Page 95 of King’s Ransom

(I also got Georgy to make a few calls, because I wanted to go back to 59West. The building would still be shut down—I mean, what with the multiple crime scenes and the fact it had also suffered an explosion on the 61st floor—but I figured that as Yasmina’s attorney, Georgy could find a legal reason to make that happen.)

As for me, call No. 1 was to Heidi.

She answered on the first ring.

‘Hey, little man. How’s your gal?’

‘The doctor says he plans to bring her out of her coma on the 28th,’ I said. ‘I’m calling for another reason. We have a new client. Yasmina Ivanova.’

I gave Heidi a brief summary of Yasmina’s case and her claim that she’d been set up.

Then I said, ‘I’m heading to Brighton Beach to see if I can talk to some Russians there. Can you check out Wife No. 2, Shelby Cox and her daughter, Cassandra? Maybe even go interview them, if they’ll see you. See if you can find out if they were connected in any way to what happened on December 21st.’

Heidi said, ‘Apart from the fact that Cassandra was attached to the outside of a window and saw her brother fall to his death?’

‘Yes, apart from that.’

(I would have thought that was obvious.)

I added, ‘See if you can make contact with the nanny, Madison Barnes, too. She may have wanted to remove Yasmina from the picture.’

‘I’ll see what I can find out,’ Heidi said and hung up.

As we passed by Brooklyn, I made another call.

‘You’ve reached the offices of the Tech Detect. How may I help you?’ a young woman’s voice answered.

‘Hi, I’m Sam Speedman, I worked with Monty the other day at 59West. I think he’ll remember me—’ I began.

‘Dr Speedman!’ the young lady at the other end of the line exclaimed. ‘Of course! Monty said great things about you. He said you were amazing during all that stuff in the tower. Let me see if he’s free.’

She put me on hold and then, a second or two later, put me through.

‘Sam,’ Monty Woods’s voice said. ‘How’s your girlfriend?’

‘Still in the hospital, but the doctor says she’ll be okay.’

‘Glad to hear it. What’s up?’

‘I’ve got a new client and I thought maybe you could help me out on the case.’

‘Who?’

‘Yasmina Ivanova. She says she was set up.’

Silence on the other end of the line.

I wondered what the Tech Detect was thinking.

Then he spoke.

‘Do the Feds know about this?’

‘Not yet.’

‘They won’t be happy.’

‘Probably not,’ I agreed.