She laughed, suddenly, out loud. The sound rang round the car, startling at least two of the three detectives.
`How's this for a joke? I had the police round last night, wondering if I might be having an affair with Colin Davey.' seems that one line of enquiry is that Maurice thought I was, and might have been driven to kill him, and take himself out in the process. They've got the affair part right — too bad they're wrong about the name, eh? And about Maurice's murderous intentions.'
Her laugh deepened, becoming a chuckle. 'Imagine, me and Colin Davey. Every time I met the man he made my flesh creep! Oh no,' she said with a flourish. 'My tastes are much more agreeable than that.'
Ohh!' Stephen Richards moaned in the dark. 'Well, my darling. You'll have the opportunity to indulge them at the weekend.'
`Yes, sweetheart. And you will have the object of your heart's desire. Sleep tight.' She blew a kiss into the phone and hung up.
White noise hissed around the car once more. The three men sat silent, until finally, Donaldson ejected the tape.
`She's a cold-hearted piece of stuff, is she not,' he said quietly, to himself as much as anyone.
`Not half,' said Mcllhenney. 'I'll be extra nice to my Olive from now on.' He switched on the engine and drove off steadily into the night.
`So where does that put us, sir?' he asked, swinging away from the Common and heading off in the general direction of Chelsea Bridge.
‘For a start,' said the DCI, 'although it doesn't rule out the possibility that the paranoid Noble might have believed that his wife was having it off with Davey, she seems pretty definite that he didn't kill him… Why is that, I wonder? Is it simply because she doesn't think he had the stuff to do it, or because she and the soldier boy killed him, themselves?'
`Tell you something,' said Mcllhenney. 'If they did, and they can react like that after taking out a whole planeload, then these are two very dangerous people. What do we do now, sir?
Pick them up?'
Donaldson tutted quietly. 'That's up to Andy Martin. I'll call him right now. But my inclination would be to play the thing out to the end. To tail Ariadne to wherever it is she's going this weekend, and then to take the two of them, together.'
SIXTY-NINE
Arrow was in the kitchen of his attic flat in Notting Hill when the buzzer sounded, a few feet from his ear. He took a pace to his right and picked it up.
`Hello,' he said brightly. 'Trattoria Espanol aqui. Can I help you?'
Shana laughed. 'Yes, you can open the bloody door!'
Okay.' He pushed the button, replaced the receiver, and stepped out of the flat on to the landing to meet her. Shana was striding up the stairs towards him, past the first landing already, with a small rucksack bouncing on her shoulder. He jogged down to meet her halfway. She was wearing a plain grey cotton sweat-top and jeans, and looked, even in that simple outfit, very desirable indeed.
Adam looked down at the bag. 'You're travelling light. Hope I've got enough wardrobe space for all that lot.'
I've got enough for one night. Once I've heard just how, seriously you want to talk, I might consider bringing more.' She grinned at him. 'You're not having second thoughts about that are you?'
He returned her smile. 'I never have second thoughts. Once I've decided on something, I see it through to the end.'
`That sounds promising.'
It's my line of work. It's made me that way. Come on, love, let’s get upstairs.' He fished a key from his pocket.
She looked at him in slight surprise. 'You always lock up, when you're only coming down to answer the buzzer?'
He nodded. 'It's the way I was brought up. We're very suspicious us of our neighbours in Derbyshire.'
They climbed the stairs arm in arm. At the top, he opened the door and held it for her.
Inside she went straight to the bedroom and laid her rucksack on a chair. She looked around, and nodded.
I'm always impressed when I come into your flat. Compared to mine everything's so neat.
Doesn't it frustrate you to be with someone as untidy as me?'
He grinned wickedly. 'I can use a little anarchy in my life.'
`Then you've come to the right place…' She bore down on him, and pushed him backward, on to the bed, kissing him, crawling over him, unfastening the buttons on his shirt.
I should warn you,' he said. 'I've been handling chillies.'
In that case, just lie back and keep your hands in the air.' Quickly she unfastened his cotton slacks, and leaned over him. `Now, what did you say that you had on the menu tonight…?'
It began with her tongue, licking, swirling, around him, and her hands, exploring, testing.
'Oh yes,' she hissed. I can see what you meant.'
He gripped the rails of his brass bedstead, and arched his back.
An hour and a half later, they lay there, naked, replete and dozing. Shana nuzzled her face against his neck. 'Hey,' she whispered. 'Now I've had the Penne Picante..
And extras!' he growled.
‘ when am I going to see this pasta? I'm starving!'
Soon,' he said. `But there's something we've got to talk about first.'
‘Mmm. Well I suppose I could last for another half-hour or so.'
`No, I meant proper talk.' He propped himself up on elbow, and looked down at her, his face suddenly serious, and she thought, anxious. A pang of fear grasped her.
'Shana,' he said. 'You know some of my business, but not all of it, not by a long way.
Before I came into the job I'm in now was in the SAS. I did some pretty terminal things, and I managed to come through them all, by being a pretty callous little bastard. But I can't play that part anymore.'
She looked at him, thoroughly frightened now. 'What are you leading up to?'
'Shana, love, all this Agent Robin stuff. We've got to put a stop to it.'
`What do you mean?' Her voice was brittle.
I know about you. You've been feeding material to the Iraqis for the last three months.'
Adam, that's not funny. Don't joke like that.'
I wish I was joking. The SIS picked up information about the Iraqi network of deep-cover agents a few months back. They learned that Agent Robin, the English sleeper, was an LSE graduate working in the civil service, who had been recruited in Turkey, on a Muslim student summer-exchange programme.
`They learned too that Robin's purpose was to feed back sensitive information that would be of use to Iraq in planning Gulf de-stabilisation tactics. They didn't know which Department Robin was in, but it was a safe bet that it would be either Foreign, Defence or Cabinet Office. They didn't know either whether Robin was male or female, but when they fed all the data they held into a computer, it took about three seconds to come up with your name.'
She was wide-eyed now. She made a move to slip out of bed, but he grabbed her hand and held it until she stopped struggling' It's all right, love. I'm not going to hurt you. But just listen on.
‘The M16 people knew from their source that you were about to be activated. That's when they brought me in. You were under surveillance from that point on — phone taps at the office, at home, on your mobile, the whole works. When you were contacted we knew right away.'
Suddenly she glared at him. 'So all this, you and me, this was just you doing your job?'
`Listen,' he said fiercely. 'If I'd been doing my job properly, we'd be having this conversation in a cellar somewhere. Us getting involved wasn't on the agenda. Now we are, it's your one chance of coming out of this in one piece!' The fire left his eyes. `Tell me why, Shana. You're no Muslim fanatic, and you're as British as I am. What did they use on you?'