‘This box was six thousand years old,’ says Nina. ‘Can you even begin to comprehend that? None of us matters, Garth. We pretend that we do, we pretend that we have a purpose, but this planet existed without us for millions of years, and it will exist for millions of years more without us. Every breath we take is a dying breath. Human life isn’t sacred.’
‘That’s all very convenient for you,’ says Garth. ‘At least just say you were greedy and you didn’t care a single damn. You could have simply stolen the thing.’
‘He was asking me to take it to a museum. He trusted me,’ says Nina. ‘Trusted that I would take it to the right people. He’d known me since I was a kid, known my parents. You think he would have kept quiet when I sold it?’
‘Throw him a million?’ Garth says. ‘That might have bought his silence.’
‘He would have said no,’ says Nina. ‘But look at it this way. He was old, he’d had fun, a full life, whatever people mean by that. He rings me, he trusts me, he tells me what he has. I tell him not to be frightened, that we can find our way through this, that I’ll help. I’m calm, and that makes him calm. We arrange to meet –’
‘In the woods?’ says Garth.
‘As far away from prying eyes as we can,’ says Nina. ‘I could tell, by the time we’d finished talking, that even he was getting a little excited.’
‘It is pretty exciting,’ says Garth.
‘He drives to Kent, drives down the lane, meeting someone he trusts. Up I walk, one shot. He doesn’t see it, doesn’t feel it, has no moment of fear. His life ended quickly, which is all you can ask for, isn’t it? A long life and a quick death, that’s the dream. I did him a favour.’
‘A painless death for him, and five million for you?’
‘Everybody wins,’ says Nina. ‘It’s everything my parents never would have done. I don’t intend to ever be poor again.’
‘You’re a pretty good shot,’ says Garth. ‘Hard to kill a guy through a window with one bullet. Believe me, I know.’
‘YouTube videos,’ says Nina. ‘I’m a quick learner. I wanted it to be painless, so I watched videos of vets killing horses.’
‘Jesus,’ says Garth. ‘And they call me a psychopath.’
‘I’m not a psychopath,’ says Nina. ‘I had no money, I have debts, I have a job I hate. My parents are gone. Suddenly the chance to never work again fell from the heavens.’
‘This box doesn’t come from the heavens,’ says Garth. ‘It comes straight from hell.’
‘It’s just a box,’ says Nina.
Garth shakes his head.
‘So I did the rational thing,’ says Nina. ‘That’s all I did.’
Garth thinks about this. He finds philosophy interesting. But, whichever way he cuts it, he can’t agree with her. Kill people, sure, if they’ve done something wrong. If they deserve it. But for profit? No. He only realized when Elizabeth explained it to him that Luca Buttaci hadn’t killed Samantha. Luca knew she was dead because he was working with the cops. Which is almost as bad.
But Luca had killed plenty of other people. And if you kill plenty of people, you’ve got to expect someone’s going to throw you off a car park one day. One day someone will throw Garth off a car park, or run him down with a truck, and Garth won’t have any complaints. But Kuldesh didn’t deserve to die.
‘You could have not killed him?’ says Garth. ‘You could have buckled down at work, you know?’ says Garth. ‘Got on with your life, paid off your debts and taken some responsibility for your own problems.’
Nina nods. ‘I suppose so, but this was so much easier.’
‘You have a bad attitude,’ says Garth.
‘My whole life I’ve had a good attitude and been poor,’ says Nina. ‘Now I have a bad attitude, and suddenly I’m rich.’
‘And killing my wife was the rational thing too?’
‘Your wife?’ says Nina. ‘Samantha? I didn’t kill her.’
‘Don’t lie to me,’ says Garth.
‘I killed Kuldesh,’ says Nina. ‘And he didn’t feel a thing. I didn’t kill your wife. Why would you give me five million pounds if you thought I’d killed your wife?’
‘You killed her,’ says Garth. ‘There is no five million. The deal was just that I get you to confess, and they’d let me disappear.’
‘Who would let you disappear?’ says Nina.
‘Who do you think?’ says Joyce, as she, Elizabeth and Bogdan sit at the table.
‘No, this is … What are you d–’ Nina cannot get her words out.
‘Walk with us please,’ says Elizabeth. ‘No struggling, no fuss. Garth, you have twenty minutes to disappear.’
‘Obliged to you,’ says Garth, and hands his phone to Elizabeth. ‘It’s all on there.’
‘You can’t do this,’ says Nina.
‘And yet here we are, dear,’ says Elizabeth.
She turns to Garth. ‘And where will you go now?’
‘Spain,’ says Garth. ‘I love the tapas. You be careful with your grief now, take your time with it.’
‘I will,’ says Elizabeth. ‘And you stop killing people.’
‘Only bad guys, ma’am, I promise,’ says Garth. He turns, and they watch him leave, followed by his massive shadow.
‘You’re just going to let him go?’ says Nina, now being shepherded towards the car park by Bogdan, as Elizabeth and Joyce walk behind.
‘That was the deal, yes,’ says Elizabeth.
‘We could make a deal?’ suggests Nina.
‘No, dear,’ says Joyce.
