Tim stirred his supper with his fork uneasily. ‘She wanted a word with me.’
‘Oh?’ She could see he was feeling awkward.
‘It was about my phone. The iPhone I was given.’
Peggy merely nodded, bracing herself for what was coming next. Doubtless Tim would blame her for mentioning the phone to Liz. There would be the usual rant about the security services, the usual cry that 1984 was here.
But instead he said, very mildly, ‘She seemed to think I’d been very naïve about this woman Marina – exchanging emails then accepting the phone.’
‘Oh,’ said Peggy, startled.
‘Perhaps I have,’ said Tim, looking away. For a terrible moment, Peggy thought he was about to cry. But he pulled himself together and said, ‘Liz took the phone away to have it looked at. She asked me to tell her if I had any more emails from Marina.’
‘I see. Have you?’
‘No, and I don’t expect to. But I’d like you to tell Liz when you see her tomorrow—’ And he stopped, his cheeks flushed.
‘Tell her what?’
‘That I’m sorry and I’ll let you both know if I hear anything.’ He suddenly gulped, and his eyes were misty. ‘I’ve been such a fool.’
‘I don’t know about that,’ said Peggy softly. ‘I admit this woman Marina has behaved pretty strangely, but it might be quite innocent. Who knows? She might just be a bit of a nut.’
‘I don’t think so,’ said Tim sadly, and she could tell from his tone that he didn’t believe Peggy thought so either.
Peggy went back to work early on Monday – she was in the office well before eight o’clock – but Liz was already there. ‘I couldn’t let you beat me in,’ she said with a smile. ‘How are you?’
‘I’m fine,’ said Peggy, though one arm was still in a sling. ‘Eager and raring to go.’
‘Let’s have a coffee and I’ll fill you in on what’s been happening,’ said Liz, and they took the lift to the ground-floor café.
‘So how’s Tim?’ asked Liz as they sat down at a corner table.
‘Well, it’s all a bit peculiar. He’s being very nice at the moment – almost weirdly nice. I gather you came to see him while I was in hospital.’
‘I did. I hope you don’t mind, but that phone business alarmed me.’
‘I understand. I thought it seemed very odd too. And I think Tim gets it, now he’s thought about it. Whatever you said, it shook him up. In a good way. It’s as though he’s seen sense.’
‘I’m glad.’
‘He asked me to tell you that if Marina contacts him, we’ll be the first to know.’
‘Excellent.’ Liz seemed a little abstracted.
‘One more thing about that phone,’ said Peggy. ‘It came to me in the hospital, then I forgot about it and I’ve just remembered again. I’ve seen another one just like it.’
‘I’m not surprised,’ Liz replied with a smile. ‘Those iPhones are very popular.’
‘No, that’s not what I mean. Another one that’s the same model, the same colour, and which someone had recently been given as a present. It may just be a coincidence – I expect it is – but I thought I should mention it.’
She had Liz’s full attention now. ‘Who had this phone? And who gave it to them?’
‘Jasminder Kapoor. You know, the new Communications Director at Six. I admired it when she put it down on the table the other day while we were having a drink. She told me her boyfriend gave it to her to celebrate her new job. He didn’t seem to realise she couldn’t take it in to work with her.’
‘Who is this boyfriend? Have you met him?’
‘I just saw him fleetingly the other day. He was waiting for her outside the National Gallery and I was walking with her on my way home. His name is Laurenz Hansen. Apparently he’s Norwegian, works for a private bank. He didn’t seem very friendly. She said he’s shy of meeting her friends at present because he’s going through a sticky divorce. Sounded a bit odd, I thought, but maybe it’s different in Norway. She seems devoted to him. She met him when he saved her from some muggers.’
‘I can’t see how meeting her friends could affect his divorce in any country.’
‘That’s what I thought, but maybe he’s afraid they might tell his wife he’s having an affair.’
‘It all sounds rather unlikely.’
‘Yes, it does. But Jasminder seemed to buy it. I only met him by accident. Why, what are you thinking?’
Liz paused for a minute, then she said, ‘I’m thinking this phone business seems quite a coincidence – maybe too much of one. One phone comes from a woman making what looks like a classic approach to Tim, who happens to live with a member of MI5. Then a man gives exactly the same phone to a newly appointed member of MI6.’
‘I know – it’s weird. What have you done with Tim’s phone by the way? Was there anything odd about it?’
‘Well, there was something a bit strange, but I don’t know whether it was sinister or not. The phone had an app on it that Tim was supposed to use to contact Marina. In fact, he said he’d never used it, so presumably the app had never been opened. I sent the phone to Technical Ted upstairs but he couldn’t work out what it was. It was an app he’d never seen before and he couldn’t open it. He said there was nothing else on the phone, which seemed a bit rum since Tim himself told me he had been using it. So the phone has gone to Charlie Simmons in GCHQ and I’m waiting for his report.’
Peggy thought about this for a moment. ‘The only thing is, there’s no connection between Tim and Jasminder. Tim doesn’t even like her; he thought her speech at the university, that evening when I first met her, was wet. And when she came to the flat once so I could help her fill in her application form for the job in Six, he blanked her out.’
Liz leaned across the little table. ‘That’s not the connection I had in mind. I was thinking more about the people who gave them the phones – Marina and this man Laurenz.’
‘Do you think they’re connected?’
‘I’m not sure. But when I saw him in Tallinn, Mischa talked about a pincer movement – that requires two claws. I don’t think we should jump to conclusions yet, but this looks to me horribly like a pincer movement. Two claws closing in on MI6 and MI5. Just what he said.’
‘But Tim’s not in MI5,’ said Peggy, her face suddenly very pale.
‘No, but you are. And they were not to know how close you and Tim were, or whether you took papers home or talked to him about work.’
‘But I never take papers home,’ said Peggy, on the verge of tears, ‘or talk about work to Tim.’
‘I know that, but they must have seen it as a golden opportunity. When they found out what sort of person Tim is, they probably realised they weren’t going to get any further.’
Peggy looked shocked.
‘It’s all right,’ said Liz firmly. ‘Stop thinking about what might have happened. It didn’t. But now we’ve got to make sure we stop this Laurenz character doing whatever he’s up to with Jasminder. Did you see her application form? What did she say about him?’
‘She didn’t mention him, actually. She asked me what I thought and said that she’d only known him a very short time and he’d only stayed at her flat once, so we agreed it didn’t seem to qualify as a co-habiting relationship. But I know that they’re much closer now and she stays with him at his flat, so she should have declared him. Shall I find out?’
‘Yes. Get in touch with Personnel over there and ask them to look at her file. Don’t alarm them, but say they shouldn’t mention it to Jasminder at the moment. We don’t want to set the cat among the pigeons.’
I have a strong feeling that the cat may be alarmingly near the pigeons already, thought Peggy as she got up to go to her office in the open plan. But I haven’t a clue how it got there.