Three For A Wedding

Chapter Eight and Nine

She looked at her watch, they were going to be late. Again. She couldn’t deal with this much longer, if her housemate wouldn’t hurry up and get up, they would both lose their jobs, and it wasn’t easy being an actress in this day and age, not many good jobs were going for struggling actresses. She banged on the door to her friend's room.

“WAKE UP DAMN IT!” She shouted through the door as she pushed a strand of her bleach-blonde hair behind her ear. “I swear to God, if you make me late one more time, I will kick your sorry ass out of my flat!”

There was no response from within so she huffed and pushed her way into the room. Stomping across the carpet to the bed, she opened her mouth to shout at her friend but the words stuck in her throat and a scream escaped instead. The girl on the bed looked like horror had struck. Her eyes were wide with panic, there was bruising to her mouth and her skin was cold to the touch, white and mottled.

The blonde girl turned and scrambled out of the room, tripping as she went. She couldn’t get out of the room quickly enough.

*****

Chapter Nine

Riley stood at the arrivals gate that the screens had informed him to go to and wait, he wore a pair of dark blue jeans and a black polo shirt with the police department's logo on it, a pair of expensive sunglasses that Cecelia had brought him was on his head, and he had his arms crossed over his broad chest as he waited. The plane which he was awaiting for had landed half an hour ago, which meant it shouldn’t be too much longer until she was in his arms again. It had been too long and he was like a child at Christmas time waiting for her. Talking on Skype just wasn’t good enough for siblings that were as close as Riley and his twin sister were.

He was beginning to get impatient, looking at the expensive watch that Cecelia had brought him for his birthday before looking back up for what seemed like the millionth time at the board that told him about his sister's flight. Her flight had landed, he just needed her to appear now.

After what seemed like months to him, she finally appeared through the arrivals door, a look of excitement crossed his finely chiselled facial features.

Bethany Blackman was a tall woman, about an inch or two shorter than he was. Other than this, she was near identical to him, right down to their matching hair colour and stunning green eyes. She wore a tight white blouse over her slightly muscular frame and a pair of smart black trousers, and she had a pair of expensive-looking sunglasses perched on the top of her head. It must have been a twin thing. She was smart and elegant, and if he hadn’t known any better, he would have pegged her for a cop the moment he saw her walk through the door.

Following closely behind her was an equally as tall woman with long red hair pulled back into a ponytail. She wore a tweed jacket, checked flannel shirt and jeans and was pushing a trolley full of luggage. He waved at them to try and attract their attention to where he was.

“Beth!” He shouted when they still hadn’t noticed him. The two women turned to the sound of the voice and a wide smile spread across the first one's face when she spotted him. She ran to him with a squeal of excitement and threw her arms around him in a hug, making him laugh loudly as he wrapped his arms tightly around her. “Oh, how good it is to see you, sis!”

“Riley you look so happy!” She exclaimed, standing back to look at him whilst she held him at arm's length to take him in. Looking around, she asked-“Where is my sister-in-law to be?”

“Unfortunately she had an emergency at work and was called in. She sends her apologies and cant wait to see you again.” He told her putting his arm around her shoulder as the other woman caught up to them.

“Isn't she very pregnant with twins?” Beth asked with a frown as Riley released his sister from his grasp so he could embrace the newcomer. Stevie, short for Stephanie, was a cardiovascular surgeon in Toronto where they both lived, and Beth was a Detective in Homicide. They were now looking at getting married next year for Christmas.

“Six months nearly, so she is very hormonal and temperamental at the moment,” Riley explained. Suddenly he felt his pocket vibrate and he groaned when he heard the death march begin playing from it, signalling that it was someone from work calling him. He pulled it out and answered, “Blackman!”

“Sir, it’s Greg, we have a stiff one.” Came the unmistakable voice of his right-hand man, Detective Inspector Greg Salzburg. He could hear the sound of a car indicator in the background signalling to him that Greg was already en route to where he needed to be.

“Seriously!” Riley groaned like a petulant child. This was all he needed. He had hoped for a day off, to spend with his sister and her fiancée. He looked at his watch again.

“Sorry, Sir,” Greg replied with a sigh of his own. He knew his boss had been picking up Beth and hadn’t wanted to disturb him, but this was one he had needed to call his boss for. “You know what it is like. When you don’t want one to show up, they make sure they show up in abundance.”

“I will be there as soon as I can. I am in London at the moment picking up my sister, so I won't be there for a couple of hours yet. So carry on without me for now,” Riley said. “I will let you know when I am half an hour away.”

“Yes sir,” Greg said before giving Riley the details of where he would need to go. He sighed as his phone rang again.

“Damn it.” He swore. “Blackman!”

“Sir, it’s Benjamin. There has been a suspected suicide. I just thought I would inform you, Cherry and I have it under control, though, and will have the report to you by the end of the day.” Came the voice of another one of his Detectives, Benjamin Porter.

“OK, I am going to be at a murder case with Greg once I get back from London, so just keep me informed,” Riley said with a sigh. No rest for the wicked. No wonder none of his paperwork ever got done. The suicide wouldn’t be something he would normally attend, he would just get a briefing from his detectives, but the murder he would watch from the sidelines unless it became a serial murder, and then he would normally take over.

“Certainly, sir,” Benjamin said. Riley hung up and put his phone into his pocket.

“I am so sorry, it looks like I might need to make a slight detour,” Riley said with a sigh to his sister. His look said, "Please forgive me."

“No problem, we know what it is like to be in your job,” Stevie said with a tired smile as Riley led them down to Cecelia’s Range Rover which was parked in the airport's short-stay car park.

“Nice Wheels!” Beth exclaimed when she saw the very clean Black Range Rover.

“It’s Cecelia’s car. My car is only a two-seater,” he explained. “So wouldn’t have got you both in. The boot isn’t that big either, and I know you never travel very light.”

“Well, that will have to go soon then, you will need to get a minibus,” Beth said with a wink as they loaded up the boot of the car. Once they had filled the car, Stevie got into the back, knowing that her fiancée needed to speak with her brother privately. “So, what’s the news?” Uncle David briefly explained what was going on.”

“You know Cecelia lost her father fifteen years ago?” Riley asked as he slammed the boot door shut, a little harder than he meant to, the familiar anger around the issue returning as he began to speak of it again.

“Yes,” She said as she walked around to the passenger side of the car, Riley followed her, waiting for her to realise that she wasn’t in America and she was actually about to get into the Drivers side. “They think the man that I have been hunting for the last couple of years may be involved in that, one of the reasons I am working on it. I am working alongside Interpol, Scotland Yard, the FBI and the CIA, they know that I know pretty much everything about this guy and that I am closest to Cecelia’s family, so I have been attached to an FBI team to work on it because they all decided I was the best chance they had at catching this idiot.”

“He is not dead,” Riley said, stopping his sister in her tracks. She turned and looked at him, an expression of confusion filling her features.

“Eh?” Beth said, looking her brother in the eye, letting him know that he needed to explain himself, and he needed to do it right now.

“Martin Montage has been deep in witness protection for the last fifteen years,” Riley told her.

“f**k me sideways and call me a donkey! I did not expect that to come out of your mouth! What does Cecelia say?” Beth asked, her face still portraying the shock of what she had been told.

“She doesn’t know yet,” Riley told his twin, his mood switching from anger at his uncle and Cecelia’s father, to concern and worry towards the love of his life.

“Oh my God Riley, that is not going to go down very well. You know what she is like.” Bethany responded, calmer than Riley thought she would be. Bethany had spent a lot of her childhood with Cecelia, along with Sally and Julie. They had all been very close friends during school and even after. Bethany knew pretty much everything that Cecelia had gone through growing up. She had seen more than most.

“I know, and this is what I told Uncle David this morning. I have told them, that they have to tell her and Paige and that you will be there when they do.” He said to her. “Along with her other close friends.”

“You wait until I get my hands on my uncle. How could he do this to her? I don’t feel comfortable with what he has done here. This woman’s father, the guy she thought was dead, has been living not far from her for the last fifteen years watching over her whilst her mother beat seven shades of s**t out of her.” Beth said, her anger beginning to flow more freely at her brother, as she let out things she had kept secret for so long.

“How did you know about that!” Riley asked, a little shocked at her sudden revelation.

“For God’s sake Riley, I went to school with her, I saw the bruises, we did Gym class together after all,” Bethany told him. “I wasn’t stupid, I knew exactly what was going on. I grew up surrounded by police officers and lawyers. I saw her in a different light from you. I could see her pain, I could see her loss. I use to visit her house, I saw and heard things that I never should have.”

“Why didn’t you tell anyone?” Riley blurted angrily. Things could have gone so differently if she had just told someone about it all. What was it with this family and having secrets and not talking about things?

“It wasn’t my place to Riley and I was a child, I didn’t fully understand the implications of it all. I spoke to her about it once and she just told me she was clumsy, but I knew her well enough. The one time I said anything to the headmaster, he spoke to her and she denied it all, said that she fell down the stairs and he did nothing more. She didn’t speak to me for weeks. I didn’t want to lose my best friend, so I clammed up like she did and just made sure I was there for her if she needed me.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? I was dating her, I could have done something about it.” He asked through gritted teeth. “It could have saved a lot of heartaches.”

“You were headstrong back then and you would have done something stupid which would have either got you arrested or killed. As I said, I was young, I didn’t fully understand the implications of what was going on, and Cecelia had always seemed so strong and full of life. It didn’t all fall into place correctly. I knew something was wrong but couldn’t work it out until much later. Her mother was a menace as well. She scared the absolute s**t out of me. She even threatened me once as well. She was unstable and I didn’t want you or Uncle David, or even Daddy in that fact, to get into the middle of it all. Which if I had said something back then, you would have been the problem. After the two of you split up, I moved to the States and I didn’t think anything else about it until all this started up again. That is when the past started to come back to me and that was when things fell into place and I understood her more. Now, this? It’s going to break her. To be honest, I’m not sure it’s a good idea her father comes back at all. It could be a very bad outcome for her.”

“I agree, but now I know, I can’t marry her with this lie in my head, and I will not leave her. I know it may sound selfish but, something needs to happen, and Uncle David and Cecelia’s father are determined that it is time he rises from the dead.” Riley told her.

“Why is nothing ever easy with this damned family? This is the whole reason I emigrated to Canada, The Blackmans, Archers, and now it also seems the Montages never think before they tread.” Bethany ranted.

“Come on, get in the car, we need to go. But you need to go to the other side. I’m driving. Not you.” He told her. She cursed before going around to the other side of the car and getting in. Riley shut his door, put his belt on and started the car.