Page 20 of The Impossible Fortune (Thursday Murder Club Mysteries #5)
‘That’s when I sold,’ says Joyce.
‘But, again, whenever it collapsed, the peaks kept getting higher, and in 2024 it was up at around seventy-five thousand a coin. If we sold today, that key would be worth about three hundred and fifty million pounds.’
That quietens everyone down.
‘Why haven’t you sold?’ asks Ibrahim.
‘Nick kept saying we didn’t need to,’ says Holly. ‘He’d say the business is doing well, we have nice houses and nice cars. But he changed his mind earlier this week.’
‘Earlier this week?’ says Elizabeth.
‘We had a long lunch and Nick said, “It’s time,”’ says Holly.
‘So you sold?’ asks Joyce.
‘My shepherd’s pie’s on you,’ says Ron.
‘No,’ says Holly. ‘Although we agreed to cash out, selling hundreds of millions of pounds of Bitcoin in one go isn’t simple. So we started asking around, making it known we were looking to trade.’
Elizabeth looks thoughtful. ‘Nick and Holly suddenly very popular.’
‘Holly and Nick,’ says Holly. ‘Always Holly and Nick. “Nick and Holly” sound like a tiresome couple you meet on holiday.’
‘So,’ says Elizabeth, ‘the people you asked for advice were Davey Noakes and Lord Townes?’
‘They were,’ says Holly. ‘Lord Townes was a banker and knows the traditional way of dealing with these things –’
‘And Noakes knows the untraditional way?’ says Ron.
Holly nods. ‘We thought that was a good combination.’
But Ibrahim is sensing the issue. ‘Did you tell them how much it was?’
‘We might have let it slip, yes,’ says Holly.
‘So Nick agrees to unlock a couple of hundred million, and, before you know it, someone tries to kill him,’ says Ron.
‘And then he disappears,’ says Holly.
Elizabeth has something on her mind. ‘Might I make an observation, Holly?’
‘Can I stop you?’ Holly asks.
‘You seem very keen to find Nick?’
‘Of course I’m keen to find him,’ says Holly.
Elizabeth continues, ‘But you don’t seem particularly worried that someone might try to kill you too? That would be at the forefront of my mind if I was in your position. I’d be asking for our help to protect you.’
‘You don’t know me,’ says Holly. ‘I don’t frighten easily.’
‘If Lord Townes or Davey Noakes had put a bomb under Nick’s car,’ says Elizabeth, ‘why wouldn’t they put one under yours?’
‘Perhaps they’d found out Nick’s code?’ says Holly. ‘They haven’t found out mine, so they have no reason to kill me.’
‘Is your code not written down anywhere?’ Joyce asks. ‘I always write mine down.’
‘Codes,’ says Ibrahim, trying to sound enigmatic.
‘Our solicitor has them,’ says Holly. ‘In case of our deaths.’
‘Then your solicitor would be a suspect?’ says Ibrahim.
‘He doesn’t know he has them,’ says Holly. ‘He just knows he has something to pass on if either of us were to die. He’s a nobody.’
‘So if Nick is dead, you’d get his code?
’ Ron asks. Ibrahim is glad that Ron has said this.
Holly was not at the wedding; Holly seems to be the only person who might profit from Nick’s death; and, Elizabeth is right, she doesn’t seem to be worried that whoever placed the bomb under Nick’s car might do the same to hers.
And might the reason for that be because she was the one who planted it?
‘He’s not dead,’ says Holly. ‘We’ll find him together.’
And then what, Holly Lewis? thinks Ibrahim.
‘I don’t wish to be morbid,’ says Joyce, ‘but who gets the codes if you both die? Who does this solicitor pass the codes to then?’
Holly turns on Joyce. ‘Why are you asking me that?’
Joyce has been taken by surprise. ‘I just … I’m ever so sorry, I didn’t mean to offend. I just wondered.’
‘No,’ says Holly. ‘Why are you asking me that? And not one of your friends?’
‘I just …’ says Joyce, ‘I just thought I hadn’t said anything for a while. I was trying to be useful.’
‘You were being useful, Joyce,’ says Ibrahim. ‘Holly is under a lot of stress. I’m sure she didn’t mean to snap.’
‘So who would get the codes?’ Elizabeth asks.
‘I honestly don’t know,’ says Holly, who seems to be regaining some composure. ‘No idea.’
If you were to ask Ibrahim, who likes nothing better than cracking the codes of the mind, he would say she’s lying. Quite why, though, he couldn’t tell you.
‘Well, if you really don’t know,’ says Elizabeth, ‘the two of you should start to think about writing your codes down somewhere safe and sound, so someone you trust could find them if you do die.’
‘Might be too late for Nick,’ says Ron. ‘You could just tell me your code if you like though?’
‘No one is going to die,’ says Holly. ‘And, if you’ll excuse me, I might call it a night. I’ve told you everything I can. You’ve got my number if Nick gets in touch.’
‘Of course,’ says Ibrahim. ‘You’ve been very kind indeed to come to see us.’
Holly stands and swings her bag over her shoulder. Ibrahim sees that Joyce feels guilty about the weight of the brownies. That’s what happens when you bake hungover, Joyce.
Holly gives stiff handshakes to Elizabeth and Ibrahim, and then refuses hugs from Joyce and Ron. She walks towards the exit, listing under the weight of the bag. The gang watch her go, waiting for her to be out of earshot.
‘I knew that’s what cold storage was,’ says Ibrahim.
‘Somebody is after that Bitcoin,’ says Elizabeth.
‘And is willing to kill for it,’ says Ibrahim.
‘But Holly was right,’ says Joyce.
‘Right about what, Joyce?’ Elizabeth doesn’t like her train of thought being broken.
‘Why try to kill Nick if you don’t know his code? Why plant a bomb under his car? If it was me, I’d kidnap him and then torture him.’
‘You used to be such an innocent woman, Joyce,’ says Ibrahim.
‘No, she didn’t,’ says Ron, and raises his wine glass to her.
‘If you wanted to steal the money,’ says Joyce, ‘you wouldn’t try to kill him. You’d try to get his code.’
‘Unless killing him was a way to get his code,’ says Elizabeth.
Exactly what Ibrahim had been thinking. They are all on the same page.
‘The solicitor,’ says Ron, taking his jacket from the back of his chair. ‘That’s clever. It’s always the solicitors, isn’t it? I bet it’s the same guy who did my first divorce.’
Okay, so maybe Ron isn’t on the same page.
‘I’d better head home,’ says Ron. ‘Pauline’s looking after Kendrick. I’ll leave you to catch the solicitor.’
‘Ron, not all solicitors are evil,’ says Joyce. ‘If Holly kills Nick, Holly has Nick’s code handed to her.’
‘Worth three hundred and fifty million pounds,’ says Ibrahim. ‘That’s quite the motive.’
‘Wait, Holly planted the car bomb?’ says Ron, struggling with his jacket, then realizing the sleeve is inside-out. ‘The morning of the wedding?’
‘I did wonder why she wasn’t there,’ says Joyce. ‘They’re all supposed to be friends. But you wouldn’t come to a wedding if you’d just planted a car bomb under the best man’s Volvo?’
‘Lexus, Joyce,’ says Ibrahim. ‘But precisely.’
‘And now,’ says Elizabeth, ‘having failed, Holly is asking our help in finding Nick Silver.’
‘Or delivering him to her,’ says Ibrahim.
‘Surely, if Nick’s code was secret,’ says Elizabeth, ‘it wouldn’t make sense for Davey Noakes to plant the bomb. Or for Lord Townes to plant the bomb.’
Joyce nods. ‘Holly Lewis planted the bomb.’
Ron isn’t buying it. ‘I bet it was the sol–’
They feel the explosion before they hear the noise.
A rush of wind that knocks them from their seats.
And then the noises, a huge thunderclap, followed by rolling booms. The night sky outside is lit by intense orange flames.
Elizabeth is first to her feet, and moves as fast as she can to the door and into the heat now filling the evening air.
Residents are peering out of windows, and they are all peering at the same thing.
The remains of a car, blown apart in the overspill visitors’ car park.
And Elizabeth knows just which visitor it will be.
Joyce and Ibrahim are close behind her, Ron lagging a little.
The heat becomes unbearable as she reaches the remains of what was Holly’s Volkswagen Beetle.
The pain as Elizabeth moves ever closer is becoming unbearable, but Elizabeth feels pain differently now. Unbearable is the norm.
‘Get back!’ shouts Ibrahim. ‘She’s dead!’
I know she’s dead, thinks Elizabeth. I can see she’s dead. It would have been instant – that’s something at least.
‘You can’t save her, Elizabeth,’ shouts Joyce.
I’m not trying to save her. I’m trying to solve a murder.
And then she spots it, already starting to melt into the frame of the car.
Holly’s mobile phone. Wrapping her scarf around it, she throws the scalding hot phone clear. The phone is destroyed, but, if she got there in time, the SIM card will have survived. There’s always something useful.
So they were trying to kill Holly Lewis too?
Elizabeth knows what Nick has told her and she knows what Holly has told her. Perhaps the phone will tell a different story? She needs information. About The Compound. About Davey Noakes. About Lord Townes.
Somebody is willing to kill for all that money. But who?