James didn’t try to kiss me again that night or the night after. He didn’t try to hold my hand or put his arm around me. Sure he would politely help me around as I had a dodgy ankle but other than that, it was just strangers sharing a bed which he always came to after I was asleep.
As Lauren and I sat by the pool and the men were at the bar she started laughing.
“What?” I asked.
“You,” she said shaking her head.
“Huh?” I was confused.
“You have not taken your eyes off James since he went to the bar and this morning your gaze followed him around the room like a cat with a red dot.”
I opened my mouth to protest.
“Don’t even think about denying it. You are wasting valuable holiday time being moody when you could be naked.”
I giggled.
“And what do you find so interesting on that laptop?”
“I told you, I am working out here too, so its research,” I replied not giving away that it was in fact I was looking at the pictures but couldn’t suck it up all at once or I would have a migraine.
“Can I help?”
“God no it’s boring, well to others it boring.”
“James finds it interesting.”
“Trying to impress me,” I said covering for him.
“Well you remember what I was saying about you not being able to take your eyes off him?”
“Mmm.”
“That guy at four o’clock.... don’t look, don’t look... has been staring at you all day.”
I leant forward with my phone pretending to get my drink and took a photo, she laughed at my sly move and I said cheers to her but as I took a swig and saw the man she was talking about, I started to choke on it in shock. He was one of the guys from last year.
I spluttered and half panicked.
“You alright?” she asked.
“Yeah,” I said coughing some more as I panic text James at the bar.
‘Don’t look back at me. S2 is here. Just come over like we practiced with more drinks.” S2 meant suspect 2 and I watched him take his phone out. He looked at the message, I noted the shock on his face. He turned to the bar and ordered the drinks.
“Just text James... to get us more drinks,” I coughed. Hoping my face covered the alarm I could feel. I was like action man, my eyes were scanning everywhere looking for Emily.
James appeared at the side making me jump. He sat on the side of the lounger and leant across me kissing my cheek.
“Calm down baby,” he whispered. His hand holding mine, making me realise how much it was shaking. “Which one is it?”
“The one who... stared at my bum,” I stammered, catching my breath at the end. I was totally panicking. “She’s not here.”
“It’s ok, calm down,” he whispered.
“Are you ok?” Lauren asked.
“Went down... the wrong way,” I said.
“You silly arse,” she said laughing.
“Let’s shake it off,” James said helping me up. He wrapped his arms around me rubbing my back as we hugged, I clung to him terrified and only when Lauren told him to pack it in did I realise he groping my bum. He wound her up putting both his hands on it and giving it a squeeze. I knew whose benefit it was for but she didn’t.
I started to feel sick and a little dizzy. Some bloody heroine I was, broken ankle and now a mini panic attack.
“I need to go for a walk,” I whispered.
“No, lie down with me,” he said lying on my lounger and pulling me on top of him.
“Get a room!” Lauren said winking at me.
I was happy the lounger didn’t collapse or roll into the pool as we lay down and Lauren went off to talk to Colin.
“Ok tell me,” James whispered.
“Lauren said someone was staring at me. I took a photo so I could see without looking directly at him. I thought it would be some dirty old man. Instead it was him. It was like when you see a ghost in a picture. It scared me.”
“Is it on your phone?” he said picking it up as I nodded.
I flinched as I saw it again, dark hair, moustache and a look that would haunt me. I had pushed him out of my mind before and that stare was why. It cut to your soul.
“Give me a kiss,” he pressing his lips to mine lovingly. He was making us look like a loved up couple. “Lets go back to the villa.”
“What now?”
“Yes I want to see if he follows?”
“Why would he follow?”
“Just trust me,” he said rubbing his hand over my bottom.
We got up and walked away.
“Aye Aye!” Colin called waving.
I was too busy trying to walk on crutches with shaky arms to flip the bird at him.
We walked back with James watching, we weren’t followed. When we got inside the villa, I was still shaking and had a little cry as he sent the image from my phone to his and then onto his brother in law. His phone rang back.
“He’s here, yeah. No sign of Emily, I think he is doing a recon. He will pick this one as he has an obsession with Mel’s backside. He isn’t going to go somewhere else knowing he can see her again.”
“Do they know him?” I whispered.
He nodded. I needed to lie down and take a few deep breaths.
“Lauren noticed him staring at Mel and pointed him out as a pervert. Poor Mel panicked when she recognised him. We had to come back here, plus I wanted to see if he followed.”
He listened to the other person.
“He will come back because I made her stand, broken ankle and all, she is not having a good holiday. Anyway I made her stand and gave her a cuddle, making it look all romantic. I watched his reflection as I cheekily touched her bum and he was like at cartoon character, his eyes and tongue popping out.”
I felt totally violated. I was no hottie, yes I had a nice bum but now I wished I didn’t.
“I’m going to have a lie down,” I said and hobbled into the bedroom. Drawing the curtains to ensure no one could see in.
I lay there trying to get his face out of my head but he was there every time I closed my eyes. I tried pulling Emily into view but was even more worried for her now being with him.
Here we were arguing about stupid stuff for over a week waiting for her to come and she was probably with him. I hated him. If my foot wasn’t bad I’d run down there and rip his teeth out until he told me where she was.
“Are you ok?” James asked coming in.
“Scared,” I admitted. “I’m such a wimp.”
He climbed on the bed and cuddled up.
“I can’t get him out of my mind. I hate to think of her with him,” I tried not to cry.
He cuddled me but went tense all of a sudden. “Shhh,” he said making me freeze.
We heard a noise outside.
He took his phone out and text someone. I noticed a gap in the curtain from where the pole extended.
“Under the covers,” he whispered and lifted them up.
I shuffled under them. He put his hand under and removed my air boot gently. If we were going to do a runner I would be quicker without it.
“Errr excuse me mate, can I fucking help you!” Colin’s voice called out. “Come here you.”
I squealed and hid under the covers as a fight broke out and James launched out of the bed to go help. I could hear Lauren yelling before she ran inside and closed the door.
“Mel, Mel...”
“In here!” I yelled.
“Shit, there is a pervert outside!”
“The one from the pool?”
I asked.
“No, some young lad. Well he was young, Colin’s half killed him.”
“Is James alright?” I asked.
“Pulling Colin back.”
“Shit!”
“This hotel is full of letches. 100% letch capital!” she ranted. “I bet he was trying to catch you and James at it. I’ve heard about these people filming couples and then it ends up on the internet.”
Security arrived and the young man was slapped around the head by one of them. Apparently his uncle or something. Some man had paid him to take pictures of me. He would get paid more if I was naked so he was trying to get lucky back at the villa.
“We can use this to our advantage,” Colin said to James. It was then I realised he knew what we were there for. “Give me your camera,” he said the boy.
He flicked through the photos, clipped him around the head and showed James one, James rolled his eyes but looked angry.
“Is that me?” he asked.
“It’s both of you,” Colin said. Turning it around. There we were knee’s up reading magazines, the shot was zoomed in on our girl bits like porn.
“You little pervert,” Lauren said swiping him one two.
The boy was to meet the guy to give him the photo’s but at the same time, he would get some shots of him, we needed clear pictures for Interpol.
With everyone gone, Lauren hit the roof.
“What the fuck is going on!” she yelled. “And don’t tell me nothing or I will punch you harder than you punched that pervert.”
Colin sighed and looked at James who nodded. “She’ll obsess,” he warned him.
James nodded at me as if to say so does she.
“Ok, sit down,” Colin said as though he was going to deliver bad news.
“Shit! Are you spies?” she asked.
We all laughed.
“Remember you saw the pictures of the little girl on the table the other day and said you recognised her,” Colin said.
“Mmmm, it’s annoying me. I know her from somewhere. Like when you can’t place where you saw an actor in a film...”
“Will you stop waffling?”
“Sorry,” she said miming zipping her lip.
“If only that was real,” he said.
“Just tell me already,” she snapped.
“She is James, niece.”
“And?” she was waiting, the penny hadn’t dropped.
“She was kidnapped two years ago.”
She gasped. Stunned. Her hands signalling to everyone to stay quiet. She paced up and down the room like a wild animal putting things together.
“That was last year!” she said point at my laptop where the envelope was with the photos.
I nodded.
She gasped, “You saw her!”
I nodded. “But I didn’t know where it was from until it was too late,” I said getting teary.
“Oh you poor thing,” she said coming to hug me. “God I have been running those images around in my mind for days trying to work it out.”
“I thought it was a friends kid off facebook on holiday with her dad or something, you know what it’s like with divorce,” I said.
“Yeah so did I. I even thought it was a child actor off some shampoo advert or something,” she said her eyes wild. “Oh my god she’s alive, she is alive. You saw her, she’s alive.”
“Yeah it was this time last year. We have come back for a month to try to see if they return. Sometimes people do, like migration for winter.”
“Oh my god! The baby robbing bastards,” she said behind her hands and burst into tears.
Colin gave her a cuddle as James just watched from the kitchen where he was pouring drinks.
“So you are here to see if they come back,” she said, trying to get it straight in her head. “Why haven’t the police ripped this place apart?”
“The case is closed. I tried everything but they wouldn’t take me seriously. It was hard to convince James I’d seen her.”
“When did you believe her?” she asked him as he passed her a drink.
“I don’t know,” he replied.
“But you came here with her? Wait are you two not a couple and only hooked up here whilst faking it as a couple?” she asked like a quiz show host who just started to get all the answers right.
I nodded.
“Shit no wonder you are arguing, the stress must be magnified.”
She paced again.
“Hold on, what about creepy bastard today is he a suspect?” she asked. “Cos your face when you saw him was not just choking on your drink.”
“Remember when I said she would obsess,” Colin mumbled.
“Shut up, you should have told me. We have wasted days. I need all the info...”
“Told you,” he mumbled as she walked to my laptop and pressed it on.
“We are eating here tonight, I want everything out in the open, everything,” she said scowling at everyone. “Hold on what are your real names... wait you are real I facebooked you. James who are you?”
“James,” he replied.
“You haven’t got facebook?” she said puzzled.
“No.”
“Ok,” she said sighing and pulling out the photos. “So chronologically these are...”
“Let’s leave the geeks to it,” Colin said taking James out to sit on the patio and drink beer.
“Pull the curtains,” Lauren said in full bossy mode. I had been itching to tell her as I noticed she had similar OCD to me with certain things.
Two hours later, the boys picked up some food and Lauren had absorbed everything to date. She was on fire, moving everything and was still faffing around during dinner.
“Yes,” she said squinting. “Show me your tattoo!” she sang.
She had cut and copied bit of the guys tattoo of several picture and put it together like a puzzle. What was it? Everyone turned their heads this way and that.
“It’s a coat of arms,” I said grabbing a pen to sketch it clearer than the blurred image on screens. “What a nob! If we find that coat of arms, we can get a surname!”
“I feel like I’m on Challenge Anneka,” Colin said. “This pair make me dizzy.”
Finding the coat of arms was not as easy as I thought.
“Please take a break, or you will get a headache again,” James said.
I sat with him on the sofa.
“Don’t close your eyes and look through things either,” he said catching me.
“Huh?” Colin asked half asleep.
“Photographic Memory,” James said nodding to me.
“Nosey,” Colin replied nodding to Lauren.
“I heard that so you are not having sex tonight,” she replied.
“I am, I’ll just be alone that’s all!”
It felt easier having people to help. I lay there wondering if we would find her, eventually falling asleep on James chest.