‘Five boys,’ says Ibrahim, pouring the tea. ‘Henrik, how is your murderous rage? Subsided?’
‘It is forgotten,’ says Henrik. ‘It was tactically naive.’
‘You fellas found anything?’ asks Ron.
‘Nothing,’ says Viktor.
‘Thought Henrik was the best money-launderer in the world?’
‘I am,’ says Henrik. ‘That is provable.’
‘Well, Bethany Waites found something in there that you’re missing,’ says Ron.
‘And it got her killed,’ says Ibrahim.
‘So at the moment you’re just a guy with a beard.’
‘Ron, Henrik is a guest,’ says Ibrahim.
‘A guest?’ says Ron, still not looking up from his phone. ‘Yesterday he wanted to kill Joyce, and now he’s a guest.’
‘And he wanted to kill me too,’ says Viktor.
‘Guys, it was an error,’ says Henrik. ‘I wanted to be tough. I cannot keep apologizing.’
‘No need to apologize if you find out who killed Bethany Waites,’ says Ron.
‘We will find out,’ says Henrik.
‘Did Bethany Waites say anything to anyone?’ asks Viktor. ‘About what she’d found?’
‘Nah,’ says Ron.
‘Nothing about “Carron Whitehead” or “Robert Brown Msc”？’
‘Nothing about anyone,’ says Ron. ‘Far as we know. Henrik, you rich enough to buy a football club?’
‘I already own one,’ says Henrik.
Ibrahim sits at the dining table. ‘Well, she did say something. To someone.’
‘What did she say?’ asks Viktor.
‘She sent a message to Mike Waghorn,’ says Ibrahim. ‘A couple of weeks before she disappeared.’
‘Do you have the message? It might be important,’ asks Viktor.
‘I don’t think there was anything in it,’ says Ibrahim. ‘But we could ask Pauline to ask Mike?’
‘They’re both coming over for lunch in a bit,’ says Ron.
‘You are taken with Pauline, Ron,’ says Viktor.
‘Well, you’re taken with Elizabeth,’ says Ron.
‘I know,’ says Viktor. ‘But I have no chance. You have every chance. What luck.’
Ron shrugs, a little embarrassed. ‘We’re friends.’
‘Love is very precious,’ says Viktor, and takes a sip of his mint tea.
‘I wonder if I could ask you to put a lace doily under your teacup,’ says Ibrahim. ‘To prevent the wood from marking.’
‘Could I use your bathroom?’ asks Henrik. ‘I forgot to moisturize this morning, and I can feel myself drying out.’
Ron looks at Ibrahim. ‘So much testosterone in one room, mate. So much testosterone.’
Alan barks at a chaffinch.
65
They found the gun wrapped in a pale blue cloth, buried about thirty feet or so into the woodland. Elizabeth had taken a look before it had been driven away for examination. When she’d heard the word ‘gun’， she had expected a revolver, some sort of handgun at least. But this was an assault weapon, semi-automatic. Andrew Everton looked as surprised as she did – it was a hell of a gun. There was no ammunition, but there was a metal box, which looked to contain around a hundred thousand pounds or so in cash.