Page 187 of King’s Ransom

Me: ‘What about all the people who died? The cops, the bodyguards, the FBI people?’

Winnie: ‘Who cares? They were inconsequential people, human rounding errors, nobodies with meaningless lives who the world won’t miss. People like Ari and me are important, we change the world.’

The crowd reacted angrily to that.

Me: ‘And Ajax King?’

Winnie: ‘He was the son Shelby had to Aristo when Aristo was cheating on me. His death was a bonus.’

At that, a man in the watching crowd exclaimed, ‘Fuck . . .’

Me: ‘You’re a really nasty lady, you know that?’

Winnie Tan: ‘Cut this little four-eyed shit into tiny pieces and dispose of him. I want him gone. Gone. That would give me satisfaction.’

Unperson: ‘As you know, Samuel, the customer is always right. As you wish, ma’am.’

The TVs froze on a still image of Winnie’s furious face glaring straight down the lens of my pen’s camera.

The room was silent.

Aristo King was staring at Winnie Tan.

All the guests were staring at Winnie Tan.

And then Winnie Tan saw me over by the elevators at the back of the crowd.

‘You . . .!’

I gazed back at her with level eyes. ‘Your man buried me, just like you asked, but now I’m back from the dead.’

Director Longmuir shoved Hooper forward. ‘Arrest that woman, now.’

‘Yes, sir.’

I walked with Hooper as he made his way through the shell-shocked crowd toward Winnie Tan and Aristo King at the picture window overlooking Central Park.

As we did, Longmuir called, ‘All right, folks! Please stay still for a moment! We’re going to take care of this!’

As Hooper and I reached Winnie Tan, I saw Aristo King staring slack-jawed at his former wife.

Beside him, Merritt Garrett and Mia Kimura also watched, speechless.

King said, ‘Winnie, really? Did you arrange it all?’

‘Ari . . .’ she said. ‘I did it for you—’

I glimpsed a brief distant flash of light from outside the picture window an instant before it happened.

Crack—

Shlap!

The crack was the sound of a sniper round penetrating the picture window behind Winnie Tan, creating a small hole.

Shlap was the sound of the round slamming into Winnie Tan’s head and making it explode like a smashed watermelon, her blood and brains splattering all over Aristo King’s face.

The guests screamed.