‘No, no, it’s not Satnam, it’s Jessica. Jessica has thrown herself off the bridge.’

Chapter 28

Cullen

He’d woken with a hangover. At breakfast Veronica again asked him what Madeleine Ince had wanted from him so urgently last night. He repeated what he’d already said, that there had been an ongoing security issue following the break-in. The fact that she’d asked twice suggested she didn’t believe him, but she’d decided not to pursue it, which was really all that mattered. Maddy had fired a shot across his bows but he was reassured that, so long as he behaved himself, she would help escort him through the current rough waters. There was no one better to have on his side.

The arrangement meant he could, at least temporarily, turn to other, very pressing matters, namely the getting of hard cash. The thug awaited payment, his visits to the house a clear threat. Cullen had managed to allay Veronica’s fears for now, but even Veronica wouldn’t swallow the broadband story for long. Maddy’s support has at least bought him some time. Leaving the house shortly after breakfast he gets in his Volvo and drives through Clifton past the infirmary and Broadmead towards Temple Meads station until, reaching Lawrence Hill, he checks along the road for a parking space, slows into second gear and flips the indicator to signal left. In the eight years he’s lived in Bristol he’s never been here, though it’s only four miles from Clifton. Not his kind of place. Everything is smaller and meaner, from the shops and pavements to the spaces for the cars.

He squeezes the Volvo between a Ka and a Fiesta, switches off the radio, checks the time on his watch, scopes about for the correct building number and, not seeing it, gets out. His eyes float over cheap homeware shops and takeaways in search of three golden balls indicating the entrance to S. Harold & Sons, a family-run pawnbroker which he hopes will be more discreet than the big chains.