Page 7 of The Impossible Fortune

‘Well, you know Mum,’ says Joanna.

‘I do,’ says Ibrahim. ‘Joyce’s only motivation in life is your happiness. That’s a lot of pressure. Heaven knows what she might advise, terrified of saying the wrong thing, giving the wrong advice. So you don’t go to your mother. And, of course, you can’t go to your father.’

‘No,’ agrees Joanna.

‘Because he’s dead,’ adds Ibrahim. ‘He died.’

Joanna gives a genuine laugh. ‘I can’t believe you do this for a living.’

‘But your father would have given you the best advice,’ says Ibrahim. ‘Your father would have seen the truth?’

Joanna nods, her head on Ibrahim’s shoulder.

‘And I’m the next best thing,’ says Ibrahim. ‘Older, universally recognized as wise – ask anyone, they’ll tell you the same.’

Joanna starts laughing again. People often laugh at the most unlikely times, Ibrahim has noticed over the years.

‘So you have the question. Goodness, is it all too soon, is Paul the man for me? Do I ask my mother, who will panic, or do I ask my father, who will look into my eyes and see the truth? I ask my father, because I already know the truth, and I just need someone to say it out loud for me. Of course it is not too soon. You found love, and you knew it as surely as finding a diamond. Or finding a KitKatwhere one of the fingers is made entirely of chocolate, which actually happened to me once –’

‘Focus, Ibrahim,’ says Joanna.

‘When we have a dilemma’ – his KitKat story is true, by the way, but is maybe for another time – ‘we ask the person who will give us the answer we already know. And that’s why you asked me. Paul is wonderful, you are wonderful, today is wonderful.’

Their dance is coming to an end, as all dances must.

‘Who did you fall in love with?’ Joanna asks.

‘A boy called Marius,’ says Ibrahim. ‘He is dead too, like your dad.’

Joanna holds him tighter. ‘So that’s why you seem lonely. You’re waiting to see him again.’

‘I see him right now,’ says Ibrahim, and ‘Like a Prayer’ begins to fade out. ‘He sat with me at the wedding. I should go and see if Chris is badly injured.’

Joanna nods towards the circle of onlookers. ‘I think you’re going to be busy.’

Ibrahim looks too. A lot of women seem to be heading his way.

Joanna kisses Ibrahim on the cheek. ‘Thank you.’

Her place is immediately taken by Patrice. She extends her hands towards Ibrahim’s.

‘You really mustn’t feel obliged,’ says Ibrahim.

‘Obliged?’ says Patrice. ‘I had to elbow a bridesmaid out of the way.’

5

Elizabeth stares at the photographs on her phone. A silver car, outside a very nice house. And something that shouldn’t be there. Then some close-ups. Some very convincing close-ups.

‘You believe me?’ Nick asks.

‘I believe you,’ says Elizabeth. Attached to the bottom of the car is a black box – the close-ups of which reveal what appears to be, in Elizabeth’s opinion, an alarmingly professional car bomb. ‘Might I ask how you even noticed it?’

‘Security,’ says Nick. ‘It’s my job. I was checking for trackers.’

‘So where is the bomb now?’ Elizabeth asks.

‘Now?’ says Nick. ‘I left it just where it was. I couldn’t stick it in the recycling.’