Jack shook his head, laughing, and again he went to open the door when she reached out and held his arm.
‘I also want to thank you, Jack. I could have been involved in that horror on Saturday night. Ester made sure I was paid off and more this morning. But she cannot be trusted, and right now, with Detmar gone, she will be stealing anything she can lay her nasty hands on.’
‘You mean what’s left after the fire?’
Helga laughed again. ‘Convenient, that it was only the top floor, no?’
He was unsure what to say to that. She reached into her bag again. ‘I must go, and by the way, this is not my car or my chauffeur... it’s only a top-of-the-range Uber.’ She took out a thick white envelope. ‘This is for you. I doubt we will meet again, so this is me thanking you.’ She signalled to the driver who opened the driver’s door and got in. She turned away and Jack got out.
He stood on the pavement with the envelope in his hand as the car glided away. There was so much more he had wanted to ask — should have asked — but he hadn’t wanted to spend any more time than he had to in her company, just yards from his front door. He opened the envelope. Inside were several bundles of crisp new fifty-pound notes tied with an elastic band. He quickly counted it. Twenty thousand pounds. He put the money back in the envelope and stuffed it into his jacket pocket. ‘Fuckin’ hell,’ he muttered, quickly looking around, to make sure no one had seen.
As soon as Jack walked in, Maggie shouted for him to come into the dining room where Penny and Hannah were waiting, along with a smiling Marius.
‘Now don’t get angry,’ Maggie began, ‘but with you earning again and my wages, and we have a few quid left in the joint account, what do you think? Marius says he can break through this wall and...’
‘Just wait a minute. It looks to me as if you’ve already decided. To my mind, we don’t really need all this extra work done.’
‘The reason is, Jack, I’ve decided to save money for the christening party. We’ll have everyone here, which means we’ll need a bigger space.’
Jack sighed, shaking his head. He turned to Marius. ‘What’ll it cost?’
Marius stroked his chin. ‘I’d say for a cash deal, two and a half thousand, and that’ll include the plastering and RSJ for the main wall.’
Jack felt the weight of the money in his jacket pocket. He was eager to get up to his office to stash the money somewhere safe. ‘OK, I give in.’
Maggie clapped her hands and gave Marius a high-five.
Upstairs, Jack duct-taped the cash under the seats of a plastic toy cart that Hannah had grown out of and stuffed it in a corner. Only then did he start to relax. He physically jumped when Maggie came in carrying Charlie.
‘Wait until you see how fast he can crawl now,’ she said, putting him gently down. He quickly started beetling around the office on all fours.
Jack laughed. ‘Very impressive.’ He scooped Charlie into his arms before he could get stuck under the desk.
‘By the way, did you take a call for me this morning?’ Jack asked.
‘At the house? I was at work.’ She held her arms out. ‘Let me take him and get him ready for bed.’ She was almost out of the door when she turned. ‘I know it will really look terrific, Jack, and thank you for agreeing. Oh, did you have a good day at work?’
‘Not so bad... I’m on a late tomorrow, so I won’t be back until after nine.’
‘Put it on the diary board. I’m on the early shift. Oh, I saw it was on the six o’clock news about the fire at the gallery.’
‘Yeah, there was something in the Standard,’ he said as she went downstairs. He took a couple of deep breaths before following her down to the kitchen. Penny was feeding Hannah at the table as he went over to check this latest family schedule.
‘Did you take a call for me this morning, Mum?’
‘No, dear, I went to do a grocery shop after taking Hannah to school, I think Gladys may have as there was a message, but it just said someone had called for you. I told her to always put down the name of the caller but to be honest, I don’t think she really understands very well, and her writing is shocking.’
‘I am doing joined writing,’ Hannah said.
Penny nodded and smiled at her. ‘She is doing very well at this new school — oh, and there’s a parents’ meeting next week. I’ve put it on the board, so you and Maggie can hopefully both go.’
‘I am going to do ballet, and I have to wear a tutu and ballet shoes and a pink stretchy thing,’ Hannah said.
‘Oh yes, I need to ask Maggie about that,’ Penny said. ‘There’s a shop in the West End that sells ballet shoes and leotards. It’s a bit expensive, but we don’t want her to be the odd one out. It’s also after school — the ballet teacher is a professional. From the stage. It’s ten pounds a lesson.’
‘Fine, whatever she needs,’ Jack said.
‘Well, I thought it was a tad expensive, but if you agree, I’ll tell Maggie and organise it with her class teacher.’
Jack shrugged, looking at the markings on the wall indicating where the hole would be knocked through into the dining room. He could not imagine what it was going to be like. All he could think of was that cash strapped under the cart in his office. ‘Thank you, Helga,’ he murmured under his breath.
Early the following morning, Collingwood and Morrison were waiting for O’Reilly’s girlfriend to be brought in. Collingwood was scanning one of the morning papers, and it gave him an uneasy feeling.
‘You know, Guv, the description of the painting is out there now, even though there are no photos, thank God, but with all the mobile footage, I’m sure it’s only a matter of time.
Morrison shrugged. ‘Listen, we were told not to broadcast any fucking details about the crucifixion, and we’ve done our damnedest... are they worried there’s going to be a fucking copy-cat murder or something?’
‘I guess it’s because the details are so horrific.’
‘Yeah, like Jack the Ripper, ripping out his victim’s insides. They never disclosed half of what he’d done at the time. Anyway, it’ll all come out at the trial.’
‘Maybe not. If Neilson pleads guilty, there won’t be a jury trial, so...’
‘Listen, pal, word is he’s got a shit-hot legal team lined up, and they’ll want to get as much expensive court time as possible. Anyway, forget about the painting — right now, we look like fucking idiots for letting O’Reilly slip through our fingers.’
Collingwood looked at a text on his mobile. ‘She’s here, Sir.’
‘Right, let’s get to it,’ Morrison said.
Collingwood looked uneasy. ‘Before we do, Sir, I just thought I’d mention to you that she is physically challenged.’
‘What the fuck do you mean by that?’
‘Well, Sir, she’s very small. It could be dwarfism, I’m not sure.’
Morrison got the insinuation. ‘Right, you think I’m going to make a joke about her being a small-arse.’
‘No, I—’ Before Collingwood could finish, there was a tap on the door. He went to open it and stood back as a uniformed officer ushered in Rhonda Curtis, who was three and a half feet tall and very pretty, with thick blond wavy hair. She had large blue eyes with false eyelashes and her bright pink lipstick set off her flawless skin.
‘Thank you so much for coming to the station,’ Morrison said. Collingwood brought a chair for her to sit across from Morrison, but that only made her the same height as when standing, with her head only just appearing over the desk.
‘Have you got a cushion?’ she asked, in a low, throaty voice that belied her childlike appearance. Collingwood silently cursed himself for not having thought of it. He hurried out and quickly reappeared with one.