30

Neither of them could face breakfast in the morning.

Water. They both only wanted water. And painkillers.

‘How much did we drink?’ Alyssia groaned, as Curtis drove them back onto the A26 autoroute that would lead them to the Eurotunnel terminal.

‘More than enough.’

‘I don’t even remember getting to our rooms.’

Curtis humphed at that.

‘I hope I wasn’t… too touchy-feely.’

‘You weren’t,’ he said.

‘Are you sure, because I know I can be. And you seem a bit… off?’

‘It’s nothing. Actually, last night was good. It’s just a shame to have to wake up this morning and get back to reality.’

She sighed and slumped a little.

‘Yeah,’ she said.

They didn’t chat much for the journey across the channel and into the UK. Perhaps due to nervousness about making the cross-border travel, but also awkwardness and quiet contemplation. Curtis sent a quick message to Rachel to let her know he was OK and hoped she was too.

By late morning they were traversing the clogged-up inner city roads of London, Curtis thankful that Alyssia had taken over for the last leg while he carried on their research.

‘Souce Bank should be right around this next corner,’ he said, and Alyssia took the turning as Curtis scanned the buildings.

‘There,’ he said.

‘No parking here.’

‘There’s a multi-story coming up on your right.’

Not long after that they were parked up.

‘Are you sure about this?’ Alyssia asked.

Curtis opened his phone and flicked across the various internet windows he’d left open.

‘The restructuring of Travers International Europe involved five banks in four different countries.’

‘And this is all just in news reports?’

‘Reports, investor analysis. The top company of Travers’s group is listed on the London and Frankfurt stock exchanges, so a big deal like this has to be at least partly in the public record.’

‘But of the five banks, you think this is the best starting point?’

‘I’m looking for anything that seems odd, or inconsistent. In the articles I’ve found, there are direct comments, quotes, from the bankers in charge of the deal within four of the banks. But not Souce Bank. I can’t find a single comment from any of their employees, and it’s the only bank in the UK that was part of the consortium. And I know Charlton was here around that time.’

‘And you think it’s this Gert Henning at the bank who was involved?’

‘He’s their head of corporate investment. And it’s not a big bank. A private affair, specializing in working with high net-worth clients. There isn’t anyone else at this bank who would have been involved.’

‘So what now?’

‘Now? Let’s see if he’s in.’

Curtis called the number he’d taken from the bank’s website.

‘Yes?’

‘Mr Henning? My, name is… Danny, Danny Golder…’ He face-palmed himself for the choice of name, tried to stay on track. Why had the PI’s name come to him first? ‘I’m calling from Travers International.’

‘What is it?’ Henning said, already sounding ratty.

‘I’ve been asked to follow up on the recent work we did together. Just a short interview with you, gathering feedback so we can⁠—’

‘Ha! You must be joking.’ This was followed by a short rant in German before the call ended.

‘I think he said something about your mother,’ Alyssia said, struggling to hold back her smile. ‘But I didn’t quite catch it all.’

Curtis sniffed as he thought.

‘So what now?’ he asked.

‘Well, I don’t think we’re going to get in front of him with his agreement.’

‘Not if we pretend to be associated with Travers International.’

‘But this does suggest your hunch was right – about there being something strange with Souce Bank compared to the others.’

‘Definitely.’

‘Any ideas?’

‘No. But I think we should try and get to see him regardless.’

They sat in silence for a few moments. Curtis felt her eyes on him, but he didn’t look. Was she waiting for him to propose their next move? He sensed a certain snideness to her approach – as though she were still testing him. Making sure he was capable. And trustworthy.

‘It’ll be pretty hard to convince anyone in his office to let us up to see one of their top-level executives without an appointment, without his agreement.’

‘I imagine so,’ Alyssia said.

‘Which leaves us with two options. We wait outside the office for him, or we go to his home.’

‘And you know where his home is?’

‘I’m pretty sure I do.’

She raised an eyebrow.

‘He posted a load of pictures on Facebook six months ago of his new house. Inside and out. I managed to figure it out from satellite images where it is.’

Alyssia laughed. ‘You know, Curtis, you continue to surprise me.’

‘Why? Because you didn’t think I was capable?’

Her face soured, but he’d snapped pretty hard at her, even if he hadn’t intended to.

‘I was being nice,’ she said. ‘Complimenting you.’

‘Sorry, I…’

‘It doesn’t matter.’

‘It does. I’m sorry.’

‘Let’s move on. So are you suggesting we break into his home and wait? Or go there later in the day?’

A good question. Break into someone’s home? He’d never done anything like that in his life. But then, he’d never been shot at before. Never fled from the authorities. Never travelled across continents on the run with a beautiful⁠—

He stopped himself there.

‘We’ll go later,’ he said. ‘We can fill the time while we’re in the city.’

‘The hotel?’ Alyssia suggested.

‘Yeah.’

‘Another impressive finding.’

She smiled again. It seemed more genuine this time. But actually he did feel pretty damn good about himself for finding all this information during the car journey from Paris, even if it had been hit and miss at times. Given Finn had been in London working for Victor Travers, Curtis had assumed his brother would have stayed somewhere nice. So he’d started high-end. Had planned to call every five-star hotel in the city he could find, claiming to be Finn himself, asking about his previous stay where he thought he’d left some of his belongings.

He’d hit lucky on the fifth attempt when the man he’d spoken to almost instantly recognized the name.

Only later, as Curtis looked through the hotel’s details, did he realize it actually belonged to a property company associated with Travers himself.

Perhaps Curtis should have started there.

A lesson learned.

‘It’s not even a mile from here,’ Alyssia said, reaching for her door handle. ‘Let’s get some fresh air.’

Fresh being the correct word, as the spring weather had faltered for their trip to England, with dark grey skies and a biting wind made all the worse by the high-rise buildings around them funneling the air like through a jet engine.

Curtis’s face stung from the sheer force of the gusts as they finally reached the hotel. He heaved the heavy revolving doors and sighed as they entered the sublime calm of the charming, old-world-style lobby.

‘A bit better than last night,’ Alyssia said to him, with a mischievous grin.

They approached the front desk. Two ultra-smart members of staff there. Curtis approached the man whose name badge read Pepe, the same name as the person he’d spoken to on the phone earlier.

Curtis dove straight in.

‘I’m Curtis Delaney, Finn Delaney’s brother, you spoke to him on the phone earlier?’

A moment of dubiousness before recognition.

‘Oh, yes, Mr Delaney. Your brother is…’ He looked around the lobby as though expecting to see Finn there. ‘Unavailable, unfortunately. But…’

Now Curtis did his own scan of the room, as though cementing that Pepe was about to say something important. ‘Do you think we could discuss this in private?’

Of course, Pepe said yes. An ultra-posh hotel like that? Discretion was a necessity. Curtis and Alyssia were shown into a back office, and he could tell she was trying not to smile about something.

‘What is it I can help you with?’ Pepe asked, hands clasped together. There was no offer of a seat or a drink or anything like that, as though he hoped this would be quick.

‘My brother⁠—’

‘He said on the phone he thought he’d left something here?’

‘Yes, and⁠—’

‘I found it.’

Curtis found himself temporarily without words. He’d thought he’d made up the lost items.

‘That’s really good news, isn’t it, Curtis?’ Alyssia prompted him when he didn’t say anything.

‘It’s… great. He’ll be really pleased, I’m sure.’

‘I do recall housekeeping saying something about it before, but I wasn’t on duty… that day. We kept it – we always do, just in case – but although we sent an email to your brother, he never responded. And really, I– I didn’t know if… You know. What happened with the police?’

Curtis and Alyssia exchanged a look.

Pepe’s nervousness fell away, suspicion taking over.

‘Obviously we know about the police,’ Alyssia said, reading the signs and waving away Pepe’s growing discomfort. ‘But what did you see that day? It must have been all a bit…?’

‘Scary really. It’s not very often we have police here, arresting our guests. Obviously, I’m sure it was all a mistake.’

‘Definitely,’ Alyssia said. ‘Otherwise Finn would still be in jail, right?’

Pepe smiled. Kind of. He was definitely not comfortable now.

‘My brother’s things?’ Curtis prompted.

Pepe hesitated. ‘Maybe… can I see some identification?’

Curtis handed over his passport. ‘Happy?’ he said.

‘Certainly.’ Although he didn’t look it. ‘Give me a moment.’

Pepe scuttled off. Alyssia raised an eyebrow to Curtis. ‘What is happening?’

Curtis could only shake his head in response.

Pepe came back moments later with an envelope headed with the hotel’s logo.

‘The papers were all loose, so I… Here you are.’

Curtis took the envelope and peeked inside.

‘You know,’ Pepe started, ‘when the other lady came asking for his things? We hadn’t even found this yet. I don’t know how that happened. So I can only apologize for the inconvenience.’

‘The other lady?’ Curtis asked.

‘Yes… the, er…’

‘I’m going to be very clear with you, Pepe,’ Alyssia said, stepping forward before he fully realized his mistake in talking too much. ‘Although we can’t discuss Finn’s legal matters, what we can tell you is that it’s very serious, and there are people who are trying to cause big problems for him. If anyone else came here asking questions, be assured they weren’t Finn’s friend.’

‘Oh, but I⁠—’

‘Security tapes,’ Curtis said, trying to stay on top of the guy. ‘This woman who came asking questions? If you caught her on security cameras, that would be really helpful for us to see.’

Pepe shook his head, stepped back. He really wasn’t happy now at all.

‘That’s just not something I⁠—’

‘You do realize who we work for?’ Alyssia said. ‘Who Finn works for?’

‘I… I…’ More head shaking.

‘Victor Travers,’ Curtis said.

‘My name is Mariana Montagne,’ Alyssia said. ‘Mr Travers’s head of operations. You can ask your management to check all this if you want?’

‘Or we can be out of your way in a few minutes,’ Curtis suggested.

That was definitely Pepe’s preferred idea.

A few minutes later they were watching the footage of the day Finn was arrested, from the cameras outside the hotel. It was quite hard to make out all the detail, but it’d been a sting. The police had waited for Finn.

‘Did the police tell you why they were here?’ Curtis asked, making a mental note of the car license plates. Would Danny be able to check the details? ‘Did they explain who they were looking for and why before they arrested Finn?’

‘They didn’t say a thing,’ Pepe said.

‘This is the day he was arrested,’ Alyssia said. ‘But you said a woman came asking for Finn’s things after this?’

‘Sorry, yes. I got the date wrong, that’s all. Let me find it.’

It didn’t take long. The day after. Curtis watched the woman with interest as she stepped out of the black car and rushed into the hotel. Pepe played the footage from the lobby too. She was in and out in a minute or so, and left empty-handed.

‘Like I told you,’ Pepe said. ‘I didn’t know then about the papers your brother had left in his room. They must have fallen behind the desk.’

‘Probably a good thing you didn’t know,’ Curtis said, straightening up. ‘Because, just as I feared, that woman does not work with us.’

‘Oh, I…’ Pepe looked nervous again, as though Curtis were accusing him of doing wrong. Curtis took out a business card. ‘It’s very important that you contact me if anyone else comes asking questions.’

Pepe took the card and scrutinized it for a second.

‘You’re a lawyer?’ he said, sounding a little more upbeat at the knowledge.

‘At your service,’ Curtis said with a salute.

They made it outside before Alyssia burst out laughing.

‘What?’ Curtis said.

‘At your service,’ she said, mimicking him and he felt his cheeks flush.

‘I was just…’

‘That was ridiculously cheesy.’

He looked away, trying to hide his embarrassment.

‘But other than that… you’re actually really good at this.’

‘You still sound surprised.’

‘Just pleased, really.’

They stopped moving and Curtis thumbed through the papers as they stood there. Mostly handwritten notes.

‘Let’s get back to the car and take a proper look through these.’

‘And these.’ Alyssia held up her phone.

‘Sneaky,’ Curtis responded, as he stared at the picture of the woman from the CCTV. He hadn’t seen her with her phone out.

‘I’m learning from you,’ Alyssia said with a wink.