‘You have my word I won’t.’
‘I mean …’ says Em, ‘you killed someone last time we were here.’
‘I did have a reason for that. It’s not ahabit.’
‘Just as well. Because we filmed you as you arrived and got out of your car. We’ve already uploaded the clip, tagged with the date and time of filming, to a secure server, and if we’re found dead, the footage will automatically be released to a pre-set list of police and media.’
‘For Christ’s sake, nobody’s going to kill you.’ Over her shoulder, Alfie looks briefly disappointed. ‘We’ve had quite enough of all that. Once we’re in the account, you’ll be as complicit as we are. And once you’ve got your twenty per cent …’
‘Forty.’
‘Twenty.’
‘Thirty-five.’
‘Twenty.’
‘Twenty-five.’
‘… And once you’ve got yourtwenty per cent,’ Charli snarls, ‘we’ll all be able to hire security and we never need to see each other again. OK?’
‘No,’ says Em. ‘Sorry. Not a good enough guarantee.’
‘Look,’ says Charli, and I can sense her fashionista bonhomie wearing rather thin now. ‘If we get into the account, Alfie and I are leaving the country. I, of course, will be going on a tour of all the places my darling husband and I visited during his tragically shortened life. Nobody will believe you if you claim I was involved, so it makes no difference to me whether you’re arrested or not. And frankly, it’s farmoresuspicious if the three of you are found murdered. I’m better off with you alive and imprisoned. So once we’re in, and you have your cut,you can do what you like. Now can youpleasejust get us all into the account?’
The girls and I look at each other. Em nods at me, although her face is grim.
‘All right,’ I say. ‘Here’s what you do.’
46
Interloping, as I may have said before, is largely an exercise in misdirection. You’re managing the flow of people’s beliefs about you, in a direction very slightly different from the truth but which nevertheless ends up depositing them just where you need them to be. And the other thing I’ve said before is that most people don’t need active deceiving; more often than not, they deceive themselves. Here’s why:
1) Most people like to believe other humans are basically good. If you buy someone’s story, you are buying into a world where strangers don’t lie to you for no reason. That’s a nice world to live in. I’d like to live there myself.
2) Most people are basically good themselves. I haven’t always relied on the kindness of strangers – usually I’m relying on their empty second homes – but there is a basic benevolence about people that would move me to tears if I was sentimental. For example: Len in the beach hut and that half Kit Kat.
3) It takes a bit of mental energy to poke holes in someone’s story, and most people can’t be bothered to do it. Asserting something with confidence carries the day nine times in ten.
Occasionally, of course, these principles don’t apply, which is where my work gets harder. And right now, I’m faced with Charli Harcourt and her human Rottweiler. They don’t believe other humans are benevolent, they aren’t basically good themselves, and despite their busy schedules, they would gladly trot out of their way to tear my story apart. Deceiving them would be impossible. Which is why I’m not going to even try.
‘It’s simple,’ I say. ‘You need three sets of numbers, yes? The sort code, the account number, and the string of digits to get you in.’
‘We don’t need the sort code and account number, idiot,’ says Charli. ‘I have those already. We just don’t have Davy’s personal access number.’
‘Can I tell my friends anyway? It took me ages to work it out, and I’m proud of it.’
‘Ugh.’ But Charli subsides momentarily and I keep talking.
‘Remember what Davy told us before he died?’
‘He said the money was in the outbuilding,’ says Elle.
‘Which doesn’t exist,’ says Em.
‘Exactly. But he stored the information somewhere on the premises. Because he wanted Lulu to get access to his serious money. Charli, I’m sure you’d guessed that already. If Lulu had Davy’s code, plus the sort code and account number, she’d have half control of the whole account. That’s why Davy was so keen to put her and Ben Westcott together. And if you remember, Jonny found out that these accounts are so specialised, they’ll let you pick your own numbers for all three elements.’
‘OK. So where’s the outbuilding?’
