Page 68 of The Impossible Fortune (Thursday Murder Club Mysteries #5)
Davey and Joyce bring in a tray each, and people take their teas and their coffees. Ibrahim is worried that if he drinks caffeine this late he will never sleep, and has asked for a nip of whisky in his, which should counterbalance it nicely.
‘Shall we begin?’ suggests Davey.
‘Please,’ says Elizabeth, now fully in charge. ‘What did you want to see Holly about? You see it looks suspicious? A meeting we didn’t know about, the day before she was murdered.’
‘I do see,’ says Davey. ‘But are you asking the right question?’
‘Usually, yes,’ says Elizabeth.
Paul – normally quite quiet, but then most people are normally quite quiet when in the company of the Thursday Murder Club – starts to raise his hand.
‘Paul,’ says Elizabeth, ‘you have something to say?’
‘It’s, mmm, it’s more of an observation,’ says Paul.
‘Paul is very observant,’ says Joyce. ‘You found my lost oven glove, didn’t you, Paul?’
‘I found it, Mum,’ says Joanna.
‘Well, Paul was there when it was found,’ says Joyce. ‘You don’t have to turn it into CSI: Miami .’
Paul waits to see if they have finished, and it appears that for now they have, and so he continues. ‘Holly was many things, but she was never a pushover. And, Davey, I know you less well, but you seem fairly relaxed with who and what you are.’
‘Doesn’t he talk nice?’ says Davey.
Ibrahim agrees. With the sentiment, if not the grammar.
‘When Joanna found the footage of you, Davey, meeting Holly, there was an obvious question, the question Elizabeth asked. What did you, Davey, want to see Holly about?’
‘Apologies that my questions are so obvious,’ says Elizabeth. Ibrahim can see that she can’t really unleash on Paul, much as she would like to, because she knows he is under Joyce’s staunch protection.
‘Not obvious,’ says Paul. ‘Apologies, I phrased that very badly. A better word would be “necessary”. You asked the necessary question.’
Ibrahim nods. This guy is pretty good.
‘But think of what we know,’ says Paul. ‘Not much, granted, but we do know a few things. We know that Davey has known about the money for many years and done nothing about it. Hasn’t shown an interest. Equally we know that Holly and Nick had only just agreed to cash out, so was Holly perhaps the more motivated in that moment? ’
‘Very good,’ says Joyce. ‘Very good.’
‘What’s very good?’ Joanna asks her.
‘Just that Paul has a lovely deep voice,’ replies Joyce.
Ibrahim sees where Paul is headed. If he’s the man Ibrahim judges him to be, he’ll let Elizabeth ask the actual question. Let’s see.
‘So, perhaps a different take on the question might be …’ Paul motions to Elizabeth, as if he’s interested to hear what she might have to say. Textbook stuff.
‘It might be,’ says Elizabeth, ‘why did Holly ask to see you?’
‘Bingo,’ says Davey. ‘She asked to see me.’
‘Well done, Elizabeth,’ says Ibrahim. Might as well get a few brownie points of his own.
‘And what did she want?’ Elizabeth asks.
‘My approval,’ says Davey. ‘For a plan.’
‘Do go on,’ says Elizabeth.
‘Holly and Nick had been partners for many years,’ says Davey. ‘But perhaps not friends for all of that time?’
‘Agreed,’ says Paul. ‘The business worked; the friendship not so much.’
‘Holly was a nightmare,’ says Davey.
‘I wouldn’t say that,’ says Paul.
‘No one knew their codes,’ says Davey. ‘And there’s no way anyone could discover them –’
‘Au contraire,’ says Ibrahim.
‘But then Holly tells me that, as a fail-safe, they’ve each lodged their code with a solicitor. A random one, miles away, no idea where.’
‘Kettering,’ says Joanna.
‘Sounds like the sort of place,’ says Davey. ‘So Holly comes to me and tells me she’s killed Nick Silver, and, honestly, I think she thought I’d be impressed.’
‘Holly?’ says Joyce. ‘I can’t believe it.’
‘I can,’ says Paul.
‘Put a bomb under his car,’ says Davey. ‘Got it from the internet.’
‘My God, you can get anything,’ says Joyce. ‘The woman in the flat above me got a pizza oven.’
‘On his death,’ says Davey, ‘Holly would get his code, and she wanted me to broker the whole lot. The whole three hundred and fifty million. Pleased as punch, she was.’
‘Did you ask her why?’ Elizabeth asks.
‘I did,’ says Davey. ‘And she said that three hundred and fifty million is a bigger number than one hundred and seventy-five million.’
‘What did you do?’ Joanna asks.
‘I asked her if the bomb had gone off, and she said she didn’t know; we checked the news and there was nothing, so I told her to lie low for a few hours and I would investigate. I didn’t know what to do with her, I couldn’t call the police –’
‘Why couldn’t you call the police?’ Joanna asks.
‘No grassing,’ says Joyce.
‘No grassing,’ agrees Paul.
‘I sent Holly home,’ says Davey. ‘And I was straight around to Nick’s house with one of my men, and we found the bomb, pretty solid piece of kit, and we took it off. She wasn’t killing Nick Silver on my watch. Didn’t seem fair to me.’
‘You saved Nick Silver’s life?’ Paul asks.
‘I hope so,’ says Davey. ‘We’ll have to see, won’t we?’
‘Is it still here?’ Elizabeth asks. ‘I’d very much like to see it?’
‘It’s not,’ says Davey. ‘I thought I’d just keep it safe until I could help Nick. They’re pretty stable now, bombs, not like the old days.’
‘Amen,’ says Elizabeth.
‘I tried to find Nick,’ says Davey. ‘Let him know what was up, but he’d gone.’
‘Why did you smash up his office?’ says Elizabeth.
‘Not me,’ says Davey. ‘So Nick’s missing but presumably alive, and I have to deal with the fallout. I have to deal with Holly.’
‘And you dealt with Holly by killing her?’ says Ibrahim.
‘Christ, no,’ says Davey. ‘What’s the motive, except I didn’t approve of her trying to kill Nick? If I killed everyone I disapproved of, I’d be a busy boy.’
‘Me too,’ says Joyce. ‘People who don’t take their money out until they’ve packed all their shopping away. They’d be first.’
‘I just wanted to warn her,’ says Davey. ‘To make her think twice. Let her know it wasn’t acceptable.’
‘And how, I wonder,’ says Elizabeth, ‘did you warn her?’
Davey lowers his head and nods, in acceptance of some private guilt. ‘Well, this is where I have to take some responsibility. I got my guy to deliver the bomb back to her. Just to let her know she’d been sussed. A little note on it that just said Play fair .’
‘Delivered where?’ Elizabeth asks, though they all know the answer already.
‘He followed her on the Friday night,’ says Davey. ‘And you know where she went. And while she was having dinner he placed the bomb, nice and secure, on her passenger seat. Note on top. Somewhere she couldn’t miss it.’
‘Unless she left her glasses behind,’ says Elizabeth.
‘Even then,’ says Davey, ‘she’d have had to dump something pretty heavy on it to set it off.’
Ibrahim looks at Joyce. Those brownies really had been dense. Joyce gives him an apologetic look.
‘So Holly was killed with her own bomb?’ Joanna asks.
‘She was,’ says Davey. ‘That bomb was made to ensure that only one of them could get the money, and it certainly did that.’
‘And where’s Nick now?’ Paul asks.
‘My guess,’ says Davey, ‘is that he thought I was trying to kill him. So he’s put himself in cold storage.’
‘He’s in The Compound?’ asks Joyce.
‘Nope,’ says Davey. ‘Just somewhere I can’t find him. He’s cut himself off completely. No phone, no cards, no car, no computer, no CCTV. He’ll be locked away. Little, faceless hotel where you pay with cash and eat out of a vending machine. I’ve been looking, believe me. No trace of him.’
‘That’s why he came to me,’ says Elizabeth.
‘That’d be my guess too,’ says Davey. ‘Thought you might be able to find him when the coast was clear. I imagine you have techniques? Perhaps if I can’t find him, you can?’
‘Jasper will have a few ideas,’ says Elizabeth to Joyce, and Joyce claps her hands together.
‘You really can’t find Nick?’ says Joanna.
‘He is very, very good at his job,’ says Davey. ‘He’ll stay missing for as long as he thinks I’m trying to kill him.’
‘Do you think that’s why Lord Townes visited The Compound too?’ Joyce asks.
‘Lord Townes?’ says Davey. ‘I wouldn’t know. He’ll have had a reason.’
Elizabeth sits back. So Holly died at her own hand? Killed by her own greed? There was a poetic justice to it that Elizabeth could appreciate.
The whole thing seems neat enough. Nick staging the break-in to make her feel involved. Nick sending Paul his codes as some sort of protection against Davey Noakes. But is it too neat? Like the scene at Nick’s office? Is this staged as well?
‘How would you defend yourself against a suggestion that you and Nick Silver are in this together?’ asks Elizabeth.
‘You say the whole thing was Holly’s plan.
We have only your word for that. Perhaps Nick hired you, and when he finally resurfaces, he cashes out the Bitcoin, and you ask for double your fee? It really is a fortune.’
‘There would be one problem with that plan,’ says Davey. ‘And no one’s going to like it.’