Page 124 of Endgame

‘Samir?’

‘Oh God. MsAriella is so much smarter than you.’ She gives me a disappointed look, then moves close to whisper.

‘Ms Melissa can prove.’

‘Yeah, well, MsMelissa has disappeared and, if she wasn’t impossible to find, I wouldn’t want to find her anyway. Aari will kill me.’

‘Okay. No problem.’ MsPat suddenly stops our conversation and starts tidying.

‘Wait. MsPat, you don’t know where MsMelissa is?’

‘Will you ask?’ MsPat is not budging.

‘I will consider asking if we know where she is.’

‘MsMelissa is in Brunei.’ MsPat whips out her phone and sends a message. ‘Now we wait. You must ask. For Little Miss Elsie.’

‘Hold on! MsPat. How long have you known?’

‘Not Brunei all the time. First Vanuatu, then Maldives, then Russia, then China, then Brunei. She move again soon.’

‘You’ve known where she was this entire time?’

‘Yes. Housekeeper network. We know everything but we say nothing.’

‘So when I was accused…’

‘MrCaleb, like I said, we know everything but we say nothing. Sometimes we help, but you never know.’

MsPat taps her nose twice and smiles lovingly at me before walking away.

Shit. MsPat should be an international fucking spy. All housekeepers should. Forget the CIA and MI5. They’re the ones we should be scared of. I start to think of a load of weird unexplainable things that have happened and start to find ways to pin them on MsPat.

It doesn’t even take an hour until I am given a number with a country code I’d never seen before to text.

Mel?

Why are you so bad at this? Buy a burner and text me from there. You’re such a liability. Pay cash and delete this. Honestly!

MsPat immediately dispatches a member of Honey’s assistants with careful details of where to purchase a burner and send it to the house. It feels like for ever waiting, but it eventually turns up. I don’t want to know exactly how MsPat knows so much about buying a burner at almost midnight in Singapore.

Sorry.

Previous stupidity aside, I’m shocked, impressed and disappointed that it took you this long to reach out – all at the same time.

I need your help.

You want dirt on Dominic that will force him release you from your ridiculous contract so that you can join Ariella. How am I doing?

Is there any? Is he clean?

He’s about as clean as Gustaf’s gym clothes post-workout. You should see what that man can do with a skipping rope. Heaven help me. Anyway, I heard you rearranged Dom’s face. Thanks for that. I’ve wanted someone to do that for a while. He’s so smug.

Can you send me some information?

Nope.

Can you at least tell me where to look?

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