Chapter 10
Jade was like a bad penny, she'd turn up when you least wanted her. On the other side of the world the Palace's Master of the Household was doing his best not to show his displeasure at her arrival in his study and insistence upon an interview.
He saw her, having only just received the news of her release from custody. He felt a little faint. Jade didn't, she felt elated and wanted what she saw as hers: her job back and the extended trip with Crystal. She might have been less enthusiastic if she'd known about the orphanage in Botswana, but she wasn't as yet privy to that information.
The sad saga of Jade's incarceration and pending trial had come to an abrupt end as her solicitor, so thoughtfully put in place by the Palace's own firm of lawyers, knew his job and took on the task of defending Jade, hoping his efforts would please the Palace. On that score he was to be bitterly disappointed.
Rising to the challenge he heard what Jade had to say, which had a tinge of truth within it, and went about the task of securing her release by having another guilty party arrested.
It seems Jade was, on the night in question (as the Police say ad nauseum), for once an innocent party. She was not carrying drugs; in fact she had exhausted her supply. A member of the group drinking with her was her supplier and was carrying two small packets to sell to Jade but only when an opportunity arose.
Before he could do so he'd recognised Jeff for the special branch officer he was. Being a careful criminal and not wanting to be caught with the stuff on him he'd put it in Jade's jacket. It had been easy, she was so far gone he could have planted anything on her. His intention was to get the money for the drugs later.
As a result of Jade's information and her solicitor's efforts he was arrested, his car and house searched, more drugs seized, Jade released and the charge dropped. Jade did have a problem though; she was not popular at her local which she felt might require a change of residence. For that she needed money and so she wanted her Palace job back.
However, the Master had not run the family firm for twenty years for nothing. He showed Jade her letter of resignation, which he had ensured an independent third party, her solicitor, had witnessed and said her job had already gone to someone else.
'But it's mine,' she screeched. The Master was calm,
'Regrettably not. Good day Miss.'
'I want to see Her Majesty!'
'That will not be possible, she is away on a tour. You can catch the highlights on the evening news.' The Master was a little flippant but he had been provoked.
'I want to see Crystal.'
'Her Royal Highness is not available. She is away.'
Jade mulled on this, 'So she'd left on her gap year. New Zealand.' Jade felt like a change and it might prevent trouble for her if she just got the fare and went.
She left the Master's study without another word. He was surprised but relieved.
'A most unpleasant person,' he said to himself and forgot her.
The second message caused Jeff a great deal of concern. His background check on Richard, Crystal's new boyfriend, had turned over a rock Jeff was sure Richard had buried very deep before he started his relationship with Crystal. But it's very hard to hide anything from MI5, unless perhaps you're Osama Bin Laden. The information was accurate, Jeff was sure of that but what the hell was going on? He turned it over in his mind as they all tried to sleep off their jet lag before the next day's round of activities. Crystal was to sample all the adventure tourism Queenstown had to occur. She'd need all her strength for that.
Archie and Terri thought it was very comfortable in Crystal's holiday accommodation. Set high above the lake it looked to the Remarkables and back to the head of Lake Wakitipu where Queenstown lay, oozing a frantic youthful energy. The large modern rammed earth Santa Fe style house belonged to the British ambassador to somewhere who liked to ski in Queenstown in the southern winter.
Archie and Terri were unpacked by a girl who worked in the house and left in the bathroom as usual but placed on top of a pile of spare towels and folded bathrobes.
Archie was thrilled with their first overseas journey. Everything about it had been new and exciting, except for the air journey which had been very long. At least they weren't in the hold. Somehow they'd ended up in Crystal's extensive hand luggage and enjoyed the journey in an overhead locker.
'If only we'd been able to see a movie,' Terri said. 'I hear they're wonderful.' Archie could only agree.
Most of the rooms of the ambassador's house were built to enjoy the view of Lake Wakitipu, including the bathroom where a deep oval bath stood in front of wide uninterrupted windows laying bare the view and user equally. It took Crystal a short time to locate the remote control for the blinds which lowered slowly from the ceiling, shielding her from prying eyes as she used the loo. When she went out she left them closed, cutting off Archie and Terri's enjoyment of the activity on the lake, Terri said,
'Well that's done it, nothing to do now but hang about.'
Archie whispered in her ear, 'I can think of something else but ...'
One of the towels opened its wide white eyes and said,
'Who are you then?'
Archie explained. The towel huffed itself up, obviously upset,
'Another lot of blowins. We have more guests in this house than hot dinners. How long are you going to be here then?'
'We don't know,' Terri said.
'Well...,' said the towel, 'That's helpful,' and resumed a silent attitude for the rest of the day.
The prying eyes were up to their usual tricks. With binoculars Jeff had spotted cameras across the lake with huge telephoto lenses aimed at the house and a helicopter had begun to circle overhead soon after their arrival.
'The tabloids are in town,' he said to himself, 'and working hard.'
But voracious tabloid journalists were, for the moment, not Jeff's primary concern. Crystal was booked to do a number of things on her first full day and he was to accompany her as she tried a bungy jump and went jetboating just outside town. Both were standard New Zealand rites of passage for young travellers, along with fly by wire, base jumping, skiing and snowboarding.
Of the day's events Jeff was looking forward to one and dreading the other: he could not cope in any way, shape or form with heights. As a child ferris wheels had terrified him. Sleeping in the top bunk was unthinkable and he considered the London Eye a completely unnecessary exposure to possible death.
Of course he was a rational man and had applied his mind to the problem, but it was still a problem: put him on a high ledge and he was liable to faint. Consequently, standard theme park roller coasters were not on the menu as far as he was concerned. On the other hand, high powered speedboats in a narrow canyon in shallow water?
'Bring it on,' he thought but he asked himself,
'Honestly, why would anyone jump head first off a very high bridge into a rushing river with their feet tied together, hanging from an elastic band?'
According to the protocol laid down for the trip if Crystal was to bungy jump she jumped tandem with one of her protection officers. Unfortunately the other three members of the detail were even less enthusiastic about the jumping off bridges thing than Jeff so earlier that morning they'd drawn straws. Jeff lost. He'd do it and hope he didn't pass out. But the first adventure of the day was jet boating. He'd put himself down for that.
They arrived at the gorge with only a small press pack on their tail but more were already set up with cameras on the riverbank. They checked in and were fitted with lifejackets and helmets. In the boat they sat close together, four abreast. Crystal insisted on sitting on the outside at the left with her day's companion, a New Zealand girl she'd known at school. The girls were excited, chatting as the driver said,
'All set?' and without waiting for an answer from his passengers he gunned the engines; the boat picked up speed as he steered it out into the river. The walls of the canyon were narrow and close as they raced by: red stone with ferns and small
trees dripping from their wet sides. The bottom of the river glistened with rocks that surfaced as the boat flew between them. They skidded over rapids and more than once the boat veered sharply without warning, throwing them against the boat's sides and each other as it seemed to pirouette on the spot and then roar off.
Further up the river, the driver started to take the boat close to the canyon walls, skidding it in and then powering off in tight turns and swirls. Crystal was loving it, screaming with the rest until the bottom of the boat caught on something, they heard a scrape and felt the weight of the boat shift to the left. The driver fought with the wheel but it didn't respond. The boat slid, the motors screaming, into a clump of rocks at the base of the canyon wall.
Everyone was thrown to the left as it hit and then bounced away, back into the river's flow. Jeff watched helplessly from his seat in the back row as Crystal was crushed against the side of the boat by the other passengers in her row. She was thrown to the left and disappeared under first her friend and then the other passengers.
As soon as the boat had stopped he climbed over to her, pushing the others off as he went. She was breathing but unconscious. Jeff was glad she'd fainted: the pain must have been unbearable. He held her still body until they got back to the wharf.
Later, as he sat in the ambulance and it travelled slowly to the hospital, he heard the ambulance officer driving radio in,
'Jetboat accident, broken ribs, extensive bruising, possible spinal injuries.'
Jeff called the Palace from the ambulance. The machine kicked in and by the time Crystal was admitted to the hospital's emergency department arrangements were being made: her gap year was over even as it began.
The house erupted as people swarmed through the rooms packing Crystal's possessions. Everything was swooped up and thrown into her luggage.
A girl Archie and Terri hadn't seen before rushed into the bathroom. She seemed to realise she'd been running and pulled herself up, standing still for a second. Then she took a deep breath and began to pack Crystal's toiletries.
She worked slowly and methodically, taking her time and working around the room until one of the security detail shouted through the door,
'Hurry up, girlie, the flight leaves in thirty minutes.'
The girl became frantic and grabbed at everything, tossing bottles, brushes and tubes into bags and, as she ran out of room, a plastic bag she dragged out of a cupboard. Archie and Terri watched, waiting to be collected but it didn't happen. The girl gave the room one last look and went to walk out, her hands full of bags. They waved their arms and called but of course, she couldn't hear them. The bathroom door closed. Archie and Terri were left, lying on the pile of towels.
'What happened?' Archie asked.
'I don't know,' Terri said, 'But whatever it is, they're leaving and we've been left behind. Oh Archie...' Her eyes filled with tears.