sounds slightly hysterical. ‘If we don’t do it now, we’re going to miss this opportunity. I’ve worked so hard for this, Alice.’
‘You have,’ she agrees, though on the opposing side to her, it seems. ‘Meet me at the Temple Homes development on Bradbury Avenue.’
‘What? Why?’
‘We got the go-ahead on the job I pitched for.’
‘This isn’t the right time Alice – we need to get Japan done first.’
Alice looks at Beth, her eyes wide, her thoughts frantic.
‘Just get him there,’ hisses Beth, under her breath.
‘The only chance of getting “this done” is if you meet me at Bradbury Avenue.’
‘Jesus, I’m on my way,’ he says gruffly.
‘Wait here,’ says Beth, as they park up in one of the adjacent roads to the Temple Homes site.
‘What? No!’ says Alice as she wrestles to undo her seatbelt. ‘I’m coming with you.’
‘Just give me five minutes with him,’ says Beth, leaning back into the car. ‘He needs to know what he stands to lose if he doesn’t give me the money back.’
Alice leans her head back onto the headrest and laughs falsely.
‘Do you honestly believe that he’s going to pay you back?’ she asks.
‘If he knows he’s about to lose everything . . . you, the girls . . .’
‘Do you think he cares enough?’ says Alice impatiently. ‘What part of his behaviour in the last hour has made you think that he has mine and the children’s best interests at heart? He thinks he’s about to defraud me of a million pounds. He’ll be intending to leave immediately – he’d have to, before I found out that he’d sold me a worthless piece of shit. Do you honestly think that on his way to wherever he’s going to go and hide, he’ll suddenly develop a conscience and think, Oh, hang on – I’d better pay Beth back her mother’s life savings from ten years ago?
‘If what you’ve told me is true, we need to work together to make sure he never does this to anyone else, ever again. It’s the best we can hope for.’ She softens her tone. ‘I’ve done what you’ve asked me to do. Now let me go and speak to him.’
Beth considers this for a moment, as if sizing up the options. ‘I’ll give you five minutes, then I’m coming in.’
Alice walks around the back of the boarded-up site until she comes to a loose panel that she can just about squeeze through. She looks up at the four-storey building, its slab floors and ceilings being held in place by metal stilts. A dormant crane stands against the open-sided structure.
She climbs the concrete staircases up to the top floor and looks down to where Beth’s car is parked. Nathan’s BMW speeds down another adjacent street before coming to an abrupt stop as he bumps it up onto the pavement. Everything about him looks chaotic, whilst Alice feels strangely calm.
He finds the same loose panel as she did and jumps over the pipework laid out along the muddy trenches.
‘Alice!’ he calls out.
‘I’m up here,’ she replies, the whipping wind carrying her voice.
‘What the hell is going on?’ he says when he reaches her, a little out of breath. ‘Why have you dragged me out here? We haven’t got time for this, you need to authorize the bank and Yahamoto and get Japan done.’
‘I’m not completing on Japan,’ she says, her voice wobbling.
He starts to come towards her. ‘You have to, darling. We’ll lose a hundred thousand pounds if we don’t.’
‘Is that not enough for you, Nathan? Wouldn’t you have been wise just to take the deposit money and run?’
‘Wh-what?’ he says, as his eyes slide from side to side. ‘What do you mean?’
‘But you wanted to hold out for the big one, didn’t you?’ Alice goes on. ‘You got greedy. What were you going to do with the money, Nathan? Do you have another life all lined up, ready to walk into? Were you going to use the money to charm your next victim? Like you did me.’
‘Darling, you’re not well,’ he says, opening his arms out to her. ‘I know you’re back on the tablets, you’re drinking too much, you’re allowing things to get to you and mess with your head. You need help.’
Without even thinking, she steps forward and slaps him hard across the face. He holds his burning cheek with his hand and looks at her in shock.
The mask finally slips. ‘You’re going to go through with Japan,’ he hisses. ‘Get on the phone now and authorize completion.’
She