up after, will you? Then get the locks changed. Pound to a penny Lou’s had a spare set cut, and we don’t want any unexpected visitors.’
Tony opened his mouth, then shut it again. The door closed and he was gone. A man of few words, Tony. Annie sort of liked that.
‘Now Jeanette,’ she said with a chilly smile, ‘tell me what happened while I was out of it.’
‘I already told you,’ moaned Jeanette.
‘There were four men? Five men? A fucking army? Come on, how many? You were there.’
Jeanette nodded wearily. ‘Um, I dunno. Maybe four, maybe three. Two big ones I think, and maybe one small.’
‘Small, what? Short?’
‘Short…um, slight, you know.’
‘Slight. What, like a jockey you mean? Short and skinny?’
‘Um, I don’t know. I was scared to death. I’m not sure.’
‘Which one slapped me with the chloroform?’
‘God, I dunno.’ Jeanette looked away.
‘Think.’
‘One of the bigger ones. First he…’ Jeanette’s face clouded and she fell silent.
‘What? Go on,’ said Annie.
Jeanette gulped and her eyes got teary.
‘Max had got out of the pool again. I saw him on the other side, he was towelling himself dry, then I saw one of the big ones come up behind him and hit him on the head. He never even saw it coming. He went down like a sack of shit. I was just starting to sit up, then there was another one on our side of the terrace and he slapped that pad on your face and Jonjo started to wake up and then this bloke just turned…’ Jeanette’s face crumpled…‘He just turned and shot Jonjo straight between the eyes.’
It was quiet in the office for long moments while Jeanette looked down at her lap. Tears spilled down her cheeks and dripped off her nose.
‘I know he wasn’t a good man,’ she sobbed. ‘I know he didn’t treat me too well, but they just wiped him out like he was nothing.’
Annie felt her blood run cold, felt despair seize her in its grip all over again. A deliberate, calculated hit. She stood up and closed the window, looking out at the rain, the people scurrying about, the cars moving slowly through the packed streets…all these people, with homes to go to, loved ones to see. And what did she have now?
Nothing.
Max was dead.
Layla was God knew where.
She gulped and felt like joining Jeanette and having a bloody good howl. Maybe it would make her feel better, who knew? But she was used to keeping her feelings inside. A loveless upbringing with a drunk of a mother had seen to that.
Dig deep and stand alone.
She hadn’t had to stand alone for some time. There had been Max, taking the weight, seeing to her comfort and security; but now he was gone. And she was going to have to learn to stand on her own two feet again—because what was the alternative? Sink into the abyss. Give up the fight.
No fucking way, she thought. Not while there’s still a chance for Layla.
She turned, leaned against the dusty window frame. Jeanette had composed herself a little, she saw. Good.
‘So which one grabbed Layla?’ she asked.
Jeanette scrabbled around for a hankie. She found one in her pocket and honked her nose loudly. She blinked up, red-eyed, at Annie.
‘Look, it could have been the little one,’ she said. ‘I don’t know. I heard Layla singing that funny little French song she liked…’ Jeanette took a faltering breath. ‘Poor little cow. I heard her yell, then nothing. The one who’d shot Jonjo and drugged you told me to be quiet or I’d get a bullet too.’
‘What did he sound like?’
‘Um…British, I suppose.’
‘Oh come on, you can do better than that.’
‘I dunno.’
‘Irish? Was he Irish?’
‘Um…oh fuck it, how should I know? He could have been.’ Jeanette was squirming in her seat.
Then maybe he’s the one who phones me, thought Annie. Or maybe not.
‘Did he have any distinguishing marks? Describe his face.’
‘I didn’t see his face. He had a mask on, they all did. And gloves. They were covered right up; I couldn’t see anything of them. I saw the one on the other side of the pool grab Max under the arms and drag him off into the bushes, and the one on our side of the pool hauled Jonjo into the pool’
‘Strong man,’ said Annie. ‘Jonjo was pushing sixteen stone.’
Jeanette nodded. ‘He lifted him like a fireman, you know? The fireman’s lift thing, over his shoulder, and dumped him in the pool.’
Sixteen stones, dead weight. It would take a very strong man indeed to lift that.
So what do I have? thought Annie. One small and slender. One big and exceptionally strong. One big and unknown, but he must move like a cat to get up close enough to do Max, because Max was sharp and fast, all instinct and movement and power…
Or he had been, anyway. When he was alive.
That made it three people, not four. But so what? Where did knowing that get her?
Annie turned back to the window and stared up above the rooftops to grey depressing skies. There was no hope, and she had to admit it.
But she couldn’t.
‘Okay Jeanette, you can go,’ she said, not looking round.
Annie heard the door close. Then she looked again at the safe in the corner. It had a combination lock, and she didn’t know the code. She wondered who did. Then she let out a sigh, dropped her head on to her chest and closed her eyes in despair.
It was all going according to plan. Phil Fibbert had got the boat sorted and they were going to move after dark. Vita had calmed the fuck down after the hood incident: everything was good to go.
Danny was pleased.
He sat out in the late afternoon sun on the terrace and felt that he had everything nicely under control. And then he heard the normally quiet Phil (fucking boring, actually) kicking off at Vita in the kitchen, and soon Vita was screaming
