They both began to laugh with a slightly hysterical tinge to the laughter. They agreed to go to the restaurant in the hotel. But just as they got up to move, a man approached them. : "Ella Brady? I'm Mike Martin. Remember we talked before about the late Don Richardson . . ."
"Yes, I was very sorry to hear of his death." She kept moving but the man moved with them and Derry steered her to the lift.
The man positioned himself between them and the door, and spoke again. "I know he tried to get in touch with you before he died."
I must go now." She looked at Derry for help.
Very quickly Derry put his large, square frame between them.
Mike Martin reached around behind Derry. "Please, Ella ... it was important to him."
"Excuse me," she said, and made for the lift.
Derry was behind her. He turned around to the man who was still trying to catch Ella's arm. "I think you heard the lady," he said.
"Don't you obstruct me!" Mike Martin began.
Derry King was very swift. He was into the lift before her and then pulled Ella in with him. She was shaking and he put his arms around her to calm her down as he pressed the number of his floor. It was a bear hug, a brotherly gesture. The kind of hug he could have given to anyone who had been through a shock. It only lasted a few seconds. Then the lift stopped.
In the suite he opened a miniature brandy. "Medicinal. I'll split it with you," he said.
She swallowed and stopped trembling.
"Who was that?" he asked.
"A henchman," she said.
"What a great word! What does it mean?"
"You know," she said.
"Well, I imagine that it means a timeserver, a sidekick, a supporter. But what's a hench exactly?"
"It's okay, Derry. No need to fuss over me. I'm fine now." She managed a watery smile.
"No, I'm interested. I'll go look it up."
"You may find a Gideon's Bible, but I don't think they run to dictionaries," Ella said.
"I never travel without one." Derry went to a table where he had unpacked some books and papers. She watched, amazed, as he looked it up.
"Apparently it comes from some Old English word and some Old German word meaning a horse! Horseman! Isn't that absurd?" He was shaking his head with annoyance.
"It's not a very big dictionary," Ella said.
"No, but it's a very good one. I look up ten "words every day, always have."
"Why on earth?"
"If you leave school at fifteen, it gives you a complex," he said.
I don't buy that. You went back to school, for heaven's sake!"
"Yes, but they never catch up on what you should have been learning earlier."
"This isn't a real conversation," she said suddenly.
"No, but it will do until we get over that guy downstairs." Ella agreed easily. Tm sorry for involving you," she said in a low voice.
"You didn't," Derry said.
"He's nothing. He's not important. It's not serious."
"You know that's not true."
"Why do you say that, Derry?"
"Because he pushed right up to you in a public space, talking about private things which he's not meant to know about in front of the whole of Dublin. He's come out of hiding, Ella, and he doesn't care who knows it. He shoved me. He was going to grab at you. It's very damn serious and you know it."
She stared at him.
"And if it's not serious, why did you bring that laptop computer with you in that shoulder bag? I'm not a fool. You were afraid to leave it at home, Ella. So can you just stop telling me that people aren't important, that things aren't serious? Give me some credit for something, will you?" He looked angry and upset.
"All right, I'll tell you. I got a call from Nuala. Remember her in the saga?"
He nodded.
"She said she called to see how I was, but I know her husband and his brothers are very anxious indeed to find me. I'm not sure why. But I got scared and brought the laptop with me. I was hoping you might not notice ... but you have very sharp eyes. And I'm really very grateful to you for getting me out of all that business downstairs."
"Yes, but what about tomorrow and the day after?" he asked. "Who'll get you out of it then?"
Til have to think, Derry."
"Do you trust me?"
"You know I do."
"Then why don't we look at it together?" he said.
"What?"
"You could go phone us up some coffee and sandwiches, and we'll open it up and decide what to do."
There were tears of relief in her eyes as she reached over to the telephone and called room service. We, Nuala, I don't know where Ella is tonight," Deirdre said. "You must know, you're her friend."
"And so were you, until you started behaving like some kind of security firm trying to get her to talk to Frank."
"It's not Frank, it's his brothers," Nuala whined.
"Well, whoever it is, they have no sense. Ella is in bits over Don being dead and they don't have a word of sympathy for her. They just go on behaving like tracker dogs snuffling round to see does she know anything about Don's business affairs. No wonder she doesn't return your calls or speak to you or anything."
"She did speak to me. She just said she was going out. I assumed it was with you." Nuala was very plaintive.
"It wasn't, Nuala, so leave her alone, will you?"
Tm just telling you this, they'll find her."
"And I'm telling you this too. I don't like your tone. It sounds like a threat."
"It's not a threat, it's just that I'm worried about Frank's brothers."
"With every reason, and if you come at me again about them, I'll sing loud and clear about what I got up to with Eric, one of the said brothers, on your wedding day. So think carefully before hounding Ella any more. Do you get my drift?"
Deirdre hung up the telephone and took down the recipe book. "What's that whole series of numbers there?" Ella asked Derry, pointing to a section of figures as they sat looking at the screen.
"It's like a series of routings. Someone bought a property here, sold it on there, it was sold again, the money invested here, the money taken out and put into something else." He shrugged as he spoke.
"And could you work out where something went? Suppose you ran this program?"
"Yes, but there's no proof that it would all be in the same name, the same ownership, as it started out with at the beginning, if you see what I mean."
"And I suppose that ordinary people don't keep records in this very complicated way." Ella looked at him.
"No, not unless they want to obscure things."
"And can you tell if it had been going on from the very start?" Her voice was very small.
"It goes back a fair number of years, certainly, since they set up this particular program and way of keeping records."
"It's not a last-minute panic, then?"
"Afraid not, Ella."
"I suppose I wanted to think they were clean at the start, but you say they were hiding things all along."
"Perhaps they were doing it with the knowledge of clients who might have wanted to hide things also." Derry King struggled to be fair. "But from the sound of things, the clients were not informed of these routings."
"I think not. So they always planned it, Don and Ricky Rice." She shook her head in disbelief.
"About this Ricky Rice
"His father-in-law. He pulled all the strings, made all the decisions. He dragged Don into it all. He was struggling to get out."
"Sure."
"No, I know I sound as if I'm defending Don. But Ricky Rice was the brains of it all. He ran it with an iron fist. They all had to make disks of their negotiations each day and mail them to Ricky personally. That's how much control he had."
"Yeah."
"What are you saying? You're just answering me in grunts, Derry. What is it?"
"There's no mention of Ricky Rice in here, none at all. That man could walk back in to this country without a fear in the world. His name is on nothing here, nothing at all."