Page 46 of King’s Ransom

Longmuir said, ‘But you never met him? Or saw his face?’

‘No.’

Audrey shook her head. ‘No disrespect, but this seems a lot bigger than those cases. I mean, the richest man in the world? Two very elaborate traps?’

‘I know,’ I said.

Garrett said, ‘The thing about the Grandmaster is: he’s a paid operator. He always works for someone else.’

‘That’s right.’ I turned to Hooper. ‘Hey, did you find that superintendent—’

Suddenly, a phone rang.

It was Director Longmuir’s.

He answered it.

‘What?’ he growled.

‘Hello, Director.’

It was him.

Longmuir waved everyone to silence and put the call on speaker.

‘Deary me. Poor Ajax. One week, he’s living large with the in-crowd, now he’s just another smear on the New York sidewalk.’

‘We know you’re in here!’ Longmuir roared. ‘This building is sealed off! You can’t get away!’

‘Who says I want to? You know, Director, you really should be more careful. I mean, the bodies are piling up and in all this trouble and strife, treasures of gold and bronze sometimes go missing.’

Longmuir froze.

I stood dead still, listening closely.

The voice said quickly, ‘Where are they? Here’s your clue: you can’t laugh without me. You can’t hate without me. I’m silent even when I’m in an orchestra.

‘You have five minutes to find them. Then I make my demand.’

‘Find them? Find who?’ Special Agent Hooper spat. ‘Who is it this time? More of the kids?’

‘No,’ someone said softly.

It was Zhang Xiao.

‘It’s his wives, King’s wives,’ he said. ‘Trouble and strife. It’s a British saying, Cockney slang for wife.’

My blood went cold as I saw where Xiao was going with this.

‘We need to get back upstairs . . .’ I breathed.

Director Longmuir clearly didn’t see it.

‘Aristo King’s wives?’ he said. ‘He’s had three of them. Two are here, the other one is flying in from Vail.’

‘Gold and bronze,’ I said.

‘Correct,’ Xiao said. ‘The first and the third. King’s first and third wives: Ms Winnie Tan and Yasmina King.’