It had erupted through the floor and thrust out branches to touch all four walls as it grew. It stretched right to the top of the double-height room. In fact—I leaned forward and craned my head back to look—yep, some branches were actually poking through the roof. That explained the vegetation I’d seen up there.
“How did it—” I asked weakly.
“It’s an American Sycamore,” she said sternly. “Those things growfast.The floor was torn up by the plumbers to get at some pipes, right down in the foundations, and there was a hole in the roof and...well, at the same time I was running a little short of money so the work ground to a stop, and the house was unoccupied for several years while I was living with my sister. A seed must have blown in. I came back and...” She waved her hand at the tree.
The house was completely unsellable—no one in their right mind would take on such a disaster. “Can I see the rest?” I asked with growing excitement.
The living room had a huge hole in the floor but the kitchen and two of the other reception rooms were in a good state of repair. There was even power and water. I spun around to Mrs. Baker. “I want to make you an offer,” I said.
“Tobuy?”
“To rent.”
She shook her head.
“Look,” I pressed, “you aren’t going to sell it. You must know that.”
“Renting it’s not worth my while,” she sniffed.
I was desperate. “Ten thousand dollars.For one month.” When she hesitated, I said, “Come on, it’s sitting here doing nothing. In a month we’ll be gone and you’ll have ten thousand in the bank for repairs.”
She looked at me sternly. “Young lady, I wasnotborn yesterday. What are you planning to do here: run a brothel? A gambling den?” But there was a gleam in her eye that hadn’t been there before, as if Iwas bringing back old memories. I wondered what her family had been involved with, back in the day.
“Ten thousand,” I said levelly. “We give you back the house as we found it and you don’t ask any questions. Anything goes wrong, it’s on us and you had no idea. You’re just a nice old lady who got duped.”
For a while, I thought she wasn’t going to go for it. Then she crossed her arms and nodded. “Cash up front.”
My smile of relief only lasted a few seconds. I told her I’d be back with the entire amount in an hour, but then I sat in my car staring out at the night. We’d spent all of our money. We couldn’t scrape together a thousand dollars to give her, never mind ten.
Which only left one solution.
I pulled out my phone and stared at Sean’s number for a long time before finally putting it back in my purse. If I told him, he’d stop me. And this was our only shot.
I took a deep breath and went to see Murray.
45
LOUISE
As I’d thought,Murray moved around. I had to dig out the loan papers, find his number and call him to find out where his latest temporary office was. Yes, he said, he’d see me even at this late hour. In fact, he sounded worryingly pleased to hear from me.
This time, his place was up on the second floor of a mostly-abandoned office building. The scary thing was how much less alien it felt, going to see a loan shark. The last five months had changed me: dealing with criminals was almost normal, now.
In his lobby, the two heavies in suits were waiting as before. This time, though, they gave me a knowing, leering grin, much more obvious than before. Was it because Sean wasn’t there? Or was it because they knew what me being back here meant?
Murray was leaning back in his chair, his hands behind his head. His grin only got wider when I told him I needed another ten thousand.
At first, I tried to brazen it out. “Come on,” I said. “What’s another ten thousand? Add it onto my original loan.”
He let me have a few seconds of hope. Then, savoring the word, “No.”
I stared at him, getting a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I could sense the power in the room shifting.
“You’re a bad risk,” he told me, leaning forward so that our faces were only a foot apart. I could feel his excitement, almost sexual—he wasthrilledto see what I’d do next.
I got to my feet. “I’ll find someone else.”
“You think we don’t all talk to each other? You think we don’t swap names and numbers? Ten seconds on the phone and you’re blacklisted, Louise.”
