Viper's Nest (6 page)

‘It is,’ replied Ritchie tersely, still not taking his eyes from the TV. ‘I think it’s the site Amber and Jade have been working on.’

‘Breaking news from Mexico,’ intoned the voiceover. ‘Four students have not been seen for two days after vanishing from an archaeological dig. Mexican police are refusing to
speculate on the cause of their disappearance, or release names of the students, the site and any details of their university or nationality. Locals say the students may be from the United States.
The US Embassy in Mexico City is refusing to confirm or deny this and the Mexican authorities are applying for a news blackout on the story. We’ll bring you more as any further details are
released.’

The bulletin came to an end. The news moved on to a bomb blast in Libya.

Cate and Ritchie stared at one another.

‘Ritchie, there must be literally dozens of archaeological sites in Mexico and hundreds of students working on them from all over the world. The chances of Amber and Jade being the
students in this story are pretty low,’ Cate said eventually.

Ritchie clearly wasn’t listening to her. He was fiddling around on his phone. ‘Look here,’ he said. ‘Neither of them have updated their Facebook page in the last few
days. And Jade is always on Facebook, at least twice a day.’ He shook his head. ‘I don’t like this. I’ve just got a bad feeling.’ He looked at Cate, his eyes anxious.
‘Me and the twins, we go back a long, long way and I really care about them. They’re like sisters to me. I even persuaded Uncle Jack to sponsor their time at the dig. I couldn’t
bear it if anything had happened to them. I’m calling their mom to find out.’

He punched a number into his phone and wandered out on to the balcony. Cate heard him talking in a quiet murmur, his voice sounding grave and subdued. A knot began to form in her stomach, a ball
of worry that seemed to grow by the second.

She thought back to how welcoming the twins had been when she had first arrived at the turtle sanctuary in Australia. She’d loved their positive, can-do attitude and happy nature. She
didn’t know them well, like Ritchie, but they were clearly an amazing pair.

Ritchie was back in the room now, his face ashen. He put his phone back into his pocket and sat down heavily on the bed. ‘It’s them all right,’ he said grimly. ‘The
authorities think they’ve been kidnapped along with two fellow students.’ He paused, as if he was trying to take in the magnitude of what he was saying. ‘Apparently the police and
army have been scouring the surrounding area for two days and they haven’t found a trace of either the students or the kidnappers. There’s no word of them, no request for a ransom,
nothing.’ He rubbed his eyes and turned to Cate despairingly. ‘It’s unreal. Totally unreal. Somehow four people have just vanished into thin air.’

The small navy-blue sports car wound its way steadily along the narrow coastal road, its soft top down to let in the cool night air, the bright headlights picking out the ocean
to the left, the mountains to the right.

Sitting deep in the low leather seat, Cate could smell the salty breeze and hear the swish of the rolling ocean far below her. The wind blew gently on her face, her hair tugging and struggling
to escape from its ponytail as the car accelerated around the bends.

Cate tipped her head back, gazed up at the stars huge and bright in the sky above her, and sighed. At any other time this would have been an idyllic moment – a beautiful starry night and a
good-looking guy driving her up to Malibu.

But right now, Cate was struggling with a terrible sense of foreboding. It was awful to think of Amber and Jade kidnapped in a strange country, frightened, not knowing whether they would live or
die.

She looked over at Ritchie. He had been mostly silent since they set off for his uncle’s house but now he noticed her looking at him.

‘Thanks for coming with me, Cate,’ he said. ‘You really didn’t have to. It’s just that I remember Amber and Jade saying that you were really good in a crisis and I
have a feeling we’re going to need all the help we can get in the next few days. Amber told me that you actually saved someone who was being attacked by a shark at the turtle sanctuary.
Respect!’

Cate felt herself blushing. None of the students at the turtle sanctuary knew what had actually happened in Australia – except Michel, who had forced Cate to tell him. The others were fed
a cover story. They certainly didn’t know that Cate was an agent for IMIA.

‘How long till we get to your uncle’s house?’ she said, changing the subject.

Ritchie glanced down at the small clock in the walnut dashboard. ‘Fifteen minutes,’ he guessed. ‘We don’t want to be too early. My uncle is having a few industry people
over for drinks and I promised we wouldn’t disturb him until they had gone. That said, here in LA, people love their beauty sleep more than they love a party. Most of the locals are tucked up
in bed by ten. So if we get there for nine we should have Uncle Jack to ourselves.’

‘It’s really good of him to be so interested about the twins. Does he know them well?’ Cate asked.

‘Just through me, I guess. He helps out lots of my friends who are struggling, by paying for their books or foreign study trips. When Amber and Jade got this opportunity to go down to
Mexico, Uncle Jack covered their expenses so that lack of money wouldn’t stop them taking the opportunity of a lifetime.’

Cate was touched. ‘That’s fantastic, Ritchie,’ she said. ‘You must be so proud of him.’

Ritchie nodded. ‘He’s the best. He’s looked after my mom – his sister – and me ever since my dad died when I was a kid.’ He smiled. ‘He knows just about
everyone there is to know in this city. He can pick up the phone and talk to the top cops, the best lawyers, even the governor of California if he has to. If anyone can find out just what is going
on, he can. When we know more, we can make some sort of decision about what to do next. Amber and Jade don’t have much family who can help. Their dad left them years ago and their mum has MS.
She’s pretty frail at the best of times and she sounded desperate on the phone when I spoke to her this evening. I gave her my word that I would do everything I could to help them, and I
meant it.’

They sped on, the mountains looming high above them, tall pines casting shadows over the road. The damp smell of the forest mingled with the smell of ocean below them. It was an invigorating mix
and suddenly Cate felt alert, awake and ready for action.

They turned on to a seriously smart residential road. High walls were interrupted only by entrance gates, through which Cate caught glimpses of large villas, tennis courts and huge floodlit
swimming pools.

Ritchie slowed down, turned into a driveway, and stopped by a guardhouse. A CCTV camera rotated and clicked above them, and a smartly uniformed middle-aged man poked his head out of a window
hatch.

‘What’s your name and who ya visiting?’ He was polite but abrupt, only breaking into a smile when he recognised Ritchie. ‘Hey, Ritchie.’ He waved Ritchie on down
the narrow street.

‘Wow,’ said Cate. ‘Is it always like this?’

‘You ain’t seen nothing.’ Ritchie grinned. ‘There’s an actual cop station at the west end of this street. This is Malibu Colony – wall-to-wall Hollywood
royalty. Anyone who is anyone in show business has either had a house, has a house or is hoping to buy a house here. Whoopi Goldberg, Tom Hanks, Sting, Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry . . . and people
like that don’t rest easy unless they have a small army watching over them.

‘The beach is just behind there,’ Ritchie continued, pointing through a dark garden to his right. ‘If they could, the residents would even stop the public going on it, but
there’s a public right of way below the high-tide marks. So instead they installed that guardhouse back there to stop people coming in by the road, and made sure that the local police patrol
the beach at all times to keep people away from their front windows.’

‘Seems a bit . . . well, paranoid,’ Cate said hesitantly. She didn’t want Ritchie to think that she was being rude about his uncle. ‘I’d hate to live in a place
which had to be patrolled night and day.’

‘I know what you mean.’ Ritchie nodded thoughtfully. ‘But, in fairness, there are a lot of weirdos out there. And then there are the paparazzi who can make their lives a misery
– these stars may be rich, beautiful and famous, but they pretty much have to spend their whole lives looking over their shoulders.’

‘How horrible,’ said Cate, remembering the hordes of paparazzi that had besieged Nancy just about every time she had stepped off her yacht. ‘I don’t think I could stand
it. And to think that so many people crave fame. Look at
The X Factor
and all those celebrity reality shows full of people saying they want to be famous. If only they knew the truth of
it.’

‘Be careful what you wish for, eh?’ Ritchie said. ‘Here we are.’

In front of them a large pair of wrought-iron gates slowly opened inward on to a terracotta-tiled driveway which cut a wide circle through an endless green lawn. A large, three-storey white
building rose up in front of them. Its huge windows were edged with ornate metal balconies which ran right around the house. The top floor had been built in a wave shape, with the crest running
away from them and pointing out to the ocean beyond.

‘If you think this looks good, you should see the beach side of the house,’ said Ritchie, clearly amused at Cate’s stunned expression. ‘It sits on stilts and the top
balcony stretches nearly out to the ocean. There’s a hot tub and a pool up there – of course.’

As the car engine died away, Cate could hear people laughing and music coming from the house. A member of staff opened the enormous front door to them.

‘Ritchie, Cate, great to see you.’ Johnny James, immaculately dressed in a pale suit and blue shirt, was standing in the hall chatting to a group of men in pastel suits who were
clutching glasses of what looked like fizzy water. Cate recognised at least two of them as film producers who had created some of the biggest film franchises in the world. Johnny broke away from
the men and came over to give his nephew a hug.

‘Sorry, this is going on longer than I expected,’ he said. He put out his hand to Cate. ‘Thanks for coming too, Cate. We might well need some extra help, especially if
it’s as smart and beautiful as you.’

Cate felt herself blushing. Thank goodness she had managed a last-minute change out of her jeans and T-shirt. When Ritchie had told her where they were going she had dug out her one glamorous
outfit – a pale-green maxi dress, which she was now wearing with her precious LK Bennett wedges that her dad and Monique had bought her for getting great exam results.

At least she looked as if she was actually meant to be at this party, rather than someone who was just there to do the cleaning up afterwards, she thought as she gazed around at all the gorgeous
women wearing designer dresses and sipping carefully at their water.

Johnny James looked down at his watch, a discreet piece of jewellery that Cate happened to know cost well over thirty thousand pounds – Johnny advertised those very same Oyster watches in
all the high-end magazines and had probably got it for free. ‘This will be over in half an hour tops,’ he said. ‘Then I’ll be with you. It’s a bit last minute but
I’ve managed to assemble a small advisory team who can at least begin to help us. There’s a cop coming who specialises in kidnap, my lawyer is due any minute and we’ve got a call
coming back from a pal who happens to be the editor of the biggest Mexican TV news station. In the meantime, make yourselves at home.’ He smiled at them once more, and then he was back off
into the party, shaking hands and kissing cheeks as he went.

Cate watched, entranced as a thrice-winning Oscar movie star, famed for her glacial attitude to men, melted in his presence, flirting with him like the teenager she no longer was.

Cate couldn’t play at being cool any longer. ‘Ritchie, this is amazing. A few days ago I was at school in London in my chemistry class trying to figure out molecular structure. Now
I’m at Johnny James’s Malibu beach house, partying with the stars. How did that happen?’

Ritchie smiled ruefully. ‘It must be a bit weird. To me he’s just my Uncle Jack, my mom’s kid brother. Someone who gave me piggybacks and came to watch me play softball. But
then I see how people react when they’re around him and it brings it home to me just how famous he really is.’

While Ritchie grabbed a couple of Cokes from a drinks tray, Cate found herself gaping at a huge Picasso on the wall. She was desperate for a closer look but Ritchie was tugging at her arm.

‘Over here,’ he said, steering her through a large glass door and out on to the enormous balcony. ‘There’s something I want to show you.’

The moon was high and bright, a frosty white jewel glittering in a dark-blue sky, beaming down a path of silvery light across the never-ending ocean. Beneath the balcony, the waves hissed and
sucked rhythmically at the flat white sand, sending tiny flumes of froth shimmering towards them.

‘It’s stunning,’ said Cate quietly. ‘Absolutely stunning.’ She looked up at Ritchie. ‘If I lived here, I don’t think I’d need the rest of the
house. I’d just camp out on this balcony and stare at the view.’

Ritchie put his arm around her and gave her a hug. ‘You are one of a kind, Cate,’ he said into the top of her head. ‘Most girls I bring here want to hang out in the Jacuzzi or
stare at the celebs. You just want to look at the view.’

‘That sounds like our Cate.’

The deep voice at her shoulder made her jump. It was English, with a northern edge, almost flat-toned.

She turned slowly and, eyes widening, looked up at that familiar beak nose and huge dark eyes set in a pale face topped with floppy black hair.

‘Of all the gin joints in all the towns,’ he said, putting on a fake nineteen-fifties American accent, ‘you walk into mine.’

‘Lucas!’ she said, unable to believe her eyes. Then as he smiled down at her she felt her own face breaking into the most enormous grin. ‘It’s so good to see you! This is
beyond amazing,’ she said finally.