Chapter Forty-One
LARA IS NOT good with jet lag. She always finds the time change disorienting. It doesn’t seem to bother Ben as much. He’s always happy to be home. Now, he’s humming a little as he unpacks, putting his toothbrush back in its holder in their en suite bath, unpacking his toiletries.
Venice had been nice, and they’d made a good effort to conceive a child.
She still isn’t entirely sure that’s what she wants, but she’s willing to go along with it if that’s what he wants.
And it does appeal to her, parts of it. And for the parts that don’t appeal to her she will simply get some hired help.
That doesn’t make her a bad mother, does it?
That’s what wealthy women do. Also, she has a feeling that Ben will be a very hands-on parent, at least for the first one, because he wants more than one and he will want to convince her that’s what she wants too.
Her thoughts drift back to Jill, to the last time she’d seen her, Monday morning at Florian’s.
They hadn’t met again to say goodbye. She’d never seen Jill look so …
disturbed. Lara has become convinced that something terrible happened on that boat, and that Jill, happy as she is about the money, is struggling with it.
Lara suspects that Ted pushed Greg off the boat, and maybe Jill didn’t expect it, but went along with it.
If so, she’s carrying a terrible secret.
She’s clearly struggling with something.
Lara had wanted to broach it with her at Florian’s, but Jill looked so distraught she’d decided against it.
Lara would be willing to share that burden with her, to keep her secret – even from Ben – but Jill is not going to tell her the truth.
They get into bed, and after a bit of reading, turn off the lights and settle in to sleep.
Ben is soon snoring, but Lara can’t seem to drift off.
Her body clock is all messed up from the jet lag.
She tosses and turns for what seems like hours.
She looks at her bedside clock. It’s almost 2:00 a.m. She can’t stand lying there feeling wide awake any more, so she gets up and leaves the bedroom, which is on the top floor of their brownstone.
She can just see her way in the dark. As she rounds the corner of the landing, she stops abruptly.
There’s someone right in front of her, at the top of the stairs, a silent figure all in black, masked.
All she can see is the dark shine of his eyes.
Her heart almost stops from the shock of it.
She screams. But her scream is cut off by his gloved hand tight against her mouth as he grabs her and pulls her into a vicelike grip.
No, she thinks. No. She’s convinced she’s going to die.
He holds her still, as if waiting for something. He’s listening. Everything seems to be happening in slow motion. She realizes he’s waiting for Ben. She can hear him now, scrambling out of bed.
‘Lara?’ he cries, his feet thudding down the hall toward them.
Ben stops short when he sees her, held fast by the intruder. She looks back at him wildly. It’s only now that she realizes that the man holds a knife to her throat. He tests its sharpness against her skin. She thinks she might faint from fear. His grip is crushing her, making it hard to breathe.
Ben seems unable to speak. He looks at her with love and fear. She knows without doubt that he loves her. She realizes she doesn’t really deserve him.
‘What do you want?’ Ben asks hoarsely.
‘I’m here to do business,’ the man says. ‘And if you don’t do exactly as I say, I’ll slit her throat and be out of here in seconds. So don’t think of trying anything.’
‘Okay, okay,’ Ben says, his hands up awkwardly. ‘Whatever you want.’
‘Go back to the bedroom. Slowly. Stay where I can see you,’ the man says.
Lara watches as Ben, his hands still up, wearing only his boxers, turns around and walks slowly down the hall to their bedroom.
She keeps her eyes on Ben’s back as the intruder marches her forward, his hand hard against her mouth, hurting her.
She’s terrified. There’s some money in the safe, a few thousand.
Maybe it will be enough. And then she fears something worse.
They’re at the bedroom now.
‘Sit on the bed,’ he orders Ben, and then suddenly he releases her and pushes her toward the bed too. She keeps her eyes lowered to the floor, submissive. She feels Ben reach for her hand and take it in his. It makes her feel braver, and she lifts her eyes. Ben is staring at the intruder.
The man steps back and pulls a sleek black backpack from his back. He unzips it quickly without taking his eyes off them. Lara stares at the knife in his hand. It looks like a hunting knife, very sharp. She feels like she can hardly breathe.
He starts with Ben first, using zip ties to secure his hands behind him, and then to bind his feet.
Then he turns to her and uses zip ties to secure her hands in front of her.
He’s rough, and it hurts. She closes her eyes as he kneels in front of her and ties her feet.
When he’s done and steps back, she opens her eyes again.
‘There’s money in the safe,’ Ben says. ‘I can tell you the combination.’
The intruder studies them. He’s tall and strong looking. But she can’t tell anything else about him; he’s completely covered, head to toe. She doesn’t recognize his voice, can’t detect an accent. He reaches over and turns on the bedside table lamp. His eyes are very dark; she thinks they are brown.
‘I want something else,’ he says.
It sends a chill down Lara’s spine. She thought she couldn’t be more frightened than she already was, but she was wrong. For Lara, money has always been the answer to everything. But apparently it isn’t, not now, not when their lives are at stake.
‘What do you want then?’ Ben demands. ‘Whatever it is, we will give it to you, as long as you leave my wife and me alone.’
‘You are in possession of some camera footage – some digital files,’ the man says. ‘I want them.’
Lara, shocked, turns and sees the surprise on her husband’s face.
‘I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about,’ Ben says.
Ben glances at his wife. She’s gone ghost white. All he wants is to protect her. He turns back to the intruder. ‘What files?’
‘Oh, I think you know,’ he says. And then he looks intently at Lara. ‘Or maybe only she does.’
She shakes her head. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about either.’
The man steps forward suddenly and strikes her hard against the face. She cries out, and Ben lurches to his feet. ‘Leave her alone!’
The man pushes him hard, and Ben falls back onto the bed. His voice turns menacing. ‘I’m not here to fuck around.’ He says to Lara, ‘You have keys to the Westcotts’ place, correct?’
Lara starts, whispers, ‘Yes.’
‘And you know the security code, because you look after the place when they’re gone, don’t you?’
Ben feels a growing dread, as he watches her nod, swallow.
‘So, can you put two and two together, or do I have to spell it out for you?’
Ben shouts, ‘What the fuck are you talking about?’
The man shouts back, ‘The cameras!’ He leans in close to Lara, his covered face mere inches from hers, and says, ‘You planted cameras in the Westcotts’ house, and I want everything you downloaded from them.’
‘I didn’t!’ she cries, in obvious panic.
Ben is filled with dawning horror. His wife wouldn’t do something like that. But he realizes, sickeningly, that someone has. Why else would this man be here, asking for files from some hidden cameras? ‘This has nothing to do with us!’ he cries.
And now, fighting disbelief, he realizes that Ted and Jill probably sent this man, because they think it was them. He realizes, with shock, that maybe Ted and Jill did murder Greg Westcott.
The man holds his knife up close against Lara’s throat. ‘I don’t believe you.’
Ben watches in panic as a trail of blood starts to trickle down his wife’s pale neck. Lara begins to sob. ‘I didn’t,’ she cries. ‘I don’t know anything about any cameras!’
‘Someone else must have done it,’ Ben says frantically. ‘It wasn’t us!’
But the intruder doesn’t seem to believe them.
He grabs Lara’s arm. Then he starts carving shapes into her skin while she screams. Ben lurches up off the bed and charges toward him, but the other man steps aside and punches him hard in the stomach.
Ben lies gasping on the floor. Now the intruder kicks him in the stomach for good measure.
Ben hears his wife screaming as he slips in and out of consciousness.