Cold Courage (35 page)

As she laughed with Mari, out of the corner of her eye Lia saw both of their reflections in the darkened window. Next to them floated tiny lights, the flames of the candles Lia had lit. She imagined Elza there with them.

A moment later another form appeared alongside them in the reflected scene. A dark-haired woman Lia had never met. She had only seen her photograph, which she carried with her always now. Daiga Vītola. Brave, reckless Daiga sat with them, drinking and having fun.

The fear was also there, hovering next to them, the spectre of everything that had happened. But the fear was manageable now. By living through all that had happened since the spring, Lia had begun to develop the strength to cope with her fears. Even what had
happened
in Finland all those years ago, the memories of a relationship turned dangerously sour, felt different now. One phase of life among all the others.

Lia heard their laughter ringing from the small room’s walls. It was a sound she had never heard in her flat.

At ten o’clock she noticed another sound. She waved to Mari to tell her to be quiet.

‘Mr Vong!’ she whispered, and Mari fell silent, an expectant smile on her lips.

They heard a steady murmur. Water running into the bath. The sound echoed hollowly off the porcelain surface, amplifying it into a muffled roar that filled Lia’s room like small rapids in a stream.

The rushing stopped. Mr Vong had turned off the tap. A couple of tiny splashing sounds came as the last drops fell into the water.
Complete silence fell. They heard Mr Vong lowering himself into the water. Mr Vong and his nightly bath.

Mari began to say something, but Lia hissed, ‘Quiet.’ A moment passed.

A rumble. Another.

Lia covered her face with her hands to stifle a laugh, and when she peered through her fingers, she saw Mari gasping for breath in pent-up delight.

Mr Vong was passing his evening gas, which echoed under the water clear, tight and dull like the skilful playing of a brass
instrument
. They shook with joy.

A sensuous intoxication had settled over them. The wine blunted their senses like a blanket enfolding them.

Mari wanted to get home while she still had the strength. Lia offered a share of her bed.

They repeated the Finnish word, admiring its beauty:
Siskonpeti
. Sister bed. It brought to mind quilts dug out of the back of the
cupboards
, the tiny flats of bygone days and the ties of friendship – both those just created and those strengthened over years.

But Mari declined. She needed her own, familiar surroundings.

They ordered a taxi and collected Mari’s presents and other things. They looked at the clutter that filled Lia’s small home. Food and plates, bottles and glasses, wrapping paper and candle stubs.

‘Best Christmas party ever,’ Mari said, hugging Lia.

Lia escorted Mari to the outer door and watched until she climbed into the cab. Then she walked back to her flat as steadily as she could, checked that the candles were all out and collapsed into bed.

Her mobile rang on Sunday morning before eight o’clock.

When Lia saw the name
Sarah
on the display, in an instant her head cleared significantly.

‘Hello?’

‘Lia?’

Sarah Hawkins apologised for calling so early, but she had
business
that could not wait.

‘Lia, you can’t publish that video. I’m so sorry. But that’s my decision.’

‘What? Why?’

‘Some things have happened. I don’t believe that releasing it is right any more. You can’t publish it. And I want all the copies back for myself.’

Lia was trying to catch up. They couldn’t stop the release any more, she objected.

‘Yes, you can. It’s my story, and if you release it, I’ll tell the papers that it isn’t true.’

‘Why have you changed your mind?’

‘I’ve been talking with people. My sister. And Arthur.’

Sarah said she had met with Fried, but did not want to talk about it in any more detail.

‘I’m truly sorry for all the bother you’ve been through. I’ll pay for the hotel myself.’

‘Are you still at the hotel? This isn’t about money…’

‘Yes, I’m here. But I’m planning to go back home today.’

‘Did he threaten you?’

The line went quiet.

‘Let’s not go there,’ Sarah said. ‘This is just my decision. It’s best for me and lots of other people as well.’

‘Sarah, I’m going to ring you back in five minutes. We have to figure out what we can still do now.’

‘Fine. Just so long as that video does not come out.’

‘Ugh. You can’t call so early.’

‘Mari, we have a problem.’

They decided that Lia had to talk to Sarah immediately.

‘If Fried has threatened her, tell her that we have to put a stop to him now,’ Mari said.

Lia had to make Sarah feel safe again so she would dare to oppose Fried. They had to take Sarah to a different hotel. If Fried had offered Sarah money, Lia could offer her more.

‘I have enough,’ Mari said.

‘Yes… Yes… Yes,’ Lia answered as she searched for clothing in the chaos of her room.

‘Tell Sarah about the other women Fried has hit and all the ones that are being hit in other families.’

It would help if Sarah didn’t feel alone and believed she was acting in others’ best interests as well. Lia, Mari and everyone else at the Studio would be there to support her the whole way through.

‘Can we publish the video if she denies it herself?’ Lia asked.

‘No. Of course not.’

Doing that to Sarah would be wrong. And if she claimed the video was manipulated, in the worst case scenario the scandal could play to Fried’s benefit.

Snatching up her keys and phone, Lia said she had to order a taxi now.

‘OK. I just don’t understand how Fried found her. We were so careful,’ Mari said.

Sarah Hawkins opened the hotel room door looking serious.

‘I think it would have been best to handle this over the phone,’ she said.

Lia stepped in and tried to catch her breath.

‘How did Arthur get in touch with you?’

Sarah gestured at her new mobile phone. She had given the number to only one person, her sister.

‘I had to give it to her in case something happened.’

When Fried had been unable to find Sarah, he had gone to her sister and made her believe that Sarah had left home because she was in some sort of trouble. The sister had given Sarah’s number to Fried.

‘Arthur called and said that someone was running a malicious smear campaign against him. I didn’t believe him at first. But it was strange that so many things were happening at once. First there was the story about his tax irregularities. And then there was the thing about Fair Rule supporting illegal groups. When Arthur heard that I had made a video, he said that it was part of the same campaign. I don’t know everything he’s done, but this does look an awful lot like someone is intentionally digging around in Arthur’s past,’ Sarah said, watching Lia’s expressions carefully.

‘Unfortunate things like this come out all the time. Someone finds them and publishes them,’ Lia said.

‘I know. And I still believe everything I said on that video. But I’ve decided not to let it out. You haven’t given it to The Wall yet, have you?’

‘No,’ Lia said. The video was supposed to go to the group two days later. They had only told the head of the organisation that they would be sending a report of domestic abuse involving an important public figure and that it was likely to cause a stir.

Why had Sarah changed her mind, Lia asked.

Sarah closed her mouth and looked away.

‘I don’t want to talk about it.’

‘Why not? Did he threaten you?’

Silence.

‘Did he hit you?’

‘No. No, not that.’

Silence.

‘This is an ugly, difficult business. I chose the lesser evil of the options I had.’

Arthur Fried had promised Sarah money. And threatened her.

‘He threatened to hunt me down if that video came out. He would hunt me as long as it took to find me and then beat me so that I would never walk again. And my sister. And my sister’s son.’

Dear God.

‘I know what you’re thinking, Lia. That a man that violent can’t be allowed to go doing it any more. But I believe Arthur. If he says he’ll take revenge on me and my sister and my nephew, he’ll do it. He said that if the video came out, he wouldn’t have anything to lose. His career would be over, and he would make sure that we would pay.’

The alternative was £100,000. Fried had promised it in cash, delivered immediately, in addition to an increase in the sum he had been paying her every month.

‘I didn’t know that I had a price,’ Sarah said. ‘I didn’t know that I would be able to make a choice like that. That I would deny the truth for money.’

‘It isn’t that simple. I know that,’ Lia said. ‘I know a little about what it means to be afraid. It isn’t about being rational. Anyone can make decisions out of fear that they would never make otherwise.’

Sarah nodded. Lia thought about what she could offer Sarah and what sorts of arrangements would be required in order for her and her sister’s family to live in safety.

Sarah glanced at her watch. Lia realised that she was waiting for something.

‘Sarah, when did you have this conversation with Arthur? Was he here?’

‘Last night. He called me around eight and then came here. We talked for a long time, and he left around midnight. He said that he would come back this morning and that he wanted me to collect all of the copies of the video so I could give them to him. And that’s what I’ve decided to do.’

She keeps repeating that she’s made her decision. She’s trying to convince herself.

‘Sarah, would you mind if I made one call?’

‘Not at all. But Arthur could be here any minute.’

Lia wanted privacy, so she left the room. She walked to the end of the corridor where an alcove window looked out across the city. She rang Mari and told her the situation in hushed tones.

‘One hundred thousand is a lot,’ Mari said. ‘And we have to offer more, or something other than money. But I can handle it either way. Not right this second, but within a few days.’

‘Are you sure you want to pay that much? And what about the security arrangements?’

‘If we don’t have the video, Fried could recover from this. Paddy can help make the security arrangements. He’s done the same sort of thing before.’

It might also be possible to publicise Fried’s threats, Mari suggested. If they had any evidence, they could release that with the video, and then the police would have to come to Sarah’s aid. Mari did not know offhand what they would need for Sarah to qualify for state witness protection, but the protection would work out either way, whether through official channels or through the Studio.

Lia saw movement at the other end of the corridor. It was Arthur Fried with a large briefcase in his hand. Fried went to Sarah’s hotel room door and swiped a keycard in the lock. The door opened, and Fried disappeared into the room.

‘He’s here,’ Lia whispered into the phone.

‘Oh shit,’ Mari said.

‘I have to go back to Sarah’s room.’

‘Anything could happen in there. Wait. I’ll ring Paddy to come to you now.’

‘Ring away, but I’m going in now. I’ll keep the line open so you can hear what happens.’

Lia strode back to the door and knocked loudly. A few seconds passed before Sarah answered.

Arthur Fried was standing in the room behind her. Fried’s briefcase was on the bed where he had been in the process of opening it. Lia pushed her way into the room without waiting for Sarah’s permission.

Sarah and Fried had clearly been engaged in a heated discussion, which Lia’s arrival had interrupted.

‘I don’t know how he got a key,’ Sarah said. ‘I don’t understand how the reception desk could have given someone else a card to my room.’

‘Easily,’ Fried said. ‘I told the tart at the desk that I was your boyfriend and that I had a gift for you. She would have given me a key to her own room if I had asked.’

Lia saw how upset Sarah was.

‘Is the money in the briefcase?’ Lia asked, stretching her neck to see through the crack.

She saw thick stacks of notes. Maybe there really was £100,000 in there.

‘Who are you?’ Fried asked quickly.

Lia glanced at Sarah: apparently she hadn’t had time to tell him that she was there.

‘My name is Lia Pajala. And this is my mobile phone,’ Lia said, raising the phone. ‘On the other end is a person listening to every word we say and recording it all.’

Fried didn’t miss a beat.

‘You seem familiar. Have we met?’ he asked.

Of course he wouldn’t remember me from his campaign office. I’m far too ordinary a person to bother remembering.

Lia had to give an explanation so Fried would not realise how organised the effort against him was.

‘Yes, we’ve met before. I work for
Level
magazine.’

Arthur Fried’s eyes narrowed.

‘I thought Sarah was being press-ganged by some trashy rag. I didn’t know
Level
was wallowing in the gutter now.’

Lia thought for a couple of seconds about how to proceed. Raising her mobile and holding it about a foot from her mouth, she began dictating loudly.

‘It’s Sunday morning at 10.35 a.m. We’re currently in the Ibis Hotel in Earl’s Court. In the room with me are party leader Arthur Fried and his former wife Sarah Hawkins. Arthur Fried has just arrived with a large amount of currency, presumably one hundred thousand pounds…’

‘Bitch,’ said Fried, stepping towards Lia and slapping from her hand the mobile phone, which flew across the room.

Lia had only just thought of darting after it when the blow came. Fried slammed her to the floor in one quick, savage stroke. More out of surprise than pain, Lia curled up in a ball. Instinctively she raised her arms to shield her head.

She heard Sarah’s cry.

‘No!’

This shout made Fried stop short. He stared at Lia, poised to attack.