Page 64 of We Chase Shadows

The last thing Rosie hears before she falls asleep is Steve saying, ‘Do you think he does wardrobes?’

The investigation is in safe hands.

33

A light has just been switched on in Vern Blackwood’s villa.

How can that be?

Vern is in England, under the advice of Rosie’s team. His bodyguard is with him, so no one is living here.

And yet someone has just switched a light on. Someone is inside Vern’s villa at this very moment.

Ernesto strokes his moustache. What to do?

Earlier today Ernesto had arranged for Korbin’s corpse to be removed. There is no record anywhere of his real identity (‘I didn’t get him through LinkedIn,’ Vern Blackwood had told him), and so no next of kin.

It is being held at the morgue in Lucca, where an Interpol coroner will do the usual checks. Ernesto has said he stumbled on the corpse in an abandoned warehouse while following the Mexican henchman. No word about Eriksson and no word about this villa. This is his case, no one else’s.

Cause of death, you’d have to imagine, would be the knife in the chest, but you never knew with these things. The police in Lucca were full of questions. They were excited, naturally, to be confronted with a rapidly thawing corpse with a big knife sticking out of its chest. Who wouldn’t be? As cops, you live for this sort of thing.

It is important that Ernesto keep details vague at this point, and so he had pretended to speak no Italian. In truth, he is fluent. He picks languages up fairly easily. It’s just learning different words for things.

He’d only come back to the villa on a hunch. Something strange is happening at this beautiful villa. Two men dead. The name of an extremely wanted man connected to both. One of the dead men carried his note, the other was working for him.

What if Eriksson had wanted the villa empty? What if he has further plans?

Ernesto now sees a figure moving about inside the villa. Jakob Eriksson? Vanishingly unlikely. Somebody sent by Jakob Eriksson? A great deal more likely.

Ernesto really might have hit the jackpot here.

A goon of some sort. Looking for money? Documents? Whatever Jakob Eriksson might be after.

Ernesto could tell him where to look. Before Korbin’s body was removed, Ernesto had been over the whole site. There were certain outbuildings that were heavily protected. Vern had agreed to Interpol taking Korbin’s body so long as Ernesto left everything else well alone.

They had what the English call ‘a gentlemen’s agreement’, which Ernesto, knowing English gentlemen very well, had immediately broken.

He found what he’d expected. Storerooms, safes, chemicals, big, scary-looking machines. The business tools of the online entrepreneur. He’d taken a few photos. No doubt Eriksson’s goon will be doing the same thing.

A light goes on in the upper floor of the villa now.

Should Ernesto go in?

He decides to ring Rosie, but gets no answer. He tries Amy, and she answers straight away.

‘Yes?’ says Amy.

‘It’s Ernesto,’ says Ernesto.

‘Ernesto?’ repeats Amy.

Ernesto hears Steve saying, ‘It’s Ernesto!’ in the background, and is gratified by the joy in his voice.

‘Oh, Ernesto Ernesto,’ says Amy.

‘Yes,’ says Ernesto. ‘Ernesto Ernesto. I’m at Vern’s villa.’

Ernesto hears Steve say, ‘Put him on speaker, put him on speaker.’