Chapter Fifty-Four
ON SATURDAY AFTERNOON, Peter comes home and Nadya can tell by the look on his face that something terrible has happened. ‘What is it?’ she asks.
‘They didn’t pay!’ he cries in disbelief. ‘Konstantin gave them instructions, and they ignored them. The fuckers aren’t going to pay!’ He paces the small kitchen, tearing his hands through his thick hair.
She can’t believe it. ‘Those two don’t have the guts,’ she says.
‘They’re terrified of being found out! Why wouldn’t they pay?
’ She thinks quickly. ‘Did they say they weren’t going to pay?
Maybe they couldn’t figure out how to do that Bitcoin thing.
’ She’s holding on to a thread of hope. She wants this.
She wants her million dollars, her new beginning.
She doesn’t want to see it all fall apart.
Her future stretches before her in an endless succession of exhausting days cleaning other people’s houses, and she’s suddenly furious. How dare they!
‘Konstantin is pissed,’ Peter tells her.
Nadya is suddenly afraid. What will Konstantin do now? And the Westcotts. If they have the guts to stand up to Konstantin, will they go to the police about the blackmail? Will the police find out who’s behind it? Will they find out that Nadya’s son gave Konstantin the key and the code?
This can’t be happening. She needs to sit down.
Jill is getting ready to meet Lara for coffee. It is the day after Jill and Ted boldly ignored their blackmailer’s demand. It’s now or never, Jill thinks.
Jill knows that the world is about to be very different for her.
Everyone will soon know what they did, and she will have to face them.
She will have to face their revulsion, their judgement.
Ted seems ready for it. His demeanour seems to say bring it on.
He’s told her that the sooner they face it head-on, the sooner they will come out the other side. She’s not so sure.
These last few months have been so difficult.
The terrible strain of it all – at times she thought she wouldn’t survive it.
But she has. She’s still here. And perhaps, as Ted says, the worst will soon be behind them.
All that fear she held inside, the uncertainty – it was crippling.
At times she felt it was more than she could bear, trying to keep their secret from spilling out into the world.
But now, as Ted says, it’s a relief to be done.
To take a stand and face the consequences.
To say, enough. Could what’s coming be any worse than what they’ve already been through?
It’s true, that now whenever she thinks of Min and her boyfriend, and John, and even Lara, she feels a certain satisfaction.
She and Ted can’t be fucked with any more, and it feels good.
It feels good to say No. It feels good to have the money, and to refuse to let anyone take it from them.
They can deal with the rest. They will have to.
Ted tells her that they don’t have to care about public opinion.
If they hold up their heads and repeat their denials long enough, people might not be sure.
They might give them the benefit of the doubt.
And if they don’t, well so what? A lot of people will believe they deliberately murdered Greg for his money.
But the bottom line is there’s nothing anyone can do about it.
Jill has arranged to meet Lara in a public place so that Lara can’t lose it and start shouting at her about her dead husband.
Jill still feels unhappy about Ben. But there is nothing to tie her and Ted directly to Ben’s death.
It’s too late for Lara to say anything now.
And John isn’t going to say anything either, or he’d be up on a murder charge.
When she arrives at the coffee shop, Lara is already there, waiting for her, enormous with pregnancy.
‘You’re looking well,’ Jill says in greeting. It’s true. Lara has the healthy glow of a woman about to give birth. Jill glances at the scars on her forearm, and sees that they’ve faded, but they’re still there.
‘What’s new?’ Lara asks guardedly, once their coffees have arrived.
‘The estate was finalized last week,’ Jill says, picking up her cup and taking a sip.
‘That’s good news,’ Lara says.
‘It is,’ Jill agrees. ‘It’s finally over.’
‘You mean the waiting,’ Lara says, reaching for her decaf.
‘I mean all of it. It’s all over.’ She lowers her voice. ‘We have the money, and Ted and I have decided not to give in to blackmail.’
The look on Lara’s face as the information registers is one of complete shock.
‘Do you think that’s wise?’ Lara says carefully.
‘Ted and I have given this a lot of thought over the last few months. It’s a bad idea to give in to blackmailers. They just never stop, once they start asking.’ She looks pointedly at Lara.
‘But what about the recordings?’ Lara whispers, aghast, her face darkening. ‘You’ll go to prison!’
Jill says, ‘No, we won’t. Those recordings were made illegally and can’t be used in a criminal or civil trial.
And without them, there is no evidence. At all.
’ She shrugs. ‘As far as the recordings getting out – and they probably will – there’s nothing we can do about that.
They’ll share them with whoever they want – the police, the media – but they’re not going to get a dime from us,’ Jill says.
She pauses and adds, ‘And neither are you.’ Jill watches a flurry of emotions cross Lara’s face – more shock, disbelief, anger.
‘I hope you know what you’re doing,’ Lara says coldly.
‘We do.’
Lara leans in closer and lowers her voice.
‘I think you’re forgetting that the man who broke into our house and tortured me and killed my husband was after those recordings.
Who else would have sent him? Do you think I’m stupid?
You might get away with murdering Greg, but you won’t get away with murdering Ben. ’
‘We had nothing to do with that,’ Jill says firmly, holding her nerve. She tells herself that they could never prove it, not if John doesn’t talk. And he won’t.
Lara snorts. ‘Maybe I’ll change my story of what happened that night – and tell the truth.’
Jill is prepared for this and shoots back, ‘And they’ll wonder what took you so long – maybe they’ll think that you were keeping quiet about it to get money out of us. And we both know that’s true. I’ll tell them about your blackmail. Do you want to go to jail?’
They stare at each other for a long moment.
Then Lara seems to capitulate and says, ‘For what it’s worth, I don’t think you knew what was going to happen.
I can’t believe that. I think it was Ted who sent that – monster.
’ She gets up and carefully manoeuvres her heavily pregnant body away from the table.
‘Goodbye, Jill,’ she says, and exits the coffee shop without looking back.
Ted has requested that John meet him at the pond in Central Park. This is the end, and he’s also feeling like it’s the beginning, the beginning of their new lives, him and Jill. She will see. This is the right way to handle it. The only way.
He would love to be a fly on the wall at Min’s place right now. She must be enraged. Planning her next steps. Well, let her. They’re not afraid. They’ve done their due diligence.
He looks out across the pond. It’s a beautiful Sunday, and there are children sailing their remote-controlled sailboats.
It reminds him of the day he stood here, almost a year ago, knowing that he had finally bested his older brother.
He’s been through a lot since then, but here he is, still standing and worth a fortune, while his brother is at the bottom of the sea.
He hears footsteps approaching and turns to see John coming toward him.
Ted smiles. ‘John. Good to see you.’ It’s not his usual greeting, and John seems to notice.
‘You’re very chipper today. Any particular reason?’
He looks hopeful, Ted thinks. He will raise John’s hopes and then dash them cruelly. ‘Yes, as a matter of fact. The estate has been finalized, at last. And I am a very wealthy man.’
‘That is good news,’ John agrees, reaching for a cigarette, smiling.
‘However,’ and Ted pauses while John lights his cigarette, ‘there’s been a change of plan.’
‘What do you mean?’ John says, blowing out smoke, his eyes alert.
‘We’re not going to pay.’
‘The fuck you’re not.’
Ted says, ‘We’ve decided to face the music, so to speak, take what comes. Because otherwise, we know it will never stop.’ He smiles at John. ‘You know what blackmailers are like. Once they start asking, they never quit. That’s no way to live.’
‘I never took you for a complete idiot, Ted, but I might have to change my mind.’
‘I know what I’m doing.’
‘What about the digital files that you used to be so afraid of?’ John asks. And then, as if it suddenly occurs to him, ‘Did you recover them?’
‘No. I’ve simply changed my perspective. Undoubtedly, it will all come out. But I’m no longer afraid of public opinion.’
‘Is that all you were afraid of, public opinion?’
Instead of answering, Ted says, ‘I know who it was.’
‘Oh yeah? Who?’
‘As if I’d tell you.’
John looks out across the pond, takes a long draw on his cigarette. Then he turns to Ted and says, ‘Well, good luck, Ted. You’ll probably need it.’ And then he walks away.
Ted watches after him with a feeling of satisfaction. He turns back to the pond and breathes deeply. It’s a beautiful day.