Chapter 6
The food is the best I've ever had. But over dinner I've had time to think some more.
I'm not stupid. Something about all this is definitely wrong. The sex video went far too far for my liking and I decided that Geraldo likes seeing his wife dominate other men. Yet that doesn't explain his need for an alibi or my fingerprints all over that clock-camera.
I get up and wonder over to it holding my napkin and absent-mindedly give it a polish.
Oh, Hell! I can't stand this deception. This woman is fantastic, I must be falling in love. I want this relationship to go on and yet I know I'm being set-up somehow. I’m going to pull-the-plug on this, right now, or it will be much harder later on.
“Diana.” That startled her. “I have to tell you something that you're not going to like.”
“Diana? My name is Kikka!” she immediately insists.
“No, it’s not. Your husband Geraldo hired me to seduce you for divorce evidence. But I'm convinced he’s up to something else, much worse.”
"What! You little bastard!" She advances on me and strikes me so hard across the side of my head that things go black for a moment.
As I stagger from the blow she points to the door: "I want you out of here right now!"
Leaving is the last thing I want to do and I can't leave without the stolen Olympus and the card from the camera-clock. The Olympus is across the room under my jacket with my keys. But I can't grab the clock and run for it. I wouldn't make it to the lift before she called security. I'd be caught with a number of stolen items.
“Please listen.” I plead. My head is pounding. “I’m telling you this because I like you and there's something wrong. I didn’t have to say anything. I could just have walked out of here after we made love, as instructed.”
I try to change my tone: “I think Geraldo might be going to kill you and pin it on me. I thought I was his childhood friend, but now I think he's just using me."
"He told me he wanted a divorce and he's paying me five thousand US dollars to be his agente encubierto to seduce you and get video evidence of your infidelity."
She's just staring at me angrily. She doesn't believe me. I'll have to show her the camera in the clock.
“Look at this clock, it’s a video camera. It's not the hotel's. Geraldo left it here before he went. Yesterday he made sure that I handled it. It has my prints all over it, inside and out."
***
I'm speaking desperately, trying to explain my fear. I'm trying to talk it through, as much for myself as for her.
“He's organised a watertight alibi for this weekend. It's an alibi for some event here, probably when you are killed. Or maybe it's me, or both of us, who will die?
I want her to help me solve this puzzle: "It makes no sense. I'm not going to kill you so why hire me to seduce you?”
"He certainly wouldn't he go to all this trouble just to kill me. Even though I know some bad things about him. I couldn't prove them anyway. Do you know he's a killer?"
She looks incredulous: "Kill me! That's nonsense. What are you supposed to do for him?"
“If I follow his instructions, I'll fly out tomorrow morning after leaving the memory card from this camera-clock in a locker at the airport. I have a key he gave me. I'll show you." I get her the key from my jacket with the locker number on it.
I..."
She's holding up a threatening hand to stop me saying any more.
“You must think I’m a total fool." she says. "An airport locker? How will he get this key after you use it? And that camera-clock was already here after we arrived yesterday. How did you get it in here? You've been stalking me. You’re a blackmailer! That's what the five grand is all about isn't it?"
"Geraldo brought the clock in; and he'd made a duplicate key."
“Don't be ridiculous! He's not that smart. You know this place. You drove straight here. You planned this somehow!"
"What made you change your mind and tell me? Was I that good in bed?" she sneers.
Shouting now: “No! You’ve just changed your dirty little blackmail plan, thinking you can go for the main prize. No measly five grand for you.”
What? What's she saying?
“You think you're so fantastic - 'mister I'll put you in hospital' - that after just one afternoon with you, I’ll throw Geraldo over, just like that:" She snaps her fingers.
"All you have to do is convince me that my husband is evil, for me to throw him out and take up with you? You’re mad!"