Unravelled (27 page)

“Sir, I don’t know.” Ray looks up from Alex’s desk with not a little concern and a sombre expression on his face. “I thought she might be with you.”

“No Ray, she’s not. I’ve been trying to get hold of her since just after one and can’t reach her anywhere.” His voice goes even harder. “And where were you?”

“I went to lunch at around one, sir. I came back just after two and she wasn’t here.”

“Did she tell you where she was going? Maybe she’s at the site?”

“I’ve already checked and no one has seen her there.”

“Why would she switch her cell phone off?”

“I don’t know. She’s always losing the thing, but she never switches it off. Once her battery died and she switched it back on after recharging it. Then she couldn’t remember her pin number and we had to phone the service provider to get the pin number from them.” Ray smiles at the memory of that day. “That is why she no longer switches it off – she’s scared she’ll forget the pin number.” Concern creeps back into his voice and he says, “I’ve also been phoning and the phone is off.”

“Why are you behind her desk?” Adam walks into the office and frowns at Ray. He’s also noticed how worried Ray is and that he’s not his usual flamboyant self. That in itself makes Adam even more concerned.

“Um, sir... I think there’s something you need to know.” Ray is hesitant. He has heard of Mr Montgomery’s cold anger and didn’t want to experience it, but knowing Alex and what he thinks has been happening between the two of them, he thinks that Mr Montgomery might want to know.

“Spit it out, Ray.”

“She took Blossom’s photo with her and she took it off her computer. When I got here, I noticed that her bag and some of her stuff was gone, but thought she might be cleaning up a bit.” The two men smile at each other at that unlikely event. “It was only when her phone rang a few minutes ago and I came to answer it that I realised she took everything with her. I’ve just started looking around when you came in.”

“She took everything? What do you mean everything?”

“Oh no, she only took her personal stuff. All the festival things are all here. She also left me this.” Ray lifts an unopened envelope and waves it in the air. “I found it when I was looking around and was about to open it when you came in.”

“Well, open it!”

Ray rips the envelope open and unfolds the sheet of paper that he pulls out. Adam watches him with impatience which turns to concern when Ray’s face becomes very intense and starts losing colour. He looks up from the letter totally stunned.

“She’s gone.”

“What do you mean she’s gone? Give me that!” Adam grabs the letter from Ray’s passive hands and starts reading.

Dear Ray,

Some unforeseen event is forcing me to leave. I have thought this through (please believe me), and feel comforted leaving the festival in your hands. There is a list of last minute things that I emailed to you, but the biggest responsibility this week is overseeing the setting up at the dairy. I know you can handle that. I won’t be available for any advice (or contact), so please go ahead and make the appropriate decisions – I know you can. If in any doubt, ask Mr Montgomery.

If he asks, tell him I had to leave town and won’t be in communication at all. Also tell him not to be too angry and not to contact me. I just don’t think that I need to be there any longer and I don’t fit in, so it is better for all.

I enjoyed working with you and will always remember you with fondness.

Warm regards,

Alexandra Fields

Chapter 23

“She what!?”
Erin
’s voice booms over the phone line. “Adam, what did you say to her?”

“How can you immediately assume it was me?” Adam is put out by his friend’s accusation. He’s just spent the last two hours canvassing Villsburg’s streets looking for Alex. Without success. After he left the office, he drove around and when he realised that Alex and that blasted car of hers that she collected this morning is nowhere to be found, he came home.

He got home and saw that she took all her stuff, including that farting dog and the eclectic CD collection of hers. The living room looks much cleaner – her CD’s were always everywhere but the CD rack. That’s when he realised that she had flown the coop. He then sat down to phone
Erin
in the hope that some light might be shed on this mysterious and quick disappearance of the most annoying woman he knows.

Before he left the office he interrogated Ray to the point of harassment. Ray was almost in tears before he remembered that Zondra was in the office before he left for lunch. At that point Adam almost lost the thirty seven year’s of the tight control he had on his temper, and attacked him. In Adam’s mind, Zondra’s presence was the first thing he should’ve mentioned in a situation like this, but he kept his calm and found out from Ray that he had left before Zondra said anything of value.

When he could get nothing else out of Ray, he told him to do whatever he needed to keep the festival running smoothly and went to his office to phone Zondra. Unsurprisingly she was not available and he is convinced that she would be ‘in meetings’ every time he phones for the next few days.

“Adam, I’ve known Alex for a very long time and not once has she bailed out on anything. Ever. She is one of those people who always finishes what she started. For her to have done something like this means that something really bad happened.” He pauses and then asks again, “What did you say to her?”

“Nothing.” But Adam is beginning to replay the last few days in his head. “She did have an incident this morning.”

“Oh god, what happened?”

“She punched herself.”

“She what?!”

Adam gives
Erin
a quick run down on what happened, but couldn’t tell him how it happened. With the humour in the situation, he never actually asked how this came about.

“Believe it or not, but worse things have happened to Alex. She wouldn’t have left because of this little incident.”

Adam raises his eyebrows at
Erin
’s comment and finds it difficult to imagine anything worse than punching yourself in the eye.

“It must be something more personal. What did you say to her?”

Adam wants to take umbrage at
Erin
’s insistence that Alex’s disappearance is because of him, or more specifically because of something he had said, but instead of getting angry he spends some time thinking it over. Over the years he’s learned to trust
Erin
implicitly in business and know he can trust him with more than corporate matters.

“I asked her to stay on after the festival.”

“I knew it! I knew you two would be a perfect match. You’ve fallen for her, haven’t you my friend?”
Erin
sounds delighted and smug at the same time.

“That’s not up for discussion now. I need to know where she is.”

“Oh, but that’s where you’re wrong. This is something to be discussed, Adam.”

“Ray told me that Zondra came in before he went to lunch and when he returned, Alex was gone. Isn’t it possible that Zondra told her something and it wasn’t my invitation that triggered this disappearance?” He then continues to tell Erin about Zondra, her lack of co-operation and generally her toxic personality which
Erin
already knew about from the conversations he had with Alex.

“Could be, but with Alex’s past experiences and her personality anything is possible.”

“What do you mean ‘her past experiences’? What happened?”

“She didn’t tell you, did she?”
Erin
’s sigh is loud and defeated. “Of course she didn’t. That is the one area of her life that has been a total disaster and the one thing she never talks about. It took years before she trusted me enough and even then she needed a lot of alcohol before she told me some of it. Her love life is not an easy topic.”

Adam closes his eyes and pushes his fingers through his hair. He knew Alex had baggage, but who doesn’t. He also had some toxic relationships with women that made him consider becoming a monk or a hermit, but that didn’t make him leave for no reason.

“I thought I was getting to know her, but it seems like I know so little about her. How could I have misread her so badly? What could possibly be so bad about her love life?”

“Slow down with all the questions, mate. I don’t think that you misread Alex. She’s always been secretive. For no other reason than being ashamed of her past. She’s had it rough and doesn’t talk about it easily. Especially not knowing that it could frighten away a potential love interest like you.”

There is a moment of silence while Adam thinks about what he just heard, and
Erin
on the other side thinks about what he just said and weighs up his options.

“
Erin
, I can understand that you would want to keep Alex’s confidence, but I would appreciate it if you tell me what this is all about. I need to understand. Maybe then I might be able to do something.”

“You’ve fallen hard, my friend. Hard.”

“So it seems. Now would you please enlighten me?”

“I’m only telling you this because it is obvious that you care a lot for Alex. And because I know that she has feelings for you.”

“She has? Did she say something?”

“No, you moron. You really are blind! Everyone can see that you two have something going on.”

“Okay, okay. Stop going on about that and just tell me what this big ‘thing’ is.”

“She’s never going to forgive me for this. Never. Before Alex left for Villsburg she was going through this whole make-over thing. We hired a stylist, a life coach and some other consultants. I’m the one who encouraged it. She wanted to make some changes to her life and I told her to go the whole hog. Her past was repeating itself all the time and – unfortunately this was my influence – she thought that if she was different she would attract a different kind of man.”

“What kind of men was she attracting?”

“My friend, she was attracting men that I wouldn’t even wish upon this Zondra woman. This is where she needed an extra shot of tequila before she could tell me. Apparently her first big love at college didn’t have the guts to dump her, so he had her arrested for drugs that he planted in her handbag. That earned her a criminal record, because the judge was having a bad day and decided that her two extra grams of grass, more than is allowed for personal use, was enough to take it further. Her second big break up happened in the
special investigation unit
’s headquarters. Number two was a small time criminal that somehow became connected to the Russian Mafia, and Alex overheard a conversation between her beau and another friend that had her running to the police with the info. She went home after the police interview and not long after that there was a knock at her door and when she opened she looked into the drawn guns of three
special investigation unit
agents. It was a long drawn out affair complete with death threats and eventually police protection. That was before she even graduated.”

“God.”

“Yes, that was number four. He believed that he was the reincarnation of Jesus. Fortunately that only lasted a few weeks, but it took months for Alex to convince Jesus that she did not want to go into the desert and have holy babies with him. The one between Mafia-boy and Jesus had more sex-toys than an erotic store and she only discovered this by accident – she ventured into the wrong room while looking for the wash room. There was also the man who was married to three women at the same time and dating another two, including Alex. She had a few other catastrophic dates after that and stopped dating all together two years ago.”

“Jeez, how can all this happen to one person?”

“In Alex’s one words? She’s fly paper for freaks.”

“But how does this apply to me? I might be a lot of things, but I am not a freak.”

“I don’t know how you fit into this.”
Erin
is quiet for a moment while he tries to make sense of it and then a thought strikes him. “Have you read the letter she wrote to Ray?”

“Yes.”

“What exactly did it say?”

Adam takes the letter from his jacket’s inner pocket and unfolds it. He looks around the den and for a moment is sure he heard Blossom let out a roaring fart, but a few rattles later, he realises it’s only the fridge. He sighs and reads the letter to
Erin
.

“Wait! Read that line again.”

“I just don’t think that I need to be there any longer and I don’t fit in, so it is better for all.” Adam shakes his head in pure bafflement. “
Erin
, I really didn’t take Alex as someone to be concerned about fitting in. Why would she write something like this?”

“She wrote it for you.”