Almost Dead

She picked up an intercom handset, pressed a button, and spoke briefly and rapidly in Italian before replacing it.

“The maid is on her way,” she told Cassie.

At that moment, Ms. Rossi’s cell phone rang.

“Ciao,” she answered, sounding impatient.

Sensing that it would be rude to listen in to the conversation, Cassie got up hurriedly and headed to the door to wait for the maid outside.

As she left the room, she heard Ms. Rossi say, sternly, “Abigail?”

Cassie remembered this was the woman who had mistakenly told her that the au pair job was filled.

There was a pause and then Cassie heard her speak again, her voice loud and filled with anger.

“You messed up, Abigail. That is not acceptable, and nor is your apology. You will not come to work tomorrow. You are fired!”

CHAPTER SEVEN

Cassie edged away from the office door, hoping that Ms. Rossi hadn’t realized she’d overheard. She felt deeply shocked. The young employee had been fired over a misunderstanding about a job ad?

That couldn’t be the whole story. There must have been other things she’d done wrong. At any rate, Cassie hoped so. She realized with a chill that perhaps this was what it took to build an empire and that was why so few people succeeded in doing it. Mistakes and excuses were not acceptable. That meant that she would have to be on her toes at all times, and try her hardest not to mess up.

Imagine if she did something wrong and Ms. Rossi spat those vicious words at her, telling her to pack her bags and get out. She’d sounded furious, like a completely different person. Cassie couldn’t help feeling sorry for the luckless Abigail, but reminded herself that it was not her place to judge the situation, and she knew nothing about the background between them.

Cassie was glad to see the maid arriving, and to be able to move away from the angry one-sided conversation that she could still hear from inside the office. The uniformed woman was Italian speaking but they were able to communicate via hand gestures.

They walked out to the parking lot, and the woman then showed Cassie where she should park, in a covered bay behind the house. She gave her a front door key with a remote control that operated the gate, and then helped her carry her bags upstairs.

Cassie automatically turned right, heading toward the children’s rooms, but the maid called her back.

“No!” she said, and Cassie was glad that this word was the same in Italian.

The maid pointed down the corridor, to the opposite end of the horseshoe.

Cassie changed direction, confused. She’d assumed that her room would be near the children’s so that she could attend to them if they needed her at night. At the opposite end of this enormous house, she wouldn’t be able to hear them if they cried. Ms. Rossi’s room, in the center of the horseshoe, was actually closer.

Still, she had already seen how independent the girls were for their age, and perhaps that meant they didn’t need any help at night—or if they did, that they were confident enough to make their way through the house and call her.

Her large bedroom with an en suite bathroom was located all the way at the other end of the horseshoe. Looking out the window, Cassie saw that the rooms overlooked a garden and courtyard, with an ornamental fountain in its center.

Looking across, she could see the children’s bedroom windows and in fact, in the light of the late-afternoon sun, she could make out the dark head of one of the children who was seated at a desk and busy with her homework. Since the two girls had identical ponytails and were similar in height, she couldn’t work out which one it was, because the back of the chair blocked her view of the dress, which would have clued her in. Even so, it was good to know that she could view them from her faraway room.

Cassie wanted to walk all the way around that horseshoe and get to know the children better, so she could be sure of getting off on the right foot with them.

However, they were doing their homework and were then heading out with their mother, so she would have to wait.

Instead, Cassie unpacked and made sure her room and cupboards were neat.

Ms. Rossi hadn’t asked her if she took any medications, so Cassie hadn’t had to tell her about all the anxiety meds that kept her on an even keel.

She stashed the bottles out of sight, at the back of her bedside drawer.

Cassie hadn’t expected that her first night in the house would be spent alone, making her way down to the empty kitchen and looking in the drawers until she found the menus.

The fridge was full of food, but Cassie had no idea if it was reserved for future meals, and there was nobody she could ask. All the staff, including the maid who had helped her, seemed to have left for the day. She felt self-conscious and awkward at the thought of ordering food in for herself on the family’s tab, on her very first night, but she decided it would be best to follow Ms. Rossi’s orders.

There was a phone in the kitchen, so she called one of the local restaurants and ordered a takeout lasagna and a Diet Coke. Half an hour later, it arrived. Not wanting to go into the formal dining room, Cassie did some more exploring. The downstairs area had many smaller rooms, and one of them, which she supposed was a children’s dining room, had a small table with four chairs.

She sat there and ate her food while studying her Italian phrase book. Then, exhausted after everything that had happened that day, she went to bed.

Just before she fell asleep, her phone buzzed.

It was the friendly barman from the guesthouse.

Hey, Cassie! I think I remembered where Jax was working. The town’s name is Bellagio. Fingers crossed this helps!”

Hope flooded through Cassie as she read the words. This was the town—the actual town—where her sister had stayed. Had she been working there? Cassie hoped that she’d been staying at a lodge or hostel as this would mean she could be traced. She would begin her investigation as soon as she had time, and Cassie felt confident that it would bring results.

What was the town like? The name sounded charming. Why had Jacqui chosen to travel there?

There were so many unanswered questions bubbling in her mind that Cassie took much longer than she’d expected to fall asleep.

When she finally did, she dreamed that she was in the town. It was quaint and scenic, with winding terraces and buildings in honeyed stone. Walking down the street, she asked a passerby, “Where can I find my sister?”

“She’s there.” He pointed up the hill.

As she walked, Cassie began to wonder what was up there. It seemed a long way from anywhere. What was Jacqui doing there? Why hadn’t she come down to find Cassie, since she knew her sister was in town?

Finally, breathlessly, she reached the top of the hill, but the tower had gone, and all she could see was a huge, dark lake. Its murky waters lapped at the dark, crumbling stone edges that surrounded it.

“Here I am.”

“Where?”

The voice seemed to come from far away.

“You’re too late,” Jacqui whispered, her voice husky and filled with sadness. “Dad got to me first.”

Horrified, Cassie leaned over and looked down.

There was Jacqui, lying at the bottom of the dark, cold water.

Her hair swirled around her and her limbs were white and lifeless, draped like seaweed over the sharp rocks, while her sightless eyes stared up.

“No!” Cassie screamed.

She realized this wasn’t Jacqui at all, and she wasn’t in Italy. She was back in France, staring over the stone parapet at the sprawled body far below. This was no dream, it was a memory. Dizziness overcame her and she clutched at the stone, terrified that she was going to fall, too, because she felt so weak and helpless.