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‘Sushi, maybe?’
‘I’ll call the restaurant, you call Stella.’
Lara went back to her study and grabbed her phone, but before she could dial, she noticed a blinking message in the centre of the screen. Unknown number:
We need to talk. I have evidence you may want to see.
Victoria.
Lara’s heart lurched. Had her plan of confronting Victoria Sachs at the auction actually paid off and made her rethink her position. Or was it a trap? Whichever way, Lara wanted – needed – to know what Victoria Sachs had to say.
She walked back into the living room. ‘Bad news,’ she said. ‘The restaurant can’t deliver. Can you go and collect it? It’s only up on King’s Road, ten minutes walk, tops.’
Alex peered up at the sk
ylight dubiously.
‘Have you seen the weather out there?’
‘It’s definitely easing off. And you’re already damp,’ she pulled a goofy smile. ‘…Or you could stay here and I’ll cook.’
‘No, no,’ laughed Alex, backing towards the door. ‘I’ll go, I’ll go.’
Lara waited until she heard Alex pass through the creaky gate, then counted to twenty, giving him time to turn the corner. Then she grabbed her jacket and helmet. It was time to bring this to an end.
Chapter 36
Dusk settled upon the city. Slate grey clouds pressed low over streets barely lit by lampposts. The roads had begun to clear of traffic making it easy for Lara’s bike to hiss along Sloane Street, whose pavements were all but abandoned of shoppers and tourists.
Lara had called Victoria Sachs before she had left the boatyard, partly to make sure it was her, partly to see if she could second-guess her mood. ‘Meet me at ClearView,’ she said. ‘I’ve found something you need to see. Come alone.’ That was the entire conversation, leaving Lara to fill in the blanks.
She had tried to think it all through. At City, they had been taught Occam’s Razor, the principle that the most simple explanation was the most likely. And the most likely outcome of Lara’s ambush at Claridge’s? That Victoria Sachs would go straight home and tell her husband everything. Assuming that position, Michael’s strategy could be any number of things, from calling in the lawyers, to arranging for an ‘accident’ for Lara Stone, just as he had for Helen and Jonathon and Sandrine.
Then again, Lara had heard something in Victoria Sachs’s voice, even though they had just exchanged a few words. Regret? Shame? Lara could imagine Victoria going to her husband for advice on the potential ImpactAid scandal. She could imagine handing the problem over to him, and like Stefan, she could easily imagine her ignoring Helen’s accident or passing off Meyer’s mugging as tragic coincidence. Over her many years as a journalist, Lara had come to realise that good people could be bad, and bad people could be good, but inherently, most, when push came to shove, would do the decent thing. Just like Stefan had, finally.
ClearView was impressive, even in the rain. The elegantly curved façade had the effect of making the building seem to float above the street. Shivering white tarpaulins covered the upper floors, but at street level, it looked polished and sleek, open for business in every sense. Lara pulled the bike into the drive in front of the entrance and kicked it onto its stand. Pushing through the revolving door, she shook off the rain, glad at least to be out of the storm. The cavernous lobby was wide, glossy – and abandoned, no one behind the wide reception desk.
From the moment Victoria had suggested it, Lara had wondered what the significance was of meeting at ClearView. Stella had done her homework; knew that although the development wasn’t quite finished, both Michael and Victoria already had offices here.
‘Hello?’ said Lara, walking over, feeling foolish. She saw a large manila envelope sitting on the desk, her name carelessly scrawled on the front. Glancing around, Lara picked it up and tipped the contents into her hand: a thin plastic card with the Sachs Capital logo and the word ‘Visitor’ beneath.
Curiouser and curiouser. To the left of the reception, there was a gate with a red panel on the top. Lara tapped the card on it and with a discreet ‘beep’ the gate slid open. Simultaneously, a lift in the rear wall pinged, the doors revealing a mirrored interior.
Lara had to admit it was slick as she stepped inside, the number ‘15’ lighting up automatically. She rode up, fighting a feeling of inevitability, the feeling that someone had mapped all this out for her. As the lift doors opened, Lara took out her phone to text Alex. She knew he’d be back at the houseboat at any moment and see that she wasn’t there.
Yes, he’d worry and he’d be right to. Victoria’s intentions suddenly felt darker than they had when Lara had spoken to her.
‘At ClearView, Sachs’s new development. Come in ten minutes if you haven’t heard from me.’
As she sent the message to Alex, Lara stepped out of the lift and looked around.
Floor fifteen was almost finished. Almost, but not quite. The floors were covered in a fine layer of dust and she could still see steel beams through the open ceiling above her, but everything else looked in place. The office walls would need painting, the desks were still shrouded in plastic, but the computers were linked by multi-coloured snakes of cabling. A bank of chic, sculptured wall-lights were illuminated, but otherwise it was dark. There was even a CCTV camera pointing down, an unblinking red eye observing Lara’s arrival.
‘Hello?’ she said, walking into the wide-open space. Directly in front of her were tall windows, still with arrows indicating which way up they should be installed. At the far end, Lara could feel the breeze: no windows, the gap covered with the white sheeting she had seen from the street.
‘Lara Stone,’ said a baritone voice, coming from within the unfurnished space. A figure stepped out of the shadows. Although they had never met, Lara recognised him immediately. Michael Sachs was handsome and tall, his grey hair swept back like he’d just left the stylist’s chair. As he strode towards her, Lara tensed until she realised his hand was extended towards her.
‘We meet at last,’ he said.
