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My blood ran cold. “Just like you killed the driver and the bodyguards?”
“Exactly.”
“Why did you kill them?”
“They had outlived their usefulness. The only thing I needed them for was to provide access to the limousine so my men could rig the poison, then stand aside and let Templeton die.”
“They did that,” I said. “So why did you kill them?”
“Because people who can be bribed are very poor investments. They tend to ask for – actually, demand – more money later on, and when cornered, they give up secrets too easily. Better to… remove them.”
“Is that why you killed Marta and Vincenzo?”
“…who? Oh, your maid and cook.”
I hated her for the casual disregard she showed their lives. Even though I hated Marta and Vincenzo for betraying us, I was even angrier at Miranda. She couldn’t even be bothered to remember their names.
She read my thoughts like a book. “You’ll be happy to know that both your employees tried desperately to be loyal, to the point where they were willing to accept death rather than betray you. We had to threaten to kill their relatives for them to comply. Everyone has a breaking point. Theirs was just particularly high.”
Tried desperately to be loyal.
They were willing to accept death rather than betray you.
Guilt and shame overpowered me. Guilt, that I had been the reason they had suffered and died; shame, that I hadn’t even given them the benefit of the doubt when they had sacrificed everything to try and protect me.
I started to cry. “You fucking bitch.”
Miranda looked at me and cocked her head, like she found my display of emotion amusing.
“Why are we alive, then?” I asked bitterly.
“Because you’re both still quite valuable to me.”
“Why?”
“You’ll see.”
Suddenly I realized another ominous meaning to her words, You’re both still quite valuable to me.
‘Both’ excluded someone else I cared about.
“Johnny – did you kill Johnny, too?” I asked, panicked.
Miranda paused, just to twist the knife. “No. I had my associates let him go.”
As relieved as I was, I was also stunned. “Why?”
“Because he’s going to prove quite useful to me, as well. Would you like to know how?”
She opened the black box. I couldn’t see what was inside, but she pulled out a cell phone, a cell battery, and a SIM card.
“Your phone,” she said to me, just to make it obvious.
I watched in amazement as she inserted the chip and battery into the cell.
“I’m not telling you my password,” I seethed.
“Oh, you would if I wanted you to. But I don’t need it.” She powered the phone on, then placed it back in the black box. “This is all I need.”
