“The heart wants what it wants, Amy,” says Rosie. “I’m often powerless.”
Has Amy done the right thing, involving Steve? It’s a good question. She goes through her six-point checklist. Jeff had drummed it into her during her training.
Point One: Assess the situation. The situation is that it seems that François Loubet is trying to murder her. That’s Jeff’s understanding of the situation. And she is almost certainly being implicated in three murders she hasn’t committed with no idea why.
Point Two: Assess your strengths. Her strengths are ten years in the field, a bag containing a hundred grand in cash, safe harbor with an eighty-year-old woman named Barbara, and a window of two or three days in which to investigate the murders. Also, implicate her in these killings all you like, but there’s no way anyone could ever tie a single one to her. She might have been nearby, but there is no direct evidence anywhere.
Three: Assess your weaknesses. Her weaknesses are a complete lack of experience in murder investigation; Loubet wanting her dead; and Jeff Nolan possibly having been murdered. Add to these an indeterminately aged woman in a rhinestone jumpsuit who might be shot by a Russian billionaire at any moment. Or who might try to seduce her father-in-law.
Four: Can you build on your strengths? Yes. Calling Steve was doing precisely that: he’s a man she can trust, and a man who can investigate. Albeit, a man who phoned her from an airport runway in Hampshire to ask how much it might cost to use his mobile phone in America and, when she had no immediate answer, switched his phone off and hasn’t been contactable since.
Five: Can you control your weaknesses? No such luck. Rosie is smoking a cigarette with mischief in her eyes.
And Point Six: Act decisively, which she is doing. Amy is not a dweller on things. She tends to concentrate on what is right in front of her at any given time. Someone is killing clients, and perhaps that same someone is framing her for it. Again, if she can’t kick it or hit it, it’s not particularly in Amy’s area of specialty. But right now Amy’s best protection is to investigate, and to try to solve, the murders of Andrew Fairbanks, Bella Sanchez, and Mark Gooch.
She needs to sit down with Steve and talk it all through. Well, she’ll talk it through; he’ll nod and listen; and then he’ll suggest what they might do. Perhaps she should have cleared all this with Adam? Before inviting his dad to join a slightly perilous murder investigation 4,000 miles from home? She texts him with voice activation.
Ads, might ask your dad for a bit of advice. Work stuff. Okay by you?
That should cover it. The key with Adam is to make him feel part of whatever’s going on. He’s just flown from Macau to Singapore, to broker a lucrative deal between two companies that don’t seem to own anything or make anything, but that are, nevertheless, worth billions each. Adam tries to explain sometimes, but, really, so long as he’s enjoying himself, Amy is happy. The disembodied voice of Siri reads his reply.
That’ll be nice for him, Ames, he likes to feel involved. Love you to the moon and back xxx
Amy smiles. She loves Adam to the moon and back too, and decides she should tell him.
Same.
She is a romantic fool sometimes.
Another ping. Steve has finally turned his phone back on. Siri gets to work again.
Have landed. No crisps on flight, but we made the most of what we had. Might be a while getting through customs.
Amy knows customs won’t be a problem. Checks are cursory at the Emory Executive Airfield. Too many clients with too much to hide. Steve will be waved through. Unless he attempts to joke with the border official, which she wouldn’t put past him. But, all things being well, he should be with them soon. She voice-messages back.
Get the car to take you to the Eternal Glade Wellness Retreat Resort near Greenville. Ask for Barbara Elliot.
Another message from Steve.
Do you know where the toilet is at the airport? I didn’t go on the plane because it was so small and I was worried Brad might hear.
Amy shakes her head at this message, and then glances over at Rosie, who is somehow simultaneously singing, smoking a cigarette, and flipping the bird at a truck driver as they speed past him.
Amy has four murders to solve, with just Rosie D’Antonio and her father-in-law, Steve, to help her.
She gives a little smile, finding that she actually rather likes those odds.
Her old friend adrenaline has returned.
30
Rob Kenna, murder-broker, knows exactly who to call. He always knows exactly who to call. That’s the job.
The key here, despite Loubet’s email, is not to panic. The ex–Navy SEAL, Kevin, has messed up. And there was a local cop who had done a nice job of killing the sheriff, but a very bad job of shooting a fleeing Amy Wheeler. He needs someone new. He presses the “call” button on his Zoom. It’s not actually “Zoom”: it’s a heavily encrypted video-conferencing app he bought from a Russian at the Emirates Squash Club. It’s called “Shhhh!”
Rob is calling home. London. Very specifically, East London, where he grew up, a place where he knows he’ll find someone he can trust. And there, speak of the devil, is Eddie Flood himself, looming into frame and looking for the camera.
He’s still fit, is Eddie. Hair nicely cropped, gone to fat a bit, but not as much as the other lads they’d grown up with. Eddie was always a little smarter than the rest.
“Eddie, you’re looking well,” says Rob.
“You too, brother, been too long,” says Eddie.
Rob looks behind Eddie. “Nice dartboard. I’d kill for a game.”
Eddie looks surprised. “You not got one?”
“They don’t do darts out here,” says Rob. “They do polo, but it’s not the same, is it?”
“Polo?” says Eddie. “No, it’s not the same as darts.”
“How do you fancy a trip to America, Eddie?” Rob asks. To business now, no more time to waste.
“America? Not much,” says Eddie. “We not having a gossip first?”
“No time,” says Rob. “How you doing for money?”
“Badly,” says Eddie. “You?”
