The Cassandra Sanction (36 page)

‘I see,’ she said. ‘That’s interesting.’

He paused, then added, ‘And it’s the hardest thing in the world. People weren’t meant to kill one another. When you’re forced to make that choice, it’s something that stays with you forever. Something you always wish you could undo. No matter what the circumstances might have been that made you go down that road, you keep thinking
there might have been another way.’

Catalina was watching his face very closely as he spoke. She digested his words, and nodded. ‘What if there was no other way?’ she asked.

‘It doesn’t make it right,’ he answered. ‘But maybe it makes it necessary.’

Something in her tone, and in her eyes, made him realise that her question went beyond mere academic curiosity. It made him uneasy.

‘Nothing will ever be the same,’ she said. Her voice was quiet but firm and determined.

‘I think I’ll go for that run,’ Ben said.

Chapter Forty-Nine

Austin Keller had had the first floor of the lighthouse converted into a grand dining room, complete with cherrywood panelling, lapis lazuli fireplace and a vast antique table that might have come from the Palais de Versailles. All-around stained-glass windows gave a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree sweep of the island and the sea, and a magnificent view of the sunset as
the four of them sat down that evening for dinner. Keller proudly told Ben and Raul that his resident cook, Melina, had been a celebrated chef at a top Athens restaurant, where he’d been so impressed with the food that he’d snapped her services up there and then, at double her old salary. She and her husband Andréas, who served as a butler and all-around maintenance man, lived in the residential block
behind the one that housed Bauer and the rest of the crew.

Ben wasn’t able to tell if Keller was putting on an extra-special show for his guests, or whether he always lived like this. Either way, the dinner was as grand as the room in which it was served. A filo pastry pie called Spanakopita filled with feta cheese and spinach to start, followed by a dish of slow-baked lamb marinated in garlic
and lemon juice, which was the tenderest meat Ben had eaten in his life. The wine was a 1998 vintage Saint-Émilion, and there seemed to be no shortage of bottles.

Table conversation was awkward, marked with uncomfortable silences. Catalina seemed subdued, eating slowly and speaking little, taking frequent sips of wine. Raul was in a strange mood at first, glancing frequently at his sister,
sometimes frowning in consternation, sometimes gazing at her with a dreamy, sentimental look in his eyes and smiling to himself, as if he couldn’t quite make up his mind whether he was still angry with her for what she’d got herself involved in, or whether he was overcome with joy and relief at finding her alive and well after all he’d gone through to search for her. Maybe, Ben thought, it was a
bit of both. But as the meal wore on, the relieved side seemed to win over. As Raul helped himself to glass after glass of the Saint-Émilion, the twinkle in his eye grew more starry and his grin spread all over his face.

‘That’s quite some schooner you have there, Austin,’ Ben said, making conversation.

Keller looked pleased. ‘
Shanghai Lady
. I had her modelled on Errol Flynn’s old
Zaca
. Hundred and eighteen feet, twenty-three across the beam. Looks like a handful, right? But don’t let appearances fool you. She’s a breeze to sail. All fully automated, with state-of-the-art electronics. Hell, I could take her round the world single-handed, and I’m not exactly Peter Blake, you know? Just fire up the motors, set your course and you can kick back with a cool drink and pretty much let
her do it all for you. Are you a yachtsman yourself, Mr Hope?’

The last sailing yacht Ben had been aboard had been the
Isolde
, little more than half the size of Keller’s vessel, belonging to a movie soundtrack composer called Chris Anderson. Ben had co-piloted her across the English Channel overnight in heavy weather, making an illegal landing on the Normandy coast with Leigh Llewellyn. Leigh
had been someone Ben had once loved a great deal, and he didn’t talk about that period of his life.

‘I’ve done a little,’ he said, and left it at that. Noticing that Catalina’s glass was empty, he reached for the bottle and leaned across to refill it for her. Her downcast eyes flashed up at him, and a tiny smile twitched at the corners of her lips. Ben caught the warmth in her look. An unspoken
entente seemed to have formed between them since their conversation on the beach earlier.

Keller noticed Ben’s gesture and Catalina’s response, and his expression clouded momentarily. As the conversation fell into another lull, he shot a nervy glance at her, then broke into a forced smile and said, ‘Hey, you know, I really think Melina outdid herself tonight. Isn’t this lamb something else?’

‘Yes, it’s very nice,’ Catalina replied quietly.

Keller flushed as if he’d scored a point, and pressed on to score more of them. ‘I’ll bet you there isn’t anyone living this well for two hundred miles. Five hundred. You’d have to go to Athens to find anything like it, and even then you’d have a hell of a job finding anything of this quality. What do you say, Mr Hope?’

Ben barely knew
the man, but even he thought it was embarrassing to watch him trying so hard to impress Catalina. He said, ‘We appreciate your hospitality, Austin.’

‘I always look after my guests,’ Keller said happily. He turned to Catalina. ‘Isn’t that right, babe?’

She laid down her knife and fork, a little abruptly, and replied, ‘It’s wonderful, Austin. The dinner is perfect, just like everything else.
I can’t express how grateful I am for your kindness, to all of us, and especially to me.’

‘Ah, you don’t have to thank—’ Keller began, leaning back in his chair with a magnanimous wave.

‘But you know I can’t live the rest of my life like this,’ she said, cutting him off. ‘I’d go insane.’

Keller’s face fell, then clouded again. ‘Insane? Really? Oh, great. Most people would kill to be
here, living like this. Lap of luxury, not a care in the world.’

She frowned at him. ‘Is that really what you think, that I don’t have a care in the world, as if I could just forget everything that’s happened?’

‘You went through a rough time. You were smart enough to get yourself out of it, and now it’s over. Done. Time to move on.’

‘My life,’ she said. ‘That’s what’s over. Everything
I am, everything I’ve been working towards. I panicked, and I threw it all away. I was too frightened to think clearly, and I made a terrible mistake.’

‘And now you’re thinking clearly, I suppose?’ Keller said, growing redder. ‘Funny how a few glasses of Bordeaux will do that, hmm?’

‘It’s not the wine, Austin. Give me some credit.’

Keller shook his head, confused. ‘Then what? I don’t
get it. What’s the matter with you? Is it me? Did I do something wrong?’

‘You didn’t do anything wrong. And there are a million women who would love to be here, living this life. I’m just not one of them. There, now you’ve forced me to say it.’

Keller pursed his lips angrily, then turned to glare at Ben. ‘Do we have you to thank for this dumbass idea? Or you?’ he added, jabbing a finger
in Raul’s direction. ‘It can’t be a coincidence that she suddenly comes out with this shit after you turned up.’

Ben gave Keller a warning look. ‘Let her speak,’ he said quietly.

Catalina sighed, then reached over and touched Keller’s arm. ‘Austin, please. This isn’t just some impulse thought. I’ve had a lot of time to dwell on it. In case you hadn’t noticed, there isn’t a lot else for
me to do around here.’

‘And so what then?’ he demanded, jerking his arm away from her touch. ‘You’re going to leave? And do what? Where will you run and hide this time?’

She shook her head resolutely. ‘No more running and hiding. I have to finish this.’

Keller shoved his plate away from him, as if he was too disgusted to eat another bite. ‘Finish this? What the hell does that mean,
finish this
?’

She said, ‘Don’t you see? All I’m doing here is hiding my head in the sand, hoping this whole nightmare will just go away of its own accord. Who am I trying to kid? It won’t go away, not ever, not for any of us, unless I put a stop to it.’

Keller threw up his hands. ‘Put a stop to it how?’

‘For a start, by blowing the whole thing wide open on live television. I have more
than enough connections.’

‘Aren’t you forgetting something? You’re dead and buried. You no longer exist.’

‘All the better publicity. Talk about the immediate attention I’d get, just by walking into any TV studio in the world right now.’

‘And telling them what?’

‘The truth,’ she said.

‘That you faked your own suicide? They’ll crucify you. You’ll blow up the biggest storm in
the history of the world media.’

‘That’s exactly what I want,’ she said. ‘I’ll be on every news channel on the planet. Giving me the perfect opportunity to bring the whole story out into the open. Murder. Conspiracy. Every last filthy little detail of what those bastards did. By the time I’m done, they won’t be able to touch me. They’ll be too busy hiding for their lives.’

‘And your research?
You planning on spilling the beans about that, too?’

‘Of course. It’s what this is all about. The people have a right to know.’

Keller snorted. ‘My God, I can’t believe you’re really contemplating this. It’s unbridled folly.’

‘Why? Why is it folly?’

‘I got two words for you. Hatchet job. Nobody’s going to listen to a mentally unstable woman who popped a barrel load of antidepressants
before punting her own car off a cliff. Especially when you start on the science bit. The end of the world? Sure, that’ll work. Forget crucified – you’ll be hung, drawn and quartered. And meanwhile, all this will have been for nothing. You’ll be right back where you started. Except this time, you’ll be an even easier target for these sons of bitches. They’re not the kind of people you can get
away from twice.’

‘I hate to say it,’ Raul told Catalina, wagging his fork at Keller. The wine was making him slur his words a little. ‘And I never thought I’d ever find myself agreeing with this guy. But he’s actually making sense.’

‘There,’ Keller said to her, pointing at Raul. ‘If you won’t hear it from me, then at least hear it from your brother.’

Catalina slumped in her seat,
as if suddenly deflated. ‘You really think so?’ she asked Raul.

Raul nodded. ‘I really do, yes. You can’t go back. It’s too late for that now. You’d be crazy to. As for all this stuff about an ice age, it’s not exactly something your adoring fans are going to want to hear. They’ll think you lost your mind. Even
I
think that, and I know you better than anyone.’

‘Thanks a million, brother,’
she said, but the resolution in her voice had faltered. She looked imploringly at Ben for support.

‘It could backfire,’ was all Ben said.

Catalina gulped down half a glass of wine, then closed her eyes and fell silent for a lingering moment. Finally, she let out a heavy sigh, and nodded in resignation. ‘You’re right. All of you. What was I thinking?’

Keller was all smiles now that
he’d won. ‘Don’t beat yourself up, Cat. We all understand how tough it’s been for you. You’re entitled to have a few doubts now and then. Just remember, you’re in safe hands.’

‘I must seem so ungrateful. You’ve done so much for me.’

‘Not a bit of it,’ Keller said, and leaned over to put his arm around her shoulder and give her a tender squeeze. ‘It’s my pleasure to do things for you, you
know that, right? And the last thing I want is that you feel trapped here. Didn’t I already set up your new ID, passport, driver’s licence, the works?’

‘Carmen Hernandez,’ she said. ‘I know you did, and I really, really appreciate it.’

Keller grinned a mile-wide grin. ‘And before you know it, this whole thing will have blown over, and you and I will go travelling all over the world. Free
as a couple of birds. Never have to worry about anything again. A totally fresh start. I’ll even buy you a house. You can have a castle in Spain if you want. With the world’s fanciest observatory built in, just for you. Now who gets that kind of an opportunity in their lives? Huh? Tell me that. We just need to hang on a little longer for the dust to settle, is all.’

Catalina spoke hardly another
word through the rest of dinner, sinking back into the same subdued and reflective state as earlier. Ben watched her and wondered what she was thinking. After Andréas took away the main course dishes and served dessert, she picked at her food for only a minute before politely excusing herself, saying she was feeling tired and wanted to get an early night.

Not long after Catalina had left the
dining room, Raul stood up, full of 1998 Saint-Émilion and nearly as unsteady on his feet as he’d been when Ben had first met him in Frigiliana, and announced he was ready to call it a night as well.

‘Scotch?’ Keller said to Ben when it was just the two of them.

‘Bring it on,’ Ben said.

‘Rocks?’

‘As it comes,’ Ben said.

For another hour, they worked their way through the remainder
of the eighteen-year-old Bowmore while Keller talked mostly about
Shanghai Lady
, her technical specifications, the money that had been lavished on her, the many ports she’d docked in all over the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean.

Ben wasn’t really listening. He was thinking about Catalina Fuentes. Trying to puzzle out the questions that had been gnawing at him since that afternoon
on the beach. Playing back in his mind the things she’d said, both then and during dinner, and wondering what the truth really was.

Because he was even more certain now that she was holding something back. He just didn’t know what it was yet, and it was troubling him.

It wouldn’t be very long before he discovered that the truth was something he couldn’t even have imagined.

Chapter Fifty

Ben was the last to retire for the night, long after one in the morning. As he passed Raul’s door he could hear the steady rasp of snoring from inside. Out for the count. He was careful not to make noise as he let himself into his own room, although probably nothing much short of a shotgun blast would have roused the Spaniard from his heavy sleep.