Page 94 of The Impossible Fortune

‘Staying with friends,’ says Jason. ‘Knows she has to keep her head down.’

‘How long has it been going on?’ Ron asks. He doesn’t want to hear the answer, but the first rule of fighting back is that you don’t run away.

‘Couldn’t tell you,’ said Jason. ‘She’d never told me. Ashamed.’

‘Not ashamed,’ says Ron. ‘Not Suzi. She just knew if she ever told you, you’d kill Danny Lloyd.’

‘Maybe,’ says Jason. ‘And she’s right, I’m going to. He had one chance to get me, and he missed. Now it’s my turn.’

‘We need to be smart about it, Jase,’ says Ron. ‘And we need him to know it’s us. We need him to know it’s for Suzi.’

There is a buzz at the door, and both men freeze. Ron puts his finger to his lips and walks over to the entry phone. He sees exactly what he’d hoped. The huge, reassuring frame of Bogdan. He also sees something he hadn’t hoped for. Elizabeth. Elizabeth will have a view on this, and it probably won’t involve killing Danny Lloyd and burying him in a shallow grave. He buzzes them up and puts the door on the latch.

‘He’s brought Elizabeth with him,’ says Ron, sitting down again.

‘Will you tell her?’ Jason asks.

‘Course,’ says Ron. ‘Course. She’ll work it out anyway.’

‘How was it seeing Connie Johnson again?’ Jason asks.

Ron shrugs. ‘The mood I’m in she can try and kill me and see where it gets her.’

‘Looked like she’d been crying to me,’ says Jason.

‘I doubt it,’ says Ron.

Bogdan pushes the door open and walks in with Elizabeth behind him. He motions to her.

‘Sorry,’ he says. ‘She wouldn’t let me leave without her. I really tried everything.’

‘He really did,’ agrees Elizabeth. ‘It was very moving.’

Ron waves this away. ‘It’s Elizabeth. Nothing you can do about it.’

‘So the boys are having a little summit,’ says Elizabeth, taking a seat. ‘No doubt something that Joyce and I would be too delicate for?’

‘It’s Suzi,’ says Ron.

‘Ah,’ says Elizabeth.

‘So you can keep being flippant if you want. Or you can sit down and listen and not judge.’

Elizabeth nods. ‘I can sit down and listen, certainly.’

‘Suzi’s husband has been beating her,’ says Ron.

‘I’m sorry, Ron,’ says Elizabeth. And she is. She doesn’t need to say anything more.

Ron waves it away, however. Sympathy is too much for him to bear just now. ‘She pulled a gun on him. He’s off on his heels somewhere, and just tried to have Jason killed.’

Elizabeth nods. ‘And you, Jason and Bogdan are the cavalry? You’re going to teach him a lesson?’

‘That’s the idea,’ says Ron.

‘Get him before he gets me,’ says Jason.

‘What do you need Bogdan for?’