Page 56 of The Impossible Fortune (Thursday Murder Club Mysteries #5)
Joyce had got bored after breakfast, and decided to pop round to see Ibrahim. She’s very glad she did. There’s all sorts going on.
Kendrick is there. He has just been explaining how bombs work. He’d looked it up after Holly’s death, and is now something of an expert. He is also, and this is a first, wearing a dab of Ibrahim’s cologne.
Sitting opposite – and, Joyce suspects, the reason for the cologne – is a very charming young lady called Tia.
Ibrahim is being fairly coy about what she is doing there, only that it is a favour.
Perhaps the daughter of a client at the end of her tether.
Either way Tia was full of questions about making bombs.
In fact, most of her questions were about defusing bombs, which Joyce thought was very much to her credit.
Some people spend their life planting bombs, and therefore everyone else has to spend their life defusing them.
Elizabeth, she planted bombs. And Ron. And Joanna.
Joyce defuses them. Cutting red wires and blue wires left, right and centre.
‘Joyce, you’re talking to yourself,’ says Kendrick.
‘Best way to get any sense,’ says Joyce. ‘Has Ibrahim got you searching for his code yet?’
‘What code?’ asks Kendrick, suddenly excited.
‘A bit too complicated for you, this one,’ says Ibrahim.
‘I like codes,’ says Tia. ‘Well, I like maths.’
Who on earth is this girl, Joyce wonders. ‘There’s a lot of money in a safe, and no one knows the code.’
‘Someone must know the code?’ says Tia.
‘Two people know half of it each,’ says Joyce. ‘But one of them is dead.’
‘And the other has disappeared,’ says Ibrahim.
‘The dead one is called Holly,’ says Kendrick.
‘Precisely,’ says Ibrahim. ‘I did tell your grandfather I wouldn’t speak to you about this.’
‘It’s okay,’ says Kendrick. ‘It was Joyce’s fault, and Grandad won’t be angry with Joyce.’
‘Who’s Holly?’ asks Tia.
‘The co-owner of a very well-protected security compound,’ says Ibrahim.
‘Her car blew up,’ says Kendrick. ‘That’s why I was reading about bombs. If you’re scared of something you should find out all about it.’
‘How much money is there?’ Tia asks.
‘A lot,’ says Ibrahim. ‘Certainly a lot more than the half a million pounds you were expecting from your robbery. But don’t get ideas. No one can touch it until they have the codes.’
For some reason Ibrahim seems to be saying this accusingly.
‘Is there like a zillion pounds?’ says Kendrick.
‘Perhaps not quite that much,’ says Ibrahim. ‘Somewhere in the middle.’
‘And if you crack the code, you can steal the money?’ Kendrick asks.
‘Not exactly,’ says Ibrahim. ‘But it might help us catch whoever killed Holly.’
‘Or whoever killed Holly might steal it first,’ says Joyce.
The front door of Ibrahim’s apartment opens and Elizabeth rushes in.
‘But that door was locked,’ says Kendrick.
Elizabeth shrugs. ‘Hello, Kendrick, and you must be Tia. Ibrahim, I have Holly’s code.’
‘Codes!’ says Kendrick, excited.
‘I do too, I think,’ says Ibrahim. ‘The year of her birth, that was the biggest clue. Seventy-six, or, if you flip it around, sixty-seven.’
Kendrick nods.
‘Holly Lewis wasn’t ringing Jill Usher or Jamie Usher,’ says Elizabeth. ‘She was writing down her code.’
‘Nice one,’ says Tia.
‘07941,’ says Elizabeth. ‘That’s the same as Holly’s own number.
Then 416617. 416617. That’s her code. It happened to connect to Jill and Jamie Usher, but the person the number belonged to was random and meaningless, which was why we couldn’t find any connection.
The number itself was the thing. Holly did exactly what I told her: she wrote it down for someone to find. ’
‘That’s very clever,’ says Joyce.
‘I am very clever,’ says Elizabeth. ‘Don’t you remember?’
‘But you still need the other code?’ says Tia.
‘And perhaps you are wrong?’ says Ibrahim.
‘She had no reason to ring either Jill or Jamie,’ says Elizabeth. ‘She wasn’t ringing a person; she was storing a number.’
Ibrahim nods. ‘And I see it does have a seven in it. And two sixes.’