Starr’s assailant scrambled, clumsily and unsteadily, to his feet, clamping his hand to his head, and made for the door. Lorik kicked him hard in the backside, sending him forward through the doorway and crashing face down onto the floor, blood still pouring. The Albanian threw the ear after him, then kicked the door shut.

‘Thanks, pal,’ Mickey said.

Lorik patted him on the shoulder. ‘You my friend.’

79

Wednesday 22 May

Meg, waiting to go back into court, reread the message she’d received from Laura late last night.

Hi Mum, Galapagos – amazing! Did a budget boat trip where we were like inches from blue-footed boobies, so close! And red-footed ones. And iguanas everywhere. And we saw all these red crabs – a gazillion! And did I tell u that really creepy guy who’s stalking us is here too? He’s everywhere we’ve been and we’re sure he keeps taking photos of us. Well, we’ve taken a photo of him – attached! Cassie went over to him, he said his name was Jorge and said he wasn’t taking photos of us. But don’t worry, we’re big and ugly enough to sort him out! Miss you. X

Back in court, Emily Denyer had finished giving her evidence after 4 p.m. on the afternoon of the previous day and due to the lateness of the hour the judge agreed that the cross-examination by the defence could begin this morning promptly at 10 a.m.

The defence counsel was on her feet.

‘Ms Denyer, would I be correct in saying you are unable to specify where this cash deposit of three point five million euros has actually come from?’

For the first time since she had begun giving her evidence, last Friday, Emily Denyer looked a little nervous.

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘But if we go back to Spreadsheet 11 in your bundle of documents, you will see an equivalent amount transferred from the Cayman Island Elstrom Bank account, which tallies with the amount deposited into the Seychelles Neubank account on the same day.’

‘Can you tell us beyond any doubt that this amount deposited into the Seychelles Neubank account came from the Cayman Islands Elstrom Bank account?’ Brown asked.

Denyer shook her head. ‘Not beyond all doubt, no.’

‘Are you aware that there are many hundreds of transactional deposits daily into the Seychelles Neubank account, many of which are for large amounts?’ Brown pressed.

‘It was not necessary as part of my investigation to look at every deposit made. What I have told the court in my evidence is the electronic information that shows the large movement of monies into the relevant accounts,’ the Financial Investigator conceded.

‘Really?’ Brown said. ‘But I put it to you that this was just a fishing exercise, hoping you would find my client’s name on one of these accounts. Is it correct that you did not find the name of my client on any of these overseas accounts?’