The phone, containing the first ransom: destroyed.
The only witness, Lucy: blindfolded, with no idea who did it to her. Simone believes her, but would anyone else?
The trip to Mexico, captured, logged. She used her own name, bag collected.
The drugs: sitting there, with no evidence of a demand.
‘Do you think this man has a criminal record?’ she says urgently to Lucy.
‘I – I don’t know,’ she answers.
‘Can you … Keep this on the bleeding,’ she tells her, then stands. She goes to get the bag, kneels on the ground and begins trying to dig with her hand, then the toe of her trainer.
‘What are you doing?’ Lucy says.
‘I can’t – I can’t,’ Simone replies. ‘We need to hide this.’
‘What is it?’
‘Just … we need to …’
‘What are you doing? What is it?’
‘Do you remember anything – anything useful at all that you can tell the police?’ Simone asks urgently.
‘I – he took me … I never saw him. He took me somewhere. I don’t know where. I can tell them, though. I can tell them!’
‘Yes,’ Simone says. ‘Yes, we can both tell them what happened.’
‘You came out to holiday with me!’ Lucy says. ‘They won’t think …’
‘I know,’ Simone replies. Still frantically digging, while Lucy looks on, alarmed and confused, but the ground won’t give.
And she is still thinking how it seems.
The lie Damien told to Luan, a business opportunity in Texas. Drugs. The way Simone backed him up on it, in writing, on a message to Luan that will have been saved on some cloud forever.
The next message to Damien: the transaction has been completed. The second phone, stamped on by her and binned.
The victim: killed by Simone in cold blood.
A murder confession on a roadside payphone.
The drugs. They’re on the ground by the man. Possibly millions of pounds’ worth of cocaine.
No CCTV out here.
No witnesses. Only Lucy.
She’d told the police officer outside the lodge that she was with her daughter.
The ransom that told her not to tell anyone is destroyed.
She never even mentioned it in writing to Damien; she was too afraid to, because of what she had been told to do.
What a fool.
And then, before she can even process this, the second thing happens.
