London, the day before Anna dies
Andrea.
Well, Harry had not been expecting that. He hardly flinches when Clive reveals that he has known about Harry for a long time, since Anna was spotted by Jorgos going into Clive’s office in Greece years earlier. But Andrea? They’ve been together more than a year. It is testimony to his own ego, he supposes, that he so readily believed a woman of her looks and status would come onto him just at the moment when he found himself so down on his luck, in need of the attention and the generosity of a woman like that. Perhaps he expected good fortune, perhaps he felt that he deserved it.
He has to hand it to her, not least for that performance the night they bumped into David and Anna at the charity event. To think, he had even lied to Anna later, suggesting that Andrea had been working for him when Anna probed about who the woman on his arm had been, after that surprise meeting. Even he could appreciate the delicious irony of that.
Had Andrea, under Clive’s instruction, planned for Harry to be there that night, for his and Anna’s paths to cross once more?
It is as if Clive has seen these questions circling in Harry’s mind as he peers triumphantly back at him, glee written across his face as he makes the big reveal: Andrea is a mole, he had paid her to infiltrate Harry’s life, to dig up whatever she could to hold over him. And it hadn’t taken her long.
‘That investigation that ended so badly for you,’ Clive says, sipping from his tumbler, taking his time as he replaces it on the table. ‘That was a strange thing, wasn’t it? The girl. Naomi, was that her name?’ He shakes his head and Harry feels himself tense.
‘Because that wasn’t the misdemeanour, was it? Or at least it wasn’t the one you knew about. Or perhaps you did. Perhaps you like them young – who can say and who am I to judge? But there was something else, something that should it have come out, would have been much harder to wriggle out of than screwing a fifteen-year-old.’
Clive looks up at him and smiles. ‘You know I really thought better of you. Until Andrea showed me the evidence, dug out of the bowels of your hard drive and confirmed when she spoke to those you had managed to bribe, I didn’t believe it. But when the truth is staring you in the face, sometimes it’s impossible to look away.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Harry says.
‘I think you do,’ Clive retorts. ‘I think you know exactly what I’m talking about. You bribed two of the charity’s employees, promising to keep their names out of the story in return for a substantial amount of cash. And as someone who understands the power of knowledge, I am going to make a deal with you. I won’t tell anyone – in fact, I won’t just keep my mouth shut but I’m prepared to cough up a decent amount of cash – half immediately, half in a couple of months to make sure you don’t leg it and draw any unnecessary attention to yourself – for your own good, really.’
‘And what do I need to do?’
Clive smiles regretfully. ‘I’m not sure you’re going to like it, but it’s for the best. For the both of us.’