Part 52 (1/2)

”Yes.”

”Are you sure you want to go there?”

”I'm sure.”

It was a cool and breezy evening of clear air and limitless horizons.

There were only a few other cars in the lay-by at Walbury Hill and their occupants had scattered far and wide. Of the scene Charlotte and Ursula had confronted two weeks before there was neither sign nor trace. Charlotte stood on the spot where Maurice's car had stood that morning and gazed to the north, her coat b.u.t.toned to the collar, scarf wound around her neck. She looked cold and Derek wanted to put his arm round her, to give her some measure of warmth and comfort. But he only s.h.i.+fted his feet uneasily beside her and broke the silence with a ba.n.a.l remark.

”Golding seems a good man. I'm sure he'll do his best.”

”There's nothing he can do.” Charlotte did not phrase her response as a rebuke, but it had much the same effect.

”They are the experts.”

”Not in what's befallen Sam. They'll question Frank again and maybe Lulu. They'll consult the Spanish police. And time will slip by.

And come October the eleventh, they won't know any more than we know now.”

”You mustn't give up hope.”

H A N D I N G L O V E.

311.

”Why not?” She turned to look at him. ”I've been thinking about Sam in the same way as Maurice and Beatrix recently. No longer here.

Nor ever likely to return.”

”But Sam isn't dead.”

”Not yet. That's what makes it worse. I can't help it, Derek. If nothing can be done to save her, I almost wish she was already dead.”

Her chin drooped. ”There, I've said it. I've said what I should never even have thought.”

”It's understandable.”

”No. It isn't. Nothing has been since . . .” She swung round, confronting the patch of chalk and turf where the Mercedes had been.

”Since Maurice heard them coming for him that night.”

”I'm sorry, Charlotte.” Tentatively, Derek touched her elbow.

”Really, I'm so very sorry.”

She pulled away. ”It's September the twenty-first today,” she declared. ”Three weeks from now, it will be all over. Maurice's folly will have run its course.” Her tone altered as she glanced at Derek. ”I'd like to walk to the top. It's only a little way up the track. Will you wait for me in the car?”

She did not want his company. She had no use for it. That was clear. He murmured his agreement and watched her walk across to the bridlepath and start up it towards the dome-shaped summit. Did it end here? he wondered. Was this a more than merely temporary parting of the ways? The wind was tugging at her hair, the setting sun turning it to false and fleeting gold. His brother was to be given a second chance. But for her brother there could be no reprieve. On this hilltop, she walked in his shadow. And in the shadow of events yet to be. Which Derek could neither alter nor prevent.

P A R T.

4.

CHAPTER.

ONE.

Every morning was the same. Samantha woke and for a split second imagined she was still at home, still free to stretch and rise and walk and wash, still at liberty to heed her instincts and indulge her whims. Then reality closed its cold hand around her and she remembered her captivity as one seamless procession of days that had begun just like this.

The air was chill. She could see her own breath as she exhaled.

Each day the sun rose later and weaker and with it her strength too seemed to ebb. Along with hope in a future not bound by the rough blankets rubbing at her chin, the cobwebbed ceiling above her head, the tiny window, the table in the corner, the hard wooden chair, the threadbare rug, the wax-choked candlestick, the bucket, the crucifix, the chain trailing from the bed-post to her wrist beneath the covers. As she stirred, so its heavy links sounded their familiar reminder.

What was the date? Wednesday the thirtieth of September or Thursday the first of October? She had felt so confident at the outset in her ability to keep track of time, but now it was beginning to desert her. She could ask Felipe, but he would probably only shrug and pretend he did not know. As for Miguel, he would treat her to a long stare with those soulful eyes and mutter something she did not understand.

Not that it really mattered. Whatever the precise date, she knew she had been here for the best part of a month, confined in this tum-bledown shepherd's dwelling among the mountains. Which mountains was another question, but they were not so very far from the coast, to judge by how long it had taken to drive here from whatever 316 R O B E R T G O D D A R D.

port they had arrived in. Northern Spain, then, which the steadily falling temperature tended to confirm. Spain for certain. That much Miguel had volunteered to her at an early stage.

”You are in Espana, senorita.”

”Where? Where in Spain?”

”You will stay here-with us-until we have what we want.”

”What is it you want?”

He had not replied, then or later. Was it money? If so, surely her father would have paid long since. Or her mother would have forced him to. Either way, ransom would have been no problem. Yet a problem there undoubtedly was. For the first few days, they had been calm and relaxed. Then something changed. A man she had never seen before or since came at night. He was thin and softly spoken and smoked an expensive cigar. He had asked how she was. He had smiled. He had been a model of courtesy. Yet he had argued with Miguel. In Spanish, of course. She had not understood a word. Except her own name.

Abberley. Repeated over and over again.

”What did he say?”

”He said you will stay here.”

”How long?”

No answer. No answer to that or any other question. She stayed and they waited. Every day the same. Or almost. Occasionally a third man, Jose, would take Felipe's place for forty-eight hours. But Felipe would always return. She became more anxious than usual in his absence. Jose stared at her with greedy eyes and touched her and muttered suggestions of which no translation was necessary. Miguel often went away for hours on end, but never when Jose was there. Perhaps he too felt anxious about what might happen if he did.

After the coming of the man in the night, Miguel had grown glum and thoughtful. He too stared at her a lot, but in pity, it seemed, not l.u.s.t. As for Felipe, perhaps his ignorance was not feigned. They played chess and draughts and she helped him improve his English.

He was cheerful and good-natured. But even he was being worn down by the uneventful march of days.

”What do you mean to do with me?”