Page 16 of Revenge

Her eyes gleamed. “When?”

“This coming Sunday,” I replied.

“I’d love to!”

“Great.” I made a mental note to contact Jackie and ask her to authorize the purchase of alcohol. Alice was Charlotte’s former friend and could tell me a lot about her father, the current Secretary of State for the Supreme Court.

* * *

At the end of the week, Jackie sent a limo to pick us up and take us to Sergei’s concert. Alice drank copious glasses of champagne and was already tipsy by the time we reached the small, Victorian concert hall. I bought us some drinks and snacks for the show.

Sergei walked onto the stage to a round of applause, dressed in the most elegant tuxedo with a white waistcoat and a white bowtie.

Alice leaned into my side and whispered, “He’s so dashing.”

I smiled and leaned back in my seat. If only she knew the truth. “Thank you.”

She took several sips of champagne before refilling her glass from the bottle I’d left in the ice bucket by our feet.

Sergei played one of his father’s concertos, a tumultuous piece that roused my blood. I closed my eyes and surrendered myself to the emotional intensity of his playing. It was as though he was translating my thirst for revenge into music.

During the interval, Alice’s eyes drooped, and she let out a pained sigh. “The girls all gather in my room in the evenings, talking loudly about how you’ve taken away their boys.”

“Who do you room with?”

“Wendy. She wasn’t even serious with any of them, but she goes along with Charlotte and Patricia just to see me cringe. It’s like they don’t care that they pushed me out of their group when I gave Edward that ultimatum.”

While she poured herself another glass of champagne, I turned on the voice recorder app on my smartphone. “Why do they want Edward and Henry so much?”

Alice raised her brows. “You’ve seen them, haven’t you? They’re the hottest guys in the school, and that’s counting the upper-sixth years.”

“There must be something else,” I said. “Charlotte’s really into Henry.”

She swirled her glass, and I topped it up with champagne. After taking a few delicate sips, she said. “She’s after the Bourneville fortune.”

“Why’s that?”

“Her family is spiraling into debt. Peter—that’s Charlotte’s older brother—he has a gambling problem, and Mr. Underwood keeps bailing him out. Charlotte’s livid about it because she doesn’t even know if her father can afford to pay next year’s fees.” Alice shook her head.

Sergei walked back on the stage to tremendous applause, and I shut off the voice recorder. Alice’s story was consistent with what Rita had told me the previous term, but I needed a few more bits of information: the name of the casinos Peter owed, and any hints of illegal behavior on the part of Charlotte’s father.

At the end of the concert, we went backstage, and I introduced Sergei to a drunken, star-struck Alice. We took a few publicity photos, then Alice and I headed back to the car.

As she stepped through the doors and out into the cold evening, I pulled my phone out of my coat pocket and turned on the recording app. “It’s a bit unfair that these casinos let Charlotte’s brother gamble, even though they know he’s an addict.”

She sipped a can of diet coke. “They’ve completely ruined the family.”

I made a show of pursing my lips. “I’d like to avoid those casinos. Can you remember which ones he visited?”

As the limo pulled out from the front of the concert hall, Alice rattled off a list of names and then added that Mr. Underwood’s secretary had resigned due to spending more time negotiating with them than doing government work, leaving Charlotte’s father scrambling for a new assistant.

I leaned back into the leather seat and smiled. This had been a very productive evening. The car sped along a seafront road lit by iron street lamps connected by long strings of bright lights that reflected on the surface of the sea. A drunken flush on Alice’s face stood out in the reflection of the artificial illumination.

“Hey, if Charlotte’s family is in such financial trouble, how can she afford to pay Mr. Carbuncle?”

Alice clapped her hands over her mouth and giggled. “He doesn’t take money from girls.”

“What does he want from them?” I cracked an eye open as if the answer wasn’t obvious.