Page 76 of King’s Ransom

AS FOR FINAL PAYMENT, I KEEP

ALL RANSOMS AND YOU INHERIT

EVERYTHING WHEN YOUR HUSBAND

RUNS OUT OF OXYGEN AND DIES

YASMINA K.

DEAL

‘Holy shit . . .’ Bill said, reading the texts over my shoulder. ‘His wife arranged it all.’

Right then, the circus arrived: a bunch of NYPD cruisers and FBI Buicks bearing Special Agent Hooper, Director Longmuir and at least a dozen other agents.

Longmuir went straight to Aristo King.

Some agents went over to take a statement from the gardener, Maria Dubrowski.

Hooper charged over to us.

‘What the fuck is going on—?’ he began.

‘Special Agent Hooper,’ Garrett said firmly, ‘call the NYPD at the tower. Tell them not to let Yasmina King go anywhere. She may be involved in this. Call financial crimes, too. Get them to start doing checks into all of her recent bank transfers.’

‘Yasmina King?’ Hooper said quizzically.

‘She and the Grandmaster were in contact,’ Garrett said, holding up the cell phone.

Hooper pulled out his phone and stepped away to make some calls.

I just stood there in the old graveyard, in the falling snow, gazing at the open grave and the three dead bodies, thinking.

In addition to all that we’d just been through—in particular, Audrey getting shot—there was still something on my mind, something that evidently wasn’t on anybody else’s.

I looked over at Director Longmuir, standing protectively over Aristo King as the billionaire sat on the rear fender of the ambulance.

Longmuir looked very pleased with himself. He’d led the mission that had saved the world’s richest man.

Merritt Garrett went over to them. I saw King shake the detective’s hand vigorously.

A few steps behind me, Special Agent Hooper was speaking into his phone.

‘What a day,’ Bill said. ‘Thank God it’s over.’

‘It’s not over,’ I said.

‘What? Why?’ Bill said.

‘We still have one unsolved problem. We still need to find Aristo King’s youngest daughter, Katya.’

‘Were we ever given a riddle about her?’ Bill asked.

I nodded at the yellow Post-It still pinned to Aristo King’s t-shirt, visible just above his blanket.

‘It’s over there, on King’s shirt, a note saying “Titanic Oscar2”. If we hadn’t killed the Grandmaster, I imagine saving her would’ve required one last ransom.’

‘Can you figure it out?’ Bill said.