Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Vicky took her cup of tea outside to take advantage of the few moments of quiet before the sanctuary sprang to life.
She’d had barely any sleep, arriving back on the island just after one in the morning on the last boat.
But it had all been worth it, to see Suzie perform.
Her friend had been fantastic, truly sensational, and all that hard work had paid off.
But it wasn’t just serious graft that had propelled Suzie through her set to thunderous applause.
There’d been a great big dollop of natural talent in there too.
Her friend had most definitely made the right decision to join the tour.
Any doubts that Suzie had entertained must surely have been swept away by that reception.
A voice like hers shouldn’t be hidden away, and she’d tell her that with knobs on when she returned to the island at the weekend.
Turning towards the sun, now hovering well above the sea, bathing everything in a golden glow, Vicky raised her mug in the air.
‘Cheers, my friend. Bravo!’
A noise behind her made her turn back towards the courtyard.
Alex was standing there, arms crossed, watching her.
Great, he probably thought that she was some sort of hippy-dippy sun worshipper now, carrying out her pagan rites in the courtyard.
It was too complicated to explain to him what she was celebrating, and anyway it was none of his business.
The first round of animal feeds wasn’t due for another ten minutes, and she was going to enjoy her tea in peace.
Angeliki had done the sessions as the volunteer vet at the sanctuary for the past three days in a row, which had been a nice change.
Still, she knew her friend was off to see Suzie in concert tonight in Athens, along with Grace and Sofia and their partners, so it made sense that Alex was back.
Oh goody. They’d not spoken since her drunken collapse at the party, when he’d scooped her up and taken her home, but hopefully he’d keep quiet about it here, at work.
She didn’t have him down as a gossip, but sometimes people could prove you wrong.
Savouring the last mouthfuls of her tea in the full warmth of the sun, eyes closed, Vicky started when he appeared silently beside her.
‘As it’s just the two of us at the moment…’
What was he going to suggest? Possibly a lecture on the evils of drink?
Alex looked around him before speaking again.
‘I wanted to let you know that Seamus found another dead cat early this morning.’
Vicky gasped.
‘Oh no, not another one.’
‘Afraid so. I’m doing the tests to check it’s definitely poison, but it looks like it.’
Vicky had been here a month now, and she’d hoped upon hope that they’d seen the last of the killings. It had all been quiet for the last three weeks.
‘That’s so sad.’
Her bright morning had already taken a turn for the worse. All the joy had gone out of the day with that one sentence. Alex was still standing there.
‘I was wondering…’
‘Yes?’
He seemed a tad unsure of himself for a moment, which was unusual, to say the least.
‘As we’re still keeping it to ourselves for the moment, I think it would be a good idea to maybe do some patrolling of the land near here, especially early in the morning or late at night.
We might spot something useful or possibly scare the poisoner away.
I’d estimate that this latest incident only happened in the last couple of hours. That cat was still warm.’
‘Poor little thing.’
What did he mean by patrolling? What did that entail exactly? She had a sudden vision of them crawling along behind the stone wall boundaries in camouflage gear with brown painted stripes smeared on their faces and had to turn away lest he see her smile.
‘So, would you be up for that? I can’t really ask anyone else to help until Maeve and Seamus decide to make things public.’
He’d spoilt it a little by making it clear she was his only option, but anything to stop another animal meeting the same fate.
‘Yeah, I’d like to help.’
‘What about first thing tomorrow, as a trial run?’
‘What time?’
‘Meet at five before it’s light, and do a couple of hours? We could cover a lot of ground in that time. I’m on duty here afterwards anyway, as I know you are too. I checked the timesheets.’
She wasn’t sure she was keen on any monitoring of her movements; it gave her flashbacks to her ex-husband’s insane jealousy. Even an innocent drink with a female friend could set him off. Vicky shuddered in the early morning air.
She’d give Alex the benefit of the doubt that the checking was because he didn’t want to ask her to get up so early on a day off.
But five o’clock was a shocker. It was still night as far as she was concerned.
It would mean going to bed very early tonight, no bad thing after her jaunt to Athens.
She’d said she was up for it, so the last thing she wanted to appear was flaky.
‘OK, you’re on.’
‘Meet here in the courtyard. Wear dark clothes, comfortable shoes, and make sure you’ve got a working torch and a bottle of water on you.’
Now he sounded like a bossy scout leader about to take them on an expedition. He’d be suggesting they made a raft out of driftwood and strips of her shirt in a minute.
‘Sure. See you there.’
Vicky spotted Graham in the distance, waving.
He wasn’t her favourite work buddy, but you didn’t get to choose who you were on the rota with.
Getting away from this conversation and focusing on the routine of feeding and clearing out the animals would calm her after the sad news.
It had been the same with nursing. Routine tasks always made her feel in control, whereas Alex had a knack of making her feel anything but.
‘Got to go, see you tomorrow.’
Alex just nodded and went off in the direction of the kitchen.
A long morning with Graham telling her about his beloved MG car he’d had to leave behind, his worries over whether his neighbour would look after it properly, his road trips in said car to Cornwall and why his ex-wife didn’t understand him, and she was longing to finish and go for a swim. Only another few minutes.
Now they were well into May, the temperatures were up in the mid-twenties, which was a treat for any Brit, but apart from the odd diehard swimmer, the Greeks were still wary of going anywhere near the sea.
Angeliki threw up her hands in horror every time Vicky admitted to going for a dip.
The warm waters of July were more the vet’s speed.
Dire warnings about catching a cold weren’t going to put her off though.
Vicky waded in up to her calves. It wasn’t exactly warm, but it was nothing compared to what the English Channel or indeed the Irish Sea outside the window of her flat in Crosby would be like at this time of the year.
She pushed off the bottom and into the welcoming arms of the sea, swimming straight out for a few minutes before turning onto her back to float and soothe away the stress of having to be polite to Graham all morning.
It wasn’t the animals that taxed her patience at the sanctuary; it was the humans.
Bolting awake, Vicky glanced at her phone. Ten minutes to go until the alarm went off. It was one of her party tricks. If she had a particular timeframe, she always woke up just before. It used to freak Ian out.
Dressed and ready with her rucksack on her back, she was annoyed to see Alex already waiting for her in the courtyard.
She was always the early one. Ian could comfortably be relied on to be at least twenty minutes late to anything.
Why was her ex-husband inserting himself into her thoughts all of a sudden?
She’d have to put a stop to that. What Ian thought or did really wasn’t her concern any longer, thank goodness.
Alex put his finger to his lips, which irritated her further. What did he think she was going to do? Start shouting her head off?
He beckoned to her to follow him, and switched on his torch, indicating to her to do the same. They walked in single file for a hundred metres or so to the first of the stone walls that bordered the property. Alex rested back against the wall and killed his torch.
‘Can you see OK?’
‘Are you asking me about my eyesight?’
At least it had produced a smile.
‘No, but we’ll be a lot more effective if we don’t have two obvious beams of light telling the poisoner we’re here.’
‘Yes, I do realise that. It was a joke.’
‘Maybe something was lost in translation.’
Switching off her own torch, Vicky stuck out her tongue, confident he couldn’t see her.
‘We should have enough moonlight to navigate by. Follow closely behind me, and if you see anything strange, tug on my jacket.’
Vicky saluted his back.
‘OK?’
‘Yes, OK.’
Keeping the stone wall on their left, Vicky looked around her as they began the tour of the limits of the sanctuary.
Gradually her eyes focused, and it was surprising how much she could see.
Every now and again, they’d come across a cat, sometimes asleep, but more usually awake, two amber eyes shining in the gloom.
Vicky bent down to stroke a few, but falling behind obviously wasn’t an option, as Alex would wait for a few moments, with what she was sure was a condescending look on his face, before moving off again.
The moon had created a silver pathway on the sea, pointing towards the horizon, the light bouncing off the flat surface.
There was absolutely no wind, and the steel-grey water was totally flat without even a ripple to disturb the scene.
In any other circumstances it could be considered romantic, mused Vicky.
But that certainly wasn’t the vibe here.