tried one, by the way, I hope you don’t mind. Delicious, but the centres are a little hard.”
There was a tiny silence.
“If you wish to speak to me, Lord Arthur, I must insist on you making an appointment,” Mrs. Skyrme said. “Will you let go of this door or must I call a policeman?”
“You’re welcome to call a policeman. Would you like to talk to him about Leinster, or about Mrs. Appleby?”
Her eyes narrowed. “What is it you want?”
“To talk. Let’s do that now.”
Will took that as a hint and put his weight into the door. Mrs. Skyrme stumbled back with a curse, and they were in, facing up in the dark interior of the empty night-club. She inhaled sharply.
“Don’t shout,” Kim said. “Don’t shout at all. This is your last opportunity to have a conversation, rather than give a statement. If I were you, I wouldn’t waste it.”
“Empty threats, Lord Arthur.” Mrs. Skyrme’s eyes flicked to Will for a second, considered him dispassionately, and moved back to Kim. She was about five foot three, with overdone face-paint, a garish frock, and cheap bangles on her wrists, and Will had a sudden shuddering urge to draw the Messer because he could tell a danger when he saw one.
“Sadly, no,” Kim said. “Sadly for you, that is. I’ve got the dates of Mrs. Appleby’s trips, plus her signed statement and, of course, the chocolates. I can match some very large sums to Mrs. Appleby’s confectionery deliveries and put you in the middle of it. I could have come here with a pack of police officers and had you nailed.”
Mrs. Skyrme looked at him without emotion for a very long moment, and then she smiled. “So why didn’t you?”
Kim smiled back. “Tell me something, Mrs. Skyrme. Let’s say I had you arrested now, and you sat in a cell while men drilled your safe open—what might that take, a few hours? Half a day? And then all the papers would be ours, and you would need to decide whether to save yourself by giving up your Zodiac colleagues, particularly Capricorn.”
“And you want to know what I’d choose?”
“I don’t care what you’d choose,” Kim said. “I want to know how long you think you’d live. Do you really believe he would risk you talking? I’ve got you, Mrs. Skyrme, and once Capricorn finds that out, you’re a liability to him.”
“If that’s the case, it isn’t you I should be scared of, is it?”
“Indeed not. The very opposite. I’m here for a friendly chat about what to do with these two boxes of delicious chocolates. Shall we go to your office?”
There was a long, considering silence, which Mrs. Skyrme broke. “This way.”
Will followed them both up to the office, keeping a weather eye out for treachery, or movement. Their steps echoed in the vast space in a dead sort of way. The stairs were sticky underfoot.
Mrs. Skyrme went in and sat down at her desk. It was set against the back wall, facing out to the club. With the blinds up as they were now, she would have a view of the whole place, balconies and dancefloor alike. Kim helped himself to the other chair and sat opposite. Will leaned against the door.
Mrs. Skyrme gave him a cold look. “You caused a great deal of trouble the other night, Mr. Darling. I suppose you were up to something.”
“Never mind him,” Kim said. “Nice to speak to you face to face at last, Mrs. Skyrme.”
“Likewise I’m sure, Lord Arthur.”
She leaned back, hands going to her lap, which was to say, under the level of the desk. Will said, “Hands where I can see them, please.”
“Are you going to make me, Mr. Darling?”
“Yes.”
She put her clasped hands on her desk. Kim took one of her hands and turned it, so the blue stain of a tattoo was visible through the bangles.
“Aquarius,” he said. “Does Capricorn himself bear one of these highly incriminating little marks, or does he reserve them for his inferiors?”
“Ask him.”
“I intend to. Let’s not waste time, shall we? I have the entire story from Flora Appleby, and I also have two boxes of supposedly Hungarian chocolates with full provenance and very hard centres. Here.” He put them on the desk. “I prefer the liqueur fillings, myself.”
“Then you should buy your own.”
“Very true,” Kim said. “Flora Appleby is ready to testify about everything, including that she told you about Leinster’s questions shortly before his ‘accident’. You ought not to have threatened her divorce, you