Chapter 85 Gayle
G AYLE
Gayle watches Mike sleeping, his thick lips trembling with every snore. She lightly touches his arm, grateful that her husband is safe and sound and here with her, not in hospital like poor Signore Bianchi.
It’s a rare occasion for Mike to be asleep by eight-thirty, but tonight he announced he was too worried about Noah to write his blog, so Gayle suggested an early night. She’s happy to be in bed as well. The stress over Noah has worn her out. They’ve still heard nothing.
Mike startles himself awake with a particularly loud snore. ‘You still awake, hon? How’s your head?’
‘Splitting.’
He scratches his beard. ‘I’m fixing for something sweet. Wonder if there’s any leftover cake downstairs?’
‘Let me check for you, hon. You stay there. I just need the bathroom first.’
She’s sitting on the toilet with her knickers around her ankles when there’s a persistent knock on the door of their suite.
Her first thought is that it’s the police bringing bad news about Noah. She thinks she might be sick. But how would the Italian police even know he’s missing?
‘Hold your horses!’ Mike calls and she hears him open the door.
She emerges from the bathroom to find Christian Taylor looming large in their doorway.
His eyes are red-rimmed. He looks at Mike. ‘Where the fuck is my wife?’ His voice is so low she can hardly hear him.
Her gut clenches hard.
‘I ... I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ Mike shakes his head.
‘Don’t lie to me, you old cunt.’ Christian’s tone is calm but the muscles around his jaw twitch. ‘I found this in her mother’s apartment.’ He turns his palm up to show Mike what’s in it.
Gayle sees then that Christian’s holding a bright green sun visor. His fingers obscure the writing on the front, but she knows it says They Fought For Us, We Walk For Them. Her face goes numb.
‘I ... I swear I don’t ... I don’t know where she is,’ Mike stammers, stepping back from Christian.
Christian follows Mike into the room and closes the door behind him. Without speaking, he shoves Mike in the chest, who lands flat on his back with a thud.
Gayle screams.
‘Call the police!’ Mike turns to her. ‘Quick!’
She lunges for her phone and her fingers shake as she types in the code to unlock it. She’s three digits in when the phone is knocked out of her hand, slamming into the wall.
‘You stay out of this.’ Christian’s face is next to hers. He pushes her and she tumbles sideways onto the bed.
‘Get your hands off her!’ Mike is on all fours.
Christian drives his knee into Mike’s back, flattening him onto the floor again. Mike grunts as Christian grabs him by the shoulders and roughly rolls him over. Gayle flies off the bed and throws herself at Christian. He elbows her in the face so hard that she loses her balance again. Her head throbs from the blow.
Christian wraps his hands around Mike’s throat. ‘Tell me where she is,’ he says in the same easy tone he could have used asking for directions. ‘Tell me.’
Mike’s eyes are frantic. He splutters and chokes.
Gayle picks herself up off the floor and throws herself onto Christian again. Try as she might, she can’t loosen his grip on Mike’s throat. ‘Stop choking him!’ she screams. ‘You’re killing him!’
Christian doesn’t stop. He keeps his voice even, not taking his eyes off Mike. ‘Tell me where my wife is.’
Gayle runs out into the hallway. ‘Help!’ she screams at the top of her lungs. ‘Somebody help, please!’
She runs back into the suite and tries again to pull Christian off Mike but he’s way too strong for her.
There’s nothing she can do but watch as Christian chokes the life out of her husband.