“Could you just put Olezka out of his misery? He’s old now anyway. It’ll save someone else doing it later.”
“How would I do that? I couldn’t get within a hundred metres of him.”
“Poison him or something,” Anafisa said. “It’ll be fun.” Anafisa took a sip of the wine and a dribble of it ran from the corner of her plump lips. Her eyes glowed mischievously.
“No,” Borya said. “It’s not possible.”
“No fun. Do you have the packages?” Anafisa asked.
“Not yet, Minty… urrrr… someone else has them. I need to get them from him and sell them, then we’re splitting the money. I expected to have more time than this.”
Anafisa nodded. “How quickly can you do that?”
“I’m supposed to be collecting them from Minty tonight. But now Olezka knows, maybe I should just leave it. I’ll get out of the city. It’s not safe for me here.”
“You should continue with your deal,” Anafisa said. “Get the money and I’ll get you out of the city for a few months. Things are changing around here soon anyway. I have a place in the Alps. It was my husband’s, God rest him. He liked skiing there.”
“Could you do that?” Borya asked.
“Of course,” Anafisa said, kissing Borya. “We’ll get you a car and you can go in a couple of days.”
Borya took a sip of the wine and felt his mood improving. A few months away from the city with half a million euros. He could do that.
"You need to relax. Go and run yourself a bath,” Anafisa said, slipping Borya's coat from his shoulders. "I'll join you in a minute."
Borya smiled. He knew what that meant.
Anafisa listened as Borya walked into the bathroom. When she heard the bath running, she stepped out onto the roof terrace and punched a number into her phone.
“He’s here as you said he would be.”
“Yes.”
“This will be my debt paid, yes?”
“I’ll keep you informed.”
37
“When I first met Lu Lu,” said Lucy’s fiancé Jasper, addressing the party, “I just knew there was something special about her.”
Lucy wrinkled her nose at the compliment.
Allissa watched the scene the way a scientist might scrutinize the contents of a petri dish.
“When we first spoke, that evening at the Commodore Club, I’d just... I’d just never seen someone quite so… delectable.”
Lucy giggled and turned to scan the room.
Allissa drained her third gin and tonic and slid the empty glass onto the table. With fondness she thought of the dark backstreet pubs Leo and herself frequented the world over. She would take some dingy boozer over this pomp and pageantry any day. Pinning a smile to her face, she wondered what her life would have been like if she’d stayed living in the Stockwell family home. Just one of the sofas here, upholstered in fabric made by monks in the Andes —or some shit like that — would probably cost more than all the furniture in Leo and Allissa’s flat combined.
Allissa watched Jasper wax lyrical about his future wife and wondered if she would have ended up married to a man like him too. The more Jasper spoke, the more Allissa found the thought — and the man — repugnant.
“It was really at my parents’ place in Tuscany though, that I decided Lucy was the woman for me. We were…”
As Jasper gesticulated with his glass, Allissa thought of the champagne she’d shared with the girls the night they’d finally opened the guesthouse in Kathmandu. She remembered the genuine laughter which had echoed through the building that night. A million miles from the polite and incoherent tittering around her tonight.
Given a choice, Allissa would much rather be on the sofa with Leo.
With that thought of Leo, Allissa felt the need to check her phone. He hadn’t been in touch all afternoon. He’d been in Berlin for hours now so he must have something to tell her. He was supposed to keep her in the loop. That was the deal.
As though answering her thoughts, Allissa felt her bag vibrate. Flipping the lid, she looked inside. Her phone glowed with an incoming call from Leo.
“And then when I met the family,” Jasper droned, “Eveline, Archie and Blake. You all made me so welcome…”
Allissa scanned the room. Could she slip out and get this?
“Such a shame Blake can’t be with us today. We really hope the powers that be see some sense when the appeal goes to court.”
Allissa looked up from the phone at the assembled people, all listening to Jasper.
“I know Lucy would love so much for her father to walk her down the aisle…”
Every pair of eyes were fixed on the man giving the speech — every pair of eyes but one. Allissa felt Eveline’s pale gaze boring into her.
Allissa clenched her teeth, smiled and slid the phone back into her bag. She couldn’t leave now. She’d have to talk to Leo later.
38
Looking at himself in the mirror, Minty groaned. He used to take so much pride in his appearance — appearance used to be everything — but right now, his reflection was nothing but a disappointment.
Grey and ashen, he looked as though the apprehension of his situation was draining the life from him. His eyes, which used to be bright and engaging, were now red and sunken. He rubbed a hand across his face and blinked hard. It would all be over soon. It would have to be.
Even his hair, which used to shine, now hung bleak and lifeless. Maybe there’s some rough justice in this, he thought, turning the black beanie hat in his fingers. The thing that he’d always been proud of — the way he looked — was being taken from him.
It’ll be over soon though, he thought again as he pulled the black hat down over his matted hair.
Minty was going to meet the Russian. It wasn’t safe to use the phone, apparently, so they had arranged to meet somewhere.
Minty longed to be able to use his phone again.
