Page 68 of Someone in the Water

Frankie

‘No, no, no, no,’ Raphael moans. ‘Don’t you dare die on me!’

I look at the gun by Raphael’s side. He flung it there when he found Patrick, his son’s torso shredded by the bullet meant for me. I want to grab it, but it’s so close to Raphael’s hand. And I’m shaking so much I’d probably drop it.

Raphael crouches down, puts his ear by Patrick’s mouth, his face reddening with shame and anger.

Then he pulls back and shakes his son. As the body flops in his grasp, he releases a strangled scream, like the bray of a wild animal rising into the night sky.

Then he picks up the gun and pushes to standing.

His hands are trembling but he’s only a couple of metres away, too close to miss.

‘Get up!’ he screams. ‘This is your fault! My son is dead because of you!’

I rise slowly to my feet, but from somewhere deep in my belly, injustice rises too.

Twenty-one years of hating myself for something this man caused.

This man who’s about to kill me. ‘No, he’s dead because of you, Raphael!

’ I shout. ‘You shot your own son, just like you strangled Archie with his own belt and then hanged him from a tree! But all I care about is whether Patrick is like you, a monster. Has he hurt Lola, Raphael? Has he killed her?’

‘You think I care about your daughter?!’ Raphael screams back. His face is contorted; tears stream down his cheeks. He’s still enraged, but bewildered too. Like he’s out of his depth.

A sudden realisation hits me.

Patrick orchestrated this. It was Patrick who brought Lola to the vineyard, not Raphael. And Patrick who has charmed Lola into staying in Corsica, and persuaded her to visit Sartène tonight. Did he draw Raphael here too? To kill me?

‘Who called you tonight in the bar?’ I demand. ‘Was it Patrick?’

‘He called to warn me; to tell me you were going to tell the police about Archie. He came through for me when it mattered.’

‘I didn’t know anything about you killing Archie until you told me,’ I hiss. ‘I’ve never talked about going to the police.’

‘Bullshit.’

‘Your son played you. Getting you to come here and kill me. I don’t know why he wanted me dead, but he clearly wanted you to do his dirty work.’ Silently I wonder if that means Lola is alive, if I can hope.

‘He wouldn’t!’

‘Why was he here then?’ I go on. ‘Spying on you?’

‘No.’ Raphael shakes his head, but manically, like he’s trying to rid his mind of my logic. ‘He’s my son. He loves me.’

‘But he was closer to Salvo, wasn’t he?’ I say, things starting to fall into place. ‘And Salvo hated you for what you did. That’s why he moved away, isn’t it? He couldn’t bear to look at you. And it’s why he gave Jack half his vineyard, and left Izzy’s mum the rest.’

‘My father?! Hah! He was the most ruthless of us all!’

‘And Patrick hated you too,’ I finish.

‘You need to shut up now.’ Raphael releases the catch on the trigger, takes a breath.

I look at the barrel. I suck in air, but I can’t release it. This is it.

A gun sounds. A thud. Raphael drops to the ground, blood spreading from his head. I spin around and my eyes widen.

‘Jack?’

‘Fucking arsehole! I’ve known the guy for over twenty fucking years.

I have cried on his shoulder; he’s listened to my guilt spill out on drunken nights too many times to count.

And the real truth is that he killed Archie?

’ He kicks Raphael’s still torso, and the momentum snaps the dead man’s head back.

The moon catches his glassy eyes, blood pooling in the crevices.

‘He deserves more than a bullet in the head!’

‘Like a petrol bomb through his letterbox?’

Why the fuck did I just say that? Jack has just saved my life! The adrenaline is making me crazy.

But Jack’s anger instantly deflates. ‘You know about that, then. I did wonder.’

‘Um, yes,’ I stutter. ‘Archie told me on the night … the night Raphael murdered him. But I haven’t told …’

‘Two seconds,’ Jack says. ‘That’s how long it took for me to regret it.

I couldn’t save the flat, but I got them all out.

And I paid for all the repair work. Yeah, it was drug money, but none of us are perfect.

I told Archie all this, and he got it too.

After a while.’ He releases a sad sigh. ‘He pretended to beat me up for it, that night, but we were laughing in the end. That’s why I couldn’t believe it when Izzy told me he’d killed himself.

God knows why I made up that bullshit story about being in town.

I was scared, I suppose. Of telling the police I’d been with him only a couple of hours before he died. Old habits.’

‘Izzy knew what you’d done in London too, I think. She was scared of you.’

He shakes his head. ‘Not as scared as I was of her. Swaggering around Achille’s nightclub like she owned the place.

She was in much deeper than me in London.

I thought we’d be friends, both of us coming from the same scene, but she hated that I knew who she really was. Even though I never said a word.’

I look at the gun in his hand, his composed expression, and wonder whether I’m still in danger. ‘And are you still involved with those people?’ I ask in a whisper.

‘What? God, no.’ Jack looks down at his gun and it’s as though he doesn’t recognise it.

‘Archie made me see things differently. I’ve only got this to scare off the wild boar that like to munch on the vines in this place.

Amazing that I made my shot really, but I guess rage and adrenaline can go a long way. ’

‘But how did you even know to come down here?’

‘I had an alert on my phone that the winery’s door had been opened.

Salvo’s reputation meant that we never had to worry about thieves, but with him gone, and me close by, I thought I should check it out.

The place was quiet when I arrived, but then I heard the gunshot and screaming.

I grabbed this out of my boot and came running.

I thought I was going to save someone, but then I heard what you said about Archie. ’

‘That Raphael strangled him.’

‘He didn’t even try to deny it.’

‘Mum!’

My heart stops, then surges. I twist around. ‘Lola?!’ I breathe out, not quite believing my eyes. ‘LOLA!’ I stumble towards my daughter. My knees start to give way, but someone holds me up. Dom.

‘Oh my God, Frankie. I thought …’ Dom looks around him, eyes skittering over the two dead bodies.

Father and son. ‘We got here as fast as we could,’ he says, breathless, his words rushing out.

‘I heard the first shot, started running towards it, but there was a noise from the winery, someone banging on a window and screaming for help. I had to get Lola out.’

‘I’m sorry, Mum,’ Lola sobs, folding into my outstretched arms. ‘This is all my fault. I should have listened to you.’

‘Don’t even think about blaming yourself,’ I say, my voice so much stronger than the swirling flotsam in my brain. ‘I have spent over two decades blaming myself for a tragedy. I won’t have you do the same.’

‘Izzy’s death wasn’t your fault, Mum,’ Lola gulps between her tears. ‘I don’t know what happened, but she was part of this horrible family.’ Lola looks around the scene with a mix of fear and disgust.

I gently pull her closer. ‘Yeah, I know that now,’ I murmur. ‘Maybe if I’d known to be wary of her then, none of this would have happened.’

‘Who knows,’ says Jack, his voice gritty. ‘Every choice we make, big or small, changes the trajectory of our lives to some degree.’

‘No such thing as fate then,’ I murmur.

Jack gives me a half-smile. ‘I think I’d need a few tequilas before answering that one.’