Cocaine by Jack Hillgate Read Free Book Online Page B

forty, medium height, dyed blonde hair and lots of heavy jewellery. She was quite attractive and definitely, as Jack Wiseman had put it, ‘up for it.’ She crossed her legs, leaning on the side of the sofa, her skirt splitting open to reveal a large expanse of sun-tanned thigh.
    ‘Are you married, George?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Divorced?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Girlfriend?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Excuse me grilling you like this, George, but it is so rare these days that one meets a soul-mate, someone to really talk to, a good listener, you know.’
    ‘I couldn’t agree more.’
    ‘ You’re a good listener, George.’
    ‘Thank you.’
    ‘If it’s not a personal question, what do you do for a living? I mean, do you work?’
    ‘I don’t work anymore.’
    Arabella’s eyes twinkled like diamonds.
    ‘What did you use to do?’
    ‘A bit of this and that really. Technology, mainly. Boring really.’
    ‘My husband’, she said, edging closer along the top of the sofa, ‘was a banker. He left me a very rich woman, you know.’
    ‘Where do you keep her?’
    ‘Ha ha! You’re quite funny, George, in a lovely way. I hope you take that as a compliment?’
    ‘Of course.’
    ‘Where do you live?’
    ‘Just opposite.’
    ‘I’m miles away. Was planning on getting a little tipsy tonight, you know, have a ball…’
    ‘Sounds like a good idea.’
    ‘Yes, it does, doesn’t it? You know, Jack wants me to invest some of the divorce monies. Roderick’s given me nearly seven million. What do you think?’
    ‘Pounds, euros or dollars?’
    ‘Pounds.’
    ‘That is an awful lot of money, Arabella.’
    ‘Is it?’
    ‘You know it is. Don’t play games, now.’
    ‘Should I give Jack half a million? He says his scheme is brilliant.’
    ‘Has he explained it to you?’
    ‘Not yet. First he wants me to take a course, to educate me. It’s ten hours, two hundred and fifty an hour.’
    ‘Who gives the course?’
    ‘Why Jack of course. Here, in the flat.’
    ‘Ten hours and then what?’
    ‘Then, if I like what I hear, I can get him to invest my money.’
    ‘Excuse me just one moment, Arabella, I must use the bathroom.’
    ‘Of course.’
    I emptied the contents of my signet ring onto the loo seat. Those fuckers outside had no fucking idea. No fucking idea. But Jack Wiseman now, Jack had gone up considerably in my estimation. He was verging towards the very, very clever if tonight’s guests were anything to go by. Everyone wanted to give him money, everyone seemed charmed by a man who had, in his own words, not a clue. The little scalpel crunched the white powder into even finer granules, and I removed a five hundred euro bill from my wallet.
    Jan Wiseman had no idea what her husband was up to. How long, I wondered, had they managed to keep doing it in Marbella? It only worked when one of the team was an innocent, the other knee-deep in shit. I pitied Jan, and suddenly found myself despising Jack. An idea for an excellent test, more of an experiment, was beginning to form in my mind. I rolled the note up and knelt down on the miniature Persian rug in front of the cistern.

    Time to clean out the pipes.

    ***
    October 1990

    At nine-thirty we were inside the laboratory wing of the science faculty of the Universidad del Cauca . There had been no guards, there were students milling about, working in the libraries, smoking and chattering about Jon Bon Jovi, Sylvester Stallone and Michael Jackson, or at least that was what we could hear through the open window.
    ‘Leave it’, Juan Andres had said. ‘Maybe they always leave it open.’
    ‘Maybe it’s the fumes.’
    I pointed to a complex set of phials and connecting plastic tubes. The liquid inside was grey and smoked a little.
    ‘ Si, claro. ’
    ‘ Claro que si. ’
    We looked around at the metal racks that lined the walls. Large tubs of standard laboratory filler, the uninteresting part of my course, I remembered, were not much use.
    ‘Do they have medical students here?’ I