Ruby flushed lightly, thinking of Thomas at the hotel, then swimming in his pool, and afterwards in his bed. She wasn’t about to share any of that with Daisy.
‘So?’ she asked.
‘Mum…’ Daisy was being as delicate as she could. ‘There was an obstacle to Thomas Knox’s pursuit of you, wasn’t there? You told me he’d been watching you for years – coveting you, was the phrase you used – and there was only one thing in his way. That thing was Michael, Mum. It was Michael.’
Ruby was silent, staring at her daughter’s face. ‘What are you saying?’
‘Thomas Knox had a motive. He wanted to get to you. And he couldn’t, not with Michael alive.’
‘Jesus, what… I mean, really…’
‘Think about it,’ said Daisy.
Ruby fell silent again. At last she said: ‘This is ridiculous.’
‘Mum…’
‘No! Seriously, Daisy, this is mad. Thomas and Michael knew each other from school, they grew up together…’
‘And there you were, in mourning for Michael. And suddenly here’s Thomas, ready with the tea and sympathy.’
Ruby was shaking her head. Thomas? She was in his thrall, she knew it. Her affair with him had been amazingly – shamefully – hot, lustful. Nothing like the relationship she’d had with Michael. And now Daisy was asking her to believe that the man she was involved with had killed Michael, simply to get her?
No. It couldn’t be.
Could it?
Oh God in heaven. Perhaps it could be true. And worse – she had been so dazed with passion, so completely under his spell, that she hadn’t even given such a foul possibility a thought until this moment.
Daisy was watching her mother’s face closely. She hated having to do this. But if Knox had removed Michael because he was a barrier to Ruby, then Ruby needed to know, she had to be made aware. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said.
Ruby shook her head again, covered her mouth with her hand; suddenly her eyes were full of tears and she was blinking them back. She picked up the cup, drank, put it down again with a shaking hand.
‘It’s not your fault,’ she said.
‘I’m really sorry,’ said Daisy. She couldn’t think of anything else to say.
94
‘He wants to see her,’ said Rob when Daisy and Ruby joined him later.
Ruby looked aghast. She’d had enough shocks recently. First Daisy’s thunderbolt about Thomas Knox, now this. ‘What, this Bianca woman? Are you serious? She tried to kill him!’
‘I’ll bring her in tomorrow evening,’ said Rob. ‘Maybe it’s best you stay away.’
Ruby stared at him. This was crazy.
‘I don’t want her anywhere near him,’ she said forcefully.
‘It’s what he wants, Ruby.’
Daisy gave Ruby’s arm a squeeze. ‘We have to respect his wishes,’ she said.
‘But he must be bloody insane! She could try it again, finish him off this time. I can’t agree to this,’ said Ruby, tight-lipped.
‘You don’t have to. Kit wants it, and what Kit wants, he gets,’ said Rob more firmly.
Ruby opened her mouth to speak, then shut it like a clamp when she saw the determination on Rob’s face. She turned on her heel and stormed off.
‘You know what?’ Fats was holding court in the office with two other members of the Miller crew. ‘That arsehole had so much blubber that he must have bounced three feet off the fucking ground when he hit.’
Everyone laughed; they stopped when Rob came in.
‘What’s this?’ he asked.
‘That Eyetie trying to sneak in on the boss at the hospital. Big boy. I always say a boy like that’s easy to take down. His weight’ll defeat him. Got him in the back of the knee and-’
‘Fats,’ said Rob. ‘Shut the fuck up. You think it’s funny – one of the Danieri crew throwing himself out of a hospital window when Kit’s in a room a few doors down? You reckon the Old Bill’s laughing? Do you have any idea the trouble I’ll have to go to, to see that it’s buried?’
Fats shrugged uneasily. He’d done his job, hadn’t he? Stopped that wop bastard dead.
‘Soon as Kit came round the police were in there, questioning him about the shooting. He handled it; we were home clear. All that could change if they find out the guy who took a high-dive from the window had a helping hand. You think Kit needs any more crap, you dumb fuck?’
The boys were silent. Rob turned away from them in disgust.
‘I’m not happy with any of this,’ he said, and stalked out of the room.
‘No shit,’ muttered Fats.
Next evening, Rob took a pale, silent Bianca to the hospital. Throughout her enforced stay at the Lambeth safe house, she had been biddable, subdued, and her demeanour didn’t change even when they entered the maze of corridors and wound their way to the private room Kit now occupied.
Ashok was on guard.
‘All OK?’ Rob asked him.
‘Fine,’ he said, glaring at Bianca.
‘Go on home,’ said Rob, and Ashok departed.
Rob glanced at Bianca. ‘You OK for this?’
She nodded: didn’t speak.
‘Sorry about this,’ said Rob, ‘but I need you to spread your arms.’ And there in an empty waiting room he frisked her with cool expertise.
‘Come on then,’ he said when it was done.
Rob led the way into Kit’s room. The moment they walked through the door, Kit’s eyes fastened on Bianca and stayed there.
Bianca and Rob stopped at the foot of the bed.
‘Rob, you can go,’ said Kit, his eyes still fixed on her.
‘I’d rather stay,’ said Rob. The woman was a crazy Danieri, who knew what she was going to pull? She might grab a syringe, stick Kit with it. She was capable of anything.
Kit’s eyes flicked to meet his. ‘Go,’ he said.
Rob sighed and started towards the door. He groaned when he saw Ruby appear there, about to come in and no doubt kick off. He’d told her to stay away. But she was looking past him, arrested by the scene at Kit’s bedside.
Rob paused beside her in the doorway and looked back too.
‘Come to finish the job off?’ Kit asked Bianca.
Bianca bit her lip and shook her head as she approached him. Tears filled her eyes as she stared down at his face.
‘I want to hate you,’ she gulped out. ‘But I can’t.’
She moved closer and slowly reached out a trembling hand. Kit grasped her hand, twined his fingers into hers. Suddenly the tears overflowed and poured down Bianca’s cheeks. The strength left her and she fell to her knees beside the bed.
‘Oh God,’ she managed to say. Over and over, she kissed his hand, sobbing and murmuring that she was sorry, she was so, so sorry. Kit placed his other hand on her head, smoothing her silky white-blonde hair.
‘It’s all right,’ he said to her. ‘Really. It’s all right. I’m sorry too.’ Sorry for Tito. Sorry I caused you pain. Sorry I lied to you.
‘I can’t hate you,’ sobbed Bianca. ‘I can’t do it.’
‘I know.’
‘You don’t know. You can’t.’
‘You pulled to the left. Like the rabbit, right? You could have finished me, shot me straight through the heart, but you didn’t. And when you were aiming at my head, you couldn’t do it then, either.’
‘Oh Jesus, I’m so… did it hurt?’
‘Stung a bit,’ he said.
Rob and Ruby stood in the doorway. They looked at each other. Then Rob took Ruby’s arm. ‘Let’s give them a minute,’ he said, and led her out to the waiting room.
‘I don’t understand any of this,’ said Ruby.
‘Join the fucking club,’ said Rob.
95
Outside the hospital, Thomas Knox was waiting for Ruby.
He knew I was here because he watches me, all the time, she thought. Once it had made her shiver with lust, that thought. Now there was fear, too, and a cold hard stab of dread.