Page 139 of Better the Devil

His shoulders heaved. His breath broke into tiny, fractured pieces.

He finally tore his gaze from the tent, but he couldn’t bring himself to meet Hamza’s eyes.

‘I’ve… I’ve done something.’ The words were a squeak now. ‘I’ve done something terrible.’

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

The designer handbag was hers.The money, too. She spoke freely about them, in that way she had that suggested she either had nothing to hide, or was completely confident in her ability to do so.

‘Blackmail?’ Logan said, repeating the key part of what she’d just told him. ‘Someone was blackmailing him?’

‘So he said,’ Eleanor confirmed.

‘Someone was blackmailing Victor?’

‘Is there an echo in here, Detective Chief Inspector?’ Fairweather asked. From the corner, The Boy gave a snort of laughter, like this was the funniest thing he’d ever heard.

Logan shifted his gaze to the younger solicitor, and the smile withered and died on his face.

‘I’m just clarifying,’ Jack told Fairweather. ‘I want to be absolutely clear on whatyour clientis telling me. You OK with that?’

He stared at the older man, but if Fairweather was intimidated, he did a damn good job of not letting it show.

‘He told me that some guy phoned him up,’ Eleanor continued. ‘Said he knew about Victor and Kendrick, and that he was going to tell everyone. Tell me, tell Victor’s brothers.’

Logan frowned, considering this new wrinkle. ‘It wasn’t about the drugs?’

‘No. It was about Kendrick. Their relationship. I mean, I knew already. I didn’t care, like I said. But if Sergei and Mikhail found out—Sergei especially—there was no saying what they’d do.’

‘He told you about this? Victor? About the blackmail?’

Eleanor nodded.

‘For the tape,’ Logan prompted.

‘Yes. He told me. Since I already knew what was going on with him and Kendrick, he had no reason to hide it.’ She scratched at the end of her nose. It might have been natural, but could have been an instinctive attempt to hide something. ‘Besides, he needed one of my bags.’

Logan’s eyes narrowed, focusing in on this new information. ‘Sorry?’

‘The guy who phoned him. He said he had to put the money in one of my handbags.’

‘Why?’

‘I don’t know. He didn’t say. Maybe it was a present for his wife, or maybe he was going to list it on eBay. He just said it had to be forty grand, in one of my handbags, dropped in a bin in Aviemore.’ She shrugged. ‘Clearly, he didn’t make it.’

Logan couldn’t believe what he was hearing. His temper kicked in before he had a chance to contain it.

‘And whythe helldid you not think to mention that?’

‘That’s enough!’ Fairweather said, raising his voice to match the detective’s. ‘Might I remind you?—’

‘Because I don’t trust you!’ Eleanor shot back, finally losing her cool. ‘How could I, after everything with Jason? All that bloody…harassment. Months of it! How could I know you wouldn’t just casually mention it in front of Victor’s brothers? Tell them what he’d been doing. Who he really was?’

‘He was already dead,’ Logan pointed out. ‘Wasn’t a lot they could do to him.’

‘Not him, maybe. But me. The baby. My kids!’

‘Oh, come on. You didn’t seem scared of them. Back at the house,’ Logan countered. ‘You talked to them like they were the help.’