‘Pauline has told me a lot about you, Viktor,’ says Mike.
‘Has she now?’ says Ron, and Pauline blows him a kiss.
‘It’s good to meet you, Mike Waghorn,’ says Viktor. ‘I will confess that two weeks ago I hadn’t known who you were, but I am now very familiar with your work. Though often I don’t catch everything you’re saying, because Joyce likes to keep up a running commentary through the local news.’
‘Any news on the search?’ asks Mike.
‘Still waiting,’ says Ron. Pauline told him that Mike had taken news of the garden search very badly. It was such an extraordinary story. The body buried as blackmail. The killer some unknown accomplice. Mike wants the murder to be solved, but it will be very final for him.
‘You arrive at an opportune moment, however,’ says Ibrahim. ‘Do you have the text of your message from Bethany to hand? About the new information? Viktor and Henrik would like to hear it in full. Perhaps it might unlock something.’
Mike takes out his phone and scrolls until he finds the message. He addresses Viktor and Henrik. Skipper. Some new info. Can’t say what, but it’s absolute dynamite. Getting closer to the heart of this thing.
Viktor nods. ‘She would call you “Skipper” normally? No clue there?’
‘Completely normal,’ says Mike.
‘And she would say “info” instead of “information”？’ asks Henrik. ‘It was normal for her to be informal?’
‘It was usually emojis and swear words, to be honest,’ says Mike.
‘Now, when she says –’
Alan starts jumping at the window and barking hysterically, as if he simply cannot begin to comprehend what he has just seen.
Viktor rolls off his chair, and crouches behind a sofa with his gun drawn. Mike raises one eyebrow. Henrik takes a moment, and then taps Viktor on the shoulder.
‘Viktor,’ he says. ‘You have to stop doing this. I’m the one who was trying to kill you. And I’m here.’
Viktor thinks for a moment, then accepts the truth of this observation, and puts the gun down the back of his trousers.
‘I’m glad I didn’t try to kill you,’ says Henrik, looking at the gun.
‘You should be glad,’ says Viktor, taking his seat once again. ‘I would be throwing your body off a North Sea ferry round about now.’
Ibrahim has buzzed his door open, and Elizabeth and Joyce walk into the room. Alan leaps at Joyce, and she gives him a cuddle.
‘Anything?’ asks Mike.
‘No body,’ says Elizabeth. ‘Not yet. But Jack Mason said there would be a gun, and there was. A big one.’
‘Was it the murder weapon?’ asks Ibrahim.
‘Yes, Ibrahim, it was,’ says Elizabeth. ‘The police handed me the gun, and I completed a full forensics check on it in the taxi on the way back.’
Ibrahim turns to Mike. ‘She is being sarcastic.’ Mike thanks him.
‘We will know soon enough,’ says Elizabeth.
‘And they found money too,’ says Joyce. ‘They think around a hundred thousand. Just buried in a tin.’
‘Andrew Everton thinks they have enough to bring Jack Mason in,’ says Elizabeth. ‘Money and a gun in his back garden. Might be enough to get him to talk. Tell us who buried them there.’
‘Good luck with that,’ says Ron.
Henrik has been ignoring this conversation, tapping away at his computer. ‘Umm … OK, I have something.’