok.

‘I’ll maybe try the stifado too,’ Flic muttered, feeling
confused.  Adam had rubbish taste in restaurants, didn’t he?

She watched him open the door for Lumi and his sister and
noted that he hadn’t once opened a door for her the whole time they were
together.  Granted, he was either in a wheelchair or on crutches for the
majority of that time, but she thought back to that night they went for
dinner.  He hadn’t bothered opening a door for her then.  She felt herself
glare at him angrily.  She realised it was silly to feel hurt about something
that happened – or didn’t happen – months ago, especially when she and that
person were no longer a couple, but she couldn’t help feeling a bit miffed.

Adam turned and caught her glowering.  He grinned in her
direction.

‘What the hell is so funny?’ she snapped.

‘You.  Wondering how I managed to pick such a nice place?’
he sniggered.

She ignored his question and moved towards the door before
he had the chance to let it go and spring shut in her face.  He grabbed the
crook of her arm and pulled her back towards him.

‘Did you ever think that maybe I was seeing how keen you
were on our first date?’ he asked.

‘Not very, would be the answer,’ she sniped.  ‘Not after
the way you behaved.’

‘Come on, we both know that’s not true.  And if you were
put off by going to a dodgy pub for a meal, you couldn’t have been that keen to
begin with.’

Flic eyed him warily.  Could that be true?  Did he actually
have a bit more class than she had initially thought?  He had certainly been
surprising her all day. 

‘That was risky,’ she cautioned him.

‘It paid off.  I knew you were interested.  The only thing
that bothered me was your phone going nuts the whole time we were out.  And the
fact you were flirting with someone else.  THAT was a bigger risk,’ he reminded
her. 

Flic watched him walk towards the table Vicky and Lumi had
chosen by the make-shift window made of plastic blinds to allow the cooler
breeze into the room and felt like she had just been knocked off her high
horse. 

Flic took her place at the table and half-listened to them
rant about a group of women on their flight earlier.  Lumi chatted about her
old life in Romania as a hotel receptionist in the most luxurious hotel in
Bucharest and divulged gossipy details of visits from various heads of state
and pop stars.  Vicky talked about her previous visit to Cyprus with her old
boyfriend, Colin, and for a minute, talked about the travelling he was doing
without her.  Adam changed the subject and started to tell embarrassing stories
about Magnus’s antics while drunk, much to the delight of Lumi and Vicky.  Flic
tried to be attentive and managed to pick up the gist of the conversation, but
she was unfocused and her mind was fixed on Adam and how much more clued up he
seemed than she had realised.

A pretty waitress took their order and chatted with them. 
It took her three attempts to take their order, the first failing due to a pen
which had run out of ink and the second failing as her notepad ran out of
paper.  It broke the ice and they started some friendly banter with her which
continued throughout the meal.  They managed to keep a conversation going with
each other during dinner too, despite the fact that they were all clearly
suspicious of Lumi and she was suspicious of Vicky and Flic.  They each ordered
a coffee after the meal and were planning to stay a half hour longer to savour
their drinks when a group of vocal, but well behaved English men entered the
restaurant.