Page 136 of King’s Ransom

‘I don’t think we’re alike,’ I said.

‘We both prepare deeply, we both analyse closely, we both immerse ourselves in the details of a matter, and we are both ill-suited to this banal world, although I am pleased to see you finally found a girlfriend. Still afraid of helicopters, though?’

I paused.

‘You’ve read my—’

‘Your personal file kept by Dr Lucille Hollins,’ he said. ‘Your therapist in Houston. She’s fond of you, you know. Good therapist, too, by the looks of it, but like many suburban psychologists, she really needs to install better security on her broadband network.’

‘Then you’ll also know that I’m on the autism spectrum and thus kind of impervious to psychological manipulation,’ I said.

‘We’ll see about that.’

‘So, you researched me?’ I said.

‘I had to. When I created that list of the five best detectives for December 21, I had no choice but to include you. I mean, after that big case you solved in the South, for a while there you were the most famous detective in America. How could you not be on a list of the country’s best private investigators?’

This was something I’d wondered about.

Why bring five top detectives to 59West at all? Five professional crime-solvers who could unravel his plans?

Overconfidence? Arrogance? A vendetta I didn’t yet know about?

‘Why’d you bring the five of us to that tower anyway?’ I asked. ‘Any one of us could’ve wrecked your plans.’

‘But none of you did. As I said, sometimes I like to challenge myself, make things more difficult.’

‘What’s behind your company name, Modern Alchemical Solutions?’ I asked suddenly. ‘It seems very specific.’

‘It is. At its heart, the concept of alchemy is about transformation. The alchemists of old sought to turn lead into gold. My modern version involves transformations, too, but in both directions. I turn lead into gold and gold into lead.’

‘You’ll have to explain that to me.’

‘I transform people’s lives, for better and for worse. I have turned poor people into rich people and I have made rich people poor. I have made ugly people pretty and pretty people grotesque. I have given the downtrodden satisfaction over their tormentors while I have also helped bad men like Roman Oberov and his Russians exact retribution on other bad men.’

‘You think you’re doing good?’

‘I just am.’

‘What do you want?’ I demanded flatly.

And for the first time, he paused.

‘Why do you ask that?’ he said.

‘Because this isn’t about money. I don’t think you care for that. And this isn’t about Aristo King. I don’t think you care about him either. This is a game to you. One that’s not over yet.’

‘It was over,’ he said. ‘You’re the one who kept it alive.’

‘I can be like that.’

‘Gosh, I like you! So ingenuous and dogged!’ he exclaimed. ‘What do I want? To overcome the crushing tedium of this world. To make my life in some way interesting. To make people squirm as I push them beyond their psychological limits.

‘This is why I created Modern Alchemical Solutions. To bring customers with interesting problems to me. Governments who want people quietly killed in prison cells. Businesses who want rivals hobbled. Wives who want cheating husbands humiliated. Like I said, I am the inverse of you: you try to prevent what I try to achieve. Which, I suppose, is why we are talking now. Tell me, do you love this girlfriend of yours, Agent Mills?’

I hesitated. ‘I, well—’

‘See, you are susceptible to psychological manipulation. You sold yourself short with that autism spectrum nonsense. I know that you can love and that means you can lose.’