“Ten million isn’t exactly poor, Alice.”
“It would have been a nest egg, nothing more. But there was another reason why I did what I did, Mr. Allon. A much more important reason.”
Which brought them, at long last, to the early-morning hours of the twelfth of February, when Alice Winter, having had far too much to drink, and in a state of profound emotional distress, wrapped her Aston Martin roadster around a tree a mile from her husband’s grand estate in the English county of Devon.
34
Lauterbrunnen
She had spent the evening alone with Edward at Wickham House, which was unusual. Even in rural Devon, the endless merry-go-round of their social life rarely stopped. They had a quiet dinner together, then Edward retreated to his office and Alice traipsed upstairs with a glass of Bordeaux and switched on the television. Around half past ten her glass was empty so she went downstairs for a refill, enough to get her through the next episode ofShetland. As she was leaving the kitchen she wandered over to Edward’s wing of the house and heard him shouting at someone over the telephone behind the closed door of his office.
“This too was unusual, Mr. Allon. Edward occasionally puts on a booming boardroom voice when he wants to sound impressive, but he’s not the sort to lose his temper.”
“I don’t suppose you went back upstairs to watchShetland.”
“Heavens no. I did what every other wife would have done in that situation.”
“You picked up an extension?”
“The one in the kitchen.”
“And what did you hear?”
“The voice of Dmitri Savin.”
They had slipped out of the chalet and were walking side by side along a footpath on Alice’s side of the valley. With her short dark hair and oversize sunglasses she was all but unrecognizable.
“And you’re absolutely sure it was Dmitri?”
“Edward referred to him by name. Called him a lot of other things as well, none of them flattering.”
“And the topic of conversation?”
“Edward informed Dmitri that he was terminating their relationship. He also said he had no intention of repaying the money Dmitri had invested in the Knight Group because Dmitri was under sanction and unable to conduct business in the West. That was when things got really ugly.”
“How so?”
“Dmitri threatened to terminate Edward, or words to that effect. And then he threatened to kill me as well. As you might imagine, it was the last straw. Somehow I managed to wait until the call had ended before barging into Edward’s office. We went at it hammer and tongs until two in the morning, when I climbed into my lovely Aston Martin and set off for London. Regrettably I’d had another glass of wine or two during our lengthy quarrel.”
“And to make matters worse,” said Gabriel, “a tree leapt out of the woods and hurled itself in front of your car.”
“It’s possible I said those exact words to the constables who pulled me out of the wreckage. It was little wonder they took me straight to the A&E ward in Exeter. Edward and his lawyer showed up soon after.”
“They refused to allow the investigating officer to talk to you.”
“Now you know why.”
They had reached the fringes of the village. They turned onto the high street and strolled past a parade of shops. “And when you were out of the hospital?” asked Gabriel.
“Edward was sweetness and light. He waited on me hand and foot. It was quite pathetic.”
“Did it work?”
“Edward thought so. But I had no intention of remaining married to a man who was doing business with the bloody Russians in the middle of the war in Ukraine.”
“You had drinks with Peter Hoffmann at the Connaught not long after the accident.”
“That’s where the conspiracy was hatched,” said Alice. “In the bar of the Connaught Hotel. We agreed that I would disappear during my annual summer holiday with my Cambridge chums. Darling Pheebs thought we should go to Iceland this year, but I overruled her. Ibiza was the perfect spot for an abduction.”
