Dead Simple

your business partner?’ Grace quizzed. ‘He’s meant to be getting married tomorrow. You are aware of that?’
    ‘I’m his best man.’
    Watching Mark Warren’s face closely, Grace suddenly remembered where he had seen him before. At least, where he thought he had seen him before. ‘What car do you drive, Mark?’ he asked.
    ‘A BMW.’
    ‘Which model? A 3-Series? 5-Series? 7-Series?’
    ‘An X5,’ Mark said.
    ‘That’s a four-wheel drive?’
    ‘Yes, it is.’
    Grace nodded and said nothing; his brain was churning.

35
    Standing in the corridor, waiting for the lift, Branson watched Mark Warren’s front door, making sure it was shut, then he said, ‘What was that about – the business with the car?’
    As they stepped inside the lift, Grace pressed the bottom button, marked ‘B’. Still deep in thought, he didn’t reply.
    Branson watched him. ‘Something’s not right with that dude. You read that?’
    Still Grace said nothing.
    ‘You should have pressed “G” for the ground floor – that’s the way we came in.’
    Grace stepped out into the underground garage and Branson followed. The place was dry, dimly lit, with a faint smell of engine oil. They walked past a Ferrari, a Jaguar saloon, a Mazda sports car and a small Ford saloon, then a couple of empty bays until Grace stopped in front of a gleaming silver BMW X5 off-roader. He stared hard at the car. Droplets of rainwater still lay on the paintwork.
    ‘Cool machines, these,’ Branson said. ‘But they don’t have much room in the rear. Much more in a Range Rover or a Cayenne.’
    Grace peered at the wheels, then knelt down and looked under a door sill. ‘When I was here last night,’ he said, ‘and came down here for my car about quarter to one in the morning, this BMW drove in, covered in mud. I noticed it because it seemed a little unusual – you don’t often see a dirty four-wheel drive in the centre of Brighton, they’re mostly used by mothers doing the shopping run.’
    ‘You sure it was this car.’
    Grace tapped the side of his own head. ‘The number plate.’
    ‘Your photographic memory – still working at your advanced age…’
    ‘Still working.’
    ‘So what’s your take?’
    ‘What’s yours?’
    ‘A missing coffin. A forest. A mud-caked car. A best man who is the only survivor, who wants to speak to his lawyer. A bank account in the Cayman Islands. Something smells.’
    ‘It doesn’t smell, it stinks.’
    ‘So what happens next?’
    Grace pulled the copper bracelet out of his pocket and held it up. ‘This happens next.’
    ‘Is that what you really think?’
    ‘You have a better idea?’
    ‘Take Mark Warren in for questioning.’
    Grace shook his head. ‘The guy’s smart. We need to be smarter.’
    ‘Going to a flaky pendulum dowser is smarter?’
    ‘Trust me.’

36
    You had to stay awake . That was how you survived. Hypothermia made you sleepy, and when you fell asleep you would sink into a coma and then you died.
    Michael was shivering, near-delirious. Cold, so, so cold; he heard voices, heard Ashley whispering into his ear; reached up to touch her and his knuckles struck hard teak.
    Water slopped into his mouth and he spat it out. His face was squashed tight against the lid of the coffin. The flashlight didn’t work any more, he tried keeping the walkie-talkie above the water, but his arm was hurting so much it was not going to be possible for much longer.
    He wedged his mobile phone, which was useless, into the back pocket of his jeans. It made it uncomfortable, but it gave him another inch and a half height. For whatever good that would do. He was going to die; he did not know how much longer he had but it wasn’t long.
    ‘Ashley,’ he said weakly. ‘Ashley, my darling.’
    Then more water filled his mouth.
    He rubbed away at the ever-widening and deepening groove in the lid with the casing of the flashlight. He thought of the wedding tomorrow. His mum showing him the dress she had bought, and the hat and the shoes and the new handbag, wanting his approval, wanting to know she looked good for his special day, wanting him to be proud of her, wanting Ashley to be proud of her. He remembered the phone call from his kid sister, from Australia, so excited by the ticket he had paid for. Carly would be here now, staying with his mother, getting ready.
    His neck hurt so badly, he didn’t know how much longer he could stand the pain; every few minutes he had to relax, sink back, holding his