Nobody’s Hero (Ben Koenig #2)

Chapter 102

‘A waterbed!’ Draper shouted. ‘The only thing she overheard Konstantin say was “waterbed”? That’s what Margaret killed Hobbs for? That’s the big secret?’

Koenig didn’t respond.

After a while Draper got control of herself. ‘Do we believe her?’ she asked.

Nash had told them that when she’d checked out Jakob Tas, the big Russian and an unnamed female, prior to them meeting with Hobbs, she’d overheard a snippet of conversation. Konstantin had said ‘waterbed’ and Tas had shushed him. And that was it. She hadn’t heard the start of his sentence, and Tas stopped it before it ended. She’d overheard the middle. A concrete noun. One word. Two if Konstantin meant the bottom of a pond rather than a sciatica-causing mattress. Nash had told Hobbs on the ride home and he hadn’t responded. She’d put it out of her mind. Hadn’t thought about it since.

That’s what she claimed.

And Koenig did believe her. If it had been anyone else, Koenig’s default position would have been that they were lying. Hiding something. But Nash was driven entirely by self-interest. It was her only concern. She had no reason to lie, every reason to tell the truth.

‘I think if she’d wanted to lie, she’d have been more inventive,’ he said.

‘That’s what I think as well,’ Draper said. ‘I think Hobbs played us. He dangled a worm in front of us, one he knew we’d bite. And it worked. His foster daughter is alive.’

Her phone buzzed in her jacket pocket. She grabbed it and checked the screen.

She accepted the call.

She listened.

Then she said, ‘Smerconish has found something.’

‘Is it a waterbed?’ Koenig said.