Page 74 of The Impossible Fortune (Thursday Murder Club Mysteries #5)

‘When you say prison?’ the man asks.

‘Just regular prison,’ says Tia. ‘Metal toilets, punishment beatings, art classes.’

‘Sounds like my school,’ says the man. ‘Except we didn’t have art classes. And have you kept out of trouble since you left prison?’

‘Yes,’ says Tia.

‘She robbed a warehouse at gunpoint,’ says Elizabeth.

The man nods. ‘But other than that?’

Tia looks at Elizabeth.

‘Other than that,’ says Elizabeth, ‘she has been a model citizen.’

‘And how did she come to your attention?’ the man asks.

‘She solved something,’ says Elizabeth, ‘which I had missed.’

‘Goodness,’ says the man.

‘More to the point,’ says Elizabeth, ‘if Tia had gone to school where you went to school, I suspect she would have had a very different start in life. So why don’t we give her that start now?’

‘Eighteen is a bit young,’ says the man.

‘Not too young for a little training though,’ says Elizabeth. ‘Send her off somewhere, give her a gun?’

‘I could bring my own?’ suggests Tia.

The man is thinking. ‘It would have to be off the books. The prison sentence rules out anything official.’

‘I think that would be altogether more fun,’ says Elizabeth.

‘Can I ask a question?’ says Tia.

The man indicates that indeed she may.

‘What actually is the job?’

‘A question I still ask myself,’ says the man. ‘After forty years in it.’

‘But is it legal?’ Tia asks.

‘A lot of the time, yes,’ says the man. ‘A good eighty per cent or so.’

‘What do you say?’ Elizabeth asks the man.

‘It’s irregular,’ says the man.

‘Just like us,’ says Elizabeth. ‘And that’s why you’re at the very top.’

‘The top of what?’ Tia asks.

‘Oh, the whole shooting match,’ says the man. ‘The whole thing. Tia, if I were to send you to Belize for three months, what would you say?’

‘I’d say, where’s Belize? And when do you want me to go?’ Tia replies.