Chapter Seventeen

Savage let himself into the Wilson-Armstrong house. Someone was already working on the front door. The simple pleasures of disposable cash. He scanned the living room and then walked through to the kitchen at the back of the house.

Vi and Scott stood around the central worktop sipping teas. The kids sat at the table. Two girls. The rascally years between toddler and teenhood.

Both parents looked up, neither of them said anything.

'We need to talk,' Savage said.

'Who are you?' The older of the two girls said. All big eyes and wavy hair. Her little sister tried to eat and draw at the same time. No one said anything. Vi eventually came up with, 'He's a friend Rosie.'

'He doesn't look very friendly,' she said, and offered him a frown. 'How do you know my mummy and my daddy?'

Savage looked to her parents for help. They shrugged and smarmed, 'Our kids, aren't they wonderful?' they seemed to see say. Parents.

'I work with your mum and dad,' he said. 'Sort of.'

She thought about it. Took another bite of toast. 'What's sort of?'

'Well—'

'Is it like sometimes Pussy comes over my house—'

'The neighbours cat,' Vi added.

'—and sleeps the night. But,' her legs started to swing vigorously back and forth, 'Pussy is not my cat, but when she sleeps over she sort of is.' Her feet banged the bench behind her. 'Is that sort of?' she turned the big eyes on Savage.

'I'd say that's a big yes little lady,' he said.

She threw down her toast in disgust. 'I'm not little I'm a big girl now. Mum, tell him.'

'Yes love,' her dad said, 'You're a big girl now.'

'How did the meeting go?' Vi said. Back to business.

Savage thought about it, and looked at the girls again. The smaller one was banging her toast on her plate and had a glass of juice in her hands that looked ready to fall over in her lap. He watched her. Fascinated.

'It went well,' he said. 'Constructive.'

The girl didn't spill a drop, Savage relaxed a little.

'You might want to spend a few nights out of town though, just to be sure.'

'What are you talking about?' Rosie said.

'Work dear,' her dad said.

She mouthed oh, 'Boooring,' and went back to her toast.

'We can't leave.'

'Fine, get a hotel near the office. Something expensive. Good security.'

They nodded their heads without conferring. Thinking thoughts separate from each other. Savage hoped for the kids' sakes their parents had thick skins. Smaller things broke insecure couples.

'You'd better pack and get a cab.'

More silent nods.

'What about the money?' Scott said.

'If there's any of his stake left, send it back. Anything else you'd better put back from wherever you got it.'

They both looked panicked.

'Tell me.'

'I'm not sure I can.'

'What do you mean?'

'We were talking about all this while you were gone, there's something funny.'

He gave them the biggest grin he could. 'I'll only start laughing when you tell me.'

'I said I would,' Vi began, took a breath. 'You see, I knew about you from Michael.'

'Okay.'

'He asked me to work on a new customer-service algorithm. About a year before he died. The Six Degrees algorithm.'

It meant nothing to Savage. 'What is it?'

'It's top secret is what it is. I worked on it above and beyond my normal tasks with a small team of developers. It was an algorithm based on the we're-only-six-people-away-from-any-other-person-on-the-planet principle. Michael said it was for finding new clients and retaining old ones, the idea is that if say, you, for example John, had an interest in toast,' she pointed at the girls, 'and a business relationship with several of the biggest toast makers in the world then it would be able to track all those relationships and see how they connected.'

'Okay, so what's the big deal? That's like one of those online business or friend networks, LinkedIn or Facebook.'

'You're right, except the algorithm is more powerful than that. It scans LexisNexis, every online paper, business intelligence source or search engine, just looking for connections.'

'What sort of connections?

'What's “sort of connections”?' Rosie piped up.

'Later love,' Vi said. 'Any information that related to personal scandal, takeover bids, criminal pasts, affiliations with blacklisted companies, private member groups. Then cross referenced by any animosity between any of those groups or individuals. It's fairly standard to design but the criteria, I've never seen anything like it.'

'So what's that have to do with this?'

'Michael told me once that it was to look for potential hostile takeovers and be ahead of the game so they could serve their shareholders better.'

His turn to shrug. 'Sounds reasonable. Cynical, but reasonable.' Vi chewed her lip.

'Here's the thing John. It wasn't funded by the company. Not directly. I always knew we could have any money we needed but there was no normal sign-off procedure. I just asked Michael for it. Whatever we needed turned up, bills got paid, but I had no idea how.' Savage waited for whatever else was coming. 'I looked for it,' she said. 'The project, the money. I couldn't find it in the system, I didn't really think of it again until this,' she nudged her man.

'When this happened,' Scott said, 'when Crystal happened. I remembered what Vi said about it. And I needed money.'

'You went looking for it?'

He held Savage's eye for the first time since the hanging.

'You found it?'

'I think it's the missing money you're looking for.'

'It's missing money,' Savage said, 'but the company is still using it?'

Affirmative nods all round. Including Rosie. Her head wobbled long after everyone else had stopped. Then she began to hum. Savage looked at the little girl's smiling face and wondered what might have happened if he'd never left. Kids of his own? The house, the family, the loving wife?

He sucked in a mouthful of air and turned back to the parents. 'I'm not military, just a guy paid to sort shit out who knows guns—'

'Sounds military to me,' Vi said.

'Sure,' he said. 'But you know what this sounds like?'

'No,' they both said.

'A black op in pop spy-speak. A covert operation. Governments do it all the time. Requisition money under the table so the tax payers don't get angry. You know, for all those things we know go on, torture, assassination, high level bribes, secret research projects, but choose not to believe happen.'

'So what's going on?'

'I don't know. But whatever it is. Maclays doesn't want its people, the shareholders, or anyone else finding out about it.' His turn to bite a lip. 'Fuck. It's big.'

'Mummy!' Rosie shrieked. 'Your sort of friend swore.'

'Sorry Rosie,' Savage said.

'That's ooh—kay,' she said, labouring each syllable. 'Just don't do it again or you'll go on the naughty step.'

'That's me told,' he said, and met the little girl's eyes. Her strict face morphed from hers to the scared Arab girl in the pink dress. He panicked – what's wrong with me? – then Rosie smiled through the image, he couldn't help smile back.

'That's the first time I've seen a smile on your face that hasn't scared me John,' Scott said.

Savage smiled again, but his eyes filled up.

'Fuck's sake,' he said, and sucked the weakness back.

'Mummy!' she screamed. 'Naughty step!'

They all laughed.

'Okay girls, we've got a surprise for you,' Vi said. 'We're going to stay in an expensive hotel for a few days.'

'Why?' Rosie said. The smaller girl banged her plate with a spoon and smirked.

Vi told them about room service, swimming pools, games, movies, the usual bribes parents use to win over the arch-manipulators in their family. Savage switched off and her voice went far away and dreamy as they negotiated.

He saw Scott mouth, 'Are you alright John?' but his ears didn't hear it.

The room seemed to have canted at a forty-five degree angle. Savage caught a look in the man's eyes. Savage had taken care of them when he couldn't, now it was Scott's turn to protect him.

'I'm fine,' Savage said, but couldn’t hear his own voice.

He shook his head and the room clicked back.

'We forgot something.' He touched his tender temples. 'Vi, how did you know about me?'

'Well they talked about you?'

'Who?'

'Michael and Jo Devlin. Back then she told me if ever I needed someone to get me out of trouble. You'd be the man.'

'Really?'

'She said it again a few months ago.'

That didn't sound right.

'John,' she said. 'I found you. Baited you to bring you here. I'm sorry. But I'm glad I did. My family is all here because of that one rash action.'

'It's okay,' he said. 'Tell me, you ever hear of Jessica Price?'

'Who?'

He shook his head, 'Doesn't matter. Look, if you need me to watch the kids while you pack...?'

They both beamed. 'Really? Fantastic. Kids, play nice with your Uncle John now.'

Before he could say another word they all but sprinted out of the room. Note to self, he thought. Never offer parents something you don't really mean.

Rosie glared at him. 'You mustn't swear.' She pointed a spoon at him.

He put his hand over his heart, 'I promise.'

'Good,' she said. A beat of silence. 'I want to play a game.' She got off her seat, walked to him and pulled his hand until she was almost horizontal with the effort. 'Come on!' she said.

'Okay, what about your sister?'

'She can come too.'

He reached over and picked the sister up one handed by scrunching the material on her back.

Rosie chortled to herself as she pulled them into the other room. The other dark skinned girl in his conscience pulled just as hard.

But the small girl's demands – Rosie just wanted to play – put a lightness in Savage's chest and kept a smile on his face until it was time to go.