‘Clarity wanted to bust him, and Mandalay, and Zelda Forshaw. So she sent out an online questionnaire; it was a trap. She wanted to catch out Mandalay and Zelda lying, demonstrate to Harry Sweetwater there was a conspiracy. Instead, your girlfriend owned up, reported Molloy’s use of her passwords. Sweetwater ridiculed Clarity, belittled her. She got the shits, dug her heels in and kept up her pursuit. She asked me to monitor Molloy as well as Mandalay and Zelda.’
‘So you were reporting to Clarity Sparkes, not Sweetwater?’
‘Technically. But I wasn’t an idiot. Sweetwater held all the power, Clarity was an outsider. She had no idea what the bank really did.’
‘And you did?’
‘Yeah. I worked it out.’
‘That’s very clever of you,’ says Martin. ‘So you also told Sweetwater what was going on?’
‘Yeah. I wanted to stay on the right side of him.’
Griff interrupts. ‘Who else did you tell?’
The Turtle stares at her, hesitating for a moment. ‘Claus Vandenbruk. I was his ears and eyes.’
‘On what basis?’ asks Martin.
‘He said he was a policeman, running an investigation. That if I cooperated, he’d see I was looked after.’
‘You believed him?’
‘Yes. He took me into police headquarters late at night. He had all the security passes, everything. Of course I believed him.’
Martin glances at Griff; she glances back, despairing. ‘Go on,’ says Martin.
‘Clarity guessed something was going on that Friday when she learnt that Mandalay and Zelda were both away. I’d seen Molloy leave envelopes on their desks on Thursday morning. She alerted Sweetwater and Titus Torbett. They figured he was a thief, that he was planning to steal money. They didn’t want the police anywhere near the bank. They even considered killing him. Clarity wasn’t privy to any of that, but she came up with a solution. She had a tame goon who could beat him up, warn him off. Sweetwater and Torbett agreed.’
‘Henry Livingstone.’
‘Yeah. That arsehole.’
‘How did you know all of this?’
‘I was part of it. I was going to monitor what was going on through CCTV. Record what he did.’
‘So what did you do?’
‘I told Vandenbruk.’
‘Without the knowledge of Sweetwater and Torbett?’
‘That’s right.’
‘And what did Vandenbruk say?’
‘Nothing. Not to me. Just asked me to tell him what was happening and when.’
‘So what did happen?’
‘Livingstone beat the crap out of Molloy, as planned. Threw him out on the street. Where Vandenbruk picked him up.’
‘And no one saw this?’
‘I saw it. My cameras saw it. I recorded it.’
‘What happened to the recordings?’
‘I wiped them. I’m not mad.’
‘And Vandenbruk was in your debt.’
‘Something like that.’
Martin shakes his head. ‘That’s awfully high risk. He could have killed you as well.’
‘Not if he thought some recordings existed.’
‘So do they?’
‘No.’
Martin looks at Griff.
She shrugs. ‘Doesn’t matter. Vandenbruk has confessed.’
Martin returns his attention to the Turtle. ‘Molloy had a thumb drive. You saw it. It was on the video. What happened to it?’
‘Livingstone took it. But no one really cared about it.’
‘What? Why not?’
‘Because Molloy was smart. No one knew he was a cop. Everyone thought the drive simply held the code he used to steal the money.’
‘So where was it?’
‘Livingstone found it when he was beating the shit out of Molloy and he gave it to Clarity. She couldn’t open it, so she put it in a safe deposit box. It’s probably still there.’
Martin looks to Griff then Goffing. Neither says anything. He returns his attention to the Turtle, but instead of telling him that the police now have the thumb drive, he leaves the captive in the dark.
‘How could you know that?’
‘I told you, I know everything.’
‘So I see,’ says Martin, eliciting a smirk from Griff. ‘But back to Molloy’s murder. That was Friday, what happened next?’
‘Monday, after the Greenwich Mean Time reconciliation, the alarms went off. Millions were missing. The transaction was traced back to Mandalay’s computer on the trading-room floor, but she’d been away on the Friday. I had the video. It was clear Molloy had taken the money.’
‘So what happened then?’
‘Sweetwater went ballistic at Clarity. But he calmed down pretty quickly. So did Titus. So did Vandenbruk, for that matter.’
‘Why? I don’t understand?’
‘The computer logs. They revealed Molloy had stolen the money, but nothing else. All of them were shitting themselves that he had compromised the bank’s operations, uncovered its secrets. So when they learnt it was theft, pure and simple, they were relieved. Sweetwater and Titus didn’t know that Molloy was dead. They didn’t even want to call in the police, but they had to, to satisfy Clarity. Zelda Forshaw was the sacrificial lamb and everyone was happy enough. Sweetwater was more worried about his reputation back in the States than the money. Ten million was chicken feed.’
‘So Molloy took nothing else? Just money?’
‘No. That’s only what they thought. That’s what the computer logs said. I told you he was clever.’
Martin exchanges a look with Goffing and another with Griff. And now he understands. The undercover policeman had stolen a trove of damning information, piled it onto the thumb drive and then covered his trail in such a way as to make it look like theft. Brilliant in its way. And he’d almost got away with it.
‘And Vandenbruk?’
‘Same.’
‘So everyone was happy?’
‘Except for Clarity. Dumb bitch was like a dog at a bone. She kept probing. Eventually she probed too far.’
‘You said that Sweetwater killed her. The overdose: it wasn’t accidental.’
‘No. That was him.’
‘How do you know?’
He smiles. ‘I told you. I know everything.’
‘Is that what you told Henry Livingstone when he beat you up? That Sweetwater killed Clarity Sparkes?’
‘Yes.’
Martin nods. So that’s why Livingstone was gunning for Sweetwater: the mobster had killed his girlfriend. The mafia contract had nothing to do with it. ‘I thought you were working for Claus Vandenbruk?’
The Turtle just smiles and shakes his head. ‘I never worked for any of them. That’s what they never understood. They never trusted each other—why should I trust any of them?’
‘Thanks, Kenneth, we might leave it there.’ It’s Goffing interjecting. He taps his watch, signalling to
