Gemini Rain (37 page)

Three armed men were now standing guard as another walked around, David watched him as he held a heap of passports in his hand, checking and dividing the different nationalities. 

Forty-two in all, Xavier was pleased, ‘Right people,’ he shouted to the prisoners in very clear English, ‘I want Americans on the right, Europeans on the left, Colombians at the back and I’ll check if someone is trying to hide!’ he sarcastically laughed. People started to groan as they moved.

Jacqueline turned to David for guidance she couldn’t understand English. ‘It’s okay, just stay where you are, the Americans are to go over there,’ he said.

Jacqueline cried, ‘Why is this happening to us? What do they think they can achieve from this?’

David shrugged replying, ‘I don’t know
,
someone must have informed the police there were drugs at the party last night, so they raided the hotel this morning. Just stay calm Jacqueline and you’ll get through this,’ he was still watching Xavier who was now walking around matching faces with passports. Xavier turned to David and Jacqueline and then looked at the technician bending down to sit with them, ‘Only three French and four English, that’s a shame I hoped for more.’

David instantly recognised the madness and evil glistening in Xavier’s eyes, was it not what he was trying to achieve over the past few weeks? David shivered and Jacquel
ine held his hand misunderstand
ing his reaction.

Xavier turne
d to the fourteen Colombians, ‘y
ou all can come with me, we have no quarrel against our own people.’

As the guards opened the cell gate t
hey started to quickly file out the door fearful the commander might change his mind.

Jacqueline was clinging onto David, he didn’t know whethe
r to laugh or cry, he felt numb with perspiration
running down his face and his back.

‘Oh God, will we ever get out alive!’ Jacqueline cried.

As night fell everybody was quietly talking among themselves; the fear and tension enveloped the jail cell.  Jacqueline was asleep so David
gently
placed her lying on the floor, he walked over to the American Director, Steve
n Carly and started talking, needing to have a sensible conversation
. They both had good rapport with each other and now they consoled one another, talking of family, hobbies and trivial matters. David also enquired if Steven had contacted the American Embassy with his one phone call.

‘Of cours
e I did, did you not contact your
French
Embassy
?’

‘No I phoned home, however stupid it sounds I knew
that
Jacqueline
or Frank the camera technician
would contact the Embassy there was no need for all three of us to repeat the same story to them.  What was your Embassy’s response?’

‘Ah, the usual stuff – co-operate, bide our time and they would clear up the whole misunderstanding before night fall.’

David looked out towards the open courtyard, ‘I hate to state the obvious Steven’

‘Yeah, I know I guess I should’ve got them to confi
rm which nightfall, today or tomorrow or next weeks
.’

One of the guards noticed David had moved to the opposite side and screamed at him in Spanish to go back. Steven advised him to return, they shook hands not knowing what lay ahead and David walked back to Jacqueline.

‘What were you doing?’ Ja
cqueline was panicking again, ‘a
re you trying to get yourself killed?’ she reprimanded him,
‘
did he not tell her to only move when ordered?
’

David didn’t look or respond
to her
as he closed his eyes, talking to Steven made him think of home, of his family and Lauren, what must they be going through now. It started to rain heavily outside; they could hear the clatter of rain hitting the tiles of the prison roof and the courtyard. ‘Oh Christ, Lauren,’ he whispered.

Jacqueline looked
at him then sadly turned away.

Chapter 41

By 9.30pm, Lauren de
cided to leave for her own home
Jacques
had
telephoned once to inform them of the Colombian’s accusations. When Joel repeated Jacques’s information to the assembled, Lauren cynically laughed at the hopelessness of the situation. Everybody turned to her as she stated, ‘No South American government would give up the chance to internationally show the world what they are doing with tackling their drug and terrorist problems and
this is just
the
perfect opportunity to show that the problem is not just internal
.
’

Lauren’s mind was working in the fast lane, scheming, she ne
eded to get back to her house.
Dropping a hint to Jean-Pierre that she wanted another cigarette, he obliged her and joined her outside in the back garden. It was unusually quiet; both felt that even the animals could sense something was amiss.

Lauren looked to the ground, kicking some small stones and inhaling deeply on the cigarette. ‘I’m not asking my mother for help Jean-Pierre,’ she looked up at him as he lit his pipe so she continued, ‘but I think there’s another way,’ she hesitated not knowing if he would agree with what she was going to suggest. Jean-Pierre didn’t respond just waited for her to continue. ‘I’m going to bribe her and force her into helping, if I can get a flight tomorrow and there’s no sign of David being released on bail, I’ll go to Dublin but I can’t promise you anything.’

‘Would you like the children to stay here,’ he asked solemnly knowing the full danger of what Lauren was prepared to do
.

S
he walked away
simply
responding, ‘Yes.’

When Lauren and the children arrived back home, there were two messages on her answer machine, hoping one was maybe David to say he was okay she quickly checked them. Her heart sank as both messages were blank, she knew it was Paul
‘
he’s panicking
,’
she thought.

Commencing with her nightly routine of preparing
Emma
and Keith, she was dreading
the thoughts of handing over Peter’s
file and all her work from
the previous night to Patric
ia
but what else could she do. She entered
Emma
’s room to read a story but
Emma
was reading her French schoolbook and Keith was
lying on the bed beside
her
content to just listen
.

Turning to Lauren she said, ‘It’s okay Mammy, I’m killing two birds with the one stone,’ she giggled as she said it.

‘What do you mean?’ Lauren asked.

‘I’m reading a story to Keith and I’m doing some homework, it’s simple!’ lightening her voice as she jokingly scolded Lauren for not copping on. Lauren kissed and hugged them both,
‘
when will I see you both again
,’
she nearly cried out.

As she slowly walked down the stairs listening to
Emma
reading her schoolbook to Keith, she smiled at
Emma
’s knowledge of an old phrase like that. ‘Killing two birds with one stone, where did she get that from,’ Lauren laughed aloud. She stopped; ‘Killing two birds with one stone!’ she exclaimed and immediately ran down the stairs to telephone Paul. 

By midnight Jean-Pierre, Veronique and Claud
e arrived at Lauren’s house, ‘t
he authorities won’t release them, not even the Americans can persuade them,’ Jean-Pierre was grave.

‘David will be home soon,’ Lauren said with certainty.

‘How can you say that!’ Claude burst out, he was furious how could she give them such false hope. Glaring at her, he wanted to believe her but how could she know. His fists were clenched and both Veronique and Jean-Pierre were holding his arms.

‘Lauren what are you saying?’ Jean-Pierre said softly.

‘Are you willing to give up on him that easily Jean-Pierre,’ tears were forming in her eyes, ‘I know he’ll be home soon, I can feel it, I’ll be leaving for Ireland in the morning,’ Lauren held a closed hand to her heart as she said those words, then she added ‘I need you to take care of
Emma
and Keith, a plane is collecting me at 3am.’

Jean-Pierre took a deep breath as Claude started asking why was she going but Jean-Pierre motioned him to keep quiet and agreed to Lauren’s request without hesitation.

As Lauren left for the airport she told Jean-Pierre there was a note for
Emma
and Keith explaining where she was gone. Then added, ‘There’s another two envelopes in case I don’t come back,’ her voice was shaking, ‘one is for the children and the other for David,’ quickly looking away trying to hide the tears.

Jean-Pierre pulled her back and hugged her tightly, ‘Now you believe me wh
en I say young lady
, they’ll never get those letters.’

‘Jean-Pierre, I can’t guarantee this’ll work.’

‘Go, I have faith. I know my son is innocent and I know you will achieve in bringing him
back
to his family. 
You did it once before when we thought we had lost him. 
Now go, you will exorcise all the demons with this trip if I know you Lauren.’

Lauren froze,
‘
how could he know what I’m about to do, he just couldn’t.
’

Chapter 42

Ireland –
‘Is that comfortable?’ Marc was placing the wire on Lauren. She didn’t respond, concentrating on the task ahead of her. ‘Lauren, is that okay?’ he repeated.

‘What? Oh yeah it’s fine,’ she was standing in her bra and pants, inside her stomach churned as she remembered the conversation between herself and Patricia. 

Marc finished placing the wire along the strap of her bra he
smiled trying to reassure her, ‘y
ou know if I wasn’t…’

‘Yeah, y
eah,’ she interru
pted him returning his smile, ‘s
hh, I’ll tell Paul on you,’ she whispered. 

‘Well it’s true!’ he laughed, ‘w
e have similar tastes.’

Lauren giggled, ‘you mean you and I do and only in the men we love.’

As she redressed she was amazed how calm she was now becoming.
Dec. Sgt. O’Reilly then entered the room, having already expressed hi
s appreciation to her privately
he was now acting his authoritative role, ‘Is everything finished here, Detective?’

Marc winked at Lauren, eyed her up and down
in admiration responding, ‘Oh y
eah, everything’s perfect here.’

O’Reilly went through everything with Lauren once more. She took his hand and squeezed it staring straight into his eyes, ‘I know what has to be done,’ and walked out of the room. O’Reilly looked at Marc, ‘Will our Red Key be there do you think?’

‘Oh he’ll be there all right, Lauren made her mother promise. Lauren’s set the table for us when she gets what she wants from it, we can dive in and ravish the main course and dessert.’

O’Reilly gave a look of disbelief to his detective, ‘Where the hell to you get these phrases from?’ and walked away scratching his head. 

Parking the hired car in the visitor’s area, Lauren checked her make-up and took a deep breath. Looking in the mirror, she admitted she needed a cigarette then remembered
Marc was listening, ‘n
o, make that a cigar,’ as she re-applied her lipstick.

The young r
eceptionist greeted Lauren with a wide, trained smile. Lauren informed her of her appointment with Patricia and the young girl continued smiling as she called the MD’s secretary to reception.

Lauren was left waiting for five minutes, again she approached the new receptionist, ‘I’m her daughter on a visit from France, I know where her office is,’ she lied. The young girl was uncertain if she should stop her from going upstairs but Lauren was halfway up when Patricia’s secretary started to descend. 

‘Ah, Lauren there you are. Sorry for the delay but Patricia was on a call.’

‘Liar,’ Lauren said under her breath.