‘If they’re very lucky, they’ll get him in the next few hours. Longer term, they might find him through her. . he’ll dump her eventually. I spoke to the investigating officers, and they told me that the husband’s saying he knew she was having an affair but had no idea that it was with a prisoner. Yes, they might get him.’
‘They won’t, and we both know it. When you and Mario found him, he was using an alias. A man like him, he’s bound to have another ready, for emergencies.’
She had been right, and he had been forced to agree. Boras was gone, and would leave no trail second time around.
His secure phone rang, interrupting his musing. He grabbed it. ‘Amanda.’
‘Good guess. Good news first?’
‘Whatever.’
‘OK. We’ve found Henry Mount’s informant; in fact we’ve found where his interest in Tadic began. Mount was never a spook, just run-of-the mill diplomatic service. He was never stationed in Yugoslavia, but he had a posting to Berlin as I think you know, and to Poland. Eventually he was repatriated, so to speak, and given a job in the FCO, in a section that monitors events in certain countries. His Iron Curtain experience led to him being assigned to the Yugoslav section. That’s where he saw the intelligence about Tadic’s murders, and that’s where he met his eventual source. She’s a woman called Dani Cornwell. She worked for Mount when he was an undersecretary, and they kept in touch after he quit. They were close.’
‘How close? Trudy Mount’s a friend too.’
‘They had a thing when they worked together. It stopped but their friendship didn’t. She was as affected by Tadic as he was; when she found out about the secret trial, she was outraged. Then when she learned they were going to have to do it all over again, she boiled over and poured out her soul to Mount. He agreed that the story had to be told, and thus. .’
‘It began.’
‘Precisely. Ms Cornwell fed him everything she had and kept on digging. A couple of weeks ago she found out about Dražen Boras and his role in planting the man Ergec, and she told Henry.’
‘And a few days later he went to see Boras, and probably made himself, and Glover, dispensable in the process. Once Coben had all the information he was going to get from them, the information he needed, he shut them down, and cut their project off at source, stealing their computers and wiping out every trace of their work.’
‘He’s that thorough?’
‘For sure. We believe that his helper, Glover’s daughter’s fella, removed his hard disk and passed it on. Coben probably burgled Mount’s place himself.’
‘He killed the associate? The man Collins?’
‘Yes. The man was in it for money, but I don’t imagine he signed up to be an accessory to murder. My bet is Coben killed him before he could figure out the truth.’
‘But can you prove it?’
‘Yes, I can, for at least two of them. . if I can find him. We’ve got a partial fingerprint on a pen, and we’ll find DNA traces for sure on a cigar box that’s on its way back from Australia. Plus we’ll get DNA from Collins’ flat. But I repeat, we need to find him.’
‘There, I’m afraid, I can’t help you. All I know is this: everything that relates to Coben, and there is very little of it, is in the papers for the Tadic trial. I can’t get anywhere near them, nor can anybody in this country, I reckon. They’re UN property, and they’re sealed. Sorry, Bob, I think you’re in a cul de sac.’
Skinner smiled. ‘I don’t agree, Amanda,’ he said. ‘There’s a man in Scotland who has automatic access to those papers, and I happen to know him.’ He paused. ‘Was that the bad news, incidentally?’
‘Not all of it. The worst concerns the witnesses Danica Andelić, and her brother. They’re dead.’
Skinner’s heart sank. ‘That’s what Glover was afraid of, and me too. When? How?’
‘Last year. After the trial, it was decided that Mirko and Danica had to be separated for a while, for their own safety, to make them as difficult to trace as possible. He was relocated with Playfair, she was established in Macedonia, and Aca went to Moldova. The Andelič children were taken in by Danica and Aca’s mother, their grandmother. They were all gypsies, so they simply joined travelling groups. I don’t know how their whereabouts leaked, but they did. Not through Mount’s contact, that’s for sure; she didn’t know. As for the how, they were both gutted. . a favourite trick of Tadic’s, from what I’m told. Given what we know now, it seems your man Coben got to them, and then went looking for Mirko.’
Eighty-one
‘That’s it, Stevie,’ said George Regan, ‘all my stuff, like Neil told me to do.’
‘Does it bother you?’ Pye asked, looking at the folder that his colleague had laid on his desk.
‘Are you having a laugh? Of course it doesn’t bother me. I’ve made DI when I thought I might not. If the bosses say that my investigation has effectively become part of yours and that they’re to be rolled in together, I do not give a fish’s tit. It’s a bonus; it means that Lisa and I can get back to solving the usual in our rural beat, which tends to be along the lines of, Who Shot Roger fucking Rabbit?’ He glanced around the suite, and beamed. ‘It’s a real crappy office you’ve got here, by the way,’ he said, without a trace of sarcasm. ‘Nearly as bad as Torphichen Place. Ours is really nice; best I’ve ever had.’
‘I know,’ Pye agreed wistfully. ‘I used to be stationed out there, remember.’
‘Well, don’t plan on moving back. I mean to be there for a long time; until I get found out, in fact. Not that you would. You’re on the fast track, son; everybody knows that.’
‘Kind of you, George, but I’m the jammy bastard that got promoted early into dead men’s shoes, when Stevie got himself killed. That’s what everybody knows.’
‘Shite! You’re the lead investigator into one of the highest profile crimes we’ve ever had, and you’re going to get a result that’ll make you.’ He paused. ‘You are going to get a result, aren’t you?’
‘I don’t know what you mean by that,’ Pye confessed. ‘If you mean that we can close the book on who killed Glover, Mount, Collins and your guy, Mustafic, or Andelić, yes. If you mean that we catch the guy, that’s another matter. I’m stymied there; it’s over to the big boss now.’
‘But when he cracks it, and lets you announce the arrest, like he always does, you will take the media credit, won’t you?’
‘Oh yes,’ Pye chuckled, ‘you can be sure of that.’
Eighty-two
It was raining, the weather that did least for the grey sandstone from which Ann Street was built. Lord Elmore stared out of his window, on a scene that matched his mood. The news that Mirko Andelič was dead had hit him hard.
He stared at his computer, at the notes for his memoirs, and wondered, very seriously, whether it was worth carrying on, or whether it should be abandoned. He was still considering the question when he saw the new chief constable walk up his drive, and heard his wife greet him at the door.
‘Bob,’ he said, gloomily, ‘what brings you back to see me? Are you going to tell me I’ve won the lottery? Don’t waste your time; not even that would do the job.’
‘Claus,’ Skinner asked, as he sat, ‘what’s second best?’
‘To what?’
‘To throwing away the key to Tadic’s cell?’
‘I don’t know. Hearing that he’s had a fatal heart attack?’
‘I don’t want anything to do with that, but how about catching Coben, how would that do?’
‘It would be consolation, I’ll grant you.’
‘Then help me. I need access to the Tadic trial papers. Can you fix that?’
‘I’m a trial judge, of course I can. What do you need?’
‘I’m told that the only things that identify Coben are in there. I need them, sent or faxed to me.’
‘Right,’ said Lord Elmore, his mood transformed. ‘Let me have a number and I’ll give the instruction. How soon do you need them?’
Skinner grinned. ‘For this evening, at the latest. I’m having a dinner party.’