4 Beyond Belief by Helen Smith

Author:Helen Smith
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

HOW TO DISAPPEAR

“There!” she shrieked. “Up there!”

Others joined in, pointing, shouting. Cameras and phones flashed ineffectually. People clapped their hands, whooped and wolf whistled. They wanted to show their appreciation—and they wanted the people around them to know they had seen what they were meant to see. It wasn’t too long until everyone faced in the same direction, looking up.

There, in the picture window of the Poisson d’Avril restaurant, framed against the warm yellow of the light in the room, like a Victorian silhouette portrait of a traditional stage magician: Edmund Zenon. His black top hat and his cape ensured he was easily recognizable to those too far away to make out his features. He turned to his right and bowed. He turned to his left and bowed. He turned full on to the crowd and bowed. That wasn’t enough for them. They were still shrieking and waving. So he waved his hand and bowed again. Then he stepped back from the window out of sight, show over.

So Edmund Zenon hadn’t drowned. Of course he hadn’t. How could she have believed he would? Emily turned to Chris, who was standing straight and breathing normally, but still shivering. He took the rucksack from her and put it by his feet. Then he stripped off the diving suit and stood in the long johns he was wearing underneath, pulled warm clothes out of the bag—his clothes—and put them on.

Chris looked over at the mantangle of the Colonel, Tim and Joseph Seppardi, now emerging dripping wet from the sea, like some monstrous three-headed mutation of Colin Firth’s Mr. Darcy emerging from the pond at Pemberley. “I’m going back to the hotel. I’ll walk back with these guys.”

“Was the Colonel part of the trick?”

“No. He was trying to ruin it. The ultimate heckle! You try to plan for every possibility so you’ll know how to deal with it: bad weather, drunk people, lack of interest. But a renegade gate-crashing preacher wasn’t on my list. Never mind.”

“What about Tim?”

Chris grinned. “No, I asked him to bring my bag down, that’s all. People don’t mind helping, if you ask them. It went well, you think? Good crowd.”

“Yes. Very appreciative. Look, Chris, I better get back to the restaurant.”

“Got your report to write?” From the expression on his face, it was obvious he wanted Emily to say that she didn’t care about the report or Edmund, she cared about him.

She said, “My dinner’ll be getting cold.”

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