Chapter 33
A light has just been switched on in Vern Blackwood’s villa.
How can that be?
Vern is in England, under the advice of Rosie’s team. His bodyguard is with him, so no one is living here.
And yet someone has just switched a light on. Someone is inside Vern’s villa at this very moment.
Ernesto strokes his moustache. What to do?
Earlier today Ernesto had arranged for Korbin’s corpse to be removed. There is no record anywhere of his real identity (‘I didn’t get him through LinkedIn,’ Vern Blackwood had told him), and so no next of kin.
It is being held at the morgue in Lucca, where an Interpol coroner will do the usual checks. Ernesto has said he stumbled on the corpse in an abandoned warehouse while following the Mexican henchman. No word about Eriksson and no word about this villa. This is his case, no one else’s.
Cause of death, you’d have to imagine, would be the knife in the chest, but you never knew with these things.
The police in Lucca were full of questions.
They were excited, naturally, to be confronted with a rapidly thawing corpse with a big knife sticking out of its chest. Who wouldn’t be?
As cops, you live for this sort of thing.
It is important that Ernesto keep details vague at this point, and so he had pretended to speak no Italian. In truth, he is fluent. He picks languages up fairly easily. It’s just learning different words for things.
He’d only come back to the villa on a hunch. Something strange is happening at this beautiful villa. Two men dead. The name of an extremely wanted man connected to both. One of the dead men carried his note, the other was working for him.
What if Eriksson had wanted the villa empty? What if he has further plans?
Ernesto now sees a figure moving about inside the villa. Jakob Eriksson? Vanishingly unlikely. Somebody sent by Jakob Eriksson? A great deal more likely.
Ernesto really might have hit the jackpot here.
A goon of some sort. Looking for money? Documents? Whatever Jakob Eriksson might be after.
Ernesto could tell him where to look. Before Korbin’s body was removed, Ernesto had been over the whole site. There were certain outbuildings that were heavily protected. Vern had agreed to Interpol taking Korbin’s body so long as Ernesto left everything else well alone.
They had what the English call ‘a gentlemen’s agreement’, which Ernesto, knowing English gentlemen very well, had immediately broken.
He found what he’d expected. Storerooms, safes, chemicals, big, scary-looking machines. The business tools of the online entrepreneur. He’d taken a few photos. No doubt Eriksson’s goon will be doing the same thing.
A light goes on in the upper floor of the villa now.
Should Ernesto go in?
He decides to ring Rosie, but gets no answer. He tries Amy, and she answers straight away.
‘Yes?’ says Amy.
‘It’s Ernesto,’ says Ernesto.
‘Ernesto?’ repeats Amy.
Ernesto hears Steve saying, ‘It’s Ernesto!’ in the background, and is gratified by the joy in his voice.
‘Oh, Ernesto Ernesto,’ says Amy.
‘Yes,’ says Ernesto. ‘Ernesto Ernesto. I’m at Vern’s villa.’
Ernesto hears Steve say, ‘Put him on speaker, put him on speaker.’
‘I have to be a bit quiet,’ says Ernesto. ‘Somebody is here at the villa, I think. Should there be somebody here?’
‘Ernesto, mate,’ says Steve. ‘It’s Steve.’
‘Hey, Steve,’ whispers Ernesto. ‘It is really good to hear your voice.’
‘There’s a new cleaner,’ says Amy. ‘But we paid her for a month, and told her not to visit.’
‘Local cops?’ asks Steve. ‘Perhaps they followed you after you dropped the corpse off? I would’ve.’
‘No one followed me,’ says Ernesto. ‘I’m good at not being followed.’
‘Same,’ says Steve. ‘Same. One of Jakob Eriksson’s men?’
‘You’d guess so,’ says Ernesto.
‘What are you going to do?’ asks Amy. ‘You going to go in?’
‘I think so,’ says Ernesto. ‘Do you think so?’
‘I think so,’ says Amy. ‘There’s a trellis at the back with soft vegetation, that’ll take you up to the roof, and I left a Velux window ajar.’
‘Ajar?’
‘Ajar,’ repeats Amy.
‘A bit open,’ says Steve.
‘Okay,’ says Ernesto. ‘And “trellis”?’
‘Big wooden frame,’ says Steve. ‘For plants.’
‘Okay,’ says Ernesto. ‘One final question –’
‘A Velux window is a sloping attic window,’ says Amy.
‘I am caught up,’ says Ernesto.
‘You have a gun?’ Amy asks.
‘No,’ says Ernesto.
‘No problem,’ says Amy. ‘I’m guessing you’ve broken into all the outbuildings by now?’
‘Of course,’ says Ernesto.
‘In the first accommodation cottage,’ says Amy, ‘I left a gun in the cistern.’
‘The bit full of water on top of the toilet,’ says Steve.
‘Where’s Rosie?’ asks Ernesto. ‘She would enjoy this.’
‘Sleeping,’ says Amy. ‘We’re in Palm Springs to see Tommy Griffin. The last man from the big Vegas meeting.’
‘Okay,’ says Ernesto. ‘Tell her I said hi. Especially if I’m shot and killed.’
‘Will do,’ says Amy.
‘You won’t be shot and killed,’ says Steve.
‘I might be,’ says Ernesto.
‘Okay, you might be,’ says Steve.
‘I’ll ring you in twenty minutes,’ says Ernesto. ‘If I don’t ring, then assume I’m dead.’
‘Copy that,’ says Amy. ‘Cistern, trellis, Velux ajar.’
Ernesto ends the call and slips out of his hire car.
He takes a final sip from a carafe of red wine resting on the passenger seat.
The upstairs light in the villa switches off.
Ernesto crouch-walks to the accommodation cottage.
Looking back at the villa, he sees the figure once again silhouetted, now in the ground-floor window.
Ernesto slides into the cottage and finds the bathroom. He lifts the cistern lid, briefly wondering how ‘cistern’ might be spelt. Could be anything, knowing the English language. If they had any sense it would be S-I-S-T-E-N, but since when have they had any sense?
Amy’s gun is resting above the waterline, as you would expect from a professional. He is looking forward to meeting Amy if he doesn’t die. Ernesto gives it a once-over and leaves the cottage.
The whole property is so beautiful. Again, the money these people have, it boggles Ernesto’s simple Spanish mind. The hours he works, and the risks he takes, for so little money and so little respect. If he catches Eriksson, then that may change.
Inching around the villa walls, Ernesto finds something that looks an awful lot like a ‘trellis’ and, tucking the gun into the back of his trousers, begins to climb.
He can now hear noises from inside the villa. Loud crashes. Somebody is looking for something and is not worried about anyone hearing.
Ernesto hauls himself on to the roof and lies flat. He inches up towards the small, sloping window, prises it open further and drops down into the attic.
Ernesto thinks about that attic in Ecuador. Shooting poor Mr Herrera. Good things very rarely happen in attics.
Vern Blackwood clearly uses this small, dusty space for storage. Around the steeply angled walls are the usual cardboard boxes you would find anywhere. Attics all over the world full of old photos or baby clothes or wooden tennis rackets.
Ernesto opens one of the boxes – a police officer’s prerogative – and finds it is full of bank notes. He opens more boxes. More bank notes. Perhaps not like everybody’s attic, then?
He will certainly be coming back.
Ernesto locates the hatch, gently opens it, and slowly, silently, swings himself down on to a carpeted floor. He can now see the light downstairs very clearly, and also hear the noises of whoever is down there, pulling out drawers and upending furniture.
Ernesto draws his gun. He sees two staircases. He makes for the smaller one and puts his foot on the first step. The staircase is old and wooden, and the step immediately makes a cracking noise in protest.
The noise downstairs stops. Ernesto stops. Including himself, there are two people in the villa, and, for the moment, neither is breathing.
The noise downstairs recommences, and Ernesto heads for the larger staircase. This one is marble. Ernesto nods and starts to work his way down. No squeaking.
Halfway down the stairs he catches sight of a figure, dressed in black, kneeling in front of a bureau, riffling through papers.
Ernesto draws Amy’s gun. If the figure were to turn now, surely they wouldn’t have the chance to pull out and fire their own gun before Ernesto could take a couple of shots?
One in each elbow would be the way to go.
Whoever this crouching figure is must be working for Jakob Eriksson, and Ernesto is already looking forward to questioning them.
Questioning someone who has been shot in both elbows is easy.
They are always keen to be taken to a hospital as soon as possible.
Ernesto raises his gun and is just thinking about which language he should call out a warning in, when, without turning, the figure speaks.
‘Who are you?’ English. And a woman.
‘Who am I? Jesus,’ says Ernesto. ‘Who are you?’
Ernesto takes a few more steps towards the figure, gun still raised.
‘I’m going to turn round slowly,’ says the English woman. ‘I’m unarmed.’
‘If I see a gun, I shoot you in the head,’ says Ernesto.
‘I’m turning round now,’ says the woman.
‘No guns,’ says Ernesto.
‘I know,’ says the woman. ‘Or you’ll shoot me in the head.’
The woman pushes herself up from her crouch and turns. Blonde, late forties perhaps, not unattractive if they were to meet under different circumstances.
Ernesto moves to position himself between the woman and the door. ‘Did Jakob Eriksson send you?’
‘No,’ says the woman. ‘I’m looking for him.’
‘We’re all looking for him,’ says Ernesto. ‘I’m Ernesto from Interpol. What’s your name?’
‘Georgie,’ says the woman. ‘Georgie Glazier. Vern’s ex-wife.’
Ernesto nods. Well, that’s interesting. ‘Does Vern know you’re here?’
Georgie nods towards a broken paving slab next to the tiny shards of a broken window. ‘I just scaled a fence and used a big rock to break in. Take a wild guess as to whether Vern knows I’m here.’
What’s the exact situation here? Is Georgie Glazier friend or foe? ‘What do you know about Jakob Eriksson?’
‘Plenty,’ says Georgie. ‘Put your gun down and I’ll tell you everything about him.’
‘How about I keep my gun up and you tell me everything about him?’ suggests Ernesto.
Georgie thinks about this. ‘Okay. If it makes you feel tough, then keep your gun up.’
‘It does,’ says Ernesto. ‘And I will. What are you looking for?’
‘Money,’ says Georgie. ‘Documents. Bank statements.’
Well, Ernesto knows where she can find money.
‘And who else knows you are here?’ Ernesto asks.
‘No one,’ says Georgie. ‘Are you going to arrest me?’
‘Depends what you tell me,’ says Ernesto.
Georgie looks him up and down. ‘Is it just me, or is there a spark here? Are you feeling this?’
‘I’m not going to put this gun down,’ says Ernesto. ‘But, yes, I feel maybe there’s some chemistry. I get that quite a lot.’
Georgie nods. ‘Me too. Let’s park that for now.’
‘Agreed,’ says Ernesto. ‘Let’s get to know each other.’
Ernesto sees the clock on the wall. It has been twenty minutes since he spoke to Amy and Steve. He should tell them the good news that he is still alive.
‘I need to make a call,’ says Ernesto, taking out his phone in his spare hand.
‘Wife?’ asks Georgie. ‘Girlfriend?’
‘It would be a weird time to ring my wife,’ says Ernesto.
‘So you do have a wife?’ asks Georgie.
‘No,’ says Ernesto. ‘I’m just saying that if I did have a wife, this isn’t when I would ring her. I’d ring her on the way home.’
‘Make your call, lover,’ says Georgie.
Ernesto presses Amy’s number once again. She picks up immediately.
‘That was twenty-one minutes,’ says Amy. ‘You’d better be bleeding to death in a stairwell.’
‘No,’ says Ernesto. ‘All is good.’
‘Who was in the house?’ asks Amy.
Ernesto looks at Georgie Glazier.
‘False alarm,’ he says to Amy. ‘His lights must be on a timer.’
‘So there’s no one there?’
Oh, there’s someone here all right. It’s Vern’s ex-wife, she knows Jakob Eriksson, and she’s looking for money.
‘No,’ says Ernesto. ‘There’s no one here. Speak later.’
‘Speak later, Ernesto,’ says Amy. ‘Steve says hi.’
‘Please say hi to Steve for me,’ says Ernesto and ends the call.
‘Is that Steve who I’ve met?’ asks Georgie.
‘Like if Harrison Ford was English and just wore Iron Maiden T-shirts?’ says Ernesto.
‘That’s him,’ says Georgie. ‘You’re not telling him you found me breaking into Vern’s house?’
‘No,’ says Ernesto.
‘Any reason?’
Any number of reasons. Ernesto finally lowers his gun.
‘Georgie Glazier, let’s talk.’