“This was week three. It’s an elimination game. We decided that each player should have three lives. If you were knocked out three times, you’d lose your stake and be out of the game. And I had two strikes against me. The winner of each week got what we called living expenses, until the final overall winner was decided.”
“Of course, Toby had to flash his cash about,” Sangeeta complained.
“I think at this point you should tell us what the game involved.” Bryant was striding about with his thumbs in his waistcoat like an old-time prosecutor. The image would have been more appealing if the waistcoat had not been held together with safety pins.
“We wanted to come up with something that wasn’t just based on luck,” said Nicolau. “We thought it should require some skill, bravado even. I was talking to a guy who worked for London Underground, and he told me about a game he’d heard of, a gambling dare you could play on the tube. You pick a stranger, text the amount of your placed bet, then follow the stranger on their journey, and whatever they do scores you points.” Nicolau was warming to his subject, forgetful of the fact that the game had ended in a series of brutal murders.
“I laid down the ground rules. First, you send a photograph of the line you’re going to play on – we’d taken shots of the seat livery in all the different carriages – then you photograph your mark – the person you’ve picked to bet on. To make sure there’s no switching, you also put a sticker on their back to tag them in your pictures. Then you film the different things they do, like reading a book or listening to an iPod – all of the activities score points – and you send the results to the next player’s mobile to verify it. Then you score more points for how many stops they travel, and if they get off at the station you’ve pre-designated, you win that day’s pot.”
“We weren’t allowed to talk to outsiders about the game,” said Toby, his head in his hands. “I had to borrow the stake money from my uncle. I don’t know why I got involved.”
“And with the aid of the robbery, you were able to up the ante,” said Bryant.
“It wasn’t a robbery.” Theo was utterly dismissive of the idea. “It was taking money away from a total creep who would have only spent the profits from his shitty little restaurants on gold bath taps and plasma screens for his stupid villa in Cyprus. And it was my turn to play. I went to Bond Street tube and saw this woman in a bright red polka dot dress, and knew at once that I’d be able to track her through the system without losing her, because she looked so different from everyone else. Man, it was a total winning streak – everything I suggested she would do, she did. I sent the photos and texts to Matt’s phone – he was going to be the next player – and told him that I staked her destination as King’s Cross. I’m good at reading people. I was sure she would get off there, and she did. I followed her up the escalator to the ticket barrier, and just as she got to it, the bitch turned around and went back down.
“Well, in that one second I lost everything. Three strikes. I crashed out of the game, all because she wouldn’t take another two stupid paces through the barrier. I don’t know what happened – I just nudged her in anger, I couldn’t control myself – and I was amazed to see her fall down the stairs. She was wearing these really high heels. So I just kept going as if I hadn’t seen, as if it was nothing to do with me, and caught the first train that came in. I was in a suit and tie. Nobody looked twice at me.”
“Jesus, Theo.” Rajan and Toby were staring at him in horror. Ruby, nursing her broken finger in the corner, remained sullen and silent.
“You don’t understand how frustrating it was,” Theo told them. “It was kind of an accident.”
“Not if you pushed her!”
“Yeah, but I didn’t mean her to die.”
“Let’s move on,” coaxed Bryant. “What happened after that?”
“I thought no-one would find out, but when I got home I remembered I’d sent all my photos to Matt. That woman was all over his phone and laptop. I had some time, though, because the story didn’t get picked up and none of the others knew what had happened. I saw a way that I could still come out on top. Matt came upstairs and told me he had seen the pictures, so he knew I had been eliminated from the game. I made light of it, bluffed it out – I’m a very good poker player.”
“Yeah, he only lies when he opens his mouth,” muttered Ruby.
“On Tuesday night, I took Matt out for a drink with the intention of getting him slaughtered, although he was already half-cut when he turned up. We hit a bar in Spitalfields – there are so many around there and they’re all so crowded that I knew no-one would remember seeing us. I’d taken his asthma spray and switched it with one filled with tobacco tea. Then I gave him the spray and waited for him to get sick, but it took longer than I’d expected. Earlier that day I went around the tube station and checked the cameras, and I could see that a couple were out, but I figured it would be more luck than judgement if I got away with it, because I wouldn’t know exactly where he’d collapse. The most useful thing was that Matt trusted me.”
Theo was anxious to explain, and appeared to be enjoying himself. “It was all pretty simple stuff. I switched coats with him, then he started to pass out behind one of those great big caged fans they’ve placed in the tunnel entrance. I was pretty sure it was a blind spot and the cameras couldn’t pick him up. And I’d been careful to keep my distance from him ever since we’d left Liverpool Street. I even sat on the escalators while he stood, so I wouldn’t be seen. I heard the train approaching, so I left Matt and ran for it. I’m only an inch taller, and in Matt’s hat and rainbow coat I figured I’d look like him from behind. I jumped onto the train but shut the coat in the door – I hadn’t realised how long it was – but when the doors opened I had a better idea. I went to the other end of the carriage, got off and headed for the last Northern Line train.”
“You’d prepared a lot more than that, though, hadn’t you?” Bryant suggested.
“Yeah, I’d taken Matt’s travel card – we used regular tickets ‘cause they couldn’t be traced – and I left it in Toby’s room. And I wrote Ruby’s name in his library books, just to confuse things further. But the best part went wrong. Before I met up with Matt, I drove to the Buddha Bar with Cassie and made a big deal about leaving the Porsche outside. Everyone remembers that car because of the personalised licence plate. I wore my matching red scarf and made sure they all noticed me. I figured I’d go out, meet up with Matt and come back at the end of the evening, and everyone would be so wasted they’d tell anyone who asked that I’d been there all night. Only as I got out of the car, I locked my bloody keys inside it.
“Then I remembered an old trick. If you lock your keys in your car and you’ve got spare keys at home, all you have to do is call someone on their mobile from your mobile. You hold yours about a foot from your car door and have the other person press the ‘unlock’ button, and it opens your door. So I called the house and Ruby answered the phone. I was kind of in a panic and I think she sensed that. Didn’t you, Ruby?”
“Don’t involve me, you scumbag,” she warned. “Everything you said, everything you ever told me was a lie.”
“Hey, it’s what I do.” Theo grinned at her. Incredibly, it seemed he was comfortable making jokes.
“Go on,” said May.
“I asked Ruby to help me unlock the car, and knew I’d compromised my alibi. So I thought to hell with it, and I asked her to say she saw me come home earlier than I did. I knew she was nuts about me, so I was kind of in the clear. I got to the bar to meet Matt – he’d already had a massive head start drinking with some old mates from Nottingham – but he still wasn’t drunk when we left. I had to wait a few minutes for the booze to kick in. I got him out of breath at King’s Cross and persuaded him to use the spray, went back to collect the car and then headed home. I had the evidence from Matt’s mobile, and no-one would ever suspect a thing. Plus, it looked like the money would default to me, because the game had to be stopped if the next player couldn’t take their turn. In this case, the next player had died – or at least, gone missing – I hadn’t expected him to crawl off like that. There were two small problems I needed to deal with, though, because you guys were starting to sniff around the house.
“First, Nikos was still holding the cash, and I knew it would be found if the house was searched. So he came up with a good idea – he went to some jeweller’s in Hatton Garden and used the money to buy a ring. You know what Jews are like, they see wads of money and don’t ask questions.” He smiled ingratiatingly at everyone, making Longbright’s skin crawl. “And to keep Ruby sweet, I told her she could wear it – to prove how sincere I was, you know?
“Everything had fallen back into place. I mean, obviously we couldn’t play on with you watching us, so the game was declared over. The others were furious, but like I said, we’d put a clause in the rule book saying that in the event of a
“But they had no proof that you were the winner,” May pointed out.
