Obsession (67 page)

Dashing into the terminal building he took the escalator three steps at a time up to the check-in desks. Pausing to read the TV screens above him, his heart sank when he saw that the last call for the BA 283 to Los Angeles was already up. Still, she was flying first class so might not have gone through yet. But knowing that she almost definitely would have, there was less urgency to his step as he continued to press his way through the crowds.

Twelve hours later Jeannie was at Los Angeles airport watching the arrivals as they filed through from customs. She was searching the faces and smiling to herself as she listened to the British accents of those who passed. She felt like a voyeur as she witnessed the tears and whoops of joy that went along with the greetings, and was so affected by the emotion as it ebbed and flowed around her that she guessed she was probably going to cry when she saw Corrie.

Jeannie waited for over an hour, at first groaning for Corrie that she was getting picked apart by customs. Eventually though, Jeannie’s concern took her to the information desk. Some five minutes later it was confirmed that Corrie Browne had, at the last minute, cancelled her flight to Los Angeles.

Jeannie’s only hope now was that while she’d been at
the
airport Corrie had called Cristos to explain, ’cos if she hadn’t Jeannie dreaded to think how Cristos would take the news. Aside from Cristos, Jeannie was the only person in the world who knew that Cristos was intending to ask Corrie to come to Los Angeles and live with him, because only to Jeannie had he confided how bad it had been for him since they’d come back from England. But how much worse it was going to be for him now that Corrie hadn’t shown, for in her heart Jeannie knew that Corrie hadn’t called Cristos to say she wasn’t coming. She’d had more than twelve hours to do it, and if she had then Jeannie would have known long before this – hell, she wouldn’t even be at the airport.

When she got back to the lot Jeannie went straight to Cristos’s private office and called him on the telephone. It was a while before he left the pre-mix, but when Jeannie saw his face come in through the door she could see he was ready to apologize to Corrie for keeping her waiting. He looked around the room and when his eyes finally settled on Jeannie she saw his dark skin turn pale.

‘She didn’t come,’ he said.

Jeannie shook her head. ‘She cancelled her flight.’

Knowing he’d want her to, Jeannie left him alone then, but it was only a few minutes later that she heard him on the telephone, leaving a message on Corrie’s answering machine.

‘I don’t know why you changed your mind,’ he said, ‘but just call me.’

Two days later Paula and Dave were sitting at the table in their little kitchen in Amberside. Dave was laughing as he was losing the struggle to feed Beth, who was determined to wield the spoon herself, but when he realized that Paula wasn’t paying any attention he let go of the spoon and turned himself round to face her.

‘I came in from work an hour ago and you still haven’t spoken to me yet,’ he told her.

Paula started, but when she made to apologize Dave said, ‘I take it she didn’t ring today either?’

Paula shook her head. ‘No. I know you’re going to tell me that she’s probably too caught up with what’s going on over there, but, well she said she’d call as soon as she arrived … I didn’t expect that, it would have been the middle of the night here, but I thought I’d have heard from her by now.’ She paused, looking down at her hands bunched on the table in front of her. ‘Dave, I know you’re going to say I’m daft or something, but I’ve just got this feeling that … Well, I can’t explain it really …’

Sighing, Dave said, ‘She gave you the number there, didn’t she?’

Paula nodded.

‘Then use it.’

Two minutes later Paula was listening to the single ringing tone at Cristos’s house in the Holmby Hills. When the answerphone clicked on, shy of leaving messages, Paula was about to ring off when she heard Cristos’s voice giving a number where he could be contacted. Quickly she dialled again and this time got through to where he was dubbing.

‘I’m sorry to bother you,’ she said, when he came on the line, ‘but I was hoping to speak to Corrie. Is she with you, by any chance? It’s Paula here, her friend from England.’

‘Paula!’ Cristos’s voice sounded incredulous.

‘Yes. It’s just that Corrie said she’d call me when she got to …’

‘Hang on,’ Cristos said, ‘you’re calling here to speak to Corrie? She’s got to have told you that she changed her mind about coming.’

‘No,’ Paula said, feeling a strange tightening in her chest. ‘When did she do that?’

‘I don’t know. All I know is she cancelled her flight. I’ve
been
trying to get hold of her ever since, I thought she was avoiding me.’

‘But why would she do that? She was really looking forward to coming.’

‘When did you last speak to her?’

‘At the weekend. She was here. Well you know that, you called her here on Saturday.’ Suddenly Paula felt the bite of panic. ‘Oh my God!’ she cried. ‘Something’s happened to her! I knew it! I could feel it. That was why I rang you.’ She turned to find Dave beside her, and taking the receiver from her hand he spoke into it, saying,

‘Mr Bennati, it’s Dave, Paula’s husband here. I take it Corrie’s not with you.’

‘No,’ Cristos answered, and through the thousands of miles of cable Dave could hear the stress in Cristos’s voice. ‘What time is it there?’ Cristos asked.

‘Just before six,’ Dave answered.

‘Right, I’m going to hang up now,’ Cristos said, ‘I’ll get back to you.’

Yelling for everyone in the dubbing theatre to get on with what they were doing, Cristos dialled the TW number. It rang for some time, but then a man’s voice answered.

‘Who am I speaking to?’ Cristos demanded.

‘Who are you?’ Perkin said testily.

‘Never mind that, I want to speak to Corrie Browne.’

‘Then you’ll have to call her in Los Angeles, won’t you?’ Perkin responded.

The fear hit Cristos so suddenly it made him queasy. Uppermost in his mind was the night Fitzpatrick had called Corrie to his so-called deathbed. Fuck it, he should have known then that Fitzpatrick was up to something! ‘Put me onto Luke Fitzpatrick,’ he barked.

‘Sorry, he’s left for the day. If you want to leave a message …’

‘No message,’ Cristos said, and rang off.

Cristos was thinking so fast now his head was starting to spin, but picking up the phone again he dialled Fitzpatrick’s number. Wouldn’t he just have known it, the answerphone! He left a message for Luke to call him, then when he got no reply from his own office he got one of the sound assistants to go turf out Jeannie.

Not until midnight Los Angeles time did he finally catch up with Fitzpatrick at the TW offices, by then he had spoken to Paula and Dave again and got the full story of what had been happening to Corrie and her family at Fitzpatrick’s hands. Now fear was crawling around his gut like a living animal.

‘Where is she?’ Cristos demanded the minute he heard Luke’s voice at the other end of the line.

‘Who?’ Luke asked.

‘Who the fuck do you think? What have you done to her, you son of a bitch!’

‘Hang on, hang on,’ Luke said, ‘if you’re talking about Corrie I thought she was in Los Angeles with you.’ Luke’s surprise sounded so genuine that for a moment Cristos was thrown.

‘Are you telling me she’s not there?’ Luke said.

‘What the fuck do you think I’m telling you! Now where is she?’

‘I’m sorry,’ Luke said, ‘but I don’t know. All I know is that she was intending to go to Los Angeles. Shit, I even offered her a lift to the airport myself. She refused, but I can contact the car company she booked through, if that’ll help.’

‘Do it!’ Cristos snapped. ‘Better still, give me the number, I’ll do it!’

‘Hold on,’ Luke said, ‘I’ll have to get it from the secretary who handled it.’

Cristos waited, then, when Luke came back onto the line he scribbled down the number as Luke said, ‘if you see her
before
I do …’ he hesitated a moment then chuckled, ‘yes, I’m sure you will, give her my love. And Annalise’s.’

As Luke replaced the receiver he looked up at Annalise who was standing in his doorway. Annalise’s eyes mirrored all the pain in her heart, but Luke knew, just as Annalise did, that it was too late now to turn back. Of course Luke had known it for much longer than Annalise had, he’d just never expected Octavia to tell Annalise. Neither, until he had discovered that Corrie was going to LA, had he suspected that Bennati still figured in Corrie’s life. But Phillip, the bastard, had taken care of that for him, hadn’t he?

As Annalise turned listlessly from the door Luke went to close it before calling Cristos back.

‘I think you should know,’ he said, when Cristos answered, ‘that Corrie’s father was due to have coffee with her at the airport before she left.’

As Cristos replaced the receiver he turned to Jeannie and Richard who were sitting in his kitchen with him. Jeannie was on the mobile phone speaking to the London car company. Cristos waited. At last Jeannie thanked the person at the other end then confirmed what they’d all suspected – Corrie had cancelled her car to the airport. Cristos told them then what Luke had said, but even before he had finished he knew what he had to do next. A quick telephone call to Paula gave him the names and numbers he needed.

Phillip Denby was entertaining one of his clients when Detective Inspector Radcliffe and Detective Constable Archer burst into his office. Phillip was so shocked that it took him a moment to comprehend what they were saying.

Neither of them bothered to explain in great detail, but by the time he was frog-marched out of the office he knew he was under arrest. He knew too that it was to do with Corrie, and not the prostitutes.

‘I’ll call your lawyer,’ he heard Pam say.

Cristos looked up as Jeannie came into the dubbing theatre. ‘I’ve got everything you asked for,’ she said. ‘Names, addresses, credentials. Provisional hotel reservations, hire cars …’

‘Did you speak with my mother?’

‘Yes. Your father’s staying behind to mind the shop, she’ll get whichever flight you say.’

Cristos nodded then turned back to the dubbing mixer. ‘Carry on with this scene,’ he said, ‘tail the echo over from the last. Try fifty frames. Bring the music in at forty. I’ll be back in an hour.’

He walked outside with Jeannie. ‘No news?’ he said.

Jeannie shook her head. ‘I’ve been trying every half hour. No reply from her home. Paula still hasn’t heard anything either.’

‘Are the cops telling you anything?’

‘Only that they’re holding her father.’

Cristos closed his eyes. When he had contacted DI Radcliffe the night before to report the fact that Corrie was missing, the last thing he had expected was that they would go and arrest her father. ‘What the fuck is going on over there, Jeannie?’ he groaned.

For several hours now DI Radcliffe had been listening to one of his CID officers interrogating Phillip Denby in the next room. DC Archer had been with him all that time, but she’d just popped out to fetch some coffee.

Radcliffe tilted his chair and rested his head on the wall behind him. This was one hell of a fucking mess, he was thinking to himself, and his stomach gave a violent lurch at the unthinkable prospect of finding yet another body on the banks of the Thames. Officers had been on the lookout all day, frogmen were dragging it even now. Nothing had turned up yet, so there was still hope – but where the fuck was Corrie Browne? Forensics were over at her studio
now
, but when he’d visited there himself earlier it was plain to see that there had been no forced entry and no struggle.

He looked up as DC Archer came back into the room.

‘All these months of tailing the bastard,’ he said as she handed him a coffee, ‘and we lose him the morning Corrie Browne disappears.’

Shaking her head Archer sat down on the wooden bench beside him. ‘I think we’re going to have to let him go, guv. I mean, those guys he was at the meeting with confirmed he was there right up until eleven forty-five. That puts him in Windsor at the time Corrie disappeared.’

‘But where did he go after? No one saw him at the airport, except a couple of old-age pensioners, he claims. And just how the hell are we going to find them without going public on this?’

‘Why can’t we go public, guv?’

‘We will, just as soon as we’ve spoken to Fitzpatrick. Did you get hold of him?’

‘Yes. He’s on his way over.’

Radcliffe sighed and scraped his fingers over the stubble on his chin. ‘We know it was a man who cancelled both the car and the flight … We also know that if Denby is to be believed then most of the evidence points to Fitzpatrick. But what I want to know, is who is trying to put who in the frame here. And why?’

‘I don’t think we should forget the fact that Corrie Browne suspected Fitzpatrick of knowing Bobby McIver.’

‘And neither should we forget that Phillip Denby is her father.’

‘Meaning?’

‘Meaning that she could have been conspiring with him to put Fitzpatrick in the frame.’

‘Oh come on, guv, you don’t believe that! If she knew her father had killed those women … Well, she just didn’t strike me as the type who’d cover up for him, even if he is her father. Especially not over something like that.’

‘But we know she had an affair with Fitzpatrick and we know that he broke it off …’

‘We’ve only got his word for that, guv. We’ve never asked Corrie Browne for her side of the story.’

‘No, we haven’t have we?’ Radcliffe sighed, slumping over the table and burying his fingers in his hair. ‘The question now is, will we ever be able to ask her?’

Cristos was with Bud Winters in the Black Tower. There were other Universal executives in the office too, but Cristos was the only one on his feet. He was pacing up and down in front of them, informing them that the answer print would be back the day after tomorrow and then he wanted to take it to France and put the finishing touches to it there.

‘There’s a completion clause to this movie,’ one of the faceless suits started to say.