“Wise words, Tony,” says Steve. You wouldn’t get this sort of quality at The Flagon.
11
“The first one was a woman called Bella Sanchez,” says Amy, sipping a gin and tonic through an elaborate straw, and shielding her eyes from the blazing South Carolina sun. “A client of Maximum Impact. I’d seen her on Real Housewives of Cheshire, then on Cheshire Divorce Lawyers, then on Celebrities Go Dating, and then back on Real Housewives of Cheshire.”
“That’s quite the arc,” says Rosie. “I like the sound of her.”
“She got called to a job in St. Lucia, an advert or something. You know, just a social media post—they get paid a fortune for this stuff.”
“Did she have millions of followers?” asks Rosie. “Someone at my publishers does my Instagram for me. Probably for the best. I’d be canceled by lunchtime.”
“No idea,” says Amy. “Enough to do an ad, clearly.”
“Good name for a book. Canceled by Lunchtime,” says Rosie. “An assassin who works only in the morning? Something in that. In the eighties I advertised Dubonnet. Do they still make Dubonnet?”
“I don’t know, I’m afraid,” says Amy. “Do you want me to get to the murder or not?”
Rosie gestures to Amy that she has the floor. “Just adding some color, darling.”
“She goes to a hotel in St. Lucia,” says Amy. “She has a meeting with someone—”
“With whom?”
“Couldn’t tell you—not my job to look into it,” says Amy. “Penthouse suite. There’s a final photo of her, lip-plumping gel held up to the light. That’s what she was promoting. Then she’s shot in the head. One bullet.”
“Like Andrew Fairbanks,” says Rosie.
“Very like him,” agrees Amy. “Especially as she is then hung upside down from the balcony, for the world to see the following morning.”
“Well,” says Rosie. “Upside down. How dramatic. And a client of Maximum Impact?”
“A Platinum client, yes,” says Amy.
“Why aren’t I Platinum?” asks Rosie.
“Platinum is the lowest,” says Amy. “It goes Platinum, Platinum Plus, Platinum XL, Platinum Gold, Platinum Diamond, and Platinum Platinum. You’re Amber, because someone actually wants to kill you.”
“What do you get for Platinum?”
“Consultancy, advice. Basic security checks as and when you might need them. But we wouldn’t have been guarding her. Platinum clients don’t get bodyguards.”
“Andrew Fairbanks was Platinum too?”
Amy nods. “And then a month after Bella Sanchez was killed, a man called Mark Gooch, a financial influencer, another Platinum client of Maximum Impact, goes to Ireland.”
“Uh oh,” says Rosie.
“He’s there to do an advert for a brand called Punk Wine. He’s at a vineyard somewhere in County Cork.”
“A vineyard in Ireland?”
“Climate change.”
“Takes a final photo?” guesses Rosie.
“Takes a final photo,” confirms Amy. “Sitting on the bough of a tree, top off, drinking from a can of wine. And his body is found about an hour later.”
“Hanging from the tree?”
“Nailed to it,” says Amy.
“Bit of variety,” says Rosie. “But I get it. Three deaths, all linked, nice start to a story. But where do you come in? Hero? Villain?”
“Andrew Fairbanks was killed, let’s say, fifty miles from here,” says Amy.
“Or so,” agrees Rosie. “And?”
“When Bella Sanchez was murdered in St. Lucia, I was in St. Lucia.”
“Ah,” says Rosie. “So perhaps you’re not the hero?”
“I was maybe an hour away,” says Amy. “I thought at the time, well, that’s weird, but nothing more than that.”
“What were you doing in St. Lucia?”
“Working with a musician, and—”
“Which musician?” asks Rosie.
