The Heights

by Parker Bilal

  Drake didn’t answer at first. What could he say, after all? He knew, of course, that there was a chance she might have made it if she hadn’t listened to him.

  ‘She wanted to see Goran brought to justice,’ he said at last.

  ‘No. She wanted to believe you.’ The smile returned. ‘She was like me, caught in the middle, unable to move.’

  ‘I’ve always wondered how they found her,’ said Drake. ‘Now I wonder if they followed you down there.’

  The phone in Drake’s pocket began to vibrate. He held up a hand to silence Darius. It was Pryce.

  53

  Crane opened her eyes. Night had fallen and the dogs were settling down for the night. She could smell them, nosing around the cage, pushing their snouts through, trying to reach her.

  She was seated on the ground. Her hands and feet were tied. One thing about country folk is they certainly know how to tie a knot. Thick blue nylon twine that dug into her skin. Her hands were bound to one of the corner posts of the cage. She wondered what time it was. She had heard nothing for hours and after struggling to get herself free she had decided to do the sensible thing and close her eyes.

  She need to think.

  She knew now that Howeida was dead. At least, she was pretty sure of it. The white bone fragments she had collected from the floor of the cage could have come from a sheep, but she was willing to bet that tests would reveal them to be human. The dogs could eat their way through anything. She had seen evidence of that. They crunched up the bones with their teeth and powerful jaws. They sucked the marrow out. Not pleasant. Though it was still unclear exactly how Howeida had lost her life.

  The only evidence she had was, she hoped, still in her pocket. The earring that had been twisted and bitten but then miraculously spat out as unpalatable by the dogs. A silver earring. Along with the bag and personal effects in the boot of the Rolls. That should be enough to prove that Howeida had been here and never left.

  She could hear footsteps coming across the open ground from the house. A shadow appeared in the doorway of the barn, silhouetted against the outside light that came on above the door when a sensor was tripped.

  Marco Foulkes was wearing an oilskin jacket and wellington boots. He drew closer and squatted down in front of her, shaking his head in dismay.

  ‘Extraordinary, the degree to which you are incapable of following simple instructions.’

  ‘I’ve never been good at taking orders.’

  ‘Naturally.’ He smiled, pushing his hair back. ‘Part of your charm. Only now you present a problem that needs to be resolved.’

  ‘How did it happen?’

  Foulkes fell silent. He looked down at the floor. ‘I don’t know if you’ll believe me, but it was an accident.’

  ‘You’re right. I don’t.’

  ‘As you wish, it makes no difference. But it is the truth.’

  She struggled upright and held up her hands. ‘No chance you could undo these while we talk?’

  Foulkes shook his head. ‘Sorry. That would be unwise.’ He breathed deeply. ‘I find myself in a difficult situation. I never intended to harm her, just as I have no wish to harm you.’

  ‘Right, you just keep finding yourself in these situations.’

  That brought a slight smile to his face. ‘Trust you to be able to read into this your own little interpretation.’

  ‘Fine. Convince me otherwise.’

  ‘You must believe me when I tell you that I was very fond of her. I wanted us to be together. Sometimes wishing for something is not enough.’

  ‘She came up here with you, to stay with your mother?’

  Foulkes nodded. ‘Mother was a little reluctant at first, but she took to her. Howeida is a very easy person to like.’

  ‘Was.’

  ‘Sorry?’

  ‘You said she is.’ Crane shook her head. ‘Past tense. Was.’

  Foulkes did not respond. When he spoke again his voice was deeper and slower than before.

  ‘I thought we understood each other. I thought we were on the same wavelength. But then she kept asking all these questions.’

  ‘What kind of questions?’

  ‘About me, about my work, about stuff that really shouldn’t concern her.’

  ‘Like what? Personal stuff?’

  ‘No. About my business affairs, my investments.’

  ‘You mean the things that Barnaby Nathanson did for you?’

  Foulkes looked genuinely surprised. ‘You know about that?’

  ‘I know that he was running a complex series of offshore firms and that you helped to drum up business for him. You split the profits.’

  ‘Well, what of it? It’s all above board.’

  ‘Perhaps. We’ll find out when the investigation runs its course.’

  ‘What investigation?’

  ‘You haven’t heard?’ Crane watched Foulkes’ eyes. She wondered if she could tell if he was lying. ‘He’s dead.’

  ‘Dead? How?’

  ‘Someone killed him in his flat in Pimlico. The police will be going through his finances as we speak, looking for a motive.’

  Foulkes turned away from her, resting a hand on the doorframe. Maybe he was good at faking it, but he looked genuinely shocked by the news. Crane decided to press on.

  ‘You were trying to get Howeida to invest some of her family’s money.’

  Foulkes waved a dismissive hand. ‘They have so much, they have no idea what to do with it.’

  ‘So you thought you would help them with that, but Howeida wasn’t too thrilled. She didn’t like it when she found out you had been stringing her along. Not so much the glamourous author as the grubby-handed letch.’

  ‘Please.’ Marco Foulkes gave her a disgusted look. ‘I don’t know why I ever thought you would be of use. You’re so full of resentment.’

  ‘You said it was an accident. Tell me what happened.’

  He was silent for a moment, looking down at his hands.

  ‘I tried to make amends. I told her the money didn’t matter. That’s why I brought her up here. I thought if we could just spend some time together, but she wouldn’t let it go. She kept asking why, why would a man in my position care so much about money? I had all of this. She had some romantic notion about writers.’

  ‘Poor her. What happened then?’

  ‘Well …’ Foulkes sighed. ‘I suppose I lost my temper.’

  ‘You hit her?’

  ‘She’d been holding out on me. I mean, we hadn’t actually slept together. I accused her of using all of this money talk to avoid sex.’

  ‘Maybe she wasn’t comfortable with the idea.’ Crane’s mind inevitably went back to Jindy. Men with fragile egos. What could you do? ‘But you couldn’t deal with that.’

  ‘I got carried away. I mean, she’d been leading me on for months and nothing.’ He looked into the distance. ‘Afterwards, I was ashamed. She was furious, said she wanted to leave. It was the middle of the night. I was afraid she was going to wake my mother and I knew everything was going to come out. I thought about the humiliation of it all. I … I just lost it.’

  ‘That’s when you killed her.’

  ‘Like I said, it was an accident. I was just trying to … restrain her. To stop her.’ Foulkes fell silent. ‘It just happened. I panicked and knew I had to finish it.’

  ‘You strangled her?’

  Foulkes was talking slowly, his eyes fixed on a spot on the ground ahead of him. ‘Suddenly it came to me. This force inside me. I was no longer alone, I was an instrument of fate.’ There was an odd look on his face now. ‘This was bigger than me.’

  Crane had to swallow her disgust. She knew it was important to keep him talking.

  ‘What did you do when you realised she was dead?’

  ‘At first I thought she was just unconscious. I left her there to sleep it off. My mother had heard the commotion and came running over. I led her back across to the house. She was distraught. When I came back I realised that Howie was cold.’


  Crane swore under her breath. ‘Let me out, now, Marco. This can end here.’

  It took a while for Foulkes to return to the present. He looked round at her and slowly shook his head from side to side.

  ‘You don’t understand. The scandal. Something like this would be the ruin of us. Not just me, but all of us. The family name.’

  ‘Nobody gives a fuck about the family name, Marco. You have to do the right thing.’

  He straightened up. ‘No. I can’t. My mother … It would kill her.’

  Outside, through the trees, Crane could make out a full moon rising in a clear sky. Foulkes turned towards her with a start.

  ‘I don’t want to do this. You understand that, don’t you? I’ve always been fond of you, Ray.’ Foulkes was watching her with a look that was a cross between desire and irritation. She wasn’t sure which one she preferred to deal with. ‘Why do you care anyway? I mean, we can just agree a price, leave it at that.’

  ‘That how you’ve dealt with everything in life, is it, Marco?’

  ‘Principles come and go. It makes no difference. The world moves on. I never understood that about you. You were set up. A respected forensic psychologist with a good practice. Why branch out into something as sordid as private investigation?’

  It was a question Crane had asked herself but there really wasn’t a clear answer.

  ‘I don’t know how to explain it. At the end of the day it has something to do with the urgency of our age. It’s about caring. About wanting to hold on to something good. To make a difference.’

  ‘You know how ridiculous that sounds?’ The half-smile was a glimpse of the old Marco Foulkes. The rakish man about town.

  ‘To you? Yes, I suppose it does sound pretty pointless.’ Crane’s eye was drawn to the black dog at the back of the cage. It was gnawing on something and glaring at her. ‘Where did you bury what was left of her? Out there under the new greenhouse, I’m guessing.’

  ‘Maybe you’re not so bad at this as you appear. Too late, I’m afraid.’ Foulkes looked at his watch. ‘Much as I’ve enjoyed this, I’m afraid I have to leave.’

  ‘Ah, yes, your American tour. Your chance to get out of here and lie low until things sort themselves out.’

  ‘Call it what you will,’ said Foulkes. ‘But I really don’t have time for this.’ He reached for the shotgun, which was leaning against the door. ‘For what it’s worth, I am truly sorry.’

  ‘You’re going to feed me to the dogs too?’

  ‘You were right about the greenhouse. Whatever’s left will be laid underneath the foundations. You arrived just in time. Not a bad place to wind up.’

  He leaned down to release her from the cage. Her hands and feet were still tied.

  ‘You need to stand up.’

  Crane got to her feet. She tried to assess her chances of overcoming Foulkes and decided they were low, but better than nothing. As she stood, she appeared to lose her balance and stumbled into him. He stepped back and gave her a shove, sending her sprawling to the floor again.

  ‘No tricks, please. I know how strong you are. You were always the tomboy. I thought you’d turn out to be a dyke.’

  ‘Dream on.’ Crane had drawn her knees in, ready to kick his feet out from under him, when a voice spoke from behind Foulkes.

  ‘I think that’s enough for now, Mr Foulkes.’

  The man standing in the doorway was wearing an expensive leather jacket and holding an automatic pistol.

  ‘You?’ said Foulkes in disbelief.

  The man held up an identity wallet. ‘Lieutenant Colonel Almanara. I have half a dozen Interpol agents with me, so you need to consider your position.’

  ‘What the fuck does that mean? Interpol?’ Foulkes was incredulous, even as two more men entered the barn and proceeded to disarm and handcuff him. ‘You’re her uncle!’

  Abdelhadi Almanara knelt beside Crane and cut her free.

  ‘Thank you,’ said Crane. ‘I think you just saved my life.’

  ‘My pleasure,’ Almanara said, helping her to sit up.

  ‘Aren’t you supposed to be playing nice with your horses?’

  ‘Apologies. I couldn’t let you know. But thanks to you we now have enough on tape to be able to get a lot more on him.’

  ‘So you’re not Howeida’s uncle?’

  ‘I am, or was, but I was also her boss. She was working for me as an agent of the Abu Dhabi Police Special Unit. We’ve been investigating allegations of fraud connected to Mr Nathanson and Mr Foulkes for two years now. Howeida herself volunteered.’

  ‘She was very brave.’

  ‘Yes, she was. Unfortunately I was too late to save her.’

  ‘What happens now?’

  ‘He will stand trial for the murder of a law enforcement officer and Howeida …’ Almanara sighed. ‘I will make sure she gets a medal for her service.’

  ‘Well, that’s something at least.’

  Almanara looked up sharply. ‘Believe me, I do not take the sacrifice she made lightly. The commendation is more for her family. It means something to them, to know their daughter’s work was appreciated.’

  ‘I’m sure.’ Crane was rubbing her wrists.

  ‘How did you know what had happened to her?’

  ‘I didn’t, until I found this.’ She reached into her pocket for the mangled earring. ‘They’ll crush bones but they draw the line at jewellery.’ She held it out. Almanara took it gently, as if he were holding something very delicate and valuable.

  54

  ‘I need to take this,’ said Drake. Darius shook his head. ‘If I don’t, they’ll get suspicious.’

  ‘Put it on speaker.’

  Drake did so, placing the phone on the bed beside him.

  ‘Where are you, Cal?’

  ‘I need more time, Vernon.’

  ‘We’re out of time, Cal. You have to bring yourself in. Just come in and we can sort it all out.’ There was a pause. Drake imagined he could hear others in the room. He wondered who else was there. Marsh? Wheeler? Possibly a whole team of negotiators.

  ‘Is he there with you?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Can I speak to him?’

  Drake saw Darius shake his head.

  ‘That’s not going to work,’ said Drake. There was a long pause.

  ‘How’s the boy?’

  ‘He’s fine.’

  ‘You’ve got him, then?’

  ‘He’s here,’ Drake said. ‘I need more time.’

  ‘Listen to me, Cal. The time for games is over. I don’t know what you’re playing at, but either you come in now or I’m going to bury you so deep you won’t see the light of day. Make no mistake, I’m going to crucify you.’

  ‘Let me get back to you in five minutes.’ Drake swiped the screen before Pryce had a chance to answer. He looked at Darius. ‘That won’t buy us much time.’

  ‘We don’t need much time,’ said the young man, getting to his feet.

  ‘What is it you want from me?’

  ‘Me? Nothing. I have everything right here.’ He walked over and began to climb the stairs. With a glance back in the direction of the doorway and the sleeping Joe, Drake decided to follow.

  Upstairs in the main living area, Darius stood in the kitchen. He poured himself a glass of water and drank it in long slow gulps, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. He stared out through the window, smiling, unseeing.

  ‘We can still end this, Darius. You didn’t kill her. Help us find who did and they’ll be more lenient.’

  ‘I don’t know who killed her.’

  ‘Tell me what you do know,’ Drake said quietly. ‘Tell me what happened that day.’

  Darius was playing with another cigarette, flicking the lighter, unable to bring himself to light it. After what felt like an age, he began to talk.

  ‘She was staying in this house on a hill, overlooking the sea. A beautiful place. A house with a pink door and flowers on the window. The kind of place she had always dreamed of.
That’s what she said. We went for a walk along the seafront. It was a sunny day. She looked beautiful. It was perfect.’

  Drake remembered the day he had visited Zelda. The little house with the room at the top of the stairs that had a view down a hill to the sea.

  ‘What happened then?’

  ‘She didn’t want me to stay. She said I had to wait until things were clear, until it was safe.’

  ‘What did you do?’

  ‘I said goodbye to her. I didn’t want to. I said I would go back to London, but I promised I would be back. Then I watched her walk into the house. That was the last time I saw her.’

  ‘They were waiting for her,’ said Drake.

  Darius nodded. ‘I didn’t leave right away. I waited. I felt, I don’t know what. I felt I wanted this day to last forever. For as long as I can remember, I dreamed of finding my mother. Now finally it had come true. We were going to have a great life together. I wanted to remember that.’

  ‘So you waited outside and you saw the men who killed her.’

  Darius slumped back against the counter. His eyes were fixed, staring at the floor. His voice sounded dead. ‘It was dark by then. I saw a man come out. I didn’t know who he was. I realised later that he was the one who killed her.’

  ‘Can you describe him?’

  ‘Nothing special. He was like the men I had known as a child. Fighters. Killers. A small man with silver hair. One of Goran’s men.’

  Drake stiffened. ‘You’d seen him before?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘How did he know about you and Zelda?’

  ‘I don’t know. I … Maybe I told someone, one of the others at the car wash.’ Darius’s voice was breaking again.

  ‘What happened then?’ Drake said, his voice low, almost unrecognisable.

  ‘He stood outside in the street and soon a van came with more men. They went into the house. They were in there a long time. When they came out they were carrying her with them. At first, I didn’t know what it was. It was wrapped in plastic. You couldn’t see.’

  ‘You followed them.’

  ‘I knew she was dead. I had borrowed a small motorcycle from a friend. I followed them back down to the sea. They drove a long way. I followed with my lights off.’ His eyes lifted to meet Drake’s. ‘I watched them throw her into the sea.’