Chapter 15
Without Keira there, the villa felt bare and imposing, and far too quiet.
Earlier, Poppy had been running on adrenaline, unable to settle, but as evening approached, knowing her friend was back in England and she was here all alone, the vast and hollow emptiness of the place was making itself known.
For a while, she kept the patio doors open, just to hear anything other than her own breathing, but after watching the sunset, darkness gathered quickly and the chill that crept in with it was even less inviting. Eventually, she shut them and turned the lock.
Ordering herself to relax, she switched on lights she didn’t need and played music to banish the silence.
She picked up her phone again, wondering if there was any more from Keira.
It was such a cryptic message she had sent. Wanting to reassure but not really explaining anything. Poppy read the words again, conscious that they explained everything, yet told her nothing, and not liking that, as before, there was no second tick on her reply.
Had something really bad happened? Was that why Keira had her phone switched off?
Not knowing left Poppy feeling isolated.
Had her friend been active on Facebook at all?
Despite her reluctance to go anywhere near social media, thanks to Simon Daley, she made herself log in for Keira’s sake, but she did it fast, half-blind, refusing to look properly. She checked Keira’s profile, found no sign that she had been active, then logged straight back out again.
If she had Greg’s number, she would message him, but she didn’t.
The pair of them weren’t close, despite having Keira in common.
And Keira’s parents lived in Spain. Poppy had met them a handful of times, but she had no way of contacting them.
Short of getting a flight back herself, there was nothing she could do except wait for Keira to get in touch.
As tension thrummed through her, she started to pace again, the marble floor beneath her bare feet cold and almost hostile.
With Keira not reading her messages or updating Poppy on what was happening, she really needed someone else to talk to.
Jem was too new and didn’t understand their friendship. After letting him know she had heard from Keira, his reaction had been a thumbs up and a brief message back:
Great news. Glad all OK.
In his defence, he barely knew Keira. Of course he wouldn’t think it was out of character for her to do something like this. Just as he didn’t know Poppy well enough to understand that she wasn’t someone who overreacted unnecessarily.
She was still pacing when her phone rang.
Tom.
She answered immediately, her heart lifting at the sight of his name.
‘Hey,’ he greeted her. ‘I was just thinking about you. How are things?’
Something in his voice was different. He sounded lighter than when she had previously spoken to him.
‘How’s James?’ she asked, avoiding his question.
‘That’s actually why I am calling.’ She could hear the cautious relief now in his tone.
‘They’ve started bringing him out of the coma.
It’s very early stages and the doctors are being careful about what they’re promising, but they’re saying critical, but stable.
Milly is…’ He paused, and she heard him compose himself.
‘She’s been incredibly brave. We all have everything crossed. ’
‘Tom, that’s such good news.’
‘It is. It really is. Now he is hopefully out of the woods, I should be okay to fly to Paris for the wedding.’ There was another pause before he shifted the subject back. ‘Anyway. Enough about here. Tell me how you are. And don’t just say fine, because you don’t sound it.’
If she wasn’t so worried, Poppy might have laughed. Even through his own worry, Tom knew her so well.
‘Something’s happened,’ she admitted. ‘It’s Keira. She’s gone.’
‘Gone where?’ Tom asked, sounding confused.
‘Back home, apparently.’
‘Apparently?’ he repeated. ‘Are you saying you don’t know?’
‘I went out this morning and when I came back, all of her stuff had disappeared.’ The words came out in a rush now. ‘Then, hours later, she messaged me saying she’d had an emergency and flown home. I replied, but the message hasn’t delivered properly and she’s not answering me.’
‘Okay,’ Tom said slowly, his voice steady. ‘Let’s not panic yet. If she got a flight back, she might still be travelling or have no signal.’
‘I realise that, but why she didn’t tell me beforehand? She just… vanished.’
Hearing the rising panic in her own voice, she tried to draw in a deep breath to keep herself grounded.
‘Poppy, if it was urgent she probably didn’t have time to let you know. It could be a family emergency or her boyfriend… what’s his name? Greg?’
‘Maybe.’ She pressed her fingers to her temple. ‘It just feels wrong.’
‘Wrong how?’
She hesitated, then admitted, ‘She just wouldn’t leave me worrying like this.’
‘It’s okay, Pops. I get it. But remember, you’re in an unfamiliar place, you’ve been stressed for weeks, and now you’re alone in a very quiet villa. Just be sure your brain isn’t filling in gaps with worst-case scenarios.’
His voice was warm and measured, and it helped to ground her.
‘I guess you have a point. I was thinking about going to the police before she contacted me,’ Poppy confessed.
She was glad she’d held back, knowing she would have looked foolish.
Still, a niggly little part of her couldn’t help be suspicious of Keira’s message. It just didn’t seem like her friend.
She leaned back against the sofa cushions. ‘I hate this feeling.’
‘I know you do.’ Tom’s voice was softer now. ‘She did contact you, though. That’s the important part. I don’t know what’s going on with her or what her emergency is, but at least you know she is okay.’
‘I want to believe you,’ she said, pinching the bridge of her nose. ‘I really do. It’s just…’ She trailed off, closing her eyes for a moment, listening to the steady sound of his breathing. It was comforting.
‘Would you like me to go and check on her?’
Poppy’s heart thumped. He would do that for her? It seemed like an imposition.
‘I can’t expect you to do that,’ she began.
‘It’s not a problem,’ Tom assured her. ‘She lives close by, doesn’t she? And I can tell you’re worried. I can stop by tomorrow either before or after the hospital.’
‘If you honestly don’t mind, I’d really appreciate it,’ Poppy said gratefully. ‘I don’t have Greg’s number, and her parents live in Spain. I don’t have anyone else who can go.’
Tom didn’t hesitate. ‘Let me do this for you. Ping me her address. I’ll nip round tomorrow.’
‘Thank you. I really appreciate it.’
They stayed on the phone for a few minutes longer, and by the time Poppy ended the call, her breathing had slowed and her shoulders loosened.
The villa no longer felt quite so cavernous.
Tom was going to check in with Keira, even promising that he would call while he was with her and put her on the phone.
Before getting into bed later that night, she checked her message to Keira again. Still no double tick, but Tom was right. Poppy didn’t know what flight her friend had caught, and it was possible her battery may have died or she was without a signal.
She lay awake for a while, telling herself everything was okay.
Keira was going to be fine and it was no big deal being here in Crete alone.
It had originally been her plan to travel solo, so she would soon adjust to not having the company.
Instead, she would focus on her work, continue to avoid social media and the whole Simon Daley fallout, catch up on some more reading and go for some long walks, exploring the island.
And she had dinner to look forward to with Jem on Friday.
Even though the question of how he had known where the villa was still played in the back of her mind, Keira leaving had changed things.
Jem, Sue and Ian were the only people she knew here – well, apart from the maintenance man, Martin, and Elena the cleaner, though they didn’t really count as she’d only seen them once briefly.
There was going to be a logical explanation for how Jem had known, and she would ask him on Friday.
It was all going to work out.
Eventually, she drifted off to sleep, but she wasn’t out for long.
A loud crash pulled her sharply back towards consciousness, her eyes shooting open to the blackness of the bedroom. For a moment, she forgot where she was – but only briefly. As the noise registered, she froze.
It had come from within the villa.
Remembering she was here alone, her heart began to thump, her fingers tightly wrapping around the thin duvet that covered her. Had someone broken in?
She waited a few beats, now hearing only silence, trying to convince herself for a moment that she had imagined it. But that was wishful thinking. The noise had been real.
And she couldn’t just stay here in this room. She had to go investigate.
She needed a weapon. Just in case.
She looked around the room, realised there was nothing she could use. Except maybe the lamp beside the bed. It looked heavy.
With trembling fingers, she reached across and unplugged it, wrapping the cord around the sturdy base, then climbed out of bed, bare feet touching the cold floor.
Was she really going to do this?
Trying to keep her breathing steady, she crept towards the bedroom door and, with her free hand, pushed down the handle.
It creaked slightly and she froze again, the sound of her heart thudding in her ears as she waited, wondering if she had been heard.
Carefully, she pushed it all the way down, pulling the door open and peering into the dark hallway. Silence greeted her and it did nothing to ease her nerves.
God, if only Keira was here.
Even as the thought crossed her mind, another one quickly followed.
What if the noise was Keira? Had she come back?
Poppy wasn’t brave enough to call out, just in case she was wrong, but she did move faster towards the living area, grateful the marble floor masked the sound of her footsteps.
Her eyes were growing accustomed to the shadowy darkness, and she could make out the sofas and the dining table, and beyond those the kitchen.
No one appeared to be in the villa, but she needed to be sure. Plucking up courage, she reached out and flipped on the light.
Definitely no one there and nothing seemed to be disturbed, but as she edged closer to the kitchen, she saw the wine bottle that she had left on the counter was lying smashed on the floor, the shards of green glass scattered around a deep ruby-red puddle.
How the hell had that happened?
She moved with urgency then. Switching the lamp base for a butcher’s knife and checking the doors were all locked, that none of the windows were open or smashed.
Once she was sure everything was as it should be, she checked the other bedrooms and bathrooms, even looking in Keira’s wardrobe to be certain her things were still gone.
How close had she left the bottle to the counter edge? Had it somehow fallen off by itself?
Unlikely, but she couldn’t figure out any other explanation.
Unsettled, and knowing she wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep, she went back to the bedroom to grab her dressing gown, deciding that after she had cleared away the mess, she would make herself a cup of tea.
As she approached the hallway with its bank of floor-to-ceiling windows, she heard the distinctive crunch of footsteps against gravel.
Her head shot up and she stared outside into the darkness. For a split second, she was certain she saw the glint of movement, but then it was gone.
She stood very still, listening. But there was nothing. No more footsteps. No voices. No car engine fading away. Just the hiss of the sea in the distance.
Her pulse hammered painfully in her throat.
You imagined it.
It had to be her nerves. The broken bottle was enough but throw in the empty villa and the darkness – plus the worry of the day she’d had – and it wasn’t a surprise that her brain was filling in shapes that weren’t really there.
She flipped the switch for the hall light, turning it off again, then as her eyes adjusted to the dark outside, she stepped closer to the glass. Now she could see the terrace bathed silver in moonlight, the pool no more than a dark sheet of inky black, and the white wall beyond it was empty.
No one was there.
The edge of relief loosened her shoulders and she checked the patio handle once again, needing the extra reassurance.
Still locked.
As she turned away, something made her glance back.
Not movement. Absence. The throw she had wrapped around herself earlier when the temperature dipped outside, it was no longer draped over her sun lounger.
Poppy frowned, spotting it lying in a loose heap on the floor.
She stared at it for several seconds, waiting for her mind to supply a reasonable explanation of how it had got there.
Was it the wind maybe?
Though there didn’t seem to be any breeze. And she distinctly remembered tucking it beneath the cushion so it wouldn’t slide off.
Very slowly, she stepped away from the window, unable to shake the feeling that she was being watched.
She had a horrible feeling it was going to be a very long night.