Charlotte tilted her head to the side sympathetically. ‘Double shifts are tough,’ she said quietly. ‘Hard on the feet. Back.’

Marina shifted her weight, bone-aching weariness in the gesture. ‘Yeah.’ She was exhausted, not just from a day of it, but a lifetime.

Charlotte leaned in suddenly, cornering her quarry. ‘Let me come to your apartment this evening. We can talk more then.’

‘But—’

‘We’re running out of time, Marina. Carlos is not a well man. It’s important we speak.’

Marina hesitated, then nodded, conflict puzzled across her face. ‘Okay.’

‘But this time, there will need to be full disclosure – from us both.’

Chapter Seven

‘She’s lying.’

Mateo recrossed his legs again. They had swapped the country club for his town club, the Casino, but fundamentally they were in the same space: seats on the terrace, the scent of money in the air, drinks between them and a hot anger burning in her client’s eyes. ‘How do you know?’

‘Little things – she repeated my questions, exhibited grooming behaviours.’

Mateo’s eyes narrowed with bemusement. ‘That is very . . . specific. How do you know about such things, Miss Fairfax?

Milton, whose plane had landed exactly ninety minutes earlier, leaned forward, physically inserting himself into the conversation. ‘I’ve long held a suspicion that Ms Fairfax is in fact a spy,’ he quipped.

Mateo chuckled. ‘I could well believe it.’

Charlotte smiled as she looked between them both. ‘Part of my job is being able to read people. My clients are sophisticated people, easily able to present a veneer to the world. I have to be able to see beyond what they are telling me and read what they are showing me.’

He tapped his finger several times against his lips, watching her closely. ‘And you think she knows my father.’

‘So far she’s only admitted she knows of him, although that’s hardly exceptional given your family’s profile – but yes, towards the end of our conversation, she indicated she might; she was fishing for more information.’

‘And what did you tell her?’

‘Nothing specific. I mainly explained my role in great detail, showing her the scale of the problems that come with great wealth—’

‘Thereby implying great wealth is coming her way.’

Charlotte smiled. ‘Exactly. She was definitely tapping me up. But I also made it clear unlimited wealth is a poisoned chalice. When I made initial contact yesterday afternoon, she just denied everything outright: she was the proverbial rabbit in headlights. Deny, deny. This morning, though, she brought extra food with my order, she loitered at my table . . . she’d clearly been thinking about our conversation. She wanted to know more.’

‘So what next?’

‘I’m going over this evening to give her a final chance to admit to the connection with your father. Now that she’s begun to allude to it, it should get easier to draw her out and find out exactly what’s going on between them.’

‘She’s probably realizing that if she has no contact with anyone else in your family, and with your father being so unwell, Charlotte here is potentially her only lifeline to the money,’ Milton added.