“Okay,” says the young child, doubtfully. Bonnie feels bad, but these kids do wee themselves an awful lot, and this is a special occasion for her.
What will she wear? They’ll probably tell her, won’t they? And she can treat herself to a new top or two now, can’t she? Her sister-in-law Clarissa went to Barbados last year and didn’t stop going on about it for months. Bonnie can’t wait to see the look on her face.
But, no, that’s mean.
She texts her mum.
Thank you for believing in me. I love you, Mama.
Bonnie reads the email one final time. She dreamed her dream, and it has come true.
She replies to the email.
Dear Bookings Committee,
Thank you, I would like to confirm. Where will I need to get a plane from, and should I book somewhere to stay? What is the name of the paint? Sorry for so many questions.
Yours sincerely,
Bonnie Gregor
She presses “send,” and knows that, thanks to Vivid Viral Media Agency, her life is about to change forever.
52
It all happened quickly, as ambushes are wont to do.
The moment they had stepped into Bluff Point, the young man in the Coldplay T-shirt stepped up behind them, with his gun raised, and Nelson Nunez did the same from the front. You’d never get this sort of thing from someone in a Van Halen T-shirt, thought Steve, before being ordered to lie face down on the ground.
Steve and Amy are now lashed to kitchen chairs. Rosie is also strapped to a chair but has avoided being frisked by saying, “Please, feel free, I think you’ll find exactly what you’re looking for in my knickers.”
Nelson genuinely looks upset. Not especially angry, and not especially evil, for a man who has a machine gun mounted on a Land Rover—just upset. Steve has seen the look sometimes in armed robbers who thought it was unfair that they had been caught. But Nelson holds all the cards, so what is upsetting him?
“I was told you were on the island,” says Nelson to Rosie.
“By Ferdy?” says Amy.
“By someone else,” says Nelson. “He asked me to tell him if I found you.”
“You found me,” says Rosie. “I don’t suppose it was a disgruntled Russian chemicals billionaire?”
“It wasn’t,” says Nelson. “At least I don’t think so.”
“So it’s not Vasiliy Karpin,” says Rosie, then looks at Amy. “I had honestly forgotten he was threatening to kill me. Seems a long time ago now.”
“What’s the problem here, chief?” Steve asks. Time for him to prove his worth. “Man to man, let the women go.”
“The seventies called, Stevie,” says Rosie. “It wants its attitudes back.”
“Sorry,” says Steve. Even as he was saying it, he knew it would get him in trouble.
“It was sort of sweet, though,” says Rosie. “And I appreciate it’s a minefield for your generation.”
It really is, thinks Steve.
“Okay,” says Nelson. “Here is my problem. I have been offered a lot of money to kill one of you.”
“Okay,” says Steve.
“But,” continues Nelson, “I don’t know which one of you I’m supposed to kill.”
There is a silence that suggests Nelson is looking for a reply.
“Sorry, you want our help?” says Amy.
“Here is the information I have,” says Nelson. “ ‘Rosie D’Antonio is coming to the island, and you must not, under any circumstances, kill her.’ ”
“Yessss!” says Rosie.
“Right,” says Steve, and looks at Amy. Steve can see Rosie sawing at the cable ties binding her hands with her nails. Five hundred dollars, she said her last manicure had cost. Time to see if it was money well spent.
“But he said that Mrs. D’Antonio—”
“Miss D’Antonio,” says Rosie, still sawing.
“That Miss D’Antonio would be with somebody, and that he would like that person killed.”
“Okay,” says Amy.
