The Ransom Note (The Severance Series book 7) by Mark McKay

Author:Mark McKay [McKay, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mark McKay
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

Mariko’s intervention distracted them all for a minute or two. Johnston poured tea for him and Zelda. Nick and Mariko chose the whisky.

‘Tell us everything about what you were working on,’ said Johnston. ‘From the beginning. We’re going to record it all.’

He put his phone on the coffee table, and Zelda did the same. Both phones had voice recorders, which they activated.

Nick looked at his wife. She emptied her glass in one mouthful. It had an effect. Suddenly, the unflappable, ice-cool Mariko, head of the Crimson Dragon Society, took over.

‘Just a minute.’ She stood up and went out of the room. She was back in no time, holding the envelope with the note in it. ‘Nick wasn’t entirely honest with you. Read this.’

She handed Johnston the note, which he opened so Zelda could see it, too. They read it in silence. The silence continued as they digested the implications. Then Zelda spoke.

‘And did you find anything on the laptop?’

‘I think I did,’ replied Nick. ‘Trouble is, the data is corrupted. I don’t know if it’s significant or not. I assume it must be.’

‘OK,’ said Johnston. ‘We’ll get to that. Just tell us the whole story first.’

Nick fetched his notebook, where every step of the investigation had been written down. From his initial meeting with Rory through to stopping any further work on the case, he spent the next hour relating all that had happened. While he was doing this, Zelda was scribbling some notes of her own. When he finished, she had some demands.

‘First, I want Gordon’s phone, and the hard drive. I have access to recovery specialists who might be able to retrieve the corrupted data.’

‘Sure,’ said Nick.

‘Good.’ She glanced at her notes. ‘The man you found dead,’ she continued, with a poker face. ‘And WPC Griffiths, who told you about the burglar they also found dead. We’ll look into those deaths in more detail. It might be too late for autopsies, of course …’ She thought for a moment. ‘The Pearce family. I want to speak to all of them. I’ll need contact details. And that includes Vikki. Is she still in the clinic?’

‘I don’t know. Might be home by now. I’ve had no contact with anyone other than Rory, and he didn’t mention Vikki.’

‘OK. What else? Yes, good work in identifying Natalia Semyonova as an FSB agent. I want all the details of how you achieved that.’

‘I’ve got the printouts on that,’ interrupted Johnston. ‘I’ll let you have them.’ Then it was his turn to demand something. ‘About what happened in Prague with Jan Novotný. I want the address of that office building. Czech intelligence should be able to assist in tracking him down.’

‘Right. And finally,’ said Zelda. ‘Vikki Pearce has a bank account she didn’t have before, with £2 million in it. Which probably originated with her grandfather. But you haven’t told him that. Am I right?’

‘No. I promised Vikki I would keep it confidential.’

‘But Mr Severance, that’s no coincidence, is it? That £2 million matches the amount paid to the Archangel Group by Randall Pearce.

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