Page 23 of The Impossible Fortune (Thursday Murder Club Mysteries #5)

You’d be forgiven for thinking that all is well with the world.

The sun is shining and the birds are singing as Ron and Bogdan sit in floral garden chairs on the patio of one of the most prolific Ecstasy dealers in British criminal history.

‘And are you single?’ asks Davey Noakes as his butler brings out three bottles of beer on a tray. Ron can’t help but notice that there is also a gun on the tray.

‘Me?’ asks Ron. ‘No, I’m sorry. And I’m straight.’

‘No one’s really straight,’ says Davey. ‘Not deep down.’

‘I think I might be,’ says Ron, and gives an apologetic shrug.

‘Probably best for you,’ says Davey. ‘Saves you a lot of trouble in the long run. I’d ask you out, you’d feel you had to say yes –’

‘Or you’d kill me,’ says Ron, looking at the gun, taking a beer and nodding his thanks to the butler.

‘Or I’d kill you,’ says Davey, handing a bottle to Bogdan.

‘Cheers,’ says Bogdan.

‘I’d play with you for a couple of weeks,’ says Davey. ‘Then I’d get bored, and I’d blame you, and I’d probably get someone to run you down in a car. Not kill you but give you something to remember me by. They say dating’s changed, but some things stay the same.’

‘I’m not single either,’ says Bogdan.

‘I know that, you big prince,’ says Davey, taking his bottle and the gun from the tray. The butler retreats. ‘You go out with that police officer, don’t you? Opposites attract, eh? You told her who you’re visiting today?’

‘I said I had business with Ron,’ says Bogdan. ‘I don’t have to tell her everything, I’m my own man.’

Ron laughs at this.

‘So when the two of you turn up in a canal with bullets in your skulls,’ says Davey, ‘she won’t come knocking for Ravey Davey? Good to know.’

Not many people scare Ron, but Davey Noakes does. He is glad to have Bogdan with him. Surely he wouldn’t kill them both? Not in one go?

Davey nods to the bottles. ‘Everyone okay with beer for breakfast?’

They all raise their bottles. Yes, everyone is okay with beer for breakfast.

‘How’s your son, Ron?’ Davey asks.

‘He’s well,’ says Ron. Ron is now used to every single criminal on the South Coast being personally acquainted with Jason.

He doesn’t like to think about it too much.

Jason has signed up to do panto in Hastings this year.

Surely he wouldn’t have signed up to do panto if he was still making money with the killers and drug dealers? ‘He’s doing panto this year.’

‘He used to be a lot of fun,’ says Davey. ‘But then didn’t we all? You’ve got five minutes to catch my attention, boys. Forgive the gun, but you’ve both got a reputation in your own way.’

‘Holly Lewis,’ says Ron. ‘She came to see you.’

‘She did,’ agrees Davey. ‘She’s a handful, that one.’

‘And last night she died,’ says Bogdan. ‘In a bombing.’

‘I heard that,’ says Davey. ‘The news, anyway, not the explosion.’

‘And we just wondered,’ says Ron, ‘if there might be a connection between those two events?’

‘I don’t kill everyone ,’ says Davey. ‘Who’d have the time? She wanted a bit of advice, that’s all. Came to Uncle Davey.’

‘About the Bitcoin?’ Ron asks.

Davey sizes Ron up. Ron has been ‘sized up’ before, but this time it feels like it might be for a coffin.

‘That rather depends on how much you know,’ says Davey. ‘And how you know it.’

‘We know there’s three hundred and fifty million pounds sitting on a scrap of paper in The Compound,’ says Ron. ‘We know that Holly and Nick were finally thinking of cashing out, and that they came to see you and one other person for advice.’

‘And now Holly dies,’ says Bogdan. ‘Big boom. Not many people that good with explosives. Me, for sure – I like explosives – but maybe you too?’

‘I don’t hate explosives, sure,’ says Davey.

‘And Nick Silver has disappeared, could be dead,’ says Ron.

Davey takes a swig of his beer. ‘Who else did they go to see?’

‘No idea,’ says Ron.

‘I see,’ says Davey. ‘And what’s my angle? Why have I killed her?’

‘Three hundred and fifty million is your angle,’ says Ron.

‘Big angle,’ says Bogdan.

‘I’d definitely like three hundred and fifty mil,’ says Davey. ‘But how would I get it?’

‘The safe is encrypted,’ says Bogdan. ‘Holly had half the code; Nick had the other half.’

‘You found out Holly’s half,’ says Ron. ‘She had it written down somewhere, and you can hack into anything. So you just need Nick’s half now. Perhaps you’re in the process of getting it? Perhaps he’s locked up here somewhere with a gun at his head.’

‘Then the money’s all yours,’ says Bogdan.

Davey nods. ‘Got it all worked out, boys. You’re not worried I’ll kill you now though? Because you worked it all out?’

‘A bit worried, yeah,’ says Ron, looking at the gun.

‘If you kill Ron, I kill you,’ says Bogdan.

‘With what?’ says Davey.

‘Bare hands,’ says Bogdan.

‘Yes, please, what a way to go,’ says Davey. ‘And if I kill you?’

‘Then Elizabeth will kill you,’ says Bogdan.

‘Who’s Elizabeth?’

‘You don’t want to find out,’ says Bogdan.

‘Perhaps I’ll kill her too?’ says Davey.

‘You can’t,’ says Bogdan. ‘Only God can kill Elizabeth.’

‘And even he’d think twice,’ says Ron.

Davey looks between the two of them, weighing something up.

‘I like you both,’ says Davey. ‘You’re idiots, but I like you. Let’s say I won’t kill you for coming to my house and accusing me of murder. Usually I’d kill you for that alone.’

‘Davey,’ says Ron, ‘when did Holly and Nick come to see you?’

Davey thinks. ‘Tuesday. I’d just got back from aqua aerobics.’

‘So she tells you about the money on Tuesday, and then she dies last night. Come on. You’d be suspicious.’

‘That’s your theory,’ says Davey. ‘I get it. Anything wrong with it that you can see?’

‘Nothing,’ says Ron, but, inside, he’s losing a bit of confidence. Perhaps there is something wrong with it? Ron isn’t always the first to spot when something’s wrong with a theory. Never show doubt though. If you show doubt, the other side has already won.

‘Here’s where your theory falls down,’ says Davey. Ron prepares to take notes. Elizabeth will want a full report. ‘Someone paid Nick and Holly twenty grand in Bitcoin more than ten years ago. And you’re telling me I found out about this on Tuesday?’

‘That’s what we’re telling you,’ says Ron. Don’t back down. ‘They hadn’t told a soul about it beforehand.’

Davey nods and takes another swig of his beer.

‘What sort of person might have paid them twenty grand in Bitcoin all those years ago?’ asks Davey. ‘Would you think?’

‘Uhh,’ starts Ron, but finds he has nowhere left to go. He looks at Bogdan, who shrugs.

‘Sounds like the sort of thing a cyber-security expert might do,’ says Davey. ‘Perhaps with a criminal past, a few secrets that needed hiding. That sort of person? Don’t you think?’

‘So –’

‘So that money came from me,’ says Davey.

‘All those years ago. I knew about it then, I’ve known about it for a decade.

Every time I’d see Holly or Nick we’d talk about it.

They’d do the sums, and I’d tell them to hold on to it.

So I didn’t find out about it on Tuesday, my brave lads.

I’ve known about it for more than ten years.

If I wanted to steal my Bitcoin back, I’ve had ten years to do it. No rush job.’

‘Ah,’ says Ron. Elizabeth’s not going to like this.

‘I paid them that money; they didn’t have to take the risk of accepting it, but they did.

I admired it then, and I admire it now. Holly and Nick knew how to take a risk.

If I wanted to steal it, I’d have found a way a long time ago.

But I didn’t want to steal it. Not this week, not any week.

Also, if I killed someone, no one would ever find a trace.

Because that’s how I kill people. I don’t blow up their cars, and if you knew the first thing about me you’d know that. ’

‘Apologies,’ says Ron.

Davey waves this away. ‘We’re all square if you just let me know who else Holly and Nick went to see about the Bitcoin.’

‘I told you already,’ says Ron, ‘I don’t know.’

‘I know,’ says Davey, picking up his gun and pointing it at Ron. ‘But you were lying, and friends don’t lie to friends.’

‘Honestly, I d–’

Davey fires his gun into the air, then points it back at Ron. ‘Please, I’ve got Zumba at nine, I don’t need this this morning.’

Davey’s butler emerges from the house.

‘Sir?’

‘Air shot,’ says Davey.

‘I shall retrieve the casing,’ says the butler and disappears into the nearby undergrowth.

‘Just tell me,’ says Davey. ‘I won’t kill anyone.’

‘A lord,’ says Ron. ‘A banker, another client.’

‘Lord Townes?’ asks Davey.

‘Maybe, yeah,’ says Ron.

‘Okay,’ says Davey. ‘Handsome little beggar. Have you been to see him?’

‘Not yet,’ says Ron. ‘But we will.’

That’s probably one for Joyce. She’ll enjoy that.

‘Oh, I’d recommend it,’ says Davey. ‘Because someone must have killed her, and it’s unfair to only suspect me, don’t you think? Why not Lord Townes? Or don’t lords kill people?’

‘Everyone kills people,’ says Bogdan.

‘Precisely.’ Davey considers Bogdan for a moment. ‘Are you ever looking for work, Bogdan?’

‘No,’ says Bogdan.

‘Shame,’ says Davey, as his butler appears out of the undergrowth with a bullet casing in his hand. ‘I’ll let you get on your way, lads. What a mystery you have to solve.’

‘If it was you,’ says Ron, ‘we’ll find proof.’

‘Oh, Ron, you lovely big bear,’ says Davey. ‘Look at my house. I get away with everything. Look under as many stones as you wish. You’ll never find a thing.’

‘There’re always more stones,’ says Ron.

Davey looks at his watch. ‘That’s me off to Zumba. If you don’t get there early they put you at the back.’

Ron watches Davey walk towards the house. He pauses and turns.

‘Talking of looking under stones,’ says Davey, ‘are you absolutely sure Nick Silver is dead?’

He raises a single eyebrow, and heads into his beautiful house.