The Perfect Location (23 page)

Sapphira knew none of this. She had been trying to cut down over the last few days and was starting to feel sick from her self-administered detox. Jack had set her up on the top floor, which was self-contained. Bedroom, bathroom and sitting room. Included was a plasma screen, satellite dish, phone, computer, massage table and a small kitchenette.

‘This is where I keep my mistresses,’ he said as he showed her around.

‘Very nice, you never need to leave,’ she said, sitting on the bed.

‘Eventually they do, when the time is right, but don’t you worry about a thing, you will stay here as long as you need, okay?’ He sat next to her and put his strong arm around her thin shoulders.

Sapphira rested her head against his arm. ‘I feel sick, I just want this over with.’

‘Well, we start tomorrow. I will be there every step of the way and I’ve employed some of the best doctors to help you.’

Sapphira started to cry. ‘Why are you doing this? Why are you so fucking nice to me? You hardly know me, Jack.’

Jack bit his lip, his own eyes welling with tears. ‘Because I love you. You are amazing and you don’t even know it yet. You are brave and beautiful and one day you will see what you can do with this. I know it, and you know what else?’ Sapphira shook her head. ‘I will always be known as Sapphira De Mont’s ex-lover and that’s good for business,’ he laughed, wiping his eyes.

Jack’s assistant came into the room. It was Giulia from the film set. ‘Hello, Sapphira,’ she said.

‘Hi, Giulia, I didn’t know you worked for Jack.’

Sapphira was taken aback. She had spoken to Giulia often on set and she seemed capable and helpful to TG, staying in the background and not being overly friendly with the actors, which some assistants tended to do, hoping to trade up to a bigger star.

‘
Si
, Jack lent me to TG for the film, as he needed someone he could trust and who spoke Italian,’ said Giulia, holding a black folder.

Sapphira looked at Jack, her eyes asking if Giulia could be trusted with what she was about to go through.

Jack answered her openly. ‘Giulia is my assistant and my dearest friend, and in many ways, she is my sister. Giulia is Armondo’s sister. She is my lifeline and together we laugh and cry and she helps me stay organized. Giulia knew you were an addict; she picked it up right away and told me, but I figured it was just an occasional thing. I didn’t realize how bad it was until the night here.’

Sapphira looked down at her feet. Giulia spoke up. ‘Jack and I have organized everything and I believe this will be the right thing for you. I hope you get to live your life. I am sad that this was not in existence when Armondo was trying to get off the drugs.’

Sapphira looked up at her and saw kindness in Giulia’s face. ‘Thank you, Giulia, I am very sorry about Armondo. Jack loved him very much, it sounds like.’

Giulia smiled. ‘I love Jack and we are friends,
è il mio fratello
. He is my brother,’ she translated for Sapphira.

After she left the room, Sapphira lay on the bed. ‘Crazy stuff, huh? I never knew.’

‘I never told you, but it doesn’t matter anyway. She is amazing. Her family is a very old established Venetian family, ancestors of the third Doge of Venice or something. Her brother’s addiction and homosexuality was hidden by them carefully, but they are kind to me and they love that Giulia works with me. I trust them implicitly.’

Sapphira was feeling sick again. She rolled over on the bed.

‘Hang on, honey, it will all be over in a few days and then the real healing begins,’ said Jack, rubbing her back.

Sapphira just wanted it to be over.

The next day, Jack and Sapphira’s doppelgängers arrived through the back entrance, which was covered by an awning and impossible for the paparazzi to get a good shot of.

They were dressed according to Jack and Giulia’s instructions, in the clothes which had been sent to them via FedEx. They walked into the villa, nervous. This was the craziest gig they had ever done, but for US$500,000 each, a trip across Europe and free clothes and accoutrements, they knew it was too good to pass over.

Jack walked down and met them in the sitting room where they waited with Giulia and Jack’s lawyer. ‘Hey, you look just like me,’ laughed Jack, breaking the ice. The faux Jack laughed also. Shaking his hand, he kissed the faux Sapphira on each cheek. She even had the same tattoos painted onto her body, courtesy of transfers she’d had made for her appearances in the US. ‘Nice work,’ said Jack as he turned her around to look at them under her silk singlet. ‘Weird.’

Sapphira entered the room. She felt violently ill but was prepared to put on a brave face. This was part of the deal. She walked over and held Jack’s hand. ‘Thank you so much,’ she said gracefully, smiling brilliantly. The doppelgängers were awestruck and stood excited before them.

‘So, I suppose my lawyer and assistant have explained this gig? Sapphira and I are in love and we want time alone here but the media are going crazy. No speaking to the media, keep your heads down as much as possible. You will head off for ten days and then disappear, leading them away from here. Yes?’

‘Yes,’ they answered in unison, still amazed at their mission.

‘I would be so grateful if you stuck to the contract I believe you have signed. No mention of this ever or we will sue you for your firstborn children and body parts.’ Jack laughed but his eyes threatened the actors.

Nodding their consent and agreement, the actors were afraid of Jack and Sapphira whose mere presence was powerful.

Jack and Sapphira said goodbye and the faux pair got ready for their debut to the media. Giulia opened the door and the bodyguards hired outside held the media back as the pair walked down into the waiting boat to take them to the airport. The noise came through the open door into the sitting room, where Jack and Sapphira waited. ‘Jesus, poor bastards,’ said Jack as the door shut.

Sapphira went upstairs to lie down again. She had been taking less and less heroin and today was her worst day, timed to be almost clean for her treatment.

Jack came upstairs. ‘Everything will start in about an hour, okay?’

Sapphira nodded, scared.

‘Give me your kit, sweetie. Just in case,’ said Jack softly.

Sapphira pointed to the drawer beside the bed. Jack took the bag and leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. ‘Hang in there, kiddo.’

Within the hour, there was a Swiss doctor and nurse in her room, with an IV set up and confidentiality agreements signed. The doctor was not surprised to see Sapphira in the room. When Jack’s lawyer had contacted him about needing to help someone famous, he was indifferent. An addict was an addict and he had treated many famous and powerful people this way, in the privacy of their own homes.

He explained to Sapphira that he was going to sedate her and do a rapid detox, using a combination of drugs, as well as keeping her hydrated and infusing her body with the multivitamins and amino acids her body would be lacking. After that, he would put her on tablets for a period to stop the cravings and then she could have an implant which would last anywhere between nine months to a year, depending on her progress.

Sapphira was silent, it seemed too much to take in and she just wanted to stop feeling sick and sleep for a long time. Changing into pyjamas, Sapphira lay on the bed and let the nurse insert the IV into her arm. Sapphira was ready.

Five days later she awoke. She felt like shit, but a manageable kind of shit. Not so sick, just groggy and a little spaced out. Jack was sitting by her, the nurse in the room, writing in a chart. ‘Hey there, sleepy,’ whispered Jack.

‘Hey,’ said Sapphira tiredly.

‘What day is it?’

‘Friday.’

The nurse came and bustled Jack out of the room. ‘Time to go, enough, she is awake. Now we have work to do.’

Sapphira was kept in the room for another five days. It was not easy and at times she fantasized about jumping out the window and into the canal to swim to try and score but slowly she began to walk and eat. Her body’s cravings stopped and the doctor prescribed medications to counteract the worst of the symptoms. Jack had organized daily massages, which helped relax her, as did the acupuncture and Chinese herbs, which tasted foul but Sapphira had promised to try them and she did.

After fourteen days upstairs, Sapphira was allowed down to sit with Jack in the kitchen. He was doing the crossword. ‘Five letter name for hell.’

‘Jacky,’ she replied and sat down carefully.

‘Very funny. Hades,’ he answered himself and wrote it down.

‘What’s news, pussycat?’ he asked, putting down the paper.

‘Um, I am allowed to walk around now. Big day for me.’

‘I can see that and Nurse Ingrid hasn’t got you on her leash, so things must be improving.’

‘Yes, I’m apparently doing quite well, although I can’t keep anything inside me yet, so food is out of the question.’

Jack made a face. ‘Poor love. How long will that last?’

‘Not long, it’s getting better I think. I’m going to have a massage in a moment. I just wanted to say thank you.’

‘No problem.’

‘I will pay you back, I promise, when I get things sorted.’

‘Don’t you even try, lady. I will just donate it to my charity anyway.’

‘You have a charity?’ Sapphira mocked him. ‘What? Free fashion advice to badly dressed women?’

‘Indeed I do, any self-respecting philanthropist has one.’ Jack ignored her barbs.

‘Who do you help?’ asked Sapphira, interested.

‘Drug addicts and their families,’ answered Jack, going back to his paper. ‘You have to find something which means something to you, otherwise it’s all bullshit and you don’t get anything done and fuck knows there’s too much to be fixed in this world.’

Sapphira walked upstairs wondering what she cared about. Well, not much really, besides shooting up and occasionally doing something challenging like learning to fly a plane or jumping from bridges in New Zealand. The past two weeks had been the most challenging of her life and she realized everything she had done till now was to serve her own ego. ‘Hedonism’ her counsellor called it in the first session they had over the phone yesterday. Always looking for the next hit, in life, through drugs, through sex. Sapphira was shocked and she realized she hated her life and where it had gone. She had never really liked it, her life was being wasted and she realized it. Her doctor had put her on anti-depressants; self-realization sometimes came with a price and this kind of reaction was common in recovering addicts, he had said. The solution was to try to find a new focus, he advised her, something outside herself. The only problem was, Sapphira had no idea what the world looked like outside heroin.

Rose returned to LA to find Lauren in shock. The director Jerry Hyman had been arrested and the police had contacted her, telling her they had video of her being raped on the plane. Rose was shocked but not surprised about Jerry’s behaviour; she just wanted Lauren to be okay. Calling her on her cell phone after she received the message, Rose had her driver go straight to Lauren’s apartment.

Lauren was there with her mother, who had flown in to stay with her. Rose hugged her close. ‘I’m so sorry, I’m so, so sorry,’ she repeated in a soothing voice.

Lauren cried in her arms. ‘I knew it, I knew it when I got off the plane but I couldn’t think straight and now I know why and then he was so awful on set. Thank God you took me away, Rose, thank God,’ she cried.

Lauren told Rose the story of what had happened years before. Remembering it made her break down several times as she recalled the moments before and afterwards. On the flight over he had been charming to Lauren, plying her with French champagne and delicate little hors d’oeuvres that she had never tasted before. Lauren remembered feeling lightheaded and asking to lie down. When she awoke as they landed, she was on the bed. She remembered lying down but nothing afterwards, and she felt odd, hung-over and slightly sick. She went to the bathroom and went to the toilet. When she wiped herself, she was sticky, like she had just had sex. Her pubis bone was aching as though she had knocked it somehow. Lauren walked out of the plane’s bathroom and saw the director talking on the phone.

She waited for him to finish his call. He signalled to her he was going to be some time. She waited longer. He kept her waiting for twenty minutes while he spoke on the phone. When he hung up, she said, ‘Did something happen when I went and lay down?’

He looked at her closely, his eyes narrowed. ‘No, honey, you went to sleep from all the champagne and I made a few business calls. Check my phone if you want.’ He held out his phone to her.

She shook her head. ‘Okay, I just feel a little weird.’

‘That’s flying in a private plane for you, babe, you feel everything real close.’

‘I made the choice,’ she finally said, ‘to choose my job and my reputation over what was right. I could have helped other people.’

Rose held her close for a long time. ‘You did what you felt was best at the time, darling. There is no point going over it again and again. You have to move forward otherwise you are truly the victim.’

Rose held her hand as Lauren’s mother handed her tissues. ‘What’s next, Lauren, what do we do now? What can I do to help?’

‘I have to find a lawyer, I think, but I don’t have one.’ Lauren started to cry again. Lauren’s mother left the room, clearly distressed at her daughter’s situation.

‘Use mine, they’re the best. All bills will be taken care of by me and this will be sorted in no time. What else?’

Rose was amazing in a crisis. She took charge in a way that never felt like she was being bossy, just calm and in control. Lauren was quiet. ‘Come on, what else do you need right now at this moment?’

Rose could tell Lauren was hiding something. She sensed it and it reminded her of herself a long time ago. ‘Tell me please, Lauren, I want to help you.’

Lauren put her head in her hands. ‘I want to die. I want to die of shame from the police seeing the video. I want to die. People will see what he did to me. I saw it, I had to identify myself. I am a ragdoll. He was awful and I look like I’m dead while he rapes me. I want to die,’ Lauren wept.