The Guilty Couple(54)
‘So what’s she doing? Why is she here?’
‘Because I fucked up.’
‘What do you mean?’ My stomach tightens. Now it’s not just the wine and pizza that’s making me feel sick. ‘Smithy, what did you do?’
‘I took money off her. Fifty quid but she said there’d be more.’ She covers her face with her hands. ‘She tried to arrest me outside Elephant and Castle shopping centre and said she’d nick us both unless I told her what you were up to. I’ve been forwarding her your texts and telling her what you’ve been up to. I’m sorry Liv, I shouldn’t have done it but she really put the pressure on and I panicked.’
I drop onto the bed and crumple forward, my elbows on my knees and my head in my hands. If that’s true, Dani knows almost everything I’ve done since I got out.
‘Why didn’t you tell me? We could have fed her false information.’
‘Like I said, I panicked. I thought she’d know if we made shit up. She’s a sneaky bitch. You know that. She said if I told you anything she’d fit us up for something that’d get us a long stretch. She said you wouldn’t see Grace for years. And I knew how much you love your girl. I couldn’t take that risk.’
‘How much does she know?’
‘Um …’ Smithy clears her throat. ‘That you went to see Sonia, and a lawyer.’
Oh god. I raise my head to look at her; her hands are still clamped to her face. ‘Does she know Dominic’s taking Grace to Dubai?’
‘Yeah. I figured she already knew seeing as she’s sleeping with the guy. I didn’t tell her when, though. She wanted me to find out and I said you didn’t know.’
I let out a low groan. ‘This means Dominic knows that I know.’
‘I’m sorry, Liv. Really I am. But I had to do it. If she’d nicked you for breaking and entering you would’ve broken the terms of your licence and gone back inside. I only took the money cos I needed it, for food and leccy for the meter and stuff. That’s why I went out on the rob in the first place. To get some stuff to sell.’ The bed sags beside me as Smithy sits down. ‘It’s been killing me not telling you but she didn’t give me any choice.’
‘I could have found fifty quid to give you.’ I gave a hundred and fifty pounds to Jakub for his key card. I bought a second-hand phone for Grace with fifty. Ayesha’s not going to let me starve while I stay with her. I could have found the money to help Smithy out.
‘It wasn’t about the money. It was about covering your arse. I would have told you eventually, I know I would, but I didn’t want to stress you out when you were so worried about Grace. I thought I could handle it, pick and choose what I told her.’
‘So why tell me now?’
‘Because of what we’ve been planning tonight. The stakes just got a whole lot higher. You’ve been worrying about getting into the safe but what you really need to worry about is that bitch outside. I mean … she probably won’t find out what we’re up to, but if she does, you need to know that it didn’t come from me. That’s all.’
Her eyes are glassy and the base of her throat is pink. Behind the drunken sheen I can see how devastated she is. She thought she was protecting me by acquiescing to Dani’s demands, but she took money from her too. Money I’d promised her when she got out of jail. Smithy isn’t the only one to blame here. I am too.
‘It’s all right.’ I reach for her hand. ‘I’m not angry with you. I’m annoyed with myself. I should have checked up on you.’
‘I can look after myself.’
‘I know you can. But I promised to help you and I will. What happens tomorrow will change everything, assuming we pull it off.’
‘It’s still happening? After what I just said?’
‘Of course it is. But I have to know that I can trust you, Smithy. No more secrets, okay?’
Her glazed eyes meet mine. ‘None. I promise.’
‘You swear you haven’t told Dani about tomorrow?’
‘I haven’t. I swear I haven’t.’
As she throws her arms around my neck and hugs me tightly I hope to god that she’s telling the truth.
Chapter 37
DANI
Dani reaches into the glove box of her car and pulls out a pair of black leather gloves. She turned off the engine after she parked up outside the tower block and now it’s bitterly cold. The curtains of apartment sixteen have been drawn for a while but at 8 p.m., when Dani arrived, they were wide open and she could see Olivia Sutherland and her flatmate moving around inside. Since then she’s seen a number of people enter the building and then appear beyond the backlit window of number sixteen. She’s spotted Kelly Smith, a woman in a faux-fur coat with striking red hair and a dapper bloke in a tailored jacket and a trilby hat. She assumes it’s some kind of dinner party or a wine and cheese tasting or some other kind of middle-class crap. But she hasn’t spent three hours freezing her arse off to pass judgement on Olivia’s social life, she’s waiting to make a move. Smithy still hasn’t provided any intel on the details of Dominic’s alleged emigration to Dubai and Dani’s sick of waiting. Why speak to the monkey when the organ grinder knows the score? But getting any kind of information out of Olivia Sutherland will be tricky and she certainly won’t be welcomed with open arms. She decided on her tactic while she drove over after work: We’ve both been manipulated and lied to by Dominic. There are things we both want and if we work together there’s more chance of us achieving them than if we fight him alone. It’s a compelling argument in theory but Olivia has good reason to distrust her. There’s a strong possibility she’ll be told to get fucked.