The Tangled Web (33 page)

‘There goes the peace and quiet,’ Vicky tutted.

Flic heard them but couldn’t see them as her back was to
the door.  ‘Live and let live, Vicky.  They’re probably here on holiday and
just enjoying themselves.  They’re not doing anyone any harm.’

‘Yeah, but they’re noisy.’  Vicky stuck her tongue out at
Flic.

‘I like it when people are noisy.  Shows they’re having
fun.  They know how to enjoy themselves.  Not like us, we look like a bunch of
miserable gits,’ Adam remarked, rolling his eyes.

‘I get enough noise at home with a toddler running around. 
I want peace and quiet while I’m away,’ Vicky moaned.

‘Right, I’ll go and ask them to keep the noise down,’ Flic
teased.

‘Go on then!’ Vicky laughed.

‘I will!’ Flic joked.

‘I’d like to see that,’ grinned Lumi, letting her guard
down and joining in the banter.

‘So would I,’ Adam agreed.

‘Right, here I go.’  Flic stood up, wondering how far to
take the joke.  She pushed her chair aside, stepped away from it and turned
towards the group of rowdy men.

‘Go on!’ Vicky cajoled.

Flic halted when she saw the group.  She recognised two of
their faces.  They had been at her wedding.  They were George’s friends.  And
if his friends were here, she guessed that he must be too. 

Her blood roared through her ears and she felt a little bit
dizzy.  She wasn’t ready for this.  She was unprepared.  And besides, Lumi was
with her.  The whole plan would be ruined if George saw his ex-wife having
dinner with Diana.

Flic swivelled round and sat down quickly.  She couldn’t
risk George seeing her.  She lowered her head and motioned to Adam for him to
come closer.

‘I think George is over there,’ she mumbled.

Adam’s expression sobered.  ‘Is he with that group?’

‘I’m not sure.  I recognise a couple of them.  They’re
friends with him.  If they’re here, I’m guessing he must be too.’

Adam lifted his head slightly to look at the men.  Lumi
didn’t look and stayed where she was, fidgeting with her phone.  Vicky was less
subtle and jerked her head up to get a better view of them.  Adam grabbed her
elbow and pulled her back down.

‘Quit that!’ he demanded.

‘Sorry,’ she whispered.

‘Right, they’re all busy looking at their menus.  Turn
round now and have a look.  Tell us if you see him,’ he instructed Flic.

As she turned around they all seemed to lift their heads
from their menus and examine the restaurant.

‘It’s impossible to look without them seeing me,’ Flic
hissed.

‘Do you have a compact with you?  Use the mirror,’ Adam
suggested.

Flic reached down onto the floor and lifted her bag.  She
pulled out a silver jewelled compact and pretended to fuss with her hair,
directing the mirror behind her towards the group.  It took a few moments to
examine each of them using her compact and locate George.  She had been right. 
He was there.  She could only see the back of his head, but that was enough. 
He had a mole behind one ear which she recognised.  She was hit with a
flashback of kissing it softly in the mornings when she woke up and found him
lying with his back to her.  She cursed to herself, wishing she could bury all
of these little memories.

‘He’s there.’  She snapped her compact shut.  ‘Blue
t-shirt, light brown hair.’

‘We have to leave!’ Vicky panicked.

‘No!’ Adam scolded her.  ‘Stop acting on impulse.  Think!’

Vicky said nothing but her eyes widened from the shock of
being reprimanded by her younger brother.

‘I think we should leave too.  It’s too risky to stay
here,’ Flic whispered.

‘Walking out will draw attention to us,’ Lumi pointed out.

‘If we’re going to leave, we need them to be focused on
something while we’re walking out,’ Adam mused.

‘I can create a distraction.  I’m Diana, remember?  I can
go talk to them,’ Lumi volunteered.

‘Then they’ll look over to see who you were with,’ Adam
noted.

‘We could leave while Lumi’s walking over to them, and if
they ask she could say she’s with you Adam, and you’re a work colleague?’ Vicky
offered.

‘Could we get out without drawing attention to ourselves?’
Flic asked.

‘Well, he doesn’t know me, it’s you he shouldn’t see,’
Vicky rammed home.  ‘Even with your black hair, he might recognise your face. 
Just keep your hair over your face and walk quickly.’

‘This is stupid.  You’re all stupid.  You’re thinking too
much.  I am Diana.  I am a waitress.  This is a restaurant.  I’m going over to
take his order,’ Lumi announced.

They powerlessly watched as Lumi rose from her seat, walked
towards the counter and picked up a notepad and pen.  She casually strode
towards the table George and his friends were seated at and smiled.

‘Oh my God!  She’s not going to, is she?’ Vicky panted.

Flic shoved her compact into her bag and bolted toward the
door without thinking or talking any more about it.  The longer she sat there,
the more chance there was to be noticed.

She marched down the stairs and crossed the road, giving
the traffic only a passing thought as she strode into the outdoor display area
of a Russian supermarket.  She stepped behind a pillar and pretended to look at
the vegetables on display.  She inhaled sharply, trying to fill her lungs.  She
felt like she had forgotten to breathe since she saw George.  The earthy smells
of the vegetables sitting out in the muggy heat began to her feel woozy.  But
then again, she reminded herself, the adrenaline and shock of seeing George
could easily be making her feel that way too.

She felt a finger tap her shoulder and jumped.  She
instinctively swung her bag and whacked the body the finger was attached to.

‘Argh!  Jesus!’ Vicky yelled.

‘Sorry.  But you could have been anybody!’ Flic reasoned.

Vicky shook her head and rubbed the shoulder which had been
hit.  ‘Adam said he’ll pay the bill and leave.  He’s going to leave Lumi to
it.  We’ll talk to her later and find out what story she made up to explain us
being there.’

‘I feel like such an idiot.  I didn’t think for one second
that we’d all end up in the same restaurant tonight.  Paphos is a decent size. 
Surely he could have picked somewhere else,’ Flic groaned.

‘Sods law,’ Vicky shrugged.

‘Look!  Adam’s leaving now,’ Flic pointed.

The two of them watched from behind the pillar as Adam
casually strolled out of the restaurant toward a bookmaker’s on the other side
of the street.  Flic was confused for a second before realising why he was
going there.  The restaurant was on a corner, meaning there were two sides of
the building with windows.  Vicky and Flic were able to watch the front view
from the supermarket across the road and Adam could see into the windows on the
side of the building on the other side of the street.  She had just assumed he
would join them but the decision he had made was more prudent.

‘She’s a bloody loose cannon,’ Vicky snarled, nodding
towards Lumi.

‘As long as she gets the job done and we haven’t been seen,
I’m happy,’ Flic dismissed.

Vicky reached into her pocket for her phone.  ‘Oh thank
God!  It’s dried out now.  It’s working again!  We should video them talking. 
If she touches his arm or he hugs her or something, that could be evidence.’

‘Yeah, of course,’ Flic agreed.  In her haste to get away
she had completely forgotten the job they were here to do.  She silently scolded
herself for allowing her emotions to affect her professionalism.

Then she remembered she wasn’t a professional.  She was a
chancer.  An opportunist.  She had been at a loose end a few months ago and
this had seemed like a good idea. 

‘I wonder what they’re saying,’ Vicky muttered.

Flic watched them converse.  She saw Lumi smiling and
chatting, writing something down on the notepad and then laugh.  The men
laughed too.  She studied George beaming as he looked up from his seat at
Lumi.  He hadn’t changed a lot.  He was a little fatter.  His hair was slightly
shorter.  He had a tattoo on his arm now.  Was that a beer belly?  No, it was
just the way he was sitting.  He still had the same kindness in his brown
eyes.  The same cheeky smile.  The same way of jiggling one restless leg when
he was sitting upright at a table.  He still made everyone else laugh when he
laughed.  He was everybody’s mate and she detected Lumi warming to him
already. 

Flic shook her head to bring her back to the present.  She
tutted.  She wasn’t surprised Lumi was warming to him.  Lumi didn’t know any
better.  But she did.  The glint in his eyes was mischief rather than
kindness.  His smile was devious – not cheeky.    His mannerisms were
irritating.  He wasn’t everybody’s mate.  He was his own mate.  She knew what
made him tick.  She knew him better than anyone else.  She knew what a
deceitful prick he was.  And apparently so did Amy now.  She had learned and
Amy had learned.  And every other woman he got involved with would learn too, given
time.

‘Hmm, turning on the charm by the looks of it,’ Vicky
surmised.

‘Him or her?’ Flic asked.  The flirting was obvious.  She
was glad Vicky was videoing this.  This was exactly what they were looking for.

‘Bloody hell!  Look!  She’s been spotted,’ Vicky sniggered.

Flic’s eyes darted to all the different windows of the
restaurant, looking for the person Vicky was talking about.  She noticed two
waitresses and a man in a suit behind the counter with worried expressions on
their faces, having a discussion and nodding towards Lumi and George’s table. 
The waitresses seemed to be talking over each other and one gesticulated wildly
as she talked.  The man halted them both with raised palms and started walking
towards Lumi.  Flic and Vicky began to involuntarily giggle as George pointed
at the suited man, who by this time looked livid.  Lumi sprinted to the door.

‘Oh we shouldn’t laugh!  This isn’t funny!  How are we
going to explain Diana suddenly walking out on her job,’ Vicky whooped.

‘We’ll think about it later.  Or maybe Adam could think
about it.  He seems to be so much better at this than we are,’ Flic sighed.

‘Yeah.  I noticed that,’ Vicky nodded, furrowing her brow.

‘Looks like she’s going back to the hotel,’ Flic noted,
seeing Lumi tear down the street they had come from earlier that evening.

‘She’s still running,’ Vicky hooted.  ‘Oh, look!  Adam’s
running after her.’ 

At the sight of her brother running too, Vicky doubled up
in hysteria.  Flic checked the view across the street and saw one of the waitresses
who had been complaining about Lumi taking an order from George and his
friends.  ‘Coast is clear, we should try and catch up with them.’

They dashed across the road and along the street, still
tittering to themselves about what they had witnessed.  They ran on the road
rather than the pavement which was cluttered with misplaced trees and littered
with loose paving slabs.

They finally caught Lumi and Adam just as they reached the
hotel.  Lumi was catching her breath and petting one of the hotel’s resident
cats.  Adam rested against a wall casually.

‘You ladies need to exercise more,’ Adam snorted.  Flic
noted that he had barely broken sweat, despite having just run the same
distance as they had, but was resting his leg. 

‘I’m usually very fit, it’s the heat and humidity that’s
getting to me,’ Vicky countered.

‘Yeah, right.  Sure it is,’ Adam mocked agreement.  ‘Lumi
was just about to tell me about her conversation with George,’ he said, turning
towards Lumi expectantly.

Lumi seemed surprised to be prompted to give details of the
conversation.  She raised her eyebrows and shrugged, ‘We didn’t say much
really.  We talked about the weather.’

‘Bullshit!’ Flic exclaimed.

‘We saw the two of you talking and flirting.  There was
more than just weather getting discussed.  Spill!’ Vicky spat.

‘It’s true.  That was what we talked about.  And he asked
how I like Cyprus and my new job,’ Lumi sulked.

‘Did you arrange to email each other or see each other
again?’ Adam quizzed.

‘Nothing definite, but I gave him my number.  He texted me
a minute ago before you got here to give me his number.  He’s going to text me
tomorrow and we will meet,’ Lumi replied.  She picked up the ginger and white
cat she had been petting and skulked towards the door of the building.  They heard
her ask for the room key at reception. 

Vicky peeked her head around the door and waited until Lumi
was out of earshot before saying, ‘Do we believe her?’

‘No,’ Flic replied without hesitation.  ‘There was a lot
more to that conversation than she’s giving away.  I wish we’d had a way to
hear what they were saying!’

‘Well, I can’t guarantee they didn’t talk about the weather
and how she liked living in Cyprus, but I CAN guarantee she’s lying about
giving him her number,’ Adam said.