Capital Punishment (12 page)

‘I should, but I won’t, because we haven’t.’

‘So your rules are arbitrary.’

‘The rules only apply to you and I apply them. I decide when you’ve given me a strong enough reply. In this case, you haven’t given me the real reason why you want to live in Dalston while your mother lives in a fancy development on Aubrey Walk. Such a relief to get away from that tiresome guy in Edwardes Square. Christ, he fancied your mum something rotten. She wasn’t having any of it. I doubt she’s had any since Chico, has she?’

‘You’re disgusting,’ she started, but there was something else that really shocked her. ‘How do you know that name? My mother’s name for my father?’

‘It’s such a pity your mum couldn’t put up with that over-inquisitive cock of Frank’s, otherwise they’d still be together. I mean Sharmila is incredible, don’t get me wrong, given the choice, but, you know, she’s a bit “No Billionaire Should Be Without One”, isn’t she? Don’t you think? Alyshia? You’re not talking to me.’

‘You’ve done your homework. It’s impressive.’

‘Yes, but there’s only so much you can learn from careful observation and working around your subjects. There comes a time when you have to communicate. You know, get inside. So cut the poor little rich girl crap and tell me the real reason why you moved to Dalston, which, let’s face it, is not known for its brilliant transport links?’

‘I wanted to live in a place where I knew my mother would never go.’

‘But why’s that?’ asked the voice in mock surprise. ‘You
love
your mother. She’s the one who let you see over the bullshit walls of wealth. If anybody should be able to handle the reality of her daughter’s life, it should be Isabel Marks, shouldn’t it?’

‘She sees things in a certain way.’

‘Things?
What are these things?’ asked the voice, digging down deep into the mocking well.

‘She tries to influence me.’

‘Keep going, Alyshia. We’re nearly there.’

‘She tries to matchmake. She’s not so different to an Indian mama. She’s always introducing me to
nice guys
,’ said Alyshia with some vehemence. ‘Today. What day is it? Sunday? Well, Sunday, I bet you she was going to introduce me to another of her so-called
“cool
guys”. They’re all writers or TV people, actors or wannabe directors, but none of them, not one of them, feels like a real person with a real life. They’re all the same; they’ve been manufactured by some system. I reckon with a bit of research, you’d probably find they’re all within two people of knowing each other.’

‘She just wants what’s best for her only daughter,’ said the voice. ‘You can remove the sleeping mask now.’

They were sitting around the plain wooden table in the kitchen, eating the duck rice.

‘How will this ... this event,’ said Isabel. ‘I can’t say the word. I can’t bring myself to say it. Kidnap. There. It sounds so old-fashioned, like highwaymen or press-ganging. How do you think this
kidnap
will unfold?’

‘The calls you’ve had so far don’t say “express or credit card kidnapping” to me. They’re not looking for a quick cash return for minimal investment. If they were, we’d already be negotiating the money, its delivery, the release and pick-up terms. It would all be over within forty-eight hours.’

‘That would be the case for, say, twenty thousand pounds,’ said D’Cruz. ‘But what if it was for more serious money? I can get twenty thousand in seconds. For millions, I need time. So don’t write off the money demand yet.’

‘Frank is right. For a larger sum, they will have prepared themselves for a longer game,’ said Boxer. ‘Express kidnappers don’t get complicated. They just keep their victim drugged in the back of a van until they get their money. To hold someone for any length of time takes investment and research. You need to investigate your victim, find a safe house, organise transport, hire people, buy equipment, arrange supplies. The kidnappers we are dealing with have shown their considerable reach. They knew when Frank left Mumbai and arrived in London. They’re calm. They come to you with convincing proof of capture.’

‘So how long would this sort of kidnap normally last?’ asked Isabel.

‘Between a week and two months, although, depending on their resources, it could go on indefinitely.’

‘They did mention a figure,’ said Isabel, desperate now. ‘When Jordan was talking theoretically about the “good old Asian haggling”, he said he would start at fifty million and we would come back at twenty thousand and eventually agree at half a million. So what league does that put him in?’

‘Except that he said it
wasn’t
going to be like that,’ said Boxer. ‘Now they’ve spoken to both of you and given you proof of capture, they’ll make you sweat for at least a day or two before they come back with any sort of demand. If they’re really looking for a large financial return, it’s also possible that they will try to scare and/or upset you during this time as part of the sweating process. The fact that they’ve said all “discussions”—that was the word they used, wasn’t it, Frank?’

‘Yes, “discussions”.’

‘Not “negotiations”. All
discussions
will be conducted through Isabel, who’s already experienced a very ugly threat to undermine her equilibrium, means that we should not assume a quick resolution. I also think that they would expect Frank, with all his resources, to bring in some expertise. So they’ll be expecting a consultant to be guiding Isabel.’

‘You mean
you
won’t be talking to them?’ said D’Cruz.

‘They don’t want to talk to me. They have no leverage over me. They don’t even want to talk to you. That’s why Jordan said he only wants to talk to Isabel, because they can bring emotional pressure to bear more easily on her,’ said Boxer. ‘The way we normally handle this is to have what is known in the business as a Crisis Management Committee, which is a fancy term for a team consisting of family members, loyal friends or possibly a lawyer. The next time Jordan calls, our chosen negotiator will tell him that Isabel’s incapacitated due to emotional stress and he’ll have to talk to x, y or z. This distances him from—’

‘No,’ said Isabel.

‘No?’ said D’Cruz. ‘Charles is our consultant, Isabel—’

‘I’m not having that,’ she said. ‘Nobody’s going to negotiate on
my
behalf for
my
daughter. I wouldn’t give anybody that responsibility. And I’m not taking any risks.’

‘It would be a collective responsibility,’ said Boxer. ‘I would provide the strategy and tactics and rehearse all the possibilities with whoever we decide to use as the negotiator, but
you
would be involved at all times. The idea is just to put up a barrier between the kidnapper and you.’

‘I understand, but I don’t want that.’

‘For God’s sake, Isabel—’

‘Let’s sleep on it,’ said Boxer. ‘Look at it again in the morning. You should also think about bringing someone in who can give you some moral support. Your sister, Jo, is obviously not a candidate. There must be somebody else. Frank mentioned Miriam.’

‘Miriam’s in Brasilia. I’ve already spoken to her and she’s got her own problems with one of her sons. I didn’t even tell her about Alyshia.’

‘Who does that leave?’ asked Boxer. ‘Frank?’

The ex-wife and husband looked across the table at each other. Isabel had moved her food around her plate without eating it. D’Cruz’s plate was clean.

‘You tell him,’ said D’Cruz. ‘He should hear it from you this time.’

‘We handle things in very different ways,’ said Isabel. ‘It’s probably best that we don’t spend too much time together in these stressful circumstances. I want to see Chico, of course. But I don’t want him as my constant companion.’

‘Who else then?’

Silence.

‘At this rate, it’s going to be just you and me,’ said Boxer.

‘I can live with that,’ said Isabel. ‘I don’t like having too many people around me. It’ll just make me irritable.’

‘Are you
both
happy with that?’ said Boxer, looking from one to the other.

They nodded.

‘All right,’ said Boxer, thinking: slowly, slowly, they’ll come round. ‘Tomorrow I’ll introduce you to Mercy Danquah. She’s going to be my co-consultant, which means she has to know everything about Alyshia’s case and be able to take over if, for any reason, I’m incapacitated. She will also do some basic investigation around the case.’

Isabel looked nervous.

‘Don’t worry. She’s used to doing this. She’s discreet. The kidnappers won’t know, and if by some miracle they do, she’ll back off immediately. You have nothing to fear on that score.’

‘What will she be investigating?’ asked D’Cruz.

‘She’ll find out where Alyshia was last seen and by whom, she’ll make contact with Alyshia’s friends and colleagues and she’ll want to go through her flat, check on credit card and bank card use, that sort of thing. Does anybody have the keys?’

‘I don’t,’ said Isabel. ‘She hasn’t mentioned spare keys. But look, I’m very nervous about Mercy. You know what they said. Anything that even looks like police and—’

‘Mercy’s worked on dozens of kidnap investigations; she’s very experienced.’

‘So many?’

‘That’s just in the UK,’ said Boxer. ‘And every time the hostage has been returned safely.’

D’Cruz nodded, patted Isabel’s hand. They finished their food, drank the remainder of the wine and D’Cruz had an espresso coffee before leaving. Boxer stayed in the kitchen while Isabel saw him out.

‘You probably think I’m a very strange person,’ she said, coming back into the kitchen.

Boxer looked up, said nothing: an old technique.

‘No friends or family in my hour of direst need,’ she said. ‘Just a complete stranger appointed by my husband through an insurance company.’

‘It’s happened to me before, but it’s not normal.’

‘Are you concerned?’

‘I don’t like the expression “emotional rollercoaster”, because there’s some implied thrill, but it describes what happens in kidnappings quite accurately. One moment you’re up, feeling as if everything is positive and going in the right direction, and the next you’re falling into the deepest hole, feeling depressed and demoralised,’ said Boxer. ‘There are some white-knuckle moments, too, but the big difference with this rollercoaster is that there’s not one bit of fun in it. And that’s why you need people close to you, someone you trust, who can put an arm around you. This is an emotionally and physically draining experience.’

‘I’ve always faced the hard things in my life alone. When Chico and I split, I saw no one.’

‘But you had Alyshia.’

‘True,’ said Isabel, foundering. ‘But when my mother died, Alyshia was away in Mumbai.’

‘And your sister, Jo, failed you again?’

‘My mother and Jo did not get on. She was not the right person to be with.’

‘Kidnapping is a mind game. We sit here. They sit there. We have no visual to help us. They’ve already shown they are very capable in the psychological dimension. It really would be good for you to have someone who knows both you and Alyshia by your side.’

‘There’s no one I can rely on,’ she said, sitting back down at the table, ‘except Miriam and now you, Charles Boxer.’

‘I’m the outsider, remember. The one who gives you the objective view. I distinguish between the real danger and the tactical ploy. I make sure that you don’t make the very natural mistakes that emotional involvement can lead you to.’

‘Then you’ll have to retain all that professional expertise and become an insider as well,’ she said. ‘We’ll have to get to know each other. You can start by telling me where you got those eyes.’

‘My mother.’

‘And where’s she from? Afghansitan?’

‘Sydney, Australia,’ said Boxer. ‘And not an exotic suburb. Parramatta. Her mother died young. Her father was an out-ofwork drunk, prone to getting into bar-room brawls. My mother left home when she was eighteen, became an air stewardess and never looked back, or went back, not even for his funeral.’

‘What’s her name?’

‘Esme.’

‘That’s an old-fashioned name.’

‘It was her grandmother’s name.’

‘Where is she now?’

‘Hampstead. She lives in a place that my daughter calls The Coughing Hospital.’

‘Is she ill?’

‘Not in that way,’ said Boxer. ‘She has a flat in Mount Vernon, which was the old Consumption Hospital. It’s Amy’s way of poking fun at my mother because Mount Vernon is a very luxurious development.’

‘So how is she ill, if she’s not ill in that way?’

‘She’s an alcoholic.’

‘Like her father?’

‘Maybe, but for different reasons,’ said Boxer, swerving away from the complicated things. ‘She was in an industry that demanded a lot of entertaining.’

‘I thought air stewardesses
served
the drinks.’

‘She met a TV commercials director on a flight and ended up as his producer,’ said Boxer. ‘It was a job that involved taking people out to lunch and dinner and drinking a lot at both. She never got out of the habit.’

‘Do you get on with your mother?’

‘She’s a difficult personality,’ said Boxer, thinking: women, they understand things from the very little you tell them. ‘Her condition makes her ... temperamental, by which I mean mental, with a bad temper.’

They laughed, even though, to Boxer, it was no laughing matter.

‘She likes my daughter, Amy. She especially likes Amy now, which is impressive,’ said Boxer. ‘I hear them cackling in the kitchen like a witch and junior witch stirring the eye of newt, toe of frog stew.’

She laughed again.

‘Why wouldn’t Frank stay?’ said Boxer, to get some of his own questions in. ‘He told me you had limits, but this is an extreme situation.’

‘I like him. I admire him. I even still love him ... which is crazy, I know, given that he destroyed me with his constant betrayals, and not just sexual betrayals. I thought he was a man of great qualities, a man to trust, somebody worth believing in. But I forgot the most important thing about him. He’s an actor. He can pretend to be anything. He can make women believe he loves them. He can make his employees trust him. He can make politicians lick his fingers. But, as I came to realise, there is nothing there. Or rather there is something there, it’s just that ... I didn’t say this in front of him, because it would have sounded too brutal, but it was the real reason I thought that the kidnapper knew him. When I questioned whether I was the person who knew Chico best, the kidnapper said: “That’s what happens when you become wealthy. You make sure people know you as little as possible. It leaves you with more leeway for ruthlessness”. And that’s what there is inside Chico, right at his core: a monstrous ruthlessness. And
that
is why we can’t spend too much time together, because I can pretend for only a limited amount of time, and
he
knows I know.’