‘Do what you like with the old git,’ Ben said nonchalantly. Inside, he was screaming. ‘Makes no difference to me. Just make sure you turn up to our meeting’ – glancing at his watch – ‘just under five hours from now. Remember, Stuart, this is strictly a one-time offer. Don’t screw it up.’

‘I’ll be there.’

‘I know you will,’ Ben replied, and hung up the call.

‘Oh my God, Ben,’ Grace said. Still staring at him in blank incomprehension.

Ben reeled. He doubled over, breathing hard and as badly winded as if a heavyweight boxing champion had landed the hardest knockout blow of their career to his solar plexus. Because Ben had just taken the biggest gamble he’d ever taken in his life, and put that of his friend in the balance.

Grace said, ‘I’m seriously at a loss as to why you would play it that way.’

Ben took a few deep breaths to clear his head. He looked at her, saw the pain and confusion in her eyes. It took him an effort to speak. ‘Because I needed to make this as easy and straightforward as possible for Stuart, if there was any chance of luring him in. He has to believe that all I care about is the money. We get him on his own, he’s ours.’

‘I get that part. It’s the not giving a shit about your friend that I’m not understanding. Just when you found out that Boonzie’s still alive after all, you gave Stuart the green light to kill him. What the hell were you thinking?’

Ben said, ‘I was thinking two things. First, if I’m the only one who knows where the gold is, it takes away their incentive to torture the truth out of him. If he’s still alive after all this time, it’s because they couldn’t really be sure what he knew or not. They’ve been hedging their bets. Second, I was thinking that a man like Stuart would never trust a living soul. He’s always going to give himself a back way out.’

‘So?’

‘So he won’t kill Boonzie. Not if he’s serious about meeting us alone. Because there’s no way he would just believe what I said, and he needs some leverage against me if things go bad. I try to double-cross him or back out of the deal, he has Boonzie as a bargaining chip.’

‘So when we meet with Stuart tonight, the plan is to grab him, right? But how does that work, if his men still have Boonzie hostage?’

‘I just have to trust that our hostage is worth more to them than theirs is. Stuart’s the one paying their wages.’

‘So they have to release Boonzie if they want their boss back. Which they’re not going to get.’

‘Correct.’

‘And then we’ve still got the Dishonourables to deal with.’