‘I really do understand that,’ she said.
‘Nice to meet somebody who does. Most people just pretend to love their jobs.’
‘Not me.’ And there, by the Christmas tree, she thought she hadn’t just found her husband. She had found a real, true friend.
They moved in together quickly. Most Mondays, he had said to her that he didn’t want to go to work, that HR was more about inhuman relations than human. Most Wednesdays, he texted her, saying,Hump day – we’re wasting our lives!!
It was after they had Lucy that they left the rat race. Used Simone’s seed fund, ring-fenced in a locked saver and topped up by an enormous loan from HSBC. They opened a restaurant despite having almost no experience in it. They wanted to do something tangible, something that mattered. Not emails. Damien said he wanted to give people an experience, eating in their restaurant, a line Simone had loved so much she had stolen it and repeated it as her own to other people.
Damien knew how to run a business. Simone knew how to make a good cocktail, but that was it.
And then she learned to cook alongside their hiredchef. And that led to the review inThe Timesthat changed everything.
That first Monday, in charge of Dishes, Damien had turned to her and said, ‘I am looking forward to going in, you know.’
There’s five and a half thousand in the business bank now, and bills to pay. Simone didn’t bring the company debit card with her. Damien has it. She risks a text to him, not caring about the consequences.Can you access the business account?
She looks at the screen, wondering if she could transfer it somewhere. She has four thousand dollars with her, cash, for camping supplies and for the campsites. Luxurious, but they wanted it to be.
But it won’t be enough for a ransom.
As she’s thinking this, the burner phone beeps. It creates a physical reaction in Simone’s body, a wrecking ball through her nervous system.
Bring nothing and bring no one. You will be checked. No police. Or else: bang.
Simone stares at the phone.Bang. She can’t think straight. Nobody could. But what do they mean, bring nothing? What deal is to be done if not financial?
She touches the keypad on her own phone, but, this time, doesn’t even dial 911 and delete the numbers, because Damien calls. ‘I’ve got a flight,’ he tells her when she picks up. ‘I’m at Heathrow. Just about made it. Getting the ESTA now. You can apply for some last-minute one.’
‘OK.’
‘It has a connection in New York. Late tonight. Then on to you.’
‘Right,’ Simone says woodenly. For the first time in two decades, she doesn’t know what to say to her husband. And then he asks it: the question that changes everything.
CHAPTER 8
‘What did the police say?’ he asks.
Simone has to hold on to the table. He thinks she called the police. She didn’t say she was going to, did she? No, he simply said that she ought to. And now he evidently doesn’t even think it’s a possibility that she decided not to call them. But how could he? How could she have told the police when that threat was levelled?
Simone stares at the cheap table. Peeling wood veneer, grime at its edges. She starts, several times, to tell him exactly what she thinks, but keeps stopping. Eventually, she settles on a straight bat: ‘I haven’t called them.’ A pause, and then she adds: ‘Yet.’
A beat. ‘What?’ he says, and he’s stunned.
‘The message says not to. They will kill her.’
‘Yes – but –’
‘Damien, they’ve – I’m so scared. I’m so fucking scared of what they will do. So I haven’t done it yet – I haven’t … I physically haven’t been able to.’
‘Are you kidding me?’ he barks, surprising her with a lack of sympathy.
‘No. I’m – Damien. They will kill her.’
‘Simone?’
‘It doesn’t –’
