Page 62 of The Beach Holiday

THEN

I knew I needed to find that key and I had very little time to do so. Avril had not left it anywhere where I could find it, and she had not given me any idea where it might be. It was hidden. She was the only one who had it.

The only way I could think to get Avril to tell me where the key was, was to get her drunk.

‘I’m cooking a stew tonight?’ I said. ‘I think we should drink kava and not worry about the future. This has been a beautiful experience; we need to be thankful. Some of the women go tomorrow, so let’s drink?’

Avril smiled, and part of me felt like it was the old Avril I knew, when things were sweet and perfect and no one had been murdered.

I handed her a cup of kava. ‘A pre-dinner drink.’ I laughed and she laughed with me, which was a relief.

‘Thank you.’ She took the cup. ‘I’ve been distracted recently. There is a lot of stress here. I need to make sure all these women leave and then, after that you know, we must go too. It’s time to say goodbye. It’s been a long period of my life.’

‘Any idea what you’ll do?’ I asked, topping up her kava without her noticing or paying much attention.

‘I have no idea. I have some friends in New Zealand,’ she said vaguely.

‘Sounds like a good plan.’

‘You?’

‘I’ll go home to England.’

‘And never speak of your time here,’ she said with a stony expression. I went to laugh then I realised she was of course deadly serious.

‘There’s nothing to tell. I was on the mainland selling chocolate. That’s all anyone needs to know.’

‘You’re a good woman, Sadie.’ But there was something in the way she spoke, in the way she said my name.

Nothing felt sincere. Nothing felt right.

She did not hold my gaze. She could not look me in the eye.

I could feel the building of something. I had been here such a short amount of time, but it felt like years.

Avril had seen my concern for Ula, then Clara, then Camp Z. She knew I was the weak link.

For the first time in weeks I now knew that my own life was in danger. I was never going to leave this island alive, not if Avril had her way.