Obsession (41 page)

‘That’s not the point,’ Corrie snapped. ‘The crew and Peter Fredericks are half way to Pasadena and we’re here!’

‘Yes, but they’re on their way back, aren’t they?’ Annalise reminded her. ‘And look at it this way, it’ll give you more time to prime the interviewee.’

‘Stop being so reasonable!’ Corrie stormed. ‘As if there’s not enough pleasantness going about this town, and now you’re at it too. It’s getting on my nerves.’

Annalise turned away before Corrie could see she was laughing. She knew only too well what was eating Corrie, but knew better than to bring up the subject of Cristos at that moment. Besides, now that they had some time to spare … ‘I think,’ she said, glancing at Corrie from the corner of her eye, ‘that I might just pop back to the house for a while, see what Luke’s doing with himself.’

‘Yes, why don’t you do that?’ Corrie said. ‘And leave me here to cope with everything.’

‘You’ll do it admirably,’ Annalise replied, giving Corrie a resounding kiss on the cheek. ‘Do you mind if I take the car?’

‘No, you might as well. After all, I’m not going anywhere am I?’

Corrie’s face was as sour as it could be as she turned to watch Annalise skip back down the canopied walkway. She knew that even if she hadn’t messed up the addresses for today that Annalise would have cried off at some point, since she’d heard Luke tell her to as they were leaving that morning. And no doubt, the minute Annalise got into the car, she’d pick up the phone and call Luke to tell him she’d managed to pull it off.

Which was precisely what Annalise did, and only ten minutes after that she was parking the car in the mansion’s crescent drive and taking out her set of house keys. As far as she could remember Felicity was filming today, so she
and
Luke were in for a long, luxurious and uninterrupted session of whatever Luke wanted to do. Already Annalise could feel herself starting to tingle.

As she was letting herself in through the front door though she started to frown. She really wished that Corrie liked Luke a bit more, not that Corrie had ever said that she didn’t, but Annalise could tell. For a long time, knowing that Corrie had been to bed with Luke herself, Annalise had thought that Corrie was jealous, but she didn’t think so any more. No, Corrie very definitely didn’t like Luke, and that really bothered Annalise. For some reason what Corrie thought mattered. In fact, it mattered a lot. Annalise experienced a pang of guilt then, that she had left Corrie alone at the Beverly Hills, feeling, Annalise guessed, utterly wretched about Cristos. It just didn’t seem fair, somehow, that she, Annalise, had everything she wanted, when Corrie was so alone. Corrie didn’t even have a mother and father, but, Annalise reminded herself, she had plenty of friends who really cared about her. She wished that Corrie could get over this crush on Cristos though, it was really getting her down, and Annalise hated to see Corrie unhappy. But who could say, Corrie might pull it off in the end. OK, with Cristos being who he was the odds were stacked heavily against it, but stranger things … In fact, if she thought about it, if she really stretched her imagination, Annalise could actually see them together. Corrie’s aversion to Los Angeles might prove a problem though, but Annalise guessed that Corrie had only taken a dislike to it in order to protect herself. If things were to work out with Cristos Corrie would no doubt fall instantly in love with the place.

By now Annalise had searched the entire downstairs and the garden, but there was no sign of Luke. Guessing that he was probably upstairs sleeping she decided to go and climb into bed beside him, snuggle up and wait for him to realize she was there.

Yes, she thought, trying not to wince at the zebra carpet
as
she climbed the stairs, if miracles were to be believed in then Corrie really might find what she wanted with Cristos, and then she’d know what it was like to be in love. She’d understand how wonderful it felt to know that someone had flown half way round the world to be with her, the way Luke had, to see her. She was outside her bedroom now, and it suddenly occurred to her that if Luke was awake it would be a wonderful surprise for him if she were to walk into the room stark naked. So, with not much to take off, Annalise slipped quickly out of her clothes and dropped them in a pile at her feet.

Placing a hand on each of the handles she gingerly pushed the double doors open. She was being deliberately quiet in case Luke was asleep. Yes, he probably was, she decided, since the curtains were drawn and the room was in semi-darkness. Then she looked at the bed and what she saw there caused the blood to drain from her face.

‘What the fuck!’ Luke cried, looking back over his shoulder.

‘Oh my God!’ Felicity cried. She was on all fours and buried her head in her arms.

‘Get out of here!’ Luke yelled. ‘Get the fuck out!’

But Annalise couldn’t move. Her eyes were riveted to where Luke’s body was joined with Felicity’s. Briefly, the image of the three of them in bed together, all that time ago, passed through her mind. She hadn’t wanted that, but Luke had insisted, and if Luke wanted it, as long as she was a part of it … But now was different. Now, he was shutting her out. He was telling her to go – she wasn’t a part of this.

‘What the fuck are you just standing there for?’ Luke seethed. ‘Didn’t you hear me? Get out!’

‘Luke!’ Felicity cried. ‘Luke, for God’s sake!’

‘You knew I was coming,’ Annalise whispered, barely hearing her own voice over the thudding in her ears. ‘Luke, I called you, I told you I was coming.’

But Luke wasn’t listening.

‘Luke!’ Annalise murmured.

‘
Get the fuck out of here
!’ he yelled, still jerking himself in and out of Felicity.

Dully Annalise turned to pick up her clothes. In a daze she stumbled down over the stairs, pulling on her shorts and her T-shirt. When she got outside the car was still there, where she’d left it, for some reason that surprised her.

She got in, started it up, and drove slowly out into the street. It was all right, there was no need to panic, she told herself. She’d be with Corrie soon, Corrie would make it all right.

‘Hi,’ Corrie said, dropping her clipboard, stopwatch and heavy bag onto a chair in the hall. ‘Where is everyone?’

‘Luke’s gone out,’ Felicity answered.

‘And Annalise?’ Corrie grimaced as she inspected her sun-burned face in the mirror.

‘I think I’d better get you a drink,’ Felicity answered.

‘God, I don’t look that bad, do I?’ Corrie asked, seriously.

Felicity didn’t answer, she simply turned and walked through to the kitchen.

Corrie followed her, and picking up an apple from the fruit bowl she perched on the edge of a high stool. ‘Annalise go out with Luke, did she?’ she asked, biting into the apple.

‘No. No, she didn’t go out with Luke.’

There was something in Felicity’s manner that made Corrie stop chewing and look at her. ‘Then where is she?’ Corrie asked.

‘I was hoping you might be able to answer that question,’ Felicity said.

Corrie’s eyes were suddenly very narrow. ‘What’s happened?’ she said. ‘She was coming here. When I last saw her …’

‘She came,’ Felicity interrupted. ‘She was here about two hours ago … I thought she might have come back to you.’

By now Corrie was trying very hard not to panic. ‘Why? Why should she have come back to me?’

Felicity only looked at her.

‘For God’s sake, Fliss,
what happened
?’

Corrie listened then, in appalled silence, to what had taken place when Annalise had returned to the house.

‘I’m sorry,’ Felicity cried. ‘I didn’t know she was coming. I didn’t … Oh shit! There’s no excuse, I shouldn’t have been in bed with him in the first place. But I thought …’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Corrie interrupted. ‘All that matters is where she is now.’

Felicity shrugged. ‘Like I said, I thought she’d come to you.’

‘She might have,’ Corrie answered, ‘but I wasn’t there. We switched locations at the last minute. Oh God, where can she have gone? Where’s Luke?’

‘I don’t know. He just said he was going out. He left about half an hour ago.’

‘I should have known something like this would happen,’ Corrie cried, starting towards the phone.

‘Look, Corrie, I know this is my fault, that …’

‘No, don’t blame yourself, Felicity. It’s not your fault. Believe me, it’s not. Did she take the car?’

Felicity nodded.

Corrie was dialling the number of the Beverly Hills Hotel. ‘She might still be there,’ she said, as she waited for someone to answer.

An hour later between them Corrie and Felicity had rung round just about every hotel in Beverly Hills, and every hospital too. No one had heard of Annalise Kapsakis. They tried all the airlines then to see if she’d flown back to London, but it didn’t appear that she had.

‘I don’t know what else we can do,’ Corrie cried frantically. ‘She could be anywhere,’

‘Like in a bar getting drunk,’ Felicity suggested.

Corrie nodded. ‘I’m afraid you’re probably right. Come on, we’ll have to go and look for her.’

It was approaching midnight by the time they gave up the search and returned home. They’d combed just about every bar on Sunset Strip and dozens of others too, but Los Angeles was such a big place they could go on for ever and still not find her. As Felicity closed the front door behind them Corrie heard a noise coming from the television room and running across the hall she burst in through the door to find Luke idly flicking through the channels.

‘Where’s Annalise?’ Corrie demanded. ‘Where is she?’

Luke shrugged. ‘I presumed she was with you.’

‘Have you heard from her?’ Felicity asked. ‘Has she called at all?’

‘No,’ he answered.

‘Well don’t you care where she might be?’ Corrie stormed.

‘She’ll be out somewhere getting drunk, I expect,’ Luke answered casually.

For a moment Corrie was speechless. She looked at Felicity, but as she turned back to Luke, obviously about to explode with rage, Felicity took her arm and drew her out into the hall. ‘There’s no point losing your rag with him,’ she said. ‘It’s not going to get us anywhere. If I were you I’d go on to bed. You look all in. Annalise’ll probably turn up sometime in the early hours.’

But when there was still no news of Annalise by the morning Corrie was almost out of her mind with worry.

‘It’s your fault, you bastard!’ she screamed at Luke when he came down for breakfast. ‘Why did you do it? You knew she was coming!’

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ Luke snapped. ‘Do you think I’d have let her find me like that if I’d known?’

‘Yes! Yes, I do! I heard you ask her to come back here
yesterday
. You knew she was coming! What are you trying to do to her?’ She was on her feet now, advancing towards him. ‘Just what the fuck are you playing at? Why did you do it? What are you getting out of this? Tell me, you bastard! Tell me!’ As she started to punch him Felicity caught her hands and pulled her away.

‘Corrie, ssh,’ she soothed. ‘It’s not going to do any good getting yourself in such a state.’

‘But you don’t understand!’ Corrie sobbed. ‘You don’t know what he’s like, Felicity. There’s something going on with him –’

‘Corrie, calm down,’ Felicity said. ‘You’re …’

‘He knows where she is!’ Corrie screamed. ‘I’m telling you he knows!’

Felicity looked at Luke, but Luke simply shook his head.

‘If anything’s happened to her!’ Corrie yelled at him. ‘I’m warning you, if …’

‘Corrie, just stop it! Stop!’ Felicity barked. ‘She’ll be all right. We’ll find her, I promise …’

The telephone rang then, and before Felicity could stop her Corrie had dashed across the kitchen and snatched it up.

‘Corrie? Is that you?’

‘Annalise!’ Corrie gasped. ‘Oh, thank God! It’s her,’ she said to Felicity. ‘Annalise! Are you all right? Where are you?’

‘San Francisco.’

‘
Where
? What are you doing there?’

‘I’m with an old school friend. She lives here.’

‘But why didn’t you wait for me?’

‘I couldn’t. I came to find you, but you weren’t there. Oh, Corrie, it was so awful …’

‘I know. Annalise …’

‘Is Luke there?’

‘Yes,’ Corrie answered, throwing him a filthy look.

‘Has he said anything?’

‘No.’

‘Can you do this programme alone, Corrie? I can’t come back, I just can’t. Not with her there!’

‘But you have to come back,’ Corrie cried. ‘We’ll go and stay at a hotel if you prefer, but you have to come …’

‘No. I can’t come back, Corrie, not after the things he said to me. Please, try to understand …’

‘All right,’ Corrie said. ‘OK. You just stay there …’

‘Tell her if she walks out on this programme she’s fired,’ Luke shouted.

‘Was that him?’ Annalise said. ‘What did he say?’

‘It doesn’t matter. You just stay where you are. Now give me the number.’

The second she put the phone down Corrie rounded on Luke, ‘I hope you’re pleased with yourself, you bastard! She …’

‘It’s you who should be pleased with yourself,’ he interrupted. ‘You’re the producer now. It’s what you wanted, isn’t it? So why don’t you stop yelling at me and just get on with it.’

He was almost at the door by the time Corrie spoke. ‘You know where you can stick your job!’ she hissed. ‘If she’s fired, then I’m resigning. As of now.’

‘She’s not fired.’

‘But you said …’

‘I know what I said, and I’m telling you she’s not fired. How can she be when her father’s who he is?’ He looked straight into Corrie’s eyes and grinned. ‘You’re the producer. Now, I’m going to the gym. I’ll be back around lunchtime.’

Corrie turned to Felicity and Felicity gave a brief shake of her head, as if to say, let it go now, but as soon as Luke walked out the door Corrie started racking her brains to try and remember if she’d said where Annalise was. She hadn’t, Felicity told her, and Annalise’s telephone number was still in Corrie’s hand. So whether he was lying or not
about
going to the gym, he couldn’t be going after Annalise, which was all that mattered for now.

Since neither of them were filming that day Corrie and Felicity spent the morning in the pool, the Jacuzzi and the sauna. But it wasn’t until they were chopping up a salad for lunch that Corrie had calmed down sufficiently for Felicity to dare to broach the subject of visiting Cristos’s set.