Then she showed him a photo of Ursula Brunner, a Swiss national who gained US citizenship in 1984.
‘That’s my wife,’ Melvin said, his eyes flashing with jubilation.
They now knew that Ursula had died in 2020. She was repatriated by Hampton-Dent.
Kelly closed the laptop and sat back and closed her eyes.
‘Did you write this on your computer, Melvin?’ she asked him.
The fifteen-page document had been found on his MacBook inside his cottage and it seemed to be some kind of diary record of his life at Rydal with dates, names and details about his illness.
He looked blankly at her.
‘It says here that Hank came to see you,’ she said. ‘The man in the cream suit? And Sandy, Doctor Cooper, the scientist?’
She assessed the ridiculousness of her situation. An uncommunicative murderer, another in the hospital, a chain-smoking scientist who’d been handed over to the US Embassy, and a dead CEO.
Only Hank remained standing in his cream suit (she assumed he had several clean ones) and she’d already been told by Del Booker that he was untouchable.
She thought words like that belonged in Kevin Costner movies but apparently not; they resonated around the walls of Eden House too.
Untouchable.
She couldn’t imagine the level of power it took to gain such status and she shuddered to think what he might do next.
There was no diplomatic incident because firstly no one would believe her and secondly she’d lose her job if she told anyone.
Only Joe Folly could have exposed something like this and they’d found him beaten to a pulp inside a flat in Ambleside, just like Sandy said.
He was now inside one of Ted’s fridges waiting to be cut open and examined, and Kelly wondered how many lies they’d find inside him.
She stood to leave, and Melvin wanted to shake her hand. He smiled up at her and she stared at him. He’d stabbed Johnny in his stomach. The blood was still on her clothes. Yet he still smiled. And it wasn’t a challenging, I-told-you-so, evil grin; it was a genuine effort to make contact with another human being, because that’s what Melvin Stone did. He was a respectable veteran with an impressive past who’d been decorated. But Hampton-Dent had created a monster, and she wasn’t allowed to talk about it.
Kelly turned away, left the room, and went next door, where a live feed had been set up between Eden House and the Penrith and Lakes hospital.
Kevin Streeting was a different ball game. From the moment she’d seen Mercedes man on the first video, filmed by the hapless Instagrammer, cocking his weapon, when Jamie crashed into the atrium floor, she knew he didn’t possess a gun for show. He was primed to expect something. Because Hank Hampton knew there might be trouble.
Something had gone wrong.
Melvin Stone had malfunctioned and Hank and Tilda were there to mitigate disaster, with Sandy Cooper’s help.
Kelly sat next to Dan and Kate and they looked at Kevin Streeting in his hospital bed.
He was out of surgery and fed up.
Mercedes man was exactly what she expected. He’d been shot in the bushes cocking his weapon. Another second and he would have got a well-aimed round off, and not one that fired into the air. It was difficult to tell who he was aiming at, but she guessed it was her.
He stared into the camera, held by a uniform in the Penrith and Lakes. Streeting was handcuffed and physically incapacitated. Kelly could tell he was angry.
‘Can you confirm your name for the record?’ she began.
They confirmed nationality and DOB, as well as address and marital status.
Streeting was a British citizen and so at least she could throw the book at him.
‘How long have you worked for Hank Hampton as a bodyguard?’ she asked.
‘Fuck off,’ he said.
