Page 64 of Close Protection

‘Elizabeth’s necklace?’ George questions. ‘Daphne was wearing Elizabeth’s necklace?’

‘Yeah, she was. I recognized it when I was checking her injuries,’ Henry confirms.

That explains why I recognized that necklace in the pool. Every picture I got shown of Daphne’s mother before I came here had her wearing that necklace. It’s the same in the few remaining photos of her that are dotted around the house.

‘She told me she lost it.’

‘Well, she lied. I’m guessing she learned that from you,’ I respond, taking the necklace out of my pocket and handing it to him. He stares at it for a moment, unmoving, but as ifsomeone pressedPlay, all at once he comes to life again, grabbing the necklace from my outstretched hand.

‘So what exactly was your plan, Teddy?’ Henry asks. ‘You thought you’d rip off the necklace and go on your merry way?’

‘I thought if I could get it off her neck I could jump the back fence and bring it back to my apartment where they told me to leave it.’ He moves ever so slightly but with the knife still in his thigh he lets out a grunt of pain, his lip quivering. ‘I promise you, I didn’t want to hurt Daphne, but she just wouldn’t give the necklace up.’

‘Oh, so now you’re telling me this is Daphne’s fault?’ George snaps.

‘No! N-no. It’s completely mine, it’s jus—’ He doesn’t get to complete that sentence because Henry rips the knife out of his thigh, dropping it to the floor.

‘We’re done with questioning him, yeah?’ He looks to me and George, and once George shrugs and I nod, he smiles sadistically.

‘Good.’ He starts pummelling Teddy. Blow after blow. Until Teddy passes out a third time from the pain.

‘That’s enough for now.’ Henry sighs, backing away. ‘What are we gonna do with him?’

I whip my phone out and shoot off a quick text to Davis. ‘Major Davis is gonna want to question him, so some peopleare going to come and take him, then I don’t know what will happen to him. Most likely he’ll get cleaned up, face the consequences of those charges he admitted to and go to jail. On top of conspiring, he’ll be in there for a while.’

‘So I can’t kill him?’ Henry gapes.

‘No.’

‘Well, that’s wildly irritating.’ He looks back at Teddy and throws one last punch. ‘That’ll just have to do, I guess.’

‘Do you know anything about this riddle?’ I ask George, refocusing.

‘Yes,’ he whispers, looking at me. ‘It was taken from the book that was stolen from my office.’

‘Your journal?’

‘Malcolm, my old lab assistant at MI6, was the only one who knew what I’d made. He told me not to tell anyone about it, and to destroy all evidence. I couldn’t bring myself to get rid of all of my hard work, though, so I hid the formula for the toxin along with the antidote – yes, I pretty much had the formula memorized, but it was good to have a backup, just in case. He told me not to tell him where I hid it, but to hide the location in a riddle so it couldn’t be easily deciphered.’

‘And where did you put the formula?’

He looks at me wearily, then over to Teddy who’s so far passed out, I contemplate checking his pulse.

‘In my late wife’s necklace. She never used to take it off,so when she was sleeping I removed the pictures of Daphne and her and wrote the toxin formula down on one side and the antidote on the other before putting them back. It was stupid, but it worked. No one would ever look behind the pictures or even suspect she had the formulas, not even her.’

‘So Daph’s been walking around with the toxin and antidote formulas around her neck for years?’ Henry questions.

‘Yes.’ George nods. ‘She wasn’t to know, but yes.’ He caresses the necklace for a moment before walking towards the door.

‘George, that’s evidence,’ I say. ‘I need to hand it in.’

‘No.’

‘George, the longer that stays in your possession, the longer you put Daphne and yourself in danger.’ Right now this deal with the task force is mutually beneficial: he gets protection for his daughter and the task force gets access to his house. But George can request I leave at any time. It would be ridiculously stupid but sometimes George isn’t the most critical thinker. I can’t take the necklace by force, but I know George won’t give it to me either.

‘No, it won’t be safe with your team,’ he decides, opening the study door.

‘Where are you going?’

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