‘We did wonder,’ said Jones. ‘But, oh Ed...’
Her voice was a mix of reproach and regret.
‘I know. That call probably led them to you. To you and to Connie. Until then they would have thought she was dead. It was all my fault. I can’t believe I was so stupid.’
Jones just stared at him.
‘I will regret it for the rest of my life.’
Ed’s head was bowed. His voice had a quiver in it.
‘I will never get over the guilt.’
‘We’ve all been stupid,’ Jones responded quietly. ‘Me big time. The likes of you and I are not equipped for stuff like this, Ed. We do it all wrong. I should never have told you that Connie was alive. You didn’t need to know. I put you in danger, and I put her in even more danger. We’ve seen just how much now. Marion may not pull through, and if she does she’s going to be maimed for life. You and I share responsibility. But we couldn’t believe any of it was really happening, could we? We’re not professional spooks. We didn’t know what to do. Still don’t.’
‘I should have listened.’
‘Maybe.’ Jones felt numb. ‘You didn’t want to meet me just to tell me that, did you?’
Ed shook his head.
‘Do you remember my brother?’ he asked. ‘My younger brother Mikey? He was living with our aunt in New York when you and I were at Princeton together. Used to visit at weekends sometimes.’
Jones was puzzled. ‘I remember him vaguely. I only met him once or twice, I think. He was just a boy.’
Ed smiled. ‘Only a couple of years younger than me, actually. But he took a long time growing up, did Mikey. If he ever made it, at all.’
‘Funny kid, wasn’t he? Always making up stories. Seemed to live in a fantasy world. Didn’t you used to call him Walter, after Walter Mitty?’
‘Yes. And he was a funny kid. But not so funny now. He’s in the FBI.’
‘Oh fuck.’ Jones dreaded to think what that might mean. But in spite of everything she managed a strangled laugh. ‘Mikey in the FBI? I don’t believe it.’
‘I know. I’ve never been able to take him seriously either. That’s been part of the problem...’
‘What do you mean?’ Jones prompted.
‘Well, for a long time I really didn’t believe he was in the FBI. After he left college he had a string of jobs, in real estate, working for a finance firm, in security. But there was always more to everything than there seemed, or according to Mikey there was, anyway. His stories got more and more outlandish. It was just Mikey, or so I thought. Same thing when he told me the FBI had its eye on RECAP. I never took any notice. I never told him anything. I didn’t have anything to tell anyway. Well, nothing much...’
He glanced anxiously at Jones, as if seeking her acceptance of that.
‘You knew that Paul thought he had made a breakthrough,’ she said.
‘Yes. I did. But that was all I knew.’
A thought suddenly struck Jones. The Man in Black. Her anonymous interrogator at Princeton police station. He’d seemed vaguely familiar at the time. Of course, that had to have been Mikey.
‘I think I met him,’ Jones said suddenly. ‘Was he at Princeton when I was arrested there?’
Ed nodded.
‘And does he have a penchant for shades and black suits?’
Ed nodded again.
‘My God,’ Jones blurted out. ‘The man’s a parody. He looked like some sort of a joke.’
‘I know. I certainly could never take him seriously, not until...’
His voice broke off.
‘Until what, Ed?’
‘Until after the explosion. It was Mikey who assured me that there was no link between any government body and the explosion, and that RECAP wasn’t a target of any sort. The FBI supported RECAP. Those were his words. He came around right after the explosion to reassure me that all the speculation about RECAP having been deliberately destroyed was nonsense. He said then, straight away, that it was probably a gas explosion. A tragic accident. But he warned me not to talk to anyone about Paul. Said it might still be possible to salvage something from RECAP.’
‘He warned you not to talk about Paul? So did he know about Paul’s breakthrough? Did you tell him about it?’
‘No. Well, not exactly. But he asked so many questions. Was I privy to Paul’s work? It was nonsense, of course. I was just an occasional RECAP operator. I didn’t even have anything like the involvement I’d had when you were at Princeton.’
‘You had a special relationship with Paul, though, everybody knew that.’
‘So it seems. Anyway, Mikey came round again the night you just showed up at my place, and also after you came back and hijacked me walking Jasper. That time he was quite aggressive. He wanted to know exactly what you were after. I’d never seen him be aggressive before. He kept going on about Paul’s work. Even asked me if I had copies of it. As if I would. Like I told you.’
Suddenly the relative quiet of the night was shattered by the sound of a police siren. Both Jones and Ed jumped, quite literally. A police patrol car came into view, travelling fast, carving a path through the light traffic. Its headlights illuminated Ed’s vehicle as it approached. But it didn’t even slow, instead roaring straight past the Yankee Stadium, the wail of its siren fading into the night.
‘Nerves,’ said Jones.
Ed nodded, and continued. ‘Anyway, Mikey was very persistent. And he was on edge. Just like us now. He was obviously wound up about something, but, as usual, he wouldn’t talk to me properly. He kept checking text messages on his cell, and pacing around the place. He was sweating a lot. He took off his jacket and hung it around a chair. Then at one point he went out of the room with his cell phone, said he needed to take a private call. Well, I don’t know quite what made me do it, what gave me the idea, but, well, I knew he kept a USB data store on his key ring. I looked in his jacket pockets. I found the key ring. My laptop was on the kitchen table as usual. I plugged the USB in and downloaded everything that was on it. Then I just put the USB back in his pocket.’
Jones had a feeling she knew where this might be leading.
‘And?’ she prompted.
‘Well, after Mikey left I went through his files. There was one labelled Ruders. I went into it. It was Paul’s work. His data. His breakthrough paper. I’m sure of it.’
‘Jesus. Did you study it?’
‘I tried to. I couldn’t make any sense of it, though. But I didn’t expect to. I’m not a scientist, Sandy. I’m a mathematician.’
‘So, where is it? My God, this could be the key to everything. Have you got your laptop with you?’
‘Yes, but... but I wiped the file off. Irrevocably.’
‘You did what? Why? Just tell me you made a copy,’
‘I did.’
‘So you still have the file, Ed?’
‘No. Well, not exactly... Mikey frightened me that night. He had assured me from the start that RECAP hadn’t been the target of the explosion, but at that moment I didn’t believe it anymore. And why was he so interested in whether or not I had a copy of Paul’s theory when he already had one himself? What lengths might his people go to to silence me? I was scared. So I copied the file onto another USB, and wiped it off my computer. I didn’t want to trust email. Plus Mikey is still my brother, and I didn’t want to leave a trail that might lead to him. I put the USB in a jiffy bag, and first thing this morning I took it round to the post office and sent it off, anonymously, to you at your university in England—’
‘You did what?’ Jones interrupted.
‘I posted it to you. Express. It should only take two or three working days.’
‘I don’t believe it.’