‘Not days?’
‘No. I don’t think so. Time passes pretty slowly down here, though, so I couldn’t really say. They’ve fed me once, so I guess half a day?’
‘Jesus. What the hell is Harville playing at? Does he really think he can do this?’
‘He’s a bastard. I’ve tried to warn you. He’ll stop at nothing to get what he wants.’
‘But what does he want? How is holding us prisoner going to achieve anything?’
‘Maybe a ransom? From Jen. She’s loaded and he wants to buy back the Hall. Could be a bargaining position.’
‘For God’s sake, he’d do all this for a house?’
‘He’s obsessed with the place. I’ve seen the lengths he’ll go to, first hand.’
‘He’s a lunatic.’ Deano paused for thought before adding, ‘Well, Bledburn’s Got Talent is definitely off.’
Kayley’s laugh pealed through the stale air, and warmth crept slowly into Deano’s chest. Making her laugh seemed like a significant achievement, especially in these conditions.
But she sobered quickly and said, ‘I wonder what he’s done to Jason. Do you think he might …? I mean, he really hates Jason …’
Deano swallowed.
‘You think he’s capable of …?’
Nobody wanted to put the thought into the open, where it had to be addressed. But Deano couldn’t shake the thought that a man who could attack and imprison a very famous person wouldn’t think twice about killing a lesser mortal.
A sound he didn’t at first recognise as a sob came from Kayley.
‘Hey,’ he said, once he’d worked out that she was crying.
He put out a hand to touch the dim outline of her arm. It shook under his fingertips. He sat up properly and put an arm around her, drawing her close. Her ponytail tickled his wrist as he slid her into his embrace. The perfume flooded his senses and he almost swooned at the feel of her in his arms, shuddering and warm and so comfortable against him. How long had it been since he had just held someone, or been held? He couldn’t remember.
All his experiences of intimacy in the last few years had taken place in a coked-up haze, in tour buses or dressing rooms or hotel elevators. They were generally fast, furious and over in a couple of minutes. He didn’t like waking up with somebody else in his bed – for some reason, he thought of that as infidelity, while the quick post-gig shags didn’t strike him in the same way. He could scratch his itch with any number of groupies, but he had never wanted to share a bed with anyone but Jenna.
All the same, it was nice, this feeling of closeness and protectiveness. Kayley was certainly cute. Did she have a boyfriend? He almost asked her, but it didn’t really seem the right time.
‘We’re gonna be OK,’ he said, as convincingly as he could, although he was by no means sure of this. ‘You’ll be out of here in no time, back to work at the Hall.’
‘I doubt it. She sacked me,’ said Kayley through her tears. ‘Remember?’
‘Oh. Yeah. Sorry about that. But she might take you back. If I beg her on my knees.’
‘Would you do that?’ Kayley looked up at him. He could see the teary gleam of her eyes.
Yes, God, yes, for you.
‘Of course,’ he said. ‘It was my fault, after all.’
‘That’s true,’ she said. ‘You muppet.’ But she said it affectionately, with a little cracked laugh.
She shivered suddenly, seeming to contract in his arms.
‘Did you hear about the body?’ she said.
‘What body?’
‘The skeleton they found under the Hall.’