The Pearl King

by Sarah Painter

  ‘How did you do it? Kill…’ she almost said, ‘Jason’ but caught herself, and finished with ‘him?’. She felt physically sick.

  Charlie rolled his shoulders, like she was asking him out of admiration. ‘Now that was a neat bit of work. I stopped his heart.’

  ‘Just like that?’

  Charlie tilted his head. ‘I have my moments.’

  Lydia was trying very hard not to picture Jason and Amy on their wedding day. Jason young and vital and alive on what should have been one of the happiest of his life. The start of his marriage to his beloved. All of that happiness, all of that potential, snuffed out in an instant because Charlie wanted to make powerful friends. Charlie had made a calculation and carried out a professional hit on an innocent man. He had murdered Jason in cold blood. Lydia had been trying to convince herself that Charlie was under stress and acting poorly because of the hits in Wandsworth, but this changed everything. Charlie had been dangerous for a very long time. At once, Lydia’s nausea had disappeared. It was replaced with a cold, clear mind and one thought. Charlie had to be stopped.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  It was one thing to realise that your uncle was a murderer and that he had to be stopped and quite another to take action. He was Family. More than that, he was ‘family’ with a small ‘f’. He had swung her up high in his arms when she was five, taught her card games at seven, and slipped her £20 notes when her parents weren’t looking when she was a teen. Lydia had been brought up away from the Crow Family and their business, but Uncle Charlie had visited his big brother every couple of months and those visits had always been memorable.

  Back at the flat, Lydia brought Jason up to speed on what had happened with Big Neil. She didn’t know how to tell him about Amelia. Amy. How did you tell a person that a member of your own family had murdered them and then accidentally killed your new wife? There wasn’t a handbook for that conversation.

  Jason was remarkably calm about the news that Charlie had tortured and killed Neil, though.

  ‘You don’t seem surprised,’ Lydia said. ‘Why aren’t you more shocked?’

  Jason shrugged. ‘Sorry. It kind of fits with my idea of Crows.’ Seeing Lydia’s face, he apologised again. ‘Just the rumours I heard. The stories. I thought they were just stories, but then I met your uncle and they didn’t seem so far-fetched.’

  ‘Hell Hawk,’ Lydia sank on to the sofa and put her hands over her face. She wanted to block out the truth. She couldn’t continue as a member of the Crow Family with Charlie in place. Which left her with two options. Leaving or taking over. She was tingling with nervous energy and could feel her Crow power, too, beating wings and the taste of feathers. She pulled her shoulder blades back. Could she forge a real alliance with the Fox Family? Or perhaps they could go quiet? If Charlie agreed to retire to the countryside, somewhere far from London, maybe she could wind down his businesses and just run Crow Investigations, quiet and legit. No big centre of power, nothing to threaten anybody else.

  Even as her mind ran down these possibilities, she knew it was futile. Nobody would believe that the Crows were stepping away. They would be seen as weak and somebody, a Family or JRB or an unknown threat, would attack. People believed in Crow power and that meant that people feared it. Fear made people strike out, to seek to destroy.

  She removed her hands and found Jason hovering uncertainly in front of her. ‘I was just trying to come up with an exit strategy.’ She couldn’t even bring herself to tell Jason the thoughts of a moment ago. Maria Silver wanted Lydia dead and buried. Putting Paul Fox to one side, the rest of the Fox Family weren’t her biggest fans, and she had just pissed off the Pearls by taking away their latest toy.

  Her head was spinning and she had several calls from Fleet on her mobile. She texted to tell him that she was fine. ‘I’m going to sort this,’ she told Jason, hoping that sounding confident out loud would magically translate into certainty within.

  ‘I know,’ Jason said. ‘But if you can’t, I’ll run with you.’

  Lydia paused. The Fork was Jason’s home. More than that, it was the place he was tied because it was where he died. She felt tears pricking her eyes and she hugged Jason in a quick, chilly embrace.

  Lydia placed her phone in the middle of her desk and looked at it for a long moment. There was a full bottle of whisky on her bookshelves and she looked at that for a moment, too. A calmness filled her centre and, instead of pouring a drink, she walked out onto the roof terrace and lifted her face to the sky. The city lights and a full moon meant that the winter sky was navy blue, not black, and the clouds silvery grey where they met the lunar glow. Lydia reached inside and felt the edges of her power. She produced her coin and made it spin out beyond the railing, holding it suspended high above the street below. Then she made more and more coins appear, dotting them around the terrace, above the street, and up, up into the air until they were sprinkled up as high as she could see, catching the light and shining like stars.

  Lydia went downstairs and headed out the back exit and along the alley which ran behind the building, joining the main street away from The Fork. She called Paul’s burner.

  ‘I haven’t got anything,’ he said. ‘Nobody is talking about Malcolm Ferris or the move against the Crows. I’m sorry, Little Bird.’

  ‘Not on the phone,’ she said. ‘I’m heading in your direction.’

  ‘Potters Fields?’

  Being back in the park and spotting Paul waiting for her at the entrance, brought home to Lydia how much her loyalties had shifted. She was done with following her Family blindly, just because they shared her blood. And she was done being pulled along in their wake.

  ‘What’s happened?’

  Lydia checked that nobody was within earshot and filled him in. The loose plan she had been formulating coalesced as she spoke. She wasn’t going to run, which meant Charlie was going to have to take a holiday.

  ‘He’s not going to go lightly,’ Paul said. ‘You might have to consider a permanent solution.’

  This was not news to Lydia, who had barely been able to think about anything else since the death of Big Neil. She felt her stomach turn over again. ‘I can’t hurt him.’ She had been going to say ‘I can’t kill him’ but she couldn’t even form the words. She couldn’t murder anybody. She wasn’t a killer. ‘And we don’t have banishment in our Family.’

  ‘Don’t you?’ Paul said.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘There is a place which has always contained Crows. Not many of you, admittedly, but it’s not unheard of.’

  The penny dropped. ‘I can’t have him locked up.’ She heard the slam of the door in the police cell, the wave of sheer panic which had rolled over her. Crows didn’t belong in cages.

  Paul shrugged. ‘He’s been running an OCG his whole life. Gotta have considered it an occupational hazard. And it’s not like he would be powerless inside. No one would touch Charlie Crow.’ Paul’s eyes widened as he appeared to remember recent events. ‘Sorry. That was stupid. I just mean-’

  ‘I know,’ Lydia said. ‘And you’re not wrong.’ Especially if she sorted out whoever had attacked Terrance and Richard. And there might be an alternative to a place like Wandsworth. Somewhere more secure from ordered hits. ‘I just need to know that the head of the Fox Family would formally recognise Lydia Crow as the head of the Crow Family.’

  Paul’s lips twitched into a smile. ‘The kids are taking over,’ he said. ‘I approve.’

  Back at the flat, Lydia knew she couldn’t put it off any longer. No matter what else was going on, she owed it to Jason to be honest with him. Lydia found Jason in his bedroom, typing on his laptop. He was absorbed, content. Should she break that peace? Barge into his world with information that would bring pain? Worse still, pain without the hope of resolution.

  ‘Do you believe in what I do?’ Lydia sat on the bed cross-legged.

  Jason looked up. He must have seen something in her expression as he shut the lid of the laptop an
d pushed it to one side. ‘Investigating?’

  ‘Yeah, my business. Do you think it’s a good thing?’

  ‘Where is this coming from?’

  ‘Spending all this time with Charlie,’ Lydia said. ‘I don’t like a lot of what he does, what the Crow Family business looks like, and it’s made me wonder about my own business. Am I any better? I cause people pain all the time.’

  Jason shook his head. ‘You don’t cause the pain. You give information. You solve things. You give closure to people or details about their relationships which help them to make decisions about their lives.’

  Lydia twisted her fingers together. ‘You make it sound like a public service. I snoop for money.’

  He smiled. ‘Yeah, but you’ve got a free-loading housemate who gets through a lot of cereal, you’ve got to make bank.’

  ‘Make bank?’ Lydia raised an eyebrow. ‘You’re really picking up the lingo. Is that your online friends?’

  ‘Don’t do air quotes,’ Jason said. ‘They are my friends.’

  ‘I’m teasing,’ Lydia said. ‘I’m happy for you.’

  There was a short pause, while Lydia wrestled with her conscience. Then she said, ‘do you think the truth is always better than not knowing? For our clients, I mean.’

  ‘Yes.’ Jason spoke without hesitation.

  ‘I’ve got something to ask you, but it’s about your life. You’ve seemed much happier and I don’t want to rake up things up if it’s going to upset you.’

  Jason went very still. Usually, when he was upset he vibrated slightly and, if he got very emotional, he became less and less ‘alive-looking’ and more and more ‘definitely ghost’. Right now, however, he was sitting very still and looking very solid and holding her gaze. ‘I am much happier but I still want answers. Even if they aren’t very nice.’

  ‘Right-’

  ‘I mean,’ he smiled suddenly. ‘I’m dead. My wife is dead. I already know it wasn’t a happy ending.’

  Lydia reached out and took his cold hand. ‘You told me before that you didn’t know Amy’s parents very well. That you hadn’t spent much time together.’

  He nodded. ‘They were always nice to me, though.’

  ‘Were they?’

  ‘I told you before, they seemed fine. Amy said they left her alone, had done ever since she was a teenager and they realised that if they tried to control her it would just make her more rebellious.’

  ‘Smart move,’ Lydia said.

  ‘Exactly. And they were. Really smart. Really clever, I mean. So was Amy. She was incredible, could have done anything she wanted.’

  ‘They were at your wedding?’

  He frowned. ‘Of course.’

  ‘And at the party, here?’

  ‘What are you getting at?’

  ‘You still don’t remember anything about that day?’

  ‘No,’ Jason was vibrating, now, and Lydia squeezed his hand tighter, hoping to anchor him. If he got very upset, he might just disappear. It had barely happened over the past few weeks, since discovering programming and hacking and an online social life, but it had used to happen with alarming regularity. He would disappear and when he returned, hours later, he had no memory of where he had been. It was something out of his control and Lydia knew it frightened him.

  ‘I think Amy’s parents made a deal with Charlie.’

  ‘What sort of deal?’

  ‘Alejandro is like Tristan Fox in one regard, he doesn’t believe in diluting the Family’s bloodline. And his father was just the same.’ Lydia took a deep breath. ‘Amy was Alejandro’s cousin. Her uncle was the head of the Silver Family.’

  ‘No, they were fine with us,’ Jason said. ‘I told you.’

  ‘I know,’ Lydia said. ‘I’m sorry. This is hard to hear, but I don’t think they were as accepting as they pretended.’

  Jason held up his hand. ‘You’ve found something out?’

  ‘Yes,’ Lydia said. She was about to say ‘from Charlie’.

  ‘Don’t tell me.’

  ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘What if it gives me closure or something and I disappear? I’m happy. I have a life.’ He tried a smile which didn’t quite work. ‘I mean, I have a kind of life. I don’t want to lose it.’

  ‘Okay,’ Lydia said. ‘Let me know if you change your mind.’

  ‘Have you worked out what you’re going to do about Charlie?’

  For a split second Lydia thought she might have accidentally told Jason about his murder, anyway, but then she realised that Jason was just trying to change the subject from his untimely death. ‘I think so. It involves asking for a favour, though.’

  ‘Well that should go well,’ Jason said, deadpan. ‘You’re really good at asking for help.’

  ‘Hilarious,’ Lydia said, pushing him lightly on the shoulder.

  Lydia ignored a call from Charlie as she walked over to Miles Bunyan’s house. The pressing issue of her homicidal uncle aside, she knew she had to speak to Miles. Besides, it was a bright, crisp day and she wanted to enjoy London in the winter sunshine. Walking usually helped to calm her mind, but today her thoughts kept going churning, searching endlessly for a new way out of the problem. She couldn’t work with Charlie and she couldn’t let him carry on as the head of her Family, not after the things he had done, but she didn’t know if she was willing to step up and take his place. Charlie was wrong about a lot of things, but he was right there.

  The Bunyans’ Victorian terrace looked the same as on Lydia’s previous visit, but the atmosphere inside was entirely different. It was light and happy and Lydia wondered if that was something anybody would be able to sense, or whether it was her Crow power. Since the confrontation with the Pearl King, Lydia had been wondering just how different her abilities made her, and how far they might go. It was a novelty after years of ignoring, denying or being embarrassed by them.

  She followed Miles down the hallway and into the kitchen, as he explained that Lucy was napping but that she was welcome to stop for tea. ‘If she wakes up, you can see her, but I’d rather not disturb her.’

  ‘That’s fine,’ Lydia said. ‘It was you I wanted to speak to, really.’

  ‘Is that so?’ Miles was bustling around the kitchen, getting mugs and opening a packet of biscuits. He shot her an astute look. ‘No Charlie today?’

  ‘No Charlie,’ Lydia said. ‘I’m following up on something.’

  ‘I thought he would be here, wanting to collect his dues.’

  Lydia frowned. ‘You were paying him to investigate?’

  ‘No, no. Nothing like that.’ Miles shook his head. ‘He likes to receive thanks in person, that’s all. Not that I’m not grateful,’ he added hurriedly. ‘Tell him I’m very grateful. Eternally grateful. I assume he pulled some strings with the police…’

  Lydia forced a smile. ‘I’m really not here on Charlie’s behalf. There’s something I wanted to ask you.’

  ‘Sugar? Milk?’

  ‘Just milk,’ Lydia said. ‘It’s about a company called JRB.’

  Miles had been taking a teabag out of a mug and his hand jerked, splashing tea across the counter.

  ‘You’ve heard of them?’

  Miles looked at her, then. ‘Is this about Lucy?’

  ‘Why would JRB have anything to do with your daughter?’

  ‘No.’ Miles shook his head. ‘This is ridiculous. It’s just a story.’

  ‘What is just a story?’

  Miles turned back to the tea. He put his hand on the milk carton but didn’t lift it to pour. He was thinking and his jaw was tight. Lydia guessed that he was about to ask her to leave. She spoke quickly. ‘I just want to make sure that you and Lucy stay safe. I know who took her and I think I know why they gave her back, but I want to be sure it doesn’t happen again. The house where she was found, the people there have a link to JRB, a company that used to bear your family name. This is just between us. It’s not for the police or the press, it won’t go any further than this room.’

/>   ‘Nobody would believe you, anyway,’ Miles said. ‘It’s completely mad.’

  ‘J.R.B and Sons was started by John Bunyan. Relative of yours?’

  ‘It’s nothing to do with me,’ Miles said. ‘I was never on the board. My father was a director, but the company was dissolved twenty years ago. It doesn’t exist.’

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘My father passed away ten years ago. He would be the one to ask. I don’t know anything about it.’ Miles was getting increasingly agitated.

  ‘What was ‘mad’?’

  ‘Sorry?’

  ‘About the company.’

  ‘There was a disagreement, I think,’ Miles said. ‘With their business partners. Or fellow directors, I’m not sure which. A big blow up, though. The company had always been very successful and I know that it would have been better for dad to stay and for it to keep going, so it must have been over something pretty serious. He came out with money, of course, but he always said it was a shame it had ended. He had wanted me to join at one time, but I had other ambitions and, well, you don’t always want to just follow in your parents’ footsteps, do you?’

  Lydia kept quiet.

  ‘So they wound it up and that was that.’ Miles dropped the teaspoon into the sink.

  ‘What aren’t you telling me?’

  ‘I told you, it’s nonsense. Dad got quite confused at the end. He didn’t know what he was saying.’

  Lydia crossed her arms and leaned against the counter, indicating that she was willing to wait.