“What’s going on?”
“Did you leave a bag full of money in my room?”
She blinked, confused. “What?”
“There’s a bag full of money in my room. It has to be yours.”
“How much money are we talking about?” she asked,stifling a yawn.
“I don’t know! Hundreds. Thousands.”
I could see the realisation dawning on her face. Her sleepiness evaporated, replaced by a sharp, focused urgency. Her hands darted, scrambling through the clutter for her thick-framed glasses.
“Are you messing with me?”
“No.”
“Can I see it?”
We both returned to my room. I unzipped the bag and pulled out a few stacks of notes, not daring to touch the rest. Gina was wide awake now, echoing the same words on loop.
“Shit, shit, Vera. Shit…” she frowned.
“You’re sure it’s not yours?”
“No offence, but if I had that much money, I wouldn’t be living with you.”
“Fair enough.”
She crouched next to the bag, sniffing one of the stacks, holding it up to the light, then sniffing it again.
“It looks real.”
I crouched beside her. “Are you sure you didn’t leave it here last night?”
She glanced up, her brow furrowed. “I’d remember if I had.”
“You were drunk.”
She looked at me as if I’d just suggested the world was flat. “V, you know I’m the stingiest person in the world when I’m drunk. I would’ve gone to bed hugging that bag! How much money is in there?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know.”
We upended the bag. Notes fluttered out like a yellow storm; then, as the final stack of notes tumbled out, my eyescaught something different. At the bottom of the bag, almost hidden beneath the cash, was a plain envelope the size of a closed fist. A small note peeked out from under the flap.
My fingers hovered over it, and I rubbed the tips of my fingers over the letters typed on its cover. My name.
This bag contains 1,000,000 pounds in cash. It’s yours. You’re free to do with it what you want, if you follow the rules. There are only three:
1. Spend it within 72 hours, by 8:00 am on Monday, November 2nd. You can’t share the money with anyone who isn’t with you at the time of spending it.
2. Don’t contact the police.
3. Don’t leave any trace.
If you don’t follow the rules, André Saidi and Lesley Altringham will receive a copy of this
envelope I’m placing in your hands.
