is an offer she’d be truly crazy to refuse – I don’t see how she could.’
And she’ll know things about the house that no one else knows – about what’s hidden there and what’s disappeared, what was there once and has been taken away. A woman’s body, the death button . . .
I could ring Lancing Damisz and give a false name, ask Lorraine Turner to show me round 11 Bentley Grove, but what’s the point? Even a well-informed estate agent would only know a fraction of what the owner knows.
Offering Selina Gane more than a million pounds seems a good way of persuading her to talk to me.
‘Are you listening to yourself?’ Kit hisses, leaning across the table as if greater proximity to his hostility is likely to make me change my mind. ‘An offer she’d be truly crazy to refuse? It’s an offer you’d be truly crazy to make! Even if we could borrow nine hundred thousand from some private bank . . .’
‘How would we afford the monthly payments?’ I have anticipated every question he might ask, all possible objections. ‘I’ve done some very rough calculations. Borrowing on an interest-only basis, and if we pour in ninety per cent of our salaries and all our personal savings, we could afford to make the payments for two to three years, depending on certain variables. After that, I don’t know. Maybe we’ll be rich by then from some new business venture, or . . .’
No. Stop.
I promised myself I wouldn’t lie in order to make this easier, for Kit or for me.
There’s not going to be a new business. There’s no ‘we’, not any more.
‘When we can no longer make the payments, 11 Bentley Grove will be repossessed,’ I tell Kit. ‘It’s inevitable, and it doesn’t worry me. If I haven’t found out what I need to know in two years, the chances are I’ll never find out. At that point, I’d have to think about giving up.’
‘You’re proposing this plan knowing it’s going to lead to bankruptcy?’
‘There’s no point in having money if you’re not willing to spend it on the things that matter. I assume that if I was literally penniless, the government would have to provide me with somewhere to live – a room in a B&B, a council flat, benefits. I wouldn’t starve.’
‘Your figures don’t add up,’ says Kit, a triumphant sneer on his face. He ought to know better. When have my figures ever not added up? Hysteria bubbles up inside me. My life might be falling apart but my accounting skills have survived intact. Yippee. ‘You’re talking about borrowing nine hundred grand, but this letter’s offering 1.2 million.’ Kit hits it again with the back of his hand. ‘Where’s the missing three hundred grand going to come from?’
‘The sale of Melrose Cottage,’ I tell him. ‘You talked about magicking up a buyer? That’s exactly what I’ve done. A firm buyer who won’t let us down, so that we can make a deal with Selina Gane straight away and know it won’t fall through.’
‘Who? You’re talking crap! You haven’t had time to find anyone. The house isn’t even on the market! Your mum and dad aren’t going to help you bankrupt yourself, that’s for sure – they’d drop dead from a unanimous heart attack if they heard what I’ve just heard. Fran and Anton haven’t got any money. Who’s your buyer, Connie? You’re fucking delusional!’
‘We’re going to sell Melrose Cottage to ourselves. To Nulli.’
No reaction.
I press on. ‘Nulli has a hundred and fifty grand in its account at the moment, give or take. Legally, it’s a separate entity from you and me, even though we own it. It can borrow money in its own right. This is how it works: Nulli buys Melrose for three hundred grand. I don’t know, maybe it could even pay a bit over the odds – three hundred and twenty, say, or three hundred and fifty. Yes, come to think of it, I think Nulli might be so impressed with our high-spec interior, it won’t be able to resist offering an extra fifty grand to see off the competition. The surveyor will be told that’s the price the vendor and buyer agreed on, and won’t think to question it – three hundred and fifty grand isn’t unthinkable for our house, with all the work we’ve done to it.’
‘The work I’ve done,’ Kit mutters.
I’m not going to argue with him. It’s a fair point. ‘Nulli puts down a hundred grand