Dirty Money, Charlotte Philby (Extract)
RAMONA CHANG
An investigative journalist turned private detective, Ramona's final scoop left her with a target on her back. Now in hiding, she is living in a run-down flat in east London. But when her latest case looking into an upmarket escort agency takes a dark turn, she needs information only accessible to those in power . . .
DETECTIVE SERGEANT MADELEINE FARROW
A high-flying operative at a government agency, it's the day of her fiftieth birthday when Madeleine finds out that she has been given the lead on an investigation into corruption on a global scale. But when she finds her case mysteriously blocked from the inside, she needs someone on the outside, capable of moving undetected . . .
As Ramona and Madeleine's cases collide, can the unlikely allies find justice for multiple victims within the capital's hotbed of lies and deception?
Ramona reaches for the shirt inside her bag as she approaches Hatton Garden, a single road best known for its jewellers, in the historic area of Farringdon. Tuesday, two o’clock, exactly as arranged. Following the curve of the pavement, she turns right into a mews street that reminds her of a different life.
It had been Si who had first brought her here, not long after they first got together, stopping briefly in front of the inconspicuous entrance, knocking twice and waiting for an overweight man in a Metallica T-shirt –part off-duty Viking, part central casting spyware nerd – to receive them.
Seconds before the door opened, Si had leaned in to kiss her and Ramona had let him, despite not being one for public displays of affection even at the best of times – and this was not Ramona at her best. She had been putting in long hours, determined to work her way up from covering traffic accidents and town planning meetings to covering crime.
Spending evenings and weekends linking the dots in a spate of violence connected to Camden’s notorious Somers Town – thanks to the kind of contacts you only really get from having gone to school in an area – meant that Ramona hadn’t been getting much sleep.
She had recently started taking prescription pills to switch off and these, mixed with booze, had the after-effect of making her feel both groggy and anxious, as she waited that first time on the doorstep.
Still, she tingled with excitement, knowing that she was doing exactly what she had wanted to do for as long as she could remember.
This was the first time the news editor had agreed to let her go undercover in a case that he had no way of knowing would go on to dominate three years of her life, and Ramona had been gleeful as Gareth the Viking led her and Si up a narrow flight of steps into his shop.
Sometimes, recently, she finds herself wondering whether she ever really loved Si or whether she just associated him with moments like this, which made her feel alive.
Pressing the buzzer now, she reprimands herself. This is not a fair assessment of their relationship, and she knows it. She had loved Si. She loved that he was sweet but serious, never more so than when it came to his work or Arsenal’s position in the league.
Her thoughts are interrupted by the sight of Gareth, answering the door in a black T-shirt with a Seinfeld logo; instantly Ramona pictures the oversized Reservoir Dogs T-shirt, so large that she uses it as a nightie.
Of course: this is where it had come from. She had picked it up from Gareth, the night O’Keegan’s men had finally busted her for wearing a wire. She will never forget the look on Gareth’s face when he opened the door to her that morning, visibly shaking, blood streaking her face and the remains of the white shirt she had arrived in the evening before, still with part of the buttonhole camera lodged inside it. How had she forgotten that it had been him who had given her one of his tops to replace the stained one?
In answer, a lot from that time in her life was hazy. Some of the haziness was a result of the booze and the pills, the rest an act of self-preservation.
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