‘They intended to sell you too, you know.’ Ian Penrith opened a bottle of whisky and began to pour generous measures into glasses. He looked at Ewan, Mulligan, Lucy and Caelan in turn. ‘All of you.’
‘Are you serious?’ Caelan shook her head. She felt as though she was still trembling as shock, horror and disbelief set in.
‘Why not? It would have got rid of the lot of you in one stroke.’ Penrith pressed a button on the phone on his desk. No one spoke, Caelan and the others absorbing what he had said, Penrith himself continuing to pour whisky. The door opened and DS Jen Somerville appeared. She handed several evidence bags to Penrith and left the room. Penrith put down the whisky bottle.
‘And here are some they prepared earlier.’ He held up a bag containing one of the numbered pink feather headdresses. ‘Thirty-five.’ He nodded at Caelan and then held up the others. ‘Thirty-six, thirty-seven, thirty-eight, thirty-nine. Lucy, Justyna, Mulligan, Ewan.’ He stood, held out the tray of glasses. ‘Anyway, cheers.’
When they were alone, Caelan said, ‘How much did you know?’
Penrith sipped his whisky, affecting an air of innocence. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘Yes you do. You got someone to throw the brick through Lucy’s window, made sure Mulligan heard about it while he was still inside.’
‘No comment.’
‘You hid Lucy away and came to me with your sob story. Mulligan was released. Did he know your plan?’
Penrith smiled. ‘He was… cooperative. I think we might have a role for him here.’
‘He’s a murderer, a torturer.’
‘And he saved your life.’ Penrith drained his drink and reached for the bottle.
‘And that makes up for everything else?’ Caelan felt like throwing her own glass at the wall.
Penrith watched her steadily.
‘What?’ she demanded.
‘Do you know where Lucy was?’ he asked.
She made a noise of frustration. ‘Obviously not.’
‘In the hotel where you’re staying. Same floor, five doors down. You wouldn’t have seen her; she was instructed not to leave the room.’
Caelan stared at him. ‘Are you joking?’
‘Do I ever? Mulligan told her to go there, before we were even involved, and he paid for it too. Consider that when you’re wondering if I orchestrated the whole thing. He lied about that, not me. I had no idea.’
Did she believe him? Caelan wasn’t sure. Did it matter any more? ‘What about Mulligan? He was in intensive care.’
Penrith smiled. ‘No, he wasn’t. I told you he was, and you took me at my word. He was also staying in the hotel – we put him in the room next to Ewan’s.’
‘You—’ Caelan took a breath, controlled her anger. ‘You were protecting him.’
‘I had to. He knew you were beginning to make progress, even if you hadn’t realised it yet.’
‘Even though he’s—’
He looked at her, serious now. ‘You did well. They’re still processing all those…’ He swallowed a word, searched for another, ‘All the punters who were there to bid, as well as Nash, Harris and their friends.’
‘What about the man I shot?’
Penrith grinned. ‘There’ll be a queue of people wanting to shake your hand. He’s wanted for all kinds of crimes throughout Europe. Albanian, very nasty man.’
‘And he knows who I am.’
‘Well, if you will go around shooting people… Where did you get the gun?’
‘It was in a drawer in Harris’s office. Lucy saw it when she got the car keys and slipped it into her pocket. No one searched her, and eventually she managed to pass it to me.’
Penrith nodded. ‘Impressive.’
It was. ‘It was… a surprise. I knew it was loaded from the weight, but there was no guarantee I’d have a chance to use it. We were lucky.’
‘Why would Harris have a gun in his desk drawer?’
‘To impress people, maybe, or intimidate them. To remind Justyna who was boss? You’ll have to ask him.’
‘I’m sure someone will.’
Caelan rubbed her eyes. ‘You lied to me. I trusted you, again, and you lied.’
‘No. I wound you up and let you go. I knew you could do this, would do it.’ He flicked through a pile of papers on his desk, found the one he wanted and held it out. ‘We have names for our three victims; we can return their bodies to their families. When you’re thinking about who’s done what and what could have happened, remember that. You couldn’t save them, but you saved the people who were wearing these,’ he waved the headdresses, ‘and all the others who would have followed them.’
Suddenly Caelan was exhausted. ‘You lied.’ She knew she sounded like a child, couldn’t help it.
Penrith held up a hand. ‘I’m not going to discuss this with you now. You’re tired, you’ve had… a difficult day. Go back to the hotel and we’ll meet tomorrow. You can scream at me as much as you like then.’ He grinned. ‘And bring me that invoice.’
When Caelan reached the street outside, she crossed the road and stood looking out over the Thames, watching the London Eye slowly turn, her arms wrapped around her body as she tried not to shiver. Shock, or just the cold? She didn’t know, couldn’t think, couldn’t begin to understand what had happened over the last few days.
After a couple of minutes, she became aware of someone standing beside her. She turned.
‘Thank you,’ Lucy Mulligan said. She too looked exhausted, shattered and hollowed out by what she’d seen and endured.
To Caelan’s horror, tears welled in her eyes. She swallowed them down. ‘Quite a few hours,’ she said.
Lucy gave a shaky smile, though it was clearly an effort. ‘I’ve had better days.’
Images flashed through Caelan’s mind – the shots, the blood, the tumbling bodies. ‘Me too.’
‘Sorry if I hurt your hand. I remember grabbing it a few times.’
‘Giving me the gun… You took a hell of a chance.’
Lucy shrugged. ‘What choice did I have? I didn’t know how to use it.’
Caelan glanced at her, angry though she knew Lucy wasn’t to blame. ‘I thought you were missing. How did you end up in the hotel?’
She stared at the ground. ‘James contacted me, told me he was in trouble, that I had to stay in a hotel he’d booked for me. He’d send some mates round to pick me up, make it look as though I was being abducted. Said it would confuse the people who were after him, and that I should stay hidden until he contacted me again. Well, he didn’t.’ She snorted. ‘I didn’t know at the time that he was in a room down the corridor. I had my laptop, a few books and plenty of work to do. James had got them to leave me loads to eat, so I was fine. Lonely, bored, but fine.’
‘Then what happened?’
‘Like I said, I didn’t hear from James, and I began to panic. Then I got a message from Tom – Tom Haslam – saying you’d been asking questions, saying you were my cousin.’
Caelan frowned. ‘You had your phone?’ Penrith had said she had left it behind.
Lucy shook her head. ‘Not mine. James told me to leave my personal stuff in my room, make it more convincing. He’d arranged for another one to be left at the hotel. Tom emailed, said he hoped I’d be able to read it as he knew I didn’t have my phone. I was confused, angry – I didn’t know what to do, what to think. James wasn’t answering his phone, and I thought I’d go and find out what was going on. Tom told me he could help; he told me where you’d be.’
‘But Nash and Harris already had Tom.’
‘They sent the email as if it was from him. I should have realised – it was a different email address, and it sounded strange, but then Tom can be… Well, anyway, I decided to go to Kwik Kabs. I didn’t question how Tom knew you’d be there, and I should have done.’
‘Because Stefan Harris knew I would be.’ Caelan ran both hands over her face.
‘You must be exhausted,’ Lucy said.
‘Exhausted, hungry, confused, angry. Those people…’
Lucy closed her eyes. ‘I know. I’ve never… I can’t imagine…’
‘They’ll be helped,’ Caelan said, to reassure herself as much as Lucy.
‘Do you know what James told me? The woman who was there doing the make-up – the auctioneer was her uncle. He used to do it for a living, apparently.’
Caelan’s mouth twisted. ‘Keeping it in the family. Lovely.’
They were quiet, listening to the sounds of the city, watching the river. After Big Ben chimed eleven o’clock, Lucy turned back to Caelan and smiled.
‘Fancy getting some breakfast?’
Caelan hesitated. She wanted to shower and sleep, but she heard the plea in Lucy’s voice. She didn’t want to be alone, and if Caelan was honest, it wouldn’t be a chore to keep her company.
As they crossed Westminster Bridge, Caelan’s phone rang. With an apology to Lucy, she answered.
‘Caelan?’ Nicky Sturgess said. ‘I’m sorry. Can we meet?’