Temple of the Gods

16

It wasn’t enough.

Eddie stood silently listening as Nina held an increasingly dismayed phone conversation with Renée Beauchamp at Interpol. ‘I don’t understand,’ she said. ‘You’ve watched the video, you’ve seen the gun at the exact timecode I gave you — you just told me you saw it! Kit grabbed it, so Eddie was clearly acting in self-defence. Why doesn’t that clear him?’

‘Because it still does not establish any motive for Kit to do what Eddie accused him of,’ the French officer replied.

‘But you know he was doing something. He lied about his reason for meeting Stikes.’

‘That is not proof of wrongdoing. If we had any evidence of that, it would help Eddie’s case, perhaps even clear him outright, but we have found nothing. All we know is that he and Kit were fighting, and that Kit found a gun and was apparently about to use it when he was killed. You say Eddie was acting in self-defence, but Kit may have gone for the gun for the same reason. Your husband has, ah… a reputation for violence, after all.’

‘So what would count as proof?’

‘Something that links Kit to illegal activities. Falsifying evidence, accepting bribes, passing classified information to outside parties, abuse of power…’ Beauchamp sighed. ‘But we have found none of these. There is nothing to suggest that Kit was anything except an exemplary police officer who was dedicated to the pursuit of order.’

‘So even though you’ve got new evidence, it doesn’t help Eddie at all?’

‘It would help his case if he turned himself in. But does it clear his name? No, I’m afraid not.’

‘Well, that’s great,’ said Nina, struggling to contain her angry disappointment. ‘Thanks anyway, Renée.’ She put down the phone with more force than she intended.

‘That didn’t sound like it went well,’ said Eddie.

‘It did not.’

‘Bollocks. I really thought it’d be enough.’

‘So did I. Oh, God.’ She slumped back in her chair, looking out of her study window at the mid-morning Manhattan street scene outside. They had left Lola’s and returned to their apartment after midnight, Nina surreptitiously letting Eddie in through a fire exit to avoid the attention of the doorman. ‘I don’t know what else we can do.’

‘There isn’t anything else we can do. But there’s something I can do.’

‘Which is what?’

‘Leave.’ He walked out.

Nina jumped up and followed him into the lounge. ‘What? Wait a minute, what do you mean “leave”?’

‘You know, go out through the front door and don’t come back.’

‘Why?’ she cried.

‘Same reason I didn’t call you while I was on the run. For Christ’s sake, Nina, I’m wanted by bloody Interpol for murder! If I’d talked to you on the phone that would have been bad enough, but if I’m found here, that makes you an accessory for harbouring a fugitive, or whatever it’s called.’ He started for the bedroom to collect his belongings.

‘So what are you going to do?’ she demanded, moving to block him. ‘Just run off around the world again and try not to get arrested? Or killed?’

‘I have to.’

‘No! No, you don’t! We found Kit’s gun on the recording, we can work out his code as well. Beauchamp said if we found evidence that proved Kit was doing something illegal, it’d clear your name. All we need is time.’

‘The longer I hang around here, the more chance of us both getting caught. And I’m not going to let you get dragged into this. Come on, let me past.’ He tried to move round her.

‘It’s a bit late for that, Eddie. Someone blew the top off a skyscraper trying to kill me, remember? And if you leave, then what? You want them to come after me again?’

That stopped him in his tracks. ‘Of course I bloody don’t!’

‘It’s what’ll happen. For God’s sake, I would probably have died in Tokyo if you hadn’t been there — never mind what happened at JFK! And from what Dalton told you, Glas won’t give up. I need you, Eddie.’

‘You could hire a bodyguard. I’ve still got Charlie’s number; he’s got a couple of guys I’d trust to keep you safe.’

‘I don’t mean I need you as a bodyguard.’ She stepped closer, looking into his eyes. ‘I need you as a husband. You know: best friend, soulmate… lover?’ She held his hands. ‘I want you back, Eddie. I want my husband back. Not on the run in God knows what part of the world.’

‘Christ, believe me, that’s what I want more than anything!’ Eddie replied desperately. ‘But I don’t have any choice. I’ve got to go. Otherwise—’

He broke off at the sound of someone knocking at the door. Nina jumped. ‘Shit!’ she whispered. ‘What if it’s the cops?’

‘They’d be knocking with a battering ram.’ He moved her aside. ‘Get rid of them. I’ll hide in the bedroom.’

‘Don’t you dare pack your things,’ Nina warned as she went to the door, waiting for Eddie to get out of sight before looking through the peephole.

It wasn’t the police. But she was still startled by who she saw.

The visitor was Larry Chase.

‘It’s your dad!’ she hissed to Eddie.

He poked his head round the doorframe. ‘What the fuck’s he doing here?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Then get rid of him!’

Eddie retreated, leaving the bedroom door fractionally open so he could listen as Nina let the unexpected visitor in. ‘Larry, hi. This is, uh, kind of a surprise.’ He was alone. ‘Where’s Julie?’

‘Shopping,’ Larry replied. ‘She’s on a pilgrimage to Bloomingdale’s, so I thought I’d leave her to it.’

‘When are you flying back to England?’

‘Tonight. Not trying to get rid of me, are you?’

‘It’s kind of an awkward time.’

‘That’s okay, this won’t take long.’ He looked around the apartment. ‘Nice place you’ve got. Very tasteful.’ He spotted one of Eddie’s possessions on a shelf, a pottery cigar-box holder in the shape of a smiling Fidel Castro. ‘Well, mostly.’

‘So what can I do for you, Larry?’ Nina asked, moving round the room so that by facing her, Larry would have his back to the bedroom door.

‘I wanted to fix things up between us. When we had dinner, it didn’t end well. Which made it two out of two, and I’d like dinner number three to at least reach the dessert course without any fireworks!’ He laughed a little, but stopped when he saw Nina’s stony expression. ‘That’s assuming that you’re willing for there to be a dinner number three, of course.’

‘It’s not something I’d given a great deal of thought, to be honest. Look, Larry, this really isn’t a good time—’

‘Please, it’ll just take a minute!’ He was silent for a moment, composing himself. ‘I wanted to apologise. For what happened in South America. I’ve been thinking about what you told me, and… you were right. I shouldn’t have talked to Stikes.’

‘No,’ said Nina coldly. ‘You shouldn’t.’

‘But I didn’t know, I didn’t know!’ Larry protested, hands spread wide. ‘Yes, Callas and de Quesada weren’t the kind of clients I’d actively seek out, but I didn’t know what they were planning. When Edward turned up in Bogotá afterwards and started threatening to tie me in with their attempted coup, I… well, I admit it, I panicked. I needed reassurances that I wasn’t going to end up embroiled in the whole mess — and Stikes was the only person who could provide them, since de Quesada and Callas were both dead.’

‘And because you called him—’

‘I know,’ he interrupted. ‘And I’m sorry, I really, really am sorry about it, and I know that if I hadn’t spoken to Stikes none of it would have happened. If I’d known, if there had been any possible way I could have known, I wouldn’t have done it.’

‘That doesn’t change what happened, though,’ said Eddie, stepping out of the bedroom behind him.

Larry whirled, face a mixture of shock, relief — and nervousness. ‘Edward? Oh my God! You’re all right!’

‘Yeah, I’m okay,’ Eddie said with a shrug, before fixing his father with a cold gaze. ‘So, did I just hear that right? You actually apologised to someone?’

‘If I make a mistake, I own up to it,’ his father replied stiffly.

‘So I guess that must have been the first mistake you ever made in your life, seeing as I don’t remember you doing that before.’

‘Eddie, for God’s sake,’ said Nina, stepping between the two men to prevent yet another family argument. ‘The point is, he did come here to apologise. Maybe now that you’re here too…’ She gave the elder Chase a pointed look.

‘Well?’ said Eddie, folding his arms and regarding his father expectantly.

It took considerably more effort for the words to emerge this time. ‘Okay. Edward. What I wanted to say was… I made a mistake, and I regret it. I’m sorry.’

A sarcastic smile split his son’s face. ‘Well, fuck me. I can die happy now that I’ve finally heard that.’

‘Jesus Christ, Eddie!’ Nina snapped. ‘Will you just listen to him, please? For me, if nothing else?’

‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry,’ Larry repeated, with growing emotion. ‘Look, I’m…’ He paced in agitation across the room, then turned back to Eddie. ‘I’m not a soldier like you. I’ve never been in any situation where people’s lives were in the balance. How do you think I feel about learning that something I did ended up getting people killed? It’s — it’s appalling! I don’t know how to deal with something that huge. I really don’t.’ He went to a chair and sat staring miserably down at the floor. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘That doesn’t bring back Mac,’ Eddie rumbled. ‘Or any of the other people who died.’

‘No, it doesn’t. But…’ He looked up, meeting his son’s icy gaze. ‘I did what I did because I was trying to save my own arse. I admit that. And now I completely understand why you took a swing at me in England.’ He shrugged — not disdain, but a kind of acceptance. ‘To be honest, I can’t help thinking now that you showed remarkable restraint.’

‘If Holly hadn’t put herself in front of you,’ Eddie told him, ‘I wouldn’t have stopped.’

‘And I would have deserved it. Well, up to a point.’ A faint attempt at a smile. ‘But when your granddaughter’s braver than you are, it’s probably a sign that you need to reassess some things in your life. Like…’ He sighed. ‘Like your relationship with your son.’

Eddie remained silent, compelling Nina to speak up. ‘In what way?’

Larry was not relishing whatever admission he was about to make. ‘I, er… I think I’ve misjudged you, Edward. I always thought of you as the boy you used to be — not the man you’ve become. But, well… you’ve changed. You grew up, you took on responsibilities for things bigger than just yourself. And… it’s made me realise that maybe I never did.’

He turned his eyes back down to the floor, not awaiting approbation but simply mentally worn from having forced out the confession. Nina looked between the two men, wondering which would speak first.

It was Eddie. ‘That’s something I never thought I’d hear.’ But there was no malice or criticism to it, merely a statement of fact.

‘It’s something I never thought I’d say,’ replied Larry. ‘But I have, so, there you are. I hope you’ll accept it.’

Eddie held him in suspense for several seconds before delivering his reply. ‘I’ll think about it.’

His father had clearly been wanting more, but more or less managed to cover his downhearted look. ‘I suppose that’s the best I could hope for.’

A noncommittal sound, then Eddie tried to change the subject. ‘How is Holly? And Lizzie?’

‘Elizabeth’s fine; you know her, she always pushes on no matter what. Holly was very upset about losing your grandmother, as you can imagine, but she’s a strong kid. She’s handling it. What about you?’

‘Me? Well, obviously I was upset about Nan too. I should have been there with her.’ He considered that, then gave Nina an apologetic look. ‘I mean, I wish I could’ve been there to see her one last time.’

‘She would have liked that,’ said Larry, ‘but I meant what about you, personally? You disappeared for three months, and it looks like you’ve been in the wars. What with the cuts and bruises, and the…’ Larry indicated his chin. ‘The face fungus.’

‘Why does nobody like my beard?’ Eddie said with a sigh. ‘But yeah, I’ve had a few scrapes. Par for the course when you’re on the run because you’ve been accused of murder. Speaking of which, I need to get going.’

Nina hurriedly blocked the entrance to the bedroom once more. ‘Eddie, I’m not going to let you go again.’

‘We’ve been through this — I’ve got to. I can’t clear myself without that code of Kit’s, and I’m not going to bring you down with me as well.’

‘No, Eddie,’ she insisted. ‘Whatever happens, we’re going to deal with it together, okay? If you think I’m going to let you go again now that I’ve got you back, you’re really, really mistaken.’

‘How are you gonna stop me? Tie me to the bed? Not that you haven’t done that before, but—’

‘We have company,’ Nina hurriedly reminded him, blushing.

‘Well, maybe I should get going,’ said Larry uncomfortably. He went to the door, then hesitated, curious. ‘There’s something that can clear you, Edward? Why don’t you tell the police?’

‘Because we don’t know what it means,’ said Nina. ‘It’s a number, a code. We think it’s important, but we don’t know why.’

‘What number?’

‘What, you think you’ll be able to work it out?’ Eddie said in a cutting tone. ‘A mathematical genius —’ he nodded at Nina — ‘and an MI6 agent couldn’t find the answer, but a bloke who works in shipping can?’

‘Maybe it’s a shipping number,’ Larry replied defiantly.

‘Ah… that’s actually not a bad idea,’ Nina had to admit. ‘And really, it’s not like it could hurt.’

‘All right, whatever,’ Eddie muttered. He wrote down the number while Nina gave Larry a potted account of how it had been calculated. ‘We thought it might be a Greek phone number, but it doesn’t work.’ He gave the paper to his father.

Larry looked at it and frowned. ‘Hmm. Twelve digits, starting with three and zero…’

Nina’s eyebrows shot up. ‘You know what it means?’

‘Maybe. Thirty is a Swiss bank code. For banks in Bern, I think.’

Eddie regarded him in disbelief. ‘You just know that off the top of your head?’

‘Quite a few of my clients have Swiss accounts, so yeah. I deal with this stuff all the time. Let’s see…’ His brow crinkled in thought. ‘A full Swiss IBAN code would be twenty-one characters, but the first four are basically a computer checksum, so you can ignore them. Then it’s five for the bank code and twelve for the account number, but account numbers are almost never that long, so any blank spaces are just padded out with zeros. Most Swiss bank codes are only four digits, so three-oh-two-one gives you the bank… and whatever’s left is the actual account number.’

‘If we told Interpol what you just said,’ Nina asked cautiously, ‘would they be able to find out who the account belonged to?’

Larry nodded. ‘Swiss banks aren’t like super-secret fortresses any more. The US strong-armed them into opening up after 9/11. If you want to keep your money hidden nowadays, you take it to a bank in Andorra or Macao or — well, that’s not really important,’ he said, noticing Eddie’s disapproving look. ‘But if this is a Swiss account number, this would be enough information for its owner to access it — or Interpol to investigate it.’

‘We have to tell Beauchamp,’ said Nina, heading to the phone. Without looking back, she pointed at Eddie. ‘Don’t you even think of leaving.’

‘I’m not,’ he replied. ‘Not until I see how this pans out, at least.’

‘Well, it looks like this’ll get complicated, and I was going anyway, so…’ said Larry.

‘Are you sure?’ asked Nina.

‘I should catch up with Julie before she melts my credit cards,’ he said with a small laugh. ‘But, ah… if I was right about that number, you’ll let me know, won’t you?’

‘Of course we will. Won’t we, Eddie?’

‘I suppose,’ said Eddie, rather dismissively.

‘Okay, then. And about the money Stikes paid me? You were both right; it’s… tainted, I suppose. As soon as I get back to England, I’ll donate it to one of those charities you mentioned, Edward.’ He looked hopefully at his son, but no praise was forthcoming. ‘Well, I’ll, ah, see you again sometime. Both of you.’ Larry gave Nina a brief embrace and Eddie an awkward nod, then departed.

Nina rounded on her husband. ‘That’s it? That’s all you had to say, “I suppose”?’

‘What were you expecting?’ Eddie replied sarcastically. ‘Big backslapping hugs and manly tears and the whole “I love you, son”, “I love you too, Dad” thing? We’re not Americans. Besides, even if he’s right about Kit’s code, it doesn’t change the fact that he fucked up. He can apologise as much as he likes, but it’ll take a lot for me to get over that.’

‘Even if he helps clear your name?’

He huffed. ‘Stop asking me things I don’t want to answer and call Renée.’

Nina smiled and picked up the phone.