Читать книгу Killing Kate - Alex Lake - Страница 13

Kate took the receiver from May and put it to her ear.

‘Phil?’ she said. ‘What are you doing? Is something wrong?’

His voice was tense, a note or two higher than usual. ‘I wanted to talk to you. You haven’t been answering your phone. I thought maybe you don’t have reception.’

‘It’s pretty patchy,’ she lied. ‘I saw some missed calls’ – some, she thought, didn’t cover it. There’d been dozens of them – ‘but I haven’t been able to call back.’

‘Oh,’ he said. ‘I understand.’

‘So,’ Kate said. ‘Is something wrong?’

‘No. I just – I just wanted to talk to you. Check you’re OK.’

‘I’m fine,’ Kate said, her mouth tightening. ‘I’m a big girl, Phil. I can look after myself.’

‘I know, but—’

‘And how did you get this number?’ Kate said.

‘I asked your mum and dad where you’re staying.’

The answer was too quick; she knew Phil and she could tell it was a lie he’d prepared earlier. She wasn’t even sure she’d told her parents where she was staying. It pissed her off; this whole phone call pissed her off. She decided not to let him off the hook.

‘Are you sure?’ she said. ‘I don’t recall telling them the hotel name. In fact, I’m pretty sure I didn’t, now I think about it. So how did you get the number?’

He paused. ‘I called around,’ he said finally.

‘Called around what?’

‘The hotels.’

Kate stared at her reflection in the mirror opposite the bed. ‘You called every hotel in the resort?’

‘No!’ he said, a hint of outrage in his voice that she would suggest he was that desperate. ‘I knew you were staying near the harbour, so I called those hotels and asked to be put through to your room.’

‘Right,’ Kate said. ‘So you called every hotel near the harbour.’ She shook her head, exasperated. Why couldn’t he leave her alone, even for one week? One week, so she could enjoy her holiday.

‘Well, it’s nice to talk, but I’m kind of busy right now,’ Kate said. ‘We’re getting ready to go out for breakfast.’ She looked at Gemma, spread out in a star shape, her cheek pressed against the pillow, her mouth half-open as she snored lightly. ‘May and Gem are by the door.’

May suppressed a snort of laughter. Kate glared at her.

‘I only wanted to chat. I miss you.’

‘Can we talk later?’ she said. ‘I’ve got to go. They’re waiting. And we’re hungry.’

‘Will you call later?’ he said.

‘Sure.’

‘You promise you’ll call?’

‘Of course,’ she said. ‘I promise.’ It was a promise she felt she would be justified in forgiving herself for breaking.

As she put the phone in its cradle, Gemma’s eyes opened.

‘Who was that?’ she said, her voice little more than a croak.

‘Phil,’ Kate said. ‘He tracked me down.’

Gemma frowned. ‘Jesus,’ she said. ‘I know he’s hurting, but he needs to get over it. And tracking you down like this is – well, it’s kind of fucked up, Kate.’

‘I know,’ Kate said. ‘But he means well. You know Phil, he’s—’

‘Don’t make excuses for him,’ Gemma said. ‘He can’t do this. And you’d think he’d know better, after what happened to Beth.’

There was a long pause. ‘It’s not like that,’ Kate said. ‘Beth was a totally different situation.’

‘We didn’t think so at first, though, did we?’ Gemma said. ‘And things might have worked out a hell of a lot better if we’d paid a bit more attention to how serious it was.’

‘We were young,’ May said. ‘We didn’t know any better.’

‘We do now,’ Gemma said. ‘That’s my point, and Phil needs to know he has to give this a rest.’ She looked at Kate. ‘Anyway, let’s not argue. Forget Phil. Which is something you didn’t seem to have any problem doing last night. Where were you, you dirty slapper?’

Kate reached down and picked up a handful of the clothes that Gemma had strewn around the room. She tossed them to her friend.

‘Put these on and I’ll tell you over breakfast,’ she said. ‘And then let’s go to the beach and enjoy the last few days of this holiday.’