Page 172 of Wife After Wife

No little blue pill was necessary.

CHAPTER 52

Harry

September 2014

The results were in—Scotland had voted by a whisker to remain part of the UK.

“Thank Christ for that,” said Harry, switching off the TV in his office.

“Hypocrite,” said Terri, from the couch.

“How so, Baskin?”

“You moan about Europe, but when our northern neighbor kicks against being ruled by a distant bureaucracy, you’re all ‘better together.’”

“Entirely different. Brussels interferes too much in British business. We’d be better off without them.”

“Bollocks.”

“You wait, Terri. If the Tories get in again next year, there’ll be a referendum. I’d bet my yacht the British public vote to leave.”

Terri stood up and held out her hand. “Shake on it?”

Harry hesitated. “It was just a figure of speech.”

“No, come on. Bet me your yacht the British vote to leave Europe.”

“How about a hundred quid?”

“Yacht.”

“Small car?”

“Where’s those famous balls, Harry?”

Harry’s superyacht,Janette, was his pride and joy. And he wasn’t a gambling man. But he was convinced this was coming. Britain had always been fiercely independent. Look at the history. Henry VIII had shaken off Rome—no remote pope was going to tell him whom he could and couldn’t marry. Then there’d been Winston, rallying plucky little Britain to resist the Nazis, picking themselves up day after grim day as the bombs rained down, making a cup of tea and getting on with it.

“Right. You’re on.” He shook her hand.

“Fuck! Better learn my port from my starboard, then.”

“What was it you actually came to see me about?”

“Ah yes. I wanted to run something past you. I know I don’t usually, but this one’s a bit different because of Rose’s involvement. I’m doing an in-depth feature on Andre Sokolov. You know his team just won the Premiership?”

Harry tried not to react, took his time sipping his coffee and placing it carefully back on the desk. “When you say in-depth...”

“Well, obviously the man’s a crook.”

“He’s no longer involved with our TV offerings. His capital was too suspect. We bought out his investments.”

“So we don’t need to worry about upsetting him. I lure him in with the football, then go for the jugular.”

Harry wondered how to sort this one. No way did he want Terri anywhere near Andre. Her ability to extract confessions was on a par with the Spanish Inquisition’s.

“You know I’m hands-off, but I’m going to say this time, bin it. Youdoneed to worry about upsetting Andre. He’s dangerous in the way only Russians are dangerous. If he thinks he’s coming for a chat about his beloved football and you start asking where his billions came from, you could find yourself in very hot water.”