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“I’d rather not answer that question by shouting through a door,” replied Ruby through the door. Although not, to her credit, shouting.

“Well,”—Liza did her best to sound indignant—”you should have thought of that before you broke into my room.”

“Just come inside,” purred Ruby. Liza didn’t want to think of it as a purr, but a purr was the only way to describe it. “I won’t bite.”

There was a pause.

“Well?”

“Sorry.” It wouldn’t be quite true to say Liza snapped, but she certainly splintered a bit. “I was waiting for you to say, ‘Unless you want me to,’ or something.”

“Oh, credit me with some originality.”

“Sorry.”

“Of course … I am naked.”

Liza thunked her head back against the wall. “What?”

“I’m joking. Probably. You’ll have to come in and check.”

Frustrated but relatively convinced she wasn’t about to be either murdered or seduced, and still very keen to know what the actual fuck Ruby was up to in her bedroom, Liza went inside. For a moment she thought the room was empty and that Ruby had vanished, but she remembered the old standing-behind-the-door trick just in time to have it pushed shut and locked behind her.

Well, at least neither of them were naked.

“Sit down,” Ruby told her, her voice much more urgent and much less playful than it had been thirty seconds ago. “I’ve got a lot to say.”

“If it doesn’t start with, ‘Sorry I broke into your room,’ follow up with, ‘Here’s how I broke into your room,’ and end with, ‘By the way, this is why you should believe I didn’t murder two people,’ then I don’t want to hear it.”

To Liza’s irritation but complete lack of surprise, Ruby sauntered over to the bed and lay down on it. It didn’t look like she’d arranged herself for comfort. “I’m sorry I broke into your room,” she said. “I was able to break into your room because I stole one of the master keys. And by the way, you should believe I didn’t murder two people because I’m about to give you a large amount of financial information that, should we get out of this alive, you will be able to use to take down one of England’s most notorious and most anonymous criminals.”

Staying well clear of the bed, Liza opted for the chair. “And how exactly will I do that?”

“Oh, just hand it over to the police. Only, not until I’m clear. Once that information’s out I’ve lost all my leverage, so I’m trusting you with a lot.”

Technically, she hadn’t trusted Liza with anything yet. “I’m sure you’re trying to build a rapport here,” she said, “but for the record, I still don’t trust you.”

“No?”

“You could still be Mr B for all I know.”

And Ruby laughed at that too. Too quickly, perhaps? As if she’d expected it? “I might, I suppose. But then what’s all this about?”

She could have mentioned the vicar—after all, Ruby clearly already knew about the vicar—but it seemed pointless to give up information she could just as easily keep to herself. “I don’t know. You tell me.”

Ruby gave her a long, cold look. “Were you hoping I’d crack? That I’d say, ‘Oh, all right, I admit it,’ and tell you my master plan? I’m afraid my only plan is to stay alive, and I’ve got very good at it over the years.”

Sighing, Liza settled herself into her chair. “Just give me the information and get out. My wife is coming back soon and I’d rather she didn’t find you in our bed.”

“It might be too late. She might smell my perfume.”

“Just. Give. Me. The. Information.”

With a sigh of her own, Ruby rose like Venus from the waves, fished a tiny USB flash drive from about her person, and pressed it into Liza’s hand. “You,” she said, “are perilously close to being a bore. Keep this hidden. I’m hoping that until he has it, Mr B won’t be able to kill me and so it’s important that he not know where it is. Also, if he does, he might kill you.”

“Then why should I keep it?”

Ruby smiled. “You probably shouldn’t. But somehow, I think you will.” She bent down and kissed Liza on the cheek. “I’ll see myself out.”