The Beat of Safiri Bay (18 page)

We reach Safiri Bay just after midday. He drops me off at home and carries my bag to my bedroom door. “Try to relax now okay, I will see you tonight.”

“Where would you like to meet?” I ask him.

“The Lodge bar. It is very public and...”

“I told you I don’t care about all that. I’ll meet you at the beach. Six o’clock.” I say.

“I can see the old Lane is back,” he smiles but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “I’ll see you then,” he says and hugs me before he leaves.

I quickly phone Aunty Lee and then take my time packing out my things. Thandi is very happy to see me again and has made the most delicious banana puffs for tea.

It’s not even two o’clock when my dad’s car come flying into the yard. He marches the short way to the swimming pool where I am lying on a deck chair reading. “Hi dad,” I say and get up to greet him but he grabs my shoulders and the wild look in his eyes startles me. “Lane, please tell me that man didn’t touch you. Did he touch you?” My confused and irritated expression goes unnoticed by my dad. “What are you talking about dad? You would swear that he has some kind of contagious disease,” I say sarcastically.

“No Lane, it’s worse, much much worse.” I sit back down and sigh loudly. “So you got your evidence?” my rhetorical question is also taken the wrong way and he nods his head seriously. “Yes. I got it. His famous father did a very good job sweeping it all under the metaphorical mat but I got it.” I am not impressed with my dad’s snooping around in other people’s private business. “So what is it?” I ask without any interest. I have made up my mind, I believe Alex. Whatever it is, he didn’t do it. My dad breathes in deeply and then blurts out “the man is a rapist Lane.” Those few words fall hard on my ears but instead of being shocked I am furious. “Dad, that is not true. He would never hurt anyone.”  I almost shout at him. He takes out a file from his briefcase and hands it to me. “No, I don’t believe it and you shouldn’t either.” I say and throw the file onto the nearby table. “Rosie, I am sorry, but it’s true honey.” He says more sympathetically. “I want you to stay away from him from now on.” There is no use trying to talk to my dad about it now. I just sit and stare at him. “How are you Rosie? Does your head still hurt?” It does now but not from the reason he thinks. “No, I’m fine,”

“I really am sorry Rosie, but there will be other men you’ll see.” I suddenly wonder what has happened to the man my mother married. How can he be so easy going about this? Has he never loved anyone the way I love Alex? “I’ll leave you to your thoughts now,” he says and walks into the house. I cannot believe this. Why did he dislike Alex so much from the first time he saw him on our run. He behaves like a jealous husband instead of a caring father. I take a quick glance at the black file on the table. No, I will not open it. This can wait till tonight and Alex will tell me what the truth. I do not want to read someone else’s version of it. There is only one way to busy my mind. On my way to my room I wonder where Christina is and whether my dad has eventually had enough and kicked her out. I don’t want to think about my dad right now so I take my Gibson and close the studio door behind me. The timeless room helps me to think about everything. I am so confused. Less than a month ago my life was exactly the way I wanted it, the way I could handle it and now... I don’t know what to think. I can’t imagine my life without Alex, I don’t know where I stand with Matt and my dad, well he expects me to do the one thing I don’t want to do. How are we going to prove to my dad that he didn’t do it? How can I defend Alex if I don’t know what happened?

I still have time so I sneak out and grab the black file off the table. I need to read it with an open mind and see Alex as the innocent man that he says he is. I quickly make my way back to my room and sit on my couch. My heart beats too fast and I feel the start of a headache. I open the file and see Alex on the front page with a name board in his cuffed hands. It just doesn’t seem right but I turn the page in anyway. There are about fifty pages of information. Statements, photos, court minutes, I read as fast as I can.

Half an hour later with a dry mouth and splitting headache I close the file and sit staring at it. I shouldn’t have read it. That was a mistake, a big one. I don’t understand it, so much doesn’t make sense or it does, too much. They found a positive result of sperm that matches Alex’s DNA and there is only one way it can get there. The last thing I want to do is doubt Alex, but the evidence is damning. My mind wanders to the condom in his bag. Trying as hard as I can, I cannot get myself to shake the coldness. The thought of phoning him and changing our meeting place comes to mind but I don’t do it. I will go and face and him and ask him exactly what he is up to. My heart is on the line here and I am not going to play with it.

Chapter 10

It is almost time to leave to meet Alex. I am very nervous but I need to know what happened. My phone rings and I answer. It’s Matt. “Lany,” he sobs into the phone,

“Matt, are you okay, what’s wrong?”

“Lany please I need to see you,” he sounds terrible.

“Give me five minutes,” I say, grab my bag and run to the kitchen. My dad is sitting at the table and I rush past him. “Dad, may I use the Jeep, its Matt,”

“Yes off course. Lane is everything okay?” I grab the keys and run out the door shouting back at my dad, “I don’t know, I’ll call you okay.” I drive as fast as I can to Matt’s house. The door is locked and I knock loudly. “Matt, Matthew it’s me open the door.” He opens the door and my heart pains at the sight of him. “What is it?” I ask but he just grabs me and hugs me tightly. I let him cry it out and then I walk him to the kitchen for a cup of tea. “Oh fuckit Lany can I have something stronger than tea.” I pour him a brandy and quickly think of the last time I offered him that. We walk over to the couch and he sits sipping his brandy. “Are you going to tell me what happened?” I ask now that he has calmed down a bit. “It’s Chantel, she phoned me yesterday to tell me that she is pregnant.” My shocked expression doesn’t go unnoticed by him. “I know, I was just as shocked,” he says and swallows down the rest of the brandy. “That’s why I phoned you but you were not here and I sort of made peace with the idea that I was going to be father.” He gets up and refills his glass then comes to sit next to me again. “I don’t understand, if you knew this since yesterday then why would you freak out now?” I am very confused.

“The thing is she phoned me again about half an hour ago. She says she doesn’t want the child.” His beautiful blue eyes fill up with tears again and he takes another sip of brandy. “Lany, she is going to have an abortion. She is going to kill our child,” he cries. My throat closes up and my eyes fill with tears as well. I take the glass of brandy from him and take a big sip, I need it. I hug him closely and he holds on to me for dear life. “I said I will take the child, I said she doesn’t have to raise the baby, I will. But she said it will ruin her body and she can’t go through with it.” I don’t understand how anyone can be so cruel. Matt has loved her with his whole heart and she has done nothing but crush his since he broke it off, now this. I sit on the couch for a long time with him leaning against my shoulder crying his heart out and talking about her and how she has hurt him before. I feel so sorry for him it makes my heart ache. If I ever see her again I will have to restrain myself from hurting her. How can one woman be so loveless? I must have been with Matt for about two and a half hours when he has calmed down enough for me to go home. As I am about to get up I realise I never let Alex know about my change of plans. I take my phone and dial his number but the phone rings in the room. He is standing in the door. “I’m right here,” he says and I disconnect the call. I get to my feet then and walk over to him. “I am so sorry I forgot to...”

“Save it Lane, I don’t need to hear your excuse.”

“Alex, what is going on with you? I am sorry I missed our appointment but Matt phoned and I came right over. I just forgot to call you and cancel. I am sorry.” I stand there in the lounge looking at him but he has completely shut down. He walks right past me to his room and leaves me standing there. I look at Matt and he looks at me very confused. “I wanted to still ask you Lane. What is up with you and Alex?” before I can answer him Alex is back in the lounge looking at me as well. “Yes Lane, why don’t you tell us both, what is up with me and you?”

“Alex, what are you doing?” I look at him. “We are waiting for an answer Lane,” he says and folds his arms over his chest.

“Give it a rest Alex,” Matt says and comes to stand next to me.

“No Matthew, you back off. I need to know.” He says so coldly I feel like crying. “So Lane, who will it be?”

“Alex what are you talking about?” Matthew wants to know. What is it you want her to choose from?”

“That’s enough.” I say and walk over to Alex. I grab him by the arm and pull but he doesn’t move. “Alex please,” I beg but he still doesn’t move. “Can we talk somewhere privately?” I beg. Matt sits back down again and frowns at me. “Alex,” I say again and he slowly moves with me to his room. He walks into the room. I close the door and face him. “Alex what the hell was that all about?” I ask furious with him. “I waited on the beach for an hour Lane. You didn’t show so I decided to stop at your house to check if you were okay.” Obviously he was worried about me and the stupid head injury. “Only your dad was home. He showed me the file he gave to you. He said you came rushing to Matthew as soon as you finished reading it.” I can’t believe my dad, no actually I could. “Alex, don’t you understand, my dad has warned me against you. For many reasons he doesn’t want me to get involved with you and he will do anything he can to keep me away from you.” Alex pushes a hand through his hair and sinks down on to the bed. “Alex, I told him I am in love with you. We were both warned by a guy that I must stay away from you but I couldn’t.”

“What guy?”

“We don’t know who he is. Anyway my dad was upset that I didn’t want to let you go and said he will find evidence to prove to me that you are no good for me. As for the thing with Matt, for some reason my dad thinks he is the right person for me and he approves of him. But if we could just find some way to show my dad that you are not guilty of all that, he will come around.” He gets up and comes to me with open arms but I put up a hand and shake my head. “No Alex, I have some questions of my own,” I say and he moves back to sit down on the bed again. “So you read the file?” he asks.

“Yes, only to know what my dad knows and to know why he acts the way he does.” He nods his head but I continue. “Alex, there are some things that doesn’t make sense to me. If you want me to believe in you then you will have to answer some questions okay?”

“Off course Lane,” he says and taps the bed next to him. I walk over and sit with him. “Lane, I didn’t rape that girl.” He says and looks me in the eyes. “But the test,” I says and he holds up a hand.

“Yes we had sex, but she was more than willing, that I can promise you.” Confusion takes over again.

“If that is true how can she accuse you of rape?” I want to know.

“She was one of my new patients. She has come to see me because she could sleep at night. I prescribed her some medication for it but I suspected that she didn’t come to me because of a sleeping problem. She was very flirty and came on to me but I resisted the first time.” I listened carefully and nodded. “A week later she was in my office again and this time she was not there for any other reason than to just talk to me. We went out for drinks a few times. She was very persuasive. There was something about her that was appealing in a different sort of way. She knew what she wanted and knew that she will get it.” I blushed a bit at that part but he kept going. “Two weeks after we met she came to my office again just after closing time. She was very seductive and if I think of it now I realise that she was almost insistent. We had sex in my office but while we were busy my secretary walked in on us and that is when she slapped me and started yelling and crying. I was so shocked I didn’t know what was going on. My secretary phoned the police and they arrested me for rape.” My mouth was hanging open. How can any woman be so cruel? She ruined his life with that little trick of hers. “So who was it?” I asked.

“Who was who?” he said confused.

“Who was she working for? Obviously she was doing it to get you into trouble.”

“No she must have done it because she was embarrassed to have been caught out like that.” I lift my eyebrow.

“Alex, it sounds to me as if you were set up.” I say and he shakes his head. “I don’t understand. Who would want to set me up and why?”