Stone’s phone rang, interrupting his thought. He picked it up from a low table in the sitting room. It was Roger Garon.
‘Listen to this. It’s about Panama,’ Roger said.
‘I’m listening just as long as you’re going to tell me how I’m going to get my money back to London.’
‘Have you ever heard of Nevis? It’s a little island in the Caribbean.’
‘No that one’s new to me. There are a lot of them over there,’ Stone said and ran his hand through his hair. He disliked the Caribbean; he had been there before. On the island of St Lucia, he had been threatened with a knife point to his throat. It was protection money he wouldn’t pay, and he left the island with a collapsed property deal amongst its banana trees. The memory was still raw.
‘Nevis is a very private place, anonymous, no questions asked. And Panama’s not so secret anymore. Some disgruntled snitch who worked in a back office of a big Panama bank got his hands on a load of computer files. They hold the names of people with accounts there and how much they’ve got deposited. And this stool pigeon is selling the details to newspapers to print away so that all the world knows who’s hiding money. Some big names tumbling out of the hat. So just be aware, Harry, that if the revenue find your name on the list, you’ll be roasted alive. Your money’ll go, and with your history with the revenue, you’ll most likely go somewhere too. I’ll send you some good contacts in Nevis. People who know how these things work.’
‘Are you trying to scare me?’
‘That’s how it is. Go there and send me a postcard with your greetings from that sunny island.’
‘I might need help to do the detail on Panama. So, Roger, there’s something else I want you to do for me,’ Stone said.
‘If it’s legal I’m here to help but otherwise forget it.’
‘Don’t get boring, Roger, because you’re the only one who can help with this.’
‘Tell me.’
‘I’m left on my own. I’ve got a lot of things happening and I’m not always feeling too well just now. So, I need someone to deal with my papers just as I’ve always had, keeping my deals tidy so I know where everything is.’
‘I know what you’re going to say.’
‘Yeah, why not? I need Claire back. Urgently.’
‘You do remember Claire’s moved on, don’t you?’
‘Yeah, but there’s nobody else I want around at this time. Claire knows all the secret corners of my business. She set up the Panama accounts for me; she can now sort them out and help me to get the money back and close them down.’
‘After the way you treated her, I doubt very much she’ll want to do anything like that for you. And anyway, Claire’s busy resurrecting the skeleton of Arrow Hall.’
‘I know what she’s doing, and I know that you sold Arrow Hall for me too cheaply.’
‘You’ve said that before today. So don’t go there again, Harry. It’s too late for that. You know how these things work. You signed the deal off, and you’ve had the money. That deal is now dead.’
‘What about you call Claire for me, tell her I need to talk?’
‘No. Leave me out of it, and leave Claire alone is my advice.’
‘I know she lives in a fancy apartment in Mayfair, so give me her number and I’ll call her.’
‘I haven’t got it and I wouldn’t give it to you if I had. And don’t expect Claire to run around for you again – it’s not going to happen,’ Roger goaded.
‘I don’t like that talk, Roger.’
There was a pause as Stone sipped his whisky and stared from a window to the street below. The answer was just as he expected.
‘Forget Claire and deal with Panama yourself. Don’t leave it. I know it’ll be a change for you, but you do need to take my advice, and seriously, this time.’
Stone closed the call without replying. Pacing the room, his tension increased. His thinking was racing away. He was still £500,000 short of the total price Lady Ruth Jackson was asking, but when he had grabbed his money from Panama, it would take a big bite into closing that gap.
He could feel himself being dragged to the small Caribbean island of Nevis – it was a mystery place, and he did not know what he would really find there. Online he bought a first-class ticket to Nevis for the end of the week.
He sat at the kitchen table and tugged his phone from his pocket. He called Vlad, his sometime driver and odd-job man.
‘Two hundred quid for you for a little job when you’re finished. How soon can you drive up past the building site in Essex?’ Stone asked and he heard a grunt from Vlad.
‘Tomorrow soon enough? Early morning, boss?’
‘Yeah, tomorrow. But just watch the place. I want to know if there’s a lady around the site, short hair, early thirties. Watch to see what time she comes and goes and what day she’s there. And get me the landline number that calls right into the site office. It’ll be on a site noticeboard. Don’t talk to anyone, just watch, keep it tight. You’ll know what I mean by that.’
There was another grunt from Vlad.
Stone had a sense of easy excitement – he was making plans, giving directions and he was going to talk to Claire. But would Claire ever want to talk to him again?