Page 118 of The Impossible Fortune

‘I did,’ says Davey. ‘And she said that three hundred and fifty million is a bigger number than one hundred and seventy-five million.’

‘What did you do?’ Joanna asks.

‘I asked her if the bomb had gone off, and she said she didn’t know; we checked the news and there was nothing, so I told her to lie low for a few hours and I would investigate. I didn’t know what to do with her, I couldn’t call the police –’

‘Why couldn’t you call the police?’ Joanna asks.

‘No grassing,’ says Joyce.

‘No grassing,’ agrees Paul.

‘I sent Holly home,’ says Davey. ‘And I was straight around to Nick’s house with one of my men, and we found the bomb, pretty solid piece of kit, and we took it off. She wasn’t killing Nick Silver on my watch. Didn’t seem fair to me.’

‘You saved Nick Silver’s life?’ Paul asks.

‘I hope so,’ says Davey. ‘We’ll have to see, won’t we?’

‘Is it still here?’ Elizabeth asks. ‘I’d very much like to see it?’

‘It’s not,’ says Davey. ‘I thought I’d just keep it safe until I could help Nick. They’re pretty stable now, bombs, not like the old days.’

‘Amen,’ says Elizabeth.

‘I tried to find Nick,’ says Davey. ‘Let him know what was up, but he’d gone.’

‘Why did you smash up his office?’ says Elizabeth.

‘Not me,’ says Davey. ‘So Nick’s missing but presumably alive, and I have to deal with the fallout. I have to deal with Holly.’

‘And you dealt with Holly by killing her?’ says Ibrahim.

‘Christ, no,’ says Davey. ‘What’s the motive, except I didn’t approve of her trying to kill Nick? If I killed everyone I disapproved of, I’d be a busy boy.’

‘Me too,’ says Joyce. ‘People who don’t take their money out until they’ve packed all their shopping away. They’d be first.’

‘I just wanted to warn her,’ says Davey. ‘To make her think twice. Let her know it wasn’t acceptable.’

‘And how, I wonder,’ says Elizabeth, ‘did you warn her?’

Davey lowers his head and nods, in acceptance of some private guilt. ‘Well, this is where I have to take some responsibility. I got my guy to deliver the bomb back to her. Just to let her know she’d been sussed. A little note on it that just saidPlay fair.’

‘Delivered where?’ Elizabeth asks, though they all know the answer already.

‘He followed her on the Friday night,’ says Davey. ‘And you know where she went. And while she was having dinner he placed the bomb, nice and secure, on her passenger seat. Note on top. Somewhere she couldn’t miss it.’

‘Unless she left her glasses behind,’ says Elizabeth.

‘Even then,’ says Davey, ‘she’d have had to dump something pretty heavy on it to set it off.’

Ibrahim looks at Joyce. Those brownies really had been dense. Joyce gives him an apologetic look.

‘So Holly was killed with her own bomb?’ Joanna asks.

‘She was,’ says Davey. ‘That bomb was made to ensure that only one of them could get the money, and it certainly did that.’

‘And where’s Nick now?’ Paul asks.

‘My guess,’ says Davey, ‘is that he thought I was trying to kill him. So he’s put himself in cold storage.’