“What do you need, Amy? Did you find anything in the files I sent you?”
“This is going to sound ridiculous,” says Amy. “But the blood tests we do?”
“The drug tests?”
“Where are they kept?”
Susan stops for a moment. She looks over her shoulder.
“So Jeff told you what happened?” Susan says.
There is no reply from Amy.
“Amy, the room was locked, and the freezer was locked; we have no idea how it happened, and I promise it won’t happen again.”
“Remind me again,” says Amy. “It was only my blood that went missing?”
“Only yours,” says Susan. “Full disclosure, Amy. I thought maybe you’d stolen it yourself, you know, because you were worried about what it would show? So I didn’t look into it as much as I should have. And Jeff didn’t disagree.”
“Well, I didn’t take it,” says Amy. “But somebody did. Who would have access?”
“Ten or twelve people at most,” says Susan. “Our medical people, some of the senior staff. Anyone else would have to have found a way to break in.”
“You’d have access?” Amy asks.
“Me, absolutely,” says Susan.
“And Jeff?”
“Jeff, yes,” says Susan.
There is another pause. “Remind me how long ago this was? I don’t think Jeff was clear?”
“End of April,” says Susan. “Something like that. I’m really terribly sorry, Amy. It shouldn’t have happened, and I shouldn’t have suspected it was you.”
“And Henk was still at the company then,” says Amy. “He would have had access too?”
“He would,” confirms Susan.
“And could any clients have had access?” Amy asks.
“I mean, we show people around from time to time,” says Susan. “To show off our facilities. But I don’t see how that could happen.”
“If anyone, anyone, speaks to you—the police, Henk, anyone—you haven’t heard from me.”
“Of course, of course,” says Susan. “Amy, what’s happening? Where on earth is Jeff? Are you safe?”
“I don’t think anyone is safe, Susan,” says Amy.
47
Rob Kenna, his ball in a bunker, is not best pleased.
Eddie has flown to Hawaii and Amy Wheeler, according to sources, is alive and well in St. Lucia. Well, of course she is; he should have anticipated that. It seems she’s following the path of the murders. Investigating them, presumably.
She won’t find anything there, Rob’s fairly sure of that. The Bella Sanchez murder was just another local cop earning a payday, with no idea who from. Same if Amy decides to go to Ireland.
But she’ll be dead before she gets the chance.
The key thing is to surround yourself. Layer upon layer of people. And you’d have to unreel an awful lot of layers before you got to Rob Kenna. Still, you have to protect each and every layer if you can.
François Loubet is the same. This is the fourth job Rob has had from him, and he’s still never met the man, wouldn’t recognize him if he passed him in the street. Layer upon layer upon layer.
Eddie’s getting the first plane over from Hawaii, which is expensive, but money’s no object with Loubet. So now Rob has to find Eddie a gun in St. Lucia.
He’ll talk to the guy who helped him out before. Nelson Nunez.
The nice thing about Dubai, one of the many nice things, is that a man like Rob can get everything he needs.
You need a gun in St. Lucia? You just chat to the Chilean arms dealer with the villa up the street from yours, he talks to a Venezuelan drugs middleman he knows from the tennis club, and, before you know it, introductions are made, encrypted emails are sent, and Nelson Nunez is hiding a semi-automatic pistol under an unusually shaped rock on a St. Lucian back road. Dubai really is that sort of community. Everyone helps everyone.
Rob doesn’t want to let Loubet down, though. That could be very dangerous.
“You look like you’ve got the worries of the world on your shoulders,” says Big Mick.
“Work,” says Rob.
Big Mick laughs. “I remember work. Overrated.”
