Ted takes a deep breath and says, ‘Fine. There’s just one thing, though. I don’t have the money yet. It’s going to take awhile for the estate to come through to me.’
‘How long?’
‘It’ll be another few months, at least, probably next summer, before I can get my hands on that kind of money.’
‘I can’t wait that long,’ John says. ‘You’ll get the digital files when I get my money. The sooner the better.’ He stands up. ‘Nice doing business with you, Ted.’ He claps him on the shoulder as he leaves.
John Burnley lights a cigarette once he leaves the coffee shop, and walks down the street thinkingA fool and his money are soon parted. Ted never was too bright, he tells himself, smiling.No street smarts at least, not like him. Now John is going to be four million bucks richer, with almost no effort at all. And like he said to Ted, the sooner the better. He’s sure Ted can get the money somehow without waiting for the estate to be finalized, if he wants to badly enough. And John thinks he does. He looked like he was scared shitless.
Chapter Thirty-Two
JILL SITS ONthe sofa, hugging the cashmere throw around herself as if for protection. Lara has gone. She stares at the spot in the bookshelf where they’d discovered the camera the day before. She’s been so traumatized by it, and by the second one they’d found in the kitchen, that she no longer feels comfortable anywhere in her own home. She feels violated, betrayed by her beloved brownstone.
She hears Ted come in the front door and hurries to greet him, the throw still wrapped around her like a cape. ‘Did you talk to him?’ she asks. She feels sick with anxiety.
‘Yes.’
‘And?’
‘It was him,’ Ted tells her. He walks past her into the front room and collapses into his chair.
She follows him and kneels down on the floor beside him, urgently looking up into his face, trying to read their future in it. ‘What did he say?’
‘He says he wants four million and he’ll return all the digital files to us.’
She feels her face drain of blood. She’s dizzy. ‘So he admitted it.’
‘Yes.’
‘The fucking bastard,’ she says with venom.
‘I knew it was him,’ Ted says viciously. ‘He’s a fucking criminal. He got one of his criminal friends to plant the cameras for him.’ He looks down at her. ‘He told me we got them all.’
‘We can’t pay him,’ she says, looking up at Ted in fear. ‘He’ll never stop asking.’
‘I told him it would be a one-time-only payment, that’s it.’
‘Telling him won’t do any good,’ she says.
‘I know that.’ He looks down into her eyes. ‘I’ll take care of him, Jill. I don’t want you involved.’
Her heart is pounding inside her chest. She knows what he means. And she doesn’t want any part of it. Once was enough. But she’s involved in this no matter what. They sink or swim together. And she’s worried that Ted might fuck it up. He should tell her what he plans to do. Two brains are better than one. ‘How will you do it?’
‘I don’t know yet.’
‘You’ll let me know, though, won’t you? Don’t do anything without running it by me first. It has to be foolproof.’ He’d screwed up when he hadn’t considered the possibility of cameras on the boat.
‘I know.’
‘How much time do we have, before he wants the money?’
Ted tells her, ‘I tried to put him off till the money from the estate comes through, but he wants it as soon as possible.’
‘Then we will have to figure something out, fast,’ she says.
He watches them in real time, on the live feed to the smartphone. It’s all being backed up to a memory card. They missed the second camera in this room, so cleverly hidden, and the one in the bedroom too. Technology is so good these days. This is better than watching reality TV– much more gripping.
And revealing too.
