‘It’s worth over half a million dollars now ... give or take a few thousand.’
There were gasps around the table. Terry’s face went white.
‘What’s that in pounds?’ Emmy asked, ever the journalist.
‘Four hundred thousand or thereabouts, depending on the exchange rate.’
‘Damn it, Caitlen! What are you going to do with it?’ said Becky, who’d now completely forgotten about her own engagement.
‘Well, that’s why I need to speak to all of you. I can’t take it all out at once. I’ve only managed to get fifteen thousand out so far.’
‘You didn’t tell me about this,’ Terry said, no longer in his usual upbeat voice. ‘When were you going to tell me?’
Caitlen ignored him and carried on.
‘The truth is, I’m terrified it will get stolen. I can’t keep it on an old laptop, it’s like keeping your life savings under the mattress. People can just hack this stuff and help themselves.’
‘Can’t you stick it in a safe?’ Rhett asked.
‘It doesn’t work like that. I’ll need to convert it into money I can spend, and I can’t do that all at once. It’s not like traditional banks.’
‘I can’t believe it,’ Harriet said, the first words she’d uttered since Becky’s announcement.
‘What will you do?’ Kasey asked.
‘That’s why I need your help. I’m petrified someone is going to steal my bitcoin. I need to keep it safe until I can figure out what to do with it. I’ve managed to move it onto a small device – it’s like a USB drive, but very secure. It’s as safe as it can be there, but only if I don’t lose it or it doesn’t get stolen.
The device is protected by a recovery password, a list of twenty-four random words. They keep my half-million dollars safe and secure: that’s all that stands between my newfound wealth and a Russian hacker.’
‘And what do you want from us?’ Emmy asked, sensing the big reveal was on its way.
‘I want to share two secret words with each of you. You’re the only people I trust. You’ll each get two of my passwords and I want you to remember them, that’s the securest way to store this information. It’s the only way to make sure nobody steals my bitcoin. Is everybody okay with that?’
‘So you want us to remember two words each, is that right? Can we write them down?’
‘No, you mustn’t write them down. Nobody can do anything to get the bitcoin unless they have all twenty-four words and I’ll keep hold of the last eight. I’d trust you all with my life, so I know that I can trust you with this. It won’t be for more than a month, two months at the most.’
‘What about me?’ Terry asked.
Caitlen stumbled in her reply.
‘Well, er, don’t worry. I’ll keep our eight words in my head. Even I can remember that many words. Everybody alright to do that?’
There were nods around the table. Terry looked as if he’d just been excluded from a private members’ club.
‘Thank you! I knew you’d help. I know it sounds paranoid, but hackers steal this stuff all the time. By the way, to say thank you I’m taking us all out for a treat. How does a week in Benidorm sound? I’ll foot the entire bill.’
Chapter Three
Naomi and Rhett: May
‘You stink of burgers!’ Rhett said, the minute she placed the kiss on his cheek.
‘Well, you smell of red wine, so you obviously had a better evening than I did.’
‘How was it?’
Rhett didn’t really want to hear the answer. He knew how it was. Smelly, noisy and unpleasant. Still, it would be his turn at six o’clock the next day.
‘We had a group of teenagers in causing trouble. They were having a food fight across the dining area. It caused a right mess. Little buggers were out of there by the time the police arrived – in fact, we’d almost got the place cleared up by the time the police arrived. I’m sure they time their arrival so they have to do the least work possible.’
‘As good as that? Well, the minimum wage pay packet will make it all worthwhile. By the way, I got an extra shift first thing tomorrow morning. Three hours, six until nine o’clock. I’ll be back at my desk by nine-thirty ready for our meeting with Ted Maxwell. It’s another twenty-five pounds in the kitty. It all helps.’
‘How much longer do we need to keep this up, Rhett? I mean, seriously?’
She stepped out of her uniform. She was wearing the Victoria’s Secret underwear that he’d bought her in better times. What a waste of great undies, in a fast-food restaurant of all places. She looked gorgeous, but Rhett knew better than to make a move after a long shift dealing with spotty teenagers. All she’d want to do is sleep.
‘We just need to land another contract. Just one bite and we’ll be in the clear. If Maxwell signs with us, we can both quit. It’ll buy us the time we need.’
Naomi was fully naked now, her uniform neatly folded on a chair and her underwear discarded at the top of the pile in the clothes basket. When he saw her like that, moving unselfconsciously, completely oblivious to her sexiness, he wanted to take her, there and then. It would help him to forget, for a while at least, lost in the ecstasy of a sexual encounter. But Naomi was never up for it these days, the long shifts on her feet for hours on end were taking it out of her.
Both of them were better suited to lighter work. Graphic design to be precise. Their idea of the perfect working day was spending eight hours at a Mac Pro, sipping filter coffee, Coldplay on in the background and messing about with some colour palette in Photoshop. It was money for old rope. But Rhett had got careless, and he would forever be in Naomi’s debt for taking it on the chin.
‘Anything from the lawyers?’ she asked, as if reading his mind. ‘Or the insurance people, come to that?’
There had been a letter from the lawyers and it hadn’t been good news. He wasn’t sure whether to tell her or not. She’d put on her dressing gown and was getting ready for a night-time shower. There would be no sex that night, so he opted to spill the beans.
‘It could be as much as five thousand pounds.’
He watched the sharp intake of breath.
‘Bloody hell, Rhett. Why did you have to cut corners like that? You know the rules as well as I do. It’s ended up costing us more than it would have if you’d just paid for the image properly.’
She’d taken it on the chin but that didn’t mean she wasn’t furious with him. How could he have been so stupid? They’d learned all about copyright law at university. They’d been in the same classes together, although it had taken some months until they became a couple.
We bonded over a Pantone colour chart, they’d laugh, when recounting the story of how they’d got together.
‘They’re still pushing for full recompense. Five thousand pounds for swiping a single image. And what about the insurance? Have they said if they’ll pay up?’
That was her fault. It was probably why she’d taken the moonlighting shifts so well. Naomi was in charge of the paperwork, that was the deal. When they’d gone it alone as Crossley Graphical Solutions, just the two of them, they’d divided up the work. She was in charge of the professional indemnity cover. Only she’d let it slip for a month, waiting for a new contract to come in before paying the bill. And now they were in a dispute about whether the insurance company would pay up or not. It was in the grey area that insurance companies seem to love so much.
‘We’re never going to get out of this loop, Rhett. How long is it going to take us to pay off that five thousand pounds? It’s going to take a lot of burger flipping to even make a dent in it. And if the insurance doesn’t pay, we’ll have the legal expenses too.’
She was crying now. She couldn’t discuss the issue without becoming emotional about it. Rhett put his head in his hands. It was bad, he knew that. Once word had got round that he’d used an image that wasn’t free of copyright, a couple of clients had got the jitters. It had needed damage control – at least Naomi was great at that. Most of t
he people they were dealing with were grey-haired men of a certain age, every one of them clogging up the glass ceiling in their executive roles. Rhett was grateful at times for their old-fashioned attitudes. They loved to deal with his extremely attractive wife and it meant that they still had a handful of contracts left. But none of it was enough to pay the mortgage.
‘I hid from an old school friend this evening. The shame of it. I was mopping the floors and I recognised her voice. She didn’t even look at me, but can you believe it? I actually hid in the broom cupboard until she’d eaten up her burger and gone. I couldn’t face her seeing me there. It’s only a matter of time until our friends find out. Or, even worse, Caitlen. I’d die if she ever discovered what’s happened.’
‘They’ll find out eventually. If we end up paying a fine, it’ll probably make the local paper. And you know what Emmy’s like, she never misses a trick. In fact, it’ll probably be Emmy who ends up writing the story for the newspaper.’
Naomi was sitting on the side of the bed. She didn’t look at Rhett, she was talking to herself as much as to him.
‘I just feel so ashamed. To be caught cheating and then being so daft as not to have insurance. And what if we lose the house? I know it’s petty, but I’ve always felt the need to be better than Caitlen. It goes back to when we were kids. I love her, but it feels like we were in a race with each other since the day we were old enough to care. It’s just so embarrassing.’
‘If I were you, I’d start playing nice with your sister. She had some interesting news at the meal this evening.’
That made Naomi look up.
‘You told them I had a headache, yes? Did they fall for it?’
‘Of course they did. They all sent their love. Just make sure you stick to the story and we’ll be fine.’
‘Great. So what was Caitlen’s news? She hasn’t said anything on Facebook.’
‘She’s come into some money,’ Rhett began. He watched Naomi’s face go white. There was always this one-upmanship thing between them, he never understood it.
‘How? There is no bloody money in our family. If there was, I’d be doing my best to get my hands on it.’
Rhett explained the situation.
‘Can we even go to Benidorm with them? Can we afford the time away from our shitty little teenager jobs? We could earn an extra two hundred pounds taking extra shifts in that time. How on earth has she managed to make herself that much money? Bitcoin, did you say? I thought that was some kind of scam.’
‘It’s no scam – it’s for real apparently. And I thought the same as you about the time we’re going to lose. But she’s giving us all seven hundred euros to spend over the week, and all our expenses are paid for. If we bring the laptops, sneak in some contract work and hold some of the money back, we might be able to get a free holiday and even end up better off.’
‘Did she say anything about splitting the money? With family, I mean.’
‘No. The general feeling seemed to be that she’s buying us all a free holiday. We’re really lucky that she even thought of us. Besides, I don’t think she knows what she’s doing herself yet. It’s complicated, as far as I can tell. It’s not like normal money. You can’t just take it out of your bank account and spend it.’
‘Do you think she’d help us out? If she’s got all that money now, what would we need … ten thousand? To pay the fine, the lawyers and catch up with the mortgage—’
‘Naomi, take a breath. She’s only just found out herself. It’s a lot of money, I know, but it’s not so much that you can go handing it out to everybody with a begging bowl. Ten thousand is a big dint in that cash. It’s quite an ask. And could you bring yourself to ask your little sister for a handout?’
Naomi was silent. She was thinking things through.
‘We might have to. Damn. It’s so humiliating this, having no money. I hate it. This fine could sink us, Rhett. It’s serious. If Caitlen’s got her hands on some free cash, that could be our way out of this. I’m going to call her.’
‘It’s past eleven o’clock, you can’t call her now. And certainly not to ask her for cash. I’d play it cool if I were you. Everybody at that little dinner party will have a hundred and one uses for Caitlen’s money. Let’s just go to Benidorm and take it from there. We can maybe work on her together, let her know the fix we’re in.’
Naomi had a face like thunder now. The thought of her sister getting this sudden windfall had really begun to irritate her.
‘She’s always been like this, Caitlen. She always gets the luck. I work my arse off in the business and get nothing and she pisses around at work and ends up making half a million dollars. I love my little sister but at times she makes me so furious. She just gets all the breaks. Sometimes I wish she hadn’t been born, it would make my life so much easier.’
Chapter Four
Benidorm: June
‘Well, you can’t knock that for a flight, even if it was a budget airline!’
Caitlen felt great. It was amazing to be able to pay for a group of friends to take the trip out to Spain. She’d felt invigorated the moment she’d handed in her notice to the bitch. She was already getting a taste of what it was like to have a bit of money, especially when it had been magicked out of thin air. To be able to access all that cash without having to earn it was an incredible sensation for her.
The hot air had wafted over them as they stepped out of the plane onto the tarmac at Alicante airport. They’d left behind the dreary grey skies of Newcastle and were all ready for sunshine and sand.
‘How far is it to Benidorm from here?’ asked Porter. ‘I don’t know about you, but after that terrible weather we left behind I’d be happy to sit here on the runway for the week. This sun is glorious!’
‘Everybody got their passports?’ Becky asked.
‘You sound like my mum!’ Emmy teased.
Becky looked as if she’d been scolded. Emmy was a bit blunt like that, but she hadn’t meant anything by the comment. Becky could be over-sensitive at times. Nobody knew that more than her new fiancé Matt, who was doing his best to carefully steer her away from Harriet. There was a tense truce between the two women, and it was fragile to say the least.
‘Come on, guys!’ Caitlen chivvied. ‘The sooner we get through customs, the quicker we can jump on the shuttle bus and check into the apartments.’ She felt every bit the hostess on this trip – she’d thought of everything and paid for the lot. Her budget had been ten thousand pounds, although she’d done it for less. She’d actually paid in cash, handing over the notes to the travel agent. The look on that girl’s face. Caitlen liked having money. She knew she wasn’t rich in a Mark Cuban or Richard Branson kind of way, but it was exhilarating to be able to spend that amount of money in one sitting, knowing there was more to replace it.
In the intervening weeks, Caitlen had withdrawn another twenty-five thousand pounds. She’d now got just over thirty thousand sitting in her bank account. That would do her for a year. She’d figure out what to do with the rest. It was so much money, she didn’t even trust the bank with it. She was petrified of losing it all.
She’d placed another three thousand pounds in her joint account with Terry. They’d always kept their own bank accounts as a legacy of their single days and each month they’d transfer over their share of Terry’s mortgage, the bills and the food budget. She’d been deliberately evasive with Terry about how much she was taking out.
‘I’ve got enough money to cover the holiday and to give us a bit of a boost in the household budget. We’ll be able to treat ourselves whenever we want to now, without giving it a second thought.’
She’d hoped it would placate Terry, at least in the short term. It didn’t. He wouldn’t stop worrying over the issue of her money. It was as if he sensed it might not be coming his way.
‘It’ll be nice if we can get the mortgage paid off early. I might be able to think about changing my job,’ he said.
The day Terry changed his job, there woul
d be Spanish sunshine across the whole of the UK for thirty days in a row. It was as unlikely as that. The truth was, he was married to the force. It allowed him a certain freedom in his relationship – the unsociable hours, the erratic nature of investigations. It was very easy to lose time if he wanted to.
‘Yes, it’s quite exciting to think what that amount of money could do,’ Caitlen replied.
She avoided mentioning Terry and the cash in the same sentence. It was always referred to in the third person, but never specifically in plans that might have included him. He could almost feel her doubts.
The passport queue took some time to go down. They’d introduced an automated system and the older generation simply couldn’t cope with its demands. Caitlen watched as an old lady placed her passport three different ways until she finally figured out the correct orientation. She wanted to cry sometimes. Terry was like that, useless with technology. It was as if it just passed some people by, their brains couldn’t cope with it. For Caitlen, it was the most intuitive thing on earth.
‘Did you see that old bird?’
A man was chuckling behind her in the queue. He’d been friendly on the plane too, when she’d walked along the aisle to use the toilet.
She turned around. He had a broad smile. His skin was tanned golden brown and he had a deep, silky voice. His shoulders were incredibly broad, as if he worked out.
Caitlen smiled. Terry was up ahead, playing the jester with Emmy, Kasey and Porter.
‘Did you see her? I know she’s old, but really … If you sent somebody through with a blindfold they’d have made a better job of it.’
The man laughed. It was wonderfully rich and warm, he had an easy charm.
‘Wesley Nolasco,’ he said, holding out his hand. ‘Call me Wes. Pleased to meet you. Are you here on your own?’
It occurred to Caitlen that one day soon she could be. Alone. It was easy to meet new people. Perhaps she could make it without Terry.
‘No, I’m with a group of friends. How about you?’
Two Years After ; Friends Who Lie ; No More Secrets Page 18
