Zayn pursed his lips and nodded his head slowly up and down whilst making a low, tutting noise.
‘What?’ demanded Edie. ‘What are you getting at?’
‘Nothing.’ Zayn forced a smile. ‘Nothing at all. Just that I hope you find her. I know what it’s like to lose a.… ’ he tailed off, without finishing his sentence. He looked as if he might cry.
‘I wouldn’t describe her as lost so much as temporarily mislaid,’ countered Edie, horrified at Zayn’s barely disguised emotion, and backtracking hurriedly on her previous assertions that Laura was, indeed, missing. Without pausing for Zayn’s reaction she made her escape. ‘Sorry, got to go,’ she called out as she galloped off down the path, her sandalled feet sending sand flying.
But all evening, working behind the bar, she could not rid her mind of the seeds of worry that Zayn’s words and troubled demeanour had, probably unintentionally, planted.
The fairy lights sparkled and the stars lit up the calm, flat water of the bay, and everything looked gorgeous but Edie found herself eyeing every male customer as a potential suspect in the Mysterious Case of the Disappearing Sister; presuming all were hiding knowledge of her twin’s whereabouts. The only person she couldn’t accuse of nefariousness in this respect was Patrick, the man whose pool she had invaded earlier, given that he’d only just arrived. When he came to the bar to ask for two Coca-Colas, a white wine and beer, she faced up to him, looking him squarely in the eye and serving him as if she had never seen him before. He responded in similar vein, although when Edie turned back from taking the glasses from the shelf, she was sure she caught the shadow of a smirk on his lips.
‘Can I put it on my room?’ he asked.
‘Yeah, sure.’ Edie took a notepad and a pen, which she tapped idly against her teeth as if deep in thought. ‘That would be cabana 16, wouldn’t it?’
Each flashed the other a complicit grin and Patrick walked away with the drinks.
A few moments later, Edie jumped when an arm encircled her waist and a pair of firm lips planted a kiss on the side of her neck.
Vuk.
Overcome with relief, she turned to face him and put her arms around him, her ally. ‘Hello, stranger.’ His hand grazed the back of her thigh and slid up towards her buttocks. She stiffened, her body tight with desire.
‘Back already?’ Edie couldn’t hide her surprise. ‘I didn’t expect you so soon.’
Vuk shrugged, but didn’t answer. His hands were inside her shorts now and he kissed her again, hard on the lips. And then brusquely detached himself and went to sit at a table with a group of locals where Edie kept a surreptitious eye on him until Stefan awarded her a break. Immediately, she joined Vuk, alone now, silently smoking and staring into nothing.
‘Howdie,’ she said, standing behind him and running her hands over his shoulders and down to his pecs. His muscles were hard, his body solid. She bent down and kissed the top of his head, smelling the sun in his warm, thick hair.
‘Sit down, Edie. You look tired.’
Edie flopped into the chair next to him. ‘I’m officially knackered,’ she groaned, letting out a long sigh.
Vuk wordlessly pushed his glass of beer over towards her, indicating that she should drink.
‘How was your trip?’ asked Edie, wanting to break the silence.
‘Fine.’
Vuk really took the prize for being economical with words. One-syllable answers were his speciality.
‘Just a short one this time, then?’ She desperately tried to elicit some more information.
Vuk merely flicked his head backwards in affirmation.
‘I’ve made a decision,’ she announced, only aware of this fact as she articulated it. ‘I’m going to go to the police about Laura tomorrow. Just in case.’
Vuk said nothing, merely raised his eyebrows.
‘Yes,’ asserted Edie, as if convincing herself that the action she had just thought of was definitely the right one. Vuk’s attitude was hardly encouraging and seemed to demand that she came up with some kind of justification. ‘I’m sure Laura is fine but I’m thinking of our parents; they’re away at the moment, trekking in the Andes, so they’re out of contact. But I’m imagining what they would say if they knew Laura had vanished and I didn’t do anything about it.’
Vuk drew on his cigarette, tipped his head back and blew smoke rings, small and perfectly formed, into the blackness of the night.
‘It will be difficult to get the police to understand,’ he replied, his voice deep and even as usual. But Edie thought she detected a flash of annoyance in his eyes.
‘Look, I know I don’t speak the language but there’ll be someone there who speaks English, surely? Especially in a tourist place like this.’
She fell silent, expectant, waiting for him to say he would come with her. She was desperate for him to prove his devotion to her, could feel her need growing and swelling like blotting paper in a pool of water. She pressed her lips hard together and clenched her fists to stop herself from articulating that need. She had done this before, scared people off with her intensity. That could not be allowed to happen again.
She watched, all her muscles tensed to contain herself, as Vuk crushed his cigarette into the ashtray in front of him, pushing it down so forcefully that the stub bent and split at the side, spewing forth a few flakes of golden-brown tobacco that fell infinitesimally slowly onto the grey ash.
‘I suggest that you do not go to the police, Edie,’ he said. His countenance was calm, but his eyes had a steeliness that seemed to contain the inexplicable hint of a warning.
‘I really do not recommend it.’
‘Why not?’ It seemed absurd. The police were where you went for help. Everyone knew that.
‘There is a lot of corruption here. The old ways die hard and the truth can be a rare commodity. People say the police are in league with the drug gangs, that they don’t try to prevent the wars that break out between them now and then. Foreigners should take care to stay away from authority, lest they get involved.’ He sighed, as if he had the weight of the world and inefficient officials on his shoulders. ‘The police will do nothing to help you, I can guarantee that.’
‘What if you spoke to them, then?’ retaliated Edie, even while Vuk’s words played in her mind. She really didn’t know what he was talking about, did not understand the pre-democratic era he seemed to be describing. ‘Surely that would make a difference?’
Vuk emitted a short snort of incredulity. ‘I don’t trust anyone in uniform. If you had lived all your life in our world, you would not either.’
Edie gaped, open-mouthed. Vuk’s cryptic words had floored her.
He reached toward her and stroked her cheek, gently and firmly. ‘I only want the best for you, little one. Nothing but the best.’ Bending forward, he kissed her on the lips, hard and purposefully.
Edie felt herself relax. Only the best. Of course that’s what he wanted for her. And Laura, too, she was sure.
She kissed him back.
The pudgy fingers of the man in the gold shop repulsed Fatima as he picked at her bracelets, her necklace, her wedding and engagement rings.
‘They’re not much, are they?’ he stated disparagingly, his grubby glasses fallen to the end of his