Erin stood frozen, her heart hammering with fear. ‘Tell me!’ hissed Marcus, his fingers digging into her arm.
‘You brought the expensive wine round, didn’t you?’ whispered Erin, not knowing what to say except the truth. ‘And it was your car outside Karin’s that night,’ said Erin, so softly it was barely audible.
‘She was a tease. Like all women,’ growled Marcus, his face twisting as he moved closer towards her.
‘But what about Molly?’ said Erin, trying to think of anything that might distract him. ‘You’re in love with Molly.’
Marcus snorted. ‘Ah, yes Molly. Sweet, greedy Molly. I thought I could fall in love with that one, until I discovered she’s exactly the same as all the other gold-digging tramps I’ve ever been out with. So she uses me and I use her. She’s a very good fuck,’ he whispered, his eyes narrow and cruel as he reached up with his other hand to stroke Erin’s face.
‘Let go of me!’ she cried, trying to wriggle out of his grasp, but he was too strong. She was helpless as he jerked her away from the wall and marched her towards a set of wrought-iron stairs that led up to an elevated extension of the building.
‘Where are you taking me?’ shrieked Erin, terrified now.
‘We’re going for a chat,’ he said flatly, pushing her up the steps.
‘Marcus, please,’ begged Erin. ‘If it was an accident, just tell the police. We can work this out.’
‘Don’t think I’m going to rot away in jail when it should be Adam doing the time. You do know about that, of course,’ he snarled, pushing her on to the flat roof. ‘The insider dealing, the illegal trading? Yes, of course you do, you’re his assistant. You’re up to your neck in it.’
Erin shook her head. ‘No! I don’t know anything, Marcus. Let me go and I won’t say anything.’
Marcus shook her arm violently, then pulled her in close. ‘You don’t know anything? Well let me educate you, young lady,’ he sneered. ‘Adam Gold is running on empty. He’s borrowed so heavily against his own stock that one day soon – and it will be soon because the property market can’t stay buoyant forever – it’s all going to come crashing down around his ears. Karin wouldn’t have stayed with him. She wouldn’t have wanted to stay with a pauper, with a bum.’
The very top of the building was flat and empty except for an air-conditioning unit, a large satellite dish and a low brick perimeter wall, the only barrier from a hundred-metre drop. Erin’s hair whipped around her face in the wind and hot tears run down her cheeks.
‘Marcus, please. It’s dangerous up here.’
‘No one is going to believe you, Erin. No one is going to listen to the rantings of Adam’s lovesick little PA. Because you were in love with him, Erin, weren’t you? The whole floor used to laugh about the way you hung on his every word. And when they find you, they’ll say you couldn’t stand the way he loved Karin – and you jumped.’
‘Marcus! NO!’
The cry came from behind them on the iron stairs. Marcus spun round to see Adam coming towards them. Erin jerked away and Marcus stumbled over a cable, going down on one knee. It gave Erin just enough time to push past him and run to Adam. He pushed her behind him.
‘Erin, go and tell Mikhail what is going on up here. Get him to send his men,’ Adam whispered quickly.
‘Don’t you go anywhere, Erin,’ said Marcus, taking slow, considered steps towards the perimeter wall, ‘or I’ll jump,’ he shouted, his voice carried in the wind as he climbed onto the wall.
‘Get down, Marcus. Please,’ said Adam as calmly as he could, extending a hand towards him. For a moment, all they could hear was the whistle of the wind a hundred metres above the Thames, then Marcus began to make a choking sound, and Erin could see his face crumble.
‘I didn’t mean it!’ he screamed. ‘I didn’t mean it because I loved her! And she loved me!’
‘It was an accident Marcus, I know,’ said Adam coolly, inching towards his friend.
‘She toyed with me, Adam, likes she toys with everyone. She flirted with me in Como, but when I went round to see her she treated me like a stranger. She said I’d got the wrong idea,’ he shouted, his baritone voice wobbling. ‘How could she say that after all the looks, after all the signals she was giving me? But she said she loved you. You. There was a glass candlestick on the table. I picked it up …’
He was sobbing now, a deep choking coming from his throat like a car refusing to start.
‘I didn’t mean to kill
her. The candlestick smashed. The end of it cut into her neck. There was so much blood,’ he said between sobs. Marcus’s feet shuffled closer to the edge.
Erin clenched her fists. ‘No!’ she screamed.
Adam lunged forward and grabbed Marcus’s wrist, just as his feet slipped off the wall. Adam was pulled forward, jamming his feet against the wall, holding onto Marcus who was hanging over the edge of the building. Erin ran forward to help him, watching Marcus’s watery eyes full of hate and fear.
‘You always had everything I wanted,’ he said softly, looking directly at Adam.
‘I’m not letting you go,’ snarled Adam through gritted teeth, reaching another arm over the edge to grab Marcus’s body more firmly and, with Erin’s help, slowly began to hoist him back onto the roof.