Free Quest for Alexis by Nancy Buckingham Page B

come to find out, anyway?”
    “I happened to run into a chap I know in the hotel lobby. Dougal Fraser. He works for the Globe, and he shot over here yesterday when the story first broke about Alexis and Belle turning up in Majorca. Dougal actually had an interview with your uncle. He says Alexis kept complaining about being hounded by the press, saying he’s a private citizen, a naturalized Brit ish subject, and that what he does is entirely his own concern and no one else’s. And now, apparently, he’s fixed a deal with a fisherman to take them off the is land secretly. Not a soul knows where they’re heading.”
    I felt stricken, engulfed by an agonizing sense of failure. That this blow should come scarcely half an hour after I’d narrowly escaped death in a dark side street. I closed my eyes, fighting tears that threatened to sweep away the last shreds of my self-control.
    “Where ... where do you think they can have gone?” I faltered.
    Brett hunched his shoulders. “The possibilities are endless, right around the compass. Algeria, the east coast of Spain, the French Riviera, Corsica, Sardinia. Or maybe just one of the other Balearic Islands—Mi norca or Ibiza. It looks as if Alexis has achieved the exact reverse of what he hoped for. He won’t be left in peace now. As Dougal pointed out, if they had just hung around here in Majorca the story would have died a natural death in a couple of days. But now the press is on the alert again. This has given the whole thing a new lease on life.”
    “So what do we do now?” I asked miserably.
    “We pack up and go home, if we’re sensible.”
    “No, Brett, I can’t. Not without trying to find him.”
    “Then we just stay put until we get some news.”
    “You mean, just wait here?”
    “Have you any better idea?” He slung the words at me. But when I didn’t answer, he added more gently, “I don’t think it will be for long, Gail. It seems certain they weren’t equipped for a lengthy voyage. They’ll have to make some landfall in the next twenty-four hours or so, and the minute word comes through we can get after them.”
    “Plus every reporter within range, I suppose,” I said bitterly. “Why can’t Alexis see that he’s playing into the hands of the gutter press? At this rate we’ll never be able to keep it from Madeleine.”
    Brett said curtly, “Just you remember, Gail, that if it wasn’t for the newspapers you’d never have got onto Alexis as fast as this—if at all. And as for your aunt, that’s your own lookout. It was a stupid idea to try and keep her in the dark.”
    I bit my lip. I should have known better than to ex pect sympathy from Brett. And yet I had to acknowl edge that I needed him at this moment. I needed his contacts in the newspaper world if I was to get after Alexis in time to save the situation. Every day, every hour that passed, the chance of Madeleine finding out grew more likely. Rudi couldn’t keep her in the dark indefinitely. If she happened to ask for a newspaper, he could hardly refuse to give her one. And Madeleine had a radio in her room, though she almost never switched it on.
    I remembered how desperate I had been to come to Majorca without Brett. Now I was glad that he had found me out. But I would have to watch my step with him. I couldn’t afford to go on risking his anger. I didn’t want him to rush off in a fit of temper.
    In an effort to placate him, I said, “Perhaps I made a mistake deciding not to tell Madeleine, only at the time it seemed best. A shock like that ... I didn’t know how she’d react. I just felt I had to try and talk to Alexis, to try and persuade him to come home be fore it was too late. And now I’ve got this far, Brett, I can’t give up. Not yet.”
     In the darkness of the taxi, I felt his fingers touch my wrist, resting there for an instant. Considering that he and I had once been lovers, it was a trivial gesture. But the effect upon me was out of all proportion. I felt