“We can’t go to the police, not with a story like this.”
“No, I know. Honestly, I don’t know how seriously they’d take us. To understand how fucking sick this is, you need to know him. You need to know what a psychopath he is.”
“Kate. Do you think he’s crazy? I do.”
“Of course he is. Mad as a hatter.” Kate poured them a couple of whiskeys. “I warned you, years ago, remember? I told you not to trust him. I knew there was something weird about him. You should never have let him get close to you. That was your mistake.”
Lana didn’t say anything for a moment, then said quietly, “I think I’m a little afraid of him.”
Kate frowned. “That’s exactly why we can’t let him win. Do you understand? We have to act. Have you told Jason?”
“No. I’ve only told you.”
“You must tell him.”
“Not yet.”
“What about Elliot?” Kate gave her a curious look. “Are you going to confront him?”
“No.” Lana shook her head. “He mustn’t find out we know. Don’t underestimate him, Kate. He’s dangerous.”
“I know he is. Then what do we do?”
“There’s only one thing we can do.”
“And what’s that?”
Lana fixed her eyes on Kate and didn’t speak for a second. When she did, her voice was without emotion, simply stating a matter of fact.
“We must destroy him.” Lana said. “Or he’ll kill Jason.”
They stared at each other.
Kate slowly nodded. “But how?”
They sat in silence for a moment, mulling it over, as they sipped their whiskeys.
Suddenly, Kate looked up, her eyes sparkling. “I’ve got it. We beat him at his own game.”
“Meaning?”
“We play along. We follow his script. Then, as soon as he thinks it’s all going according to plan … we turn the tables on him. We write him a different ending. One he wasn’t expecting. One that will be the end of him.”
Lana thought about this. Then she nodded. “Okay.”
Kate raised her glass, to make a toast. “To revenge.”
“No.” Lana raised her glass. “To justice.”
“Yes. Justice.”
The two women solemnly drank to the success of their production.
* * *
The curtain went up immediately. That afternoon, in fact, when, tired and hungover, I made my way to Lana’s house.
“Love,” I said, “I came over to check on you. I was worried when I woke up and you were gone. And you’ve not been answering your phone. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” said Lana. “I was going to wake you, but you looked so peaceful.”
“I feel rough as hell now. We drank far too much last night.… Talking of which—how about hair of the dog?”
Lana nodded. “Why not?”
We went into the kitchen, and I opened a bottle of champagne. Then I gently began to remind Lana what we had spoken about last night. I encouraged her to go ahead with our plan, to lure Kate and Jason to the island.
“That’s if you still want to proceed,” I said, casually.
I waited. I noticed Lana was finding it hard to look at me. But I put it down to her hangover.
She forced a smile in my direction. “Nothing could stop me.”
“Good.”
Then, at my suggestion, Lana reached for her phone. She rang up Kate, who was at the Old Vic.
Kate answered the phone quickly. “Hey. You okay?”
“I will be. I’ve worked out what we all need is some sunshine. Will you come?”
“What?” Kate sounded mystified.
“To the island—for Easter?”
Lana went on, in a cheery tone, before Kate could respond: “Don’t say no. It’ll be just us. You, me, Jason, and Leo. And Agathi, of course.… I’m not sure if I’ll ask Elliot—he’s been annoying me lately.”
This alerted Kate that Lana wasn’t alone; that I was in the room with her.
Kate understood. She smiled and played along. She nodded.
“I’m booking my flight right now.”
4
They didn’t tell the others about the plan until they were on the island.
Lana kept putting off telling Agathi—she felt sure Agathi would refuse to participate. In the end, Lana was wrong about that—Agathi proved an all-too-willing participant in the evening’s festivities.
Lana told Leo about it on the second day, at the picnic on the beach. She suggested they have a walk together.
“Darling,” said Lana in a low voice as they strolled along the water’s edge, arm in arm. “There’s something you should know. There’s going to be a murder tonight.”
Leo listened, amazed, as his mother explained the practicalities of the plot. To his credit, Leo felt a flicker of uncertainty—an uneasy feeling that what Lana was suggesting was morally wrong; and that there would be some terrible price to pay. But he quickly banished the thought. As a budding actor, he knew he couldn’t turn her down. He’d never get offered a part like this again. The fact that Leo detested me helped him overcome his scruples. He figured I had it coming. Perhaps he was right.
Telling Jason, however, was rather trickier.
Lana attempted to talk to him that afternoon after the beach. She snuck off to find Jason at the ruin, where he was hunting. But Jason wasn’t alone. Kate was with him.
As Lana watched them kissing, she flew into a rage. It took a while to calm herself down. Then she confronted Kate—on the speedboat, on the way to Yialos.
“You said it was over,” said Lana in a low voice. “You and him.”
“What? It is over.”
“Why did you kiss him?”
“At the ruin? Elliot was watching us—I could see him there, hiding. I had to play along. I had no choice.”
“Well, you were very convincing. Congratulations.”
Kate accepted the rebuke with a shrug. “Fine, I deserve that.” She gave Lana a wary look. “When are you going to tell Jason? You need to warn him.”
Lana shook her head. “I’m not going to tell him.”
“What?” Kate stared at her, astonished. “If he doesn’t know, it won’t work. I’ll never be able to talk him into it.”
“Oh, you can be very persuasive when you want. Think of it as an acting challenge.”
“You can’t do this to Jason. You can’t put him through that.”
“That’s his punishment.”
“That’s so fucked-up.” Kate pulled a face. “And I have to watch it?”
“Yes.” Lana nodded. “That’s yours.”
* * *
A few hours later, Lana stood outside the summerhouse window. She watched Kate perform inside—all for an audience of one.
“Jason didn’t mean to shoot Lana,” I said. “He meant to shoot you.”
Kate shook her head. “You’re sick … you’re fucking sick.”
Kate ran through the gamut of emotions in this scene—paranoid, fearful, angry. It was a bravura performance—if a little over the top, in Lana’s opinion.
Kate’s overdoing it, she thought. But he seems convinced—how smug he is. How vain. If he had any self-awareness at all, he’d see through her. But he thinks he’s so clever, he thinks he’s some kind of god. But he’ll learn. He’ll be humbled.
Inside the summerhouse, I took out the gun, pressing it into Kate’s hands. Then I sent her out to meet Jason at the jetty.
Lana lurked in the darkness, waiting. She stepped onto the path in front of Kate. Their eyes met, and they exchanged guns.
“Break a leg,” Lana said.
Kate didn’t say anything. She stared at Lana for a second. Then she turned and walked away.
Lana followed me down to the beach. She positioned herself in the dark—a little way behind where I was standing. She sent Nikos over to accost me—to march me, at gunpoint, to the jetty; where I was humiliated, brutalized, and beaten.
Lana watched all this, her blue eyes glowing in the dark, like a vengeful goddess, cruel, pitiless. As I, her victim, was forced onto my knees; begging for mercy, screaming her name … until a gunshot silenced me.
And Lana’s revenge was complete.
5
I promised you a murder, didn’t I? Bet you never thought it would be mine.
Well, sorry to disappoint you—I wasn’t dead. I just thought I was. I really believed my last moment on earth had come. That gunshot made me pass out. Scared to death, you might say.
I was nudged awake by a prodding foot.