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‘I don’t know. He didn’t say.’ He backs away again, but she wants more from him. She wants to know anything and everything about Tom that morning.
‘And he was kind to you?’
‘He tried to be. I’m sorry I didn’t let him. I hadn’t taken my meds. I keep thinking about him.’
‘Tell this to the police, and I’ll give you the money. I’ll give you more.’
‘I can’t.’
‘Please.’
He shakes his head.
‘What if I call them now? They’re here, around the front, or they will be in a few minutes.’
‘I know they are. I’ll be long gone before they find me. I know every inch of this place. But now you know what I saw, I can feel better about it in here and here.’ He covers his heart with his palm and points to his head.
‘Tell me your first name, at least, so I can thank you properly.’
‘Ben,’ he says after a moment.
‘Thank you, Ben,’ she says and, before she can say another word, he’s gone.
77
FRIDAY
Olly
Olly slips behind the panelling in the Map Room and moves as quickly as he can through the space between the walls, feeling his way until he reaches a brick wall with a vertical beam set within it. Carefully, he reaches upward and pushes on the top of the beam, and it moves like a see-saw, the bottom coming away from the wall.
Olly crawls behind it. The space he enters is small and pitch- dark. Forced to his hands and knees by the low ceiling, he inches forward until he feels a void in front of him in the floor, and he manoeuvres himself into it, finding crude wooden footholds on the side of the tunnel beneath. He climbs down as fast as he dares, praying the footholds won’t crumble. The air smells damp and rotten. Summer’s heat hasn’t penetrated here.
He makes a hard landing at the bottom and for a moment he fears that he’s hurt his ankle, but he’s okay. He’s at basementlevel, deep below the Manor, in a stone chamber. There’s no light here whatsoever, but he knows that he has three options. The first is to take refuge here in the priest hole, but Sasha knows about it, so it doesn’t feel safe to stay. The other options will get him out of the Manor and into its grounds. One tunnel leads to the front of the house and emerges near the Coach House; the other will take him out the back where he’ll emerge near the stable block. He hesitates. Sasha will think he’ll go to the back. She’ll assume he’ll cut down to the nature reserve and follow the path along the river there. It’s the quickest way to get off the peninsula. The path emerges far from the lane where the police and the journalists are gathered.
He takes the tunnel that leads out to the front. It’s claustrophobic. He’s afraid it will fall in on him. It’s so dark he feels the wall as he moves along, to help him keep his balance. The walls are crumbly. He hears debris fall from them as he passes. He begins to cough and can’t stop. When he finally reaches the steps, he’s gasping with relief. He climbs and pushes on the underside of the wooden trap door that leads out. It’s a struggle. When he makes it out, he falls onto the grass, lying on his back for a few moments, sucking in the sweet night air. His heart pounds.
He thinks of Sasha. That bitch. They got too greedy. The plan to move in on Tom and Nicole has stretched them too far. Would he have embarked on it if Sasha hadn’t encouraged him? Never. He already knows that he will never work with someone again, the way he has with her. He let her get too close. She seduced him into making decisions that he wouldn’t have made on hisown. Men are fallible creatures around women, he knows that, and he has proved himself a part of that club.
Olly will disappear. He’s done it before. He will also make sure that Sasha is destroyed.
He considers his options. He knows that a police car is in the area, and they will undoubtedly be looking out for him already. He must leave Lancaut quickly, before they call for enough back-up to watch all the ways he could get off the peninsula.
When he reaches the lane, he doesn’t walk along it, but behind the hedges bordering it, out of sight. Soon, he sees the Glass Barn, dimly lit tonight.
He pushes on a few more yards before a pair of headlights crawl up the lane. He ducks down and waits for them to pass. A squad car swings into the Barn’s driveway and idles there for a few minutes, before leaving. It must be patrolling and if it’s just been here, it probably won’t come right back.
A thought occurs to him. If he could sneak into the Barn, he could hide for the night and creep away at first light. Nobody will think of looking for him there. He would be hiding in plain sight, which is just what he suggested Patrick do. It was a good idea and it’s very tempting. By morning, the police will assume he’s long gone. The Barn is plenty big enough for him to remain hidden.
He approaches it carefully. He spent enough time being shown the place by Tom to be very familiar with its layout. There are plenty of areas that Nicole is unlikely to use at night. Something else occurs to him, something brilliant. He puts his hand in his pocket and pulls out Patrick’s pin. He forgot he had it. But now it might come in very useful.
He hesitates when he remembers the security cameras. Tom told him that he disabled them. He’s going to gamble that they’re still out of action. By the time anyone checks them he hopes to be gone, anyway. Keeping under cover as much as he can, he creeps slowly around the edge of the property, scoping out which rooms are lit and where he might be able to sneak in, until he gets a bit of luck.
The doors by the pool are wide open.
78
FRIDAY
