Not Dead Yet

pressed his thumb, middle finger and ring finger together and raised the other two fingers in the air. ‘Secret fox!’ He winked at her.
    She stared back at him, icily and terrified.
    Grace’s phone rang. He ignored it.
    ‘Eric says you can answer it,’ Anna said sweetly.
    It carried on ringing.
    ‘Eric says you can answer it,’ Anna repeated.
    Grace continued to ignore it. He wanted to keep both his hands free. It stopped ringing.
    ‘It might have been an important call!’ Anna Galicia said. ‘You are a very important man, aren’t you?’
    ‘Aren’t you important too, Anna?’ he replied.
    ‘Eric thinks so!’
    Grace shot another quick glance at Gaia. Her eyes were still locked on him. He wondered what the security guard was going to do. But short of putting a sniper on the roof to take a shot through the window at Whiteley, and he did not have the time, there wasn’t anything he could think of. Down below he heard the wail of sirens, followed by a series of deep honks, then more sirens. It sounded like fire engines on their way. But that wasn’t going to help. There wasn’t time to get any back-up. The shadow of a seagull flitted past one of the windows behind Whiteley, and was gone.
    Whiteley looked up at the icon. ‘How’s it feeling, Gaia? Is it nice to be with your number one fan? Is it nice to be adored? Hey?’
    She tried to respond but only a gurgling croak came out.
    ‘Did you ever think what you would be if it wasn’t for me, and all the others? Hey?’
    ‘Why don’t you give her some slack, or take the noose off, so she can answer you?’ Grace said calmly.
    ‘Haha! Very funny, Detective Superintendent!’ Anna retorted.
    ‘What is it you want from Gaia, Anna?’
    Grace was poised, ready, like a coiled spring. Listening. Waiting for the next crack. He didn’t know if his plan would save her but atthis moment he was totally out of alternatives, except to try negotiation with the man. With only minutes, maybe only seconds, left to do it.
    After some moments’ silence, Whiteley responded, staring directly back at him. ‘I want her to say sorry .’
    Grace felt a tiny ping of hope. ‘Sorry for what, Anna?’
    Whiteley looked up at her. ‘You know, don’t you, Gaia?’ Then he looked back at Grace.
    ‘Take the noose off,’ Grace said firmly but pleasantly. ‘Let her speak to you.’
    Suddenly, in a very masculine voice, Whiteley snapped at him, baring his teeth in an animal snarl. ‘Anna won’t take the noose off. Stop bullying her!’
    Grace stared back at him. ‘Bullying, did you say?’
    Whiteley looked up at Gaia again. Anna spoke. ‘All you had to do in the lobby of The Grand Hotel was smile and say hello . Instead you humiliated me. You snubbed me in front of everyone. You made me look a fool. You made me a Ubu, didn’t you. Useless, Boring, Ugly. You pretend to love everyone, but you’re just a greedy bully, really, aren’t you, Gaia? So how does this feel now? I bet you wish you’d been nicer to me in The Grand, don’t you?’
    ‘Give her a chance to talk to you, Anna.’
    Whiteley snapped his head round and glared at Grace. ‘Anna’s not talking to you,’ he said in his Eric Whiteley voice.
    Then he turned back to Gaia and it was Anna speaking again. ‘You see, Gaia, you’re not as special as you think. Anyone can be you if they have enough make-up on. They all thought I was you! I could have done the rest of the film and they’d never have known! You’re not very special at all really. You’re just lucky and very cruel and very ungrateful.’
    Grace was looking at the wire again. And trying very subtly to signal to Gaia. He looked pointedly down at the trapdoor, at the warning sign, then jerked his eyes over to the right. She clocked him, in a fleeting, puzzled glance before his eyes went back to Whiteley.
    ‘You know what they say, don’t you?’ Anna Galicia’s voice asked her. ‘Be careful how you treat people on the way up, because younever know who you’re going to need when you’re on the way down.’ Whiteley lifted a hand from a bolt, and pointed at the trapdoor. ‘ On the way down! Gettit?’ Anna’s voice suddenly cackled with laughter. ‘ Gettit? ’ he repeated to Gaia. ‘How will that feel for you in your last few seconds? Dying with your number one fan! But we won’t tell anyone, will we?’ Again he raised his hand and formed his fingers into the symbol. ‘Secret fox!’
    ‘Anna,’ Grace said, ‘I have an idea. If you