Ian Hamilton - The disciple of Las Vegas

Whatever she’s taken, it hasn’t dulled her mind, Ava thought, and then tried to switch gears again. “True enough, at least from the civil side. But the Americans move more quickly when criminality is involved, and believe me, we would be seeking to have criminal charges brought against Douglas and Ashton. And you must know, Ms. Simmons, how harsh the American courts have been lately on white-collar crime. If Jeremy went to jail for less than five years I’d be surprised.”

Simmons closed her eyes, and Ava sensed she was finally beginning to get through to her. “I thought it was too good to be true,” Simmons muttered.

“What was too good?”

“The profits.”

“They weren’t profits.”

“We’d been losing money for years until… until this started,” Simmons said, slapping her hand on the transfer request still lying on the table.

“I have another copy of the confession if you need it. In fact, I have copies of everything,” Ava said. “The only thing I want back is the transfer request with your signature on it.”

Simmons shook her head. “That’s not going to happen.”

“You do have signing authority?”

“You obviously know that I do.”

“So sign. Pick up a pen and write your name.”

“It isn’t that easy.”

“Ms. Simmons, you don’t seem to be grasping the consequences.”

Simmons glared at Ava. “You don’t have any idea about consequences,” she said, saliva flying from her mouth.

Ava saw her hand tremble. “You’re prepared to send your fiance to jail?”

“Well, he is a thief, isn’t he.”

“Yes, he is.”

“And he’s betrayed the faith I put in him.”

I’m losing her again, Ava thought. “You’re angry with him, and no one can blame you for that,” she said. “But let’s be rational. Sign that piece of paper and then you and he can sort out your differences without all the legal baggage.”

Simmons spun away from the table. In two steps she was at the window looking out at the Isle of Dogs. “I talked my father into financing this business,” she said. “He was reluctant. I used every bit of persuasion I could. In the end he did it because I virtually begged him to.”

“Yes, Jeremy told me that your father’s money was behind it.”

“Did he also tell you that my father detests him?”

“No.”

“He’s so self-absorbed he may not even realize it.”

Ava felt another layer of leverage being stripped away. “I see” was all she could say.

“All he cares about is himself and his needs. He thinks that because I’ve never had much luck with men he can do with me as he wants. But there are limits to what I will do for him,” she said, and turned to look at Ava. “He has no idea what he and that partner of his have put me through.”

“I know this must be difficult — ”

Simmons waved Ava to silence. “The River has been losing money from the day it started, and every fiscal quarter I’ve had to go to my father and give him the numbers, and whatever explanations I can come up with for them. More than once he’d had enough and told me to get out. I’d go to Jeremy and he’d tell me they were just around the corner from turning a profit. Always just around the corner. And I believed him… At least, I wanted to believe him, because if I didn’t and I told my father, the business would have been shut down in a heartbeat and Jeremy would have left me.

“Then, six months ago, Jeremy comes to me with a profit, a real profit. And every week, every month after that, the profits keep rolling in. I waited until the first full quarter was over before I gave my father the numbers. He was relieved, and when he got the second-quarter numbers, he was ecstatic. Quite suddenly Jeremy wasn’t such an idiot and I wasn’t such a fool for standing by him. In fact, I’d carried the day — he even said that. My father, I mean. He would have cut and run ages ago, he said. It was my judgement that got us out of the red…”

It was dark outside, and the interior light had turned the window into a murky mirror in which Ava watched Simmons speak. She was partially in shadow but Ava could see the intensity in her face and hear a growing determination in her voice. She knew where Simmons was heading, and there was nothing she could say to stop her from going there.

“There’s no way you could be held responsible for any of this,” Ava said.

“You don’t know my father.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, you’re not. All you care about is your bloody money.”

“It’s my job. I take no pleasure in some of the things I have to do.”

Simmons turned from the window and lunged towards the table. She moved so quickly that Ava jumped in surprise. The other woman stopped just short of physical contact, both hands resting on the table, her head thrust forward. “Well, you’ll take no pleasure from what I have to say, because there’s no way I’m going to sign that piece of paper.”

“Ashton?”

“What about him?”

“You’d let him go to jail?”

“Do what you want with him,” Simmons said. “I can defend a badly thought-out and badly run business, but I can’t explain away a liar and a thief. Oh God, when I think about the things I said to my father about him, and how pleased my father was.”

“Speaking of your father,” Ava said gently, “Ashton or no Ashton, if you don’t settle with us there will be legal proceedings against the company — against you, in all likelihood — and your father’s name will be dragged into it.”

“My father knew nothing. His assets are in a blind trust. I was responsible for administering it.”

“That’s not what you said earlier. And it isn’t what Ashton told me.”

“Not that anyone can ever prove it.”

“But he did know.”

Simmons shrugged. “You won’t be able to discredit my father with this fiasco. I won’t let you. I’ll take full responsibility. So sue me, sue the company — I don’t care. Put Jeremy in prison. I don’t care about that either, and I won’t raise a hand to help him. But when it comes to the money, I’ll fight you every inch of the way. I have enough of a bankroll in Cyprus to keep this going for years.”

Ava glanced down at her notebook, at the talking points she’d crafted in Las Vegas and on the plane. They had looked good on paper but were ineffective in practice. She felt a lump return to her chest, the same one she’d felt when Maggie Chew first told her about her father. “This won’t go away,” she said, closing her notebook and slipping it into her purse.

“Here, take this too,” Simmons said, throwing the transfer request across the table.

“No, you keep it. You still might decide to sign it.”

“There’s no chance of that,” Simmons said. She stood to one side. “Now, if you don’t mind, I would like you to leave. And if there’s anything else you want to communicate, please use your legal representatives.”

Ava didn’t move.

“I will call security if I have to.”

“I have sex tapes,” Ava said.

“What?”

“You heard me,” Ava said, her eyes locked on Simmons.

The woman tried to hold Ava’s gaze but gave way. “That’s not true,” she said, her voice breaking ever so slightly.

In that second Ava knew that Simmons wasn’t sure. “I got them from Ashton.”

Simmons blinked and then threw her head back. “That’s not true. There are no such tapes.”

“I didn’t know anyone could enjoy a spanking quite so much. Jeremy filmed you over and over again. You hear about these things, of course, but until you actually see it — and all the peripheral sex play that goes along with it… Well, I found it rather lurid and upsetting. It didn’t do anything for me, though I’m sure there are people who enjoy watching that kind of thing.”