time she had done this particular dance with her awkward metal partner. Tommy liked his money to look like money, not like plastic. ‘Keep it liquid,’ he said. The trouble with liquid money was that it could get washed down the drain when someone mopped it up. And there was lots of it in the safe. Lots and lots of mopping to do. Mrs Mopp, Crystal thought.
She was sweating by the time she had heaved the cabinet far enough to uncover the brass ring. She pulled on the ring until a neatly glued-together section of floorboards lifted. ‘Open sesame,’ she murmured to herself. Of course, Tommy – Tommy, who had barely seen the inside of his home in days – would choose that moment to return to it, so she had to hastily reprise the dance with the filing cabinet, shoving it hard into place, and by the time she heard him enter the house (‘Crystal! Where the fuck are you?’) it was back, more or less, in place and she was in the conservatory.
He gave her a peck on the cheek and said, ‘Have you been smoking again?’ but didn’t seem particularly interested in the answer. He looked exhausted and she said, ‘Why don’t you put your feet up and I’ll pour you a drink?’
‘Nah,’ he replied. ‘Thanks, love, but I’ve got stuff to do.’
He went in the study and shut the door. Listening at the door, she heard the unmistakeable sound of the filing-cabinet waltz.
‘Shit,’ Crystal said, because he was about to discover that his larder was bare. She caught sight of Candy standing in the doorway, clutching her unicorn and dressed as Belle. She looked worried – she was worried, had been upset ever since the kidnapping. As you would be.
‘Naughty word, Mummy,’ she reprimanded.
‘Yeah, you’re right, it is,’ Crystal said. ‘Sorry.’
‘Mummy? You all right?’
‘Top of the pops, sweetheart. Top of the pops.’
That’s All, Folks
‘Crystal? Are you all right?’ Vince had found the front door of High Haven wide open and no sign of any occupants apart from Candy, who was in the kitchen watching Frozen. He knew it was Frozen because he’d watched it with Ashley last Christmas. She told him it was a feminist film, but it just looked like Disney to Vince.
‘Hello, darling,’ he said to Candy. She had her headphones on and took them off when he spoke to her. ‘Are Mummy and Daddy here?’ he asked.
‘The pool,’ she said and replaced her headphones.
Vince no longer had his gun, of course. He had intended to shoot Tommy with it and now he would have to improvise. He had Steve’s baseball bat though and was intending to crack Tommy’s skull open like an egg. He thought of Wendy. A golf club had done the same for her.
Steve was dead, Vince was pretty sure of that, so all bets were off now. He was disappointed that he hadn’t killed him himself, but he supposed there was a certain justice in the way it happened, killed by one of the girls. And with any luck Andy might bleed to death before the ambulance got to him. That just left Tommy to be dealt with. All hell had broken loose after the girl shot Steve, and Vince had slipped out of Silver Birches and was back in the Honda and driving away before you could say, ‘Just like that.’ On the other side of the road the first police car, all sirens blaring, was sprinting towards Silver Birches.
Crystal was standing on the edge of the pool, dressed in shorts and a strappy top. She was soaking wet so she must have been swimming like that rather than in a costume. Tommy’s dog, Brutus, was sitting placidly next to her. She was smoking a cigarette and looking thoughtful. ‘Oh, hi, Vince,’ she said when she saw him. ‘How are you?’
He hesitated, unable to think of an answer that could encompass his day so far, then said, ‘Did you know your front door’s open?’
‘That’d be Tommy, I’m always asking him to make sure he’s closed it when he comes in. He never does. He’s a careless so-and-so, Vince.’
Distracted by the sight of Crystal’s breasts in her wet top, it took Vince a moment to realize that there was someone in the pool. Not just someone, but Tommy – and he wasn’t swimming, he was floating, face-down.
‘Jesus Christ, Crystal,’ he said, dropping the baseball bat and pulling off his shoes, preparing to jump in and save Tommy. So he could