Bogdan drives Joyce and Elizabeth to Headcorn Hall and insists on waiting outside in case Lord Townes is dangerous. As Joyce arrives, she notices the neglected driveway, dusty rooms, peeling wallpaper and general decay of the estate, which suggests that Lord Townes has status but not much cash. Elizabeth wants to meet him before his upcoming Wednesday visit to The Compound, because his recent contact with Holly Lewis and Nick Silver may matter.

Lord Townes greets them warmly and says Holly and Nick had come to him for advice about turning a very large cryptocurrency holding into usable money. After Elizabeth tells him Holly has been killed and Nick has disappeared, Lord Townes acts shocked, though Joyce suspects he already knew. He explains that Holly and Nick wanted someone with old City connections whom they could trust, and he says he had begun sounding out bankers without naming them.

When Elizabeth presses him, Lord Townes confirms the sum involved was more than a quarter of a billion pounds. He says that if the money had been cashed out and he had brokered the deal, he would likely have earned about three per cent, roughly £10.5 million. By laying out how bankers profit from moving money, Lord Townes tries to show that he had a strong incentive to complete the deal legitimately rather than destroy it, though Elizabeth points out that banking does not always stay within respectable limits.

Joyce then asks whether Lord Townes is also a client of The Compound. Lord Townes admits he is and says he stores something valuable there, but refuses to say what it is. When Elizabeth asks whether he plans to visit soon, Lord Townes says no, and Joyce recognizes this as a lie. Lord Townes argues that only Davey Noakes or Nick Silver make sense as suspects because they knew about the money, but as Joyce leaves she decides he has made himself a third plausible option.