The Sugared Game - K.J. Charles Page 0,13

dropping the airiness. “It’s linked to Zodiac.”

They looked at each other. Will could feel his muscles tensing, readying for action. “Zodiac,” he repeated. “What would they want with a night-club?”

“Consider the convenience of a night-club for a criminal enterprise. Vast sums in cash wash in and out regularly, making it impossible to trace the path of money. The most ill-assorted people can meet in a highly casual fashion. It’s a notorious trade, and the High-Low attracted the attention of a colleague of mine, one Leinster, who specialised in following financial trails. He identified some profitable and highly illegal sidelines operating out of the High-Low and suspected it was being used by Zodiac to accumulate working capital. He had more suspicion than evidence, but he was a genius in his way. If he thought the High-Low smelled, I believe something there is off.”

“You’re talking in the past tense,” Will said.

“Yes. Leinster is dead. He fell under a train on a miserable night in January. The platform was icy; he could very well have slipped.”

Will’s hairs prickled on his skin, not pleasantly this time. “But you don’t think he did.”

“No, I don’t. He was working on linking the High-Low and Zodiac, and he fell under a train, and when I started attempting to retrace his steps, I contracted a nasty dose of blackmail. I’m not chalking both of those up to chance.”

“No. Damn.”

“Problem?”

Will made a face. “This might be just imagination, or an inflated idea of my own importance, but...” He told Kim briefly about his visit to the higher balcony, and the odd conversations with Fuller and Mrs. Skyrme. “I felt as if they were getting at something, trying to find out what I was up to—which was nothing. Maisie thought the same. And now you’re saying they might be Zodiac, and they might be after you—”

“And you wonder if, knowing Kim Secretan was in the picture, they recognised the name Will Darling. As you say, damn.”

“I was hoping you’d say ‘nonsense’.”

“Sadly, no. You made your presence felt to Zodiac last year. If someone in the High-Low is sufficiently high up, they will recognise your name, and they might very well have wondered what you were doing there.”

“Mrs. Skyrme was wearing long gloves.” Will didn’t need to fill that in. Zodiac’s inner circle sported little wrist tattoos, a brand of loyalty.

“She usually does. I don’t suppose you saw Fuller’s wrists?”

“Didn’t look. I thought I was having a night out, not sticking my head into the lion’s mouth. Hell’s teeth, Kim. You said Zodiac would leave me alone if I left them alone, and now I’ve turned up at their place and they clearly thought I was asking questions. Mrs. Skyrme even said something about me telling my friends about the place. That meant you, didn’t it?”

“Probably. You said she was trying to find out what you were up to. Any specifics?”

“She gave me a list of names, people I might know. I think she was watching for a reaction. I hadn’t heard of any of them.”

Kim frowned. “Can you remember the names?”

“Tommy someone. Teller? Brilliant Chang, I remember that, and Wally Bunker, who Beaumont said was a racecourse terrorist.”

“He’s behind any amount of illegal gambling, and wears a check coat that should be on the statute books as a serious offence.”

“He was on the top balcony. Nasty-looking piece of work.”

“Brilliant Chang is a dope merchant,” Kim went on. “A very pleasant and cultivated one, at least if you meet him socially, and does not operate from the High-Low, which suggests she didn’t want to name her own people. Might the third have been Tommy Telford?”

“Rings a bell.”

“Ask not for whom the bell rings,” Kim said. “Damn, and also blast.”

“Who is he?”

“A professional purveyor of violence and intimidation. If you’d recognised his name, you’d have understood you were being threatened. Your visit was clearly seen as an act of aggression. I’m extremely sorry, Will.”

“It’s hardly your fault.”

“The link between your name and mine is what puts you at risk. That looks like my fault from here.”

“Oi,” Will said. “I made Zodiac dislike me all by myself, thanks. So should I expect blackmailers?”

“It probably depends what you’ve been up to.”

“Is that up to with you, or up to in the two months since you buggered off without a word?”

Kim’s eyes snapped wide. Will felt fairly startled himself: he hadn’t meant to say that. “Never mind,” he muttered.

“Not at all, it’s a valid question.” Kim sounded smooth and urbane, as if he was discussing