by James Craig
After a little more whisky, the Mayor felt his cheeks begin to flush and a gentle warmth filled his belly. With a satisfied sigh, he lifted a second sheet of paper from his desk. This was an email from the Company Secretary at Pierrepoint Aerospace, confirming that the final signed contract from the Chilean defence contractor LAHC Consulting had been received. As a result, Pierrepoint had effectively subcontracted large parts of its contract to manage British military bases in Afghanistan to the South Americans, at a fraction of the rate that it was charging the Ministry of Defence. The effect on the company’s earnings would be considerable. So too would be the effect on his year-end bonus. As he contemplated his windfall, it dawned on Holyrod that this must have been one of the last things poor Matias Gori had attended to before his unfortunate death. The Mayor lifted his glass to absent friends. ‘Jolly good show,’ he grinned. ‘Well done indeed.’
‘Would you like a drink, Inspector?’
‘Why not?’ Carlyle settled into his soft leather armchair and smiled. ‘I’ll have a whisky, thank you.’ Watching Claudio Orb shuffle off to get their drinks, the inspector gazed out across Heathrow’s new Terminal 5. This was the first time he had ever set foot in an Executive Lounge. On the few times he’d ever travelled through the airport on holiday, Carlyle had been stuck with the unwashed masses milling round the fast-food restaurants and duty-free shops on the main concourse. It didn’t make for a happy experience. This, on the other hand, was really quiet and pleasant. Peace and quiet were what you paid for; that and the free booze. Carlyle turned away from the window and contemplated the scattering of rich-looking types casually getting blasted while, at the same time, taking a last few hits on their crackberrys before take-off. ‘How the other half live,’ he said quietly to himself. The other half a per cent, more like.
‘There you are.’ Orb handed him a tumbler half-full of indeterminate Scotch and kept a tall glass half-filled with a red liquid for himself. ‘Just a cranberry juice for me,’ he grinned, sinking slowly into the chair opposite. ‘It’s a long flight. Cheers!’
Carlyle raised his glass slightly. ‘Cheers.’ He took a sip. Smooth. And, again, better than he was used to.
Orb placed his glass on the low table between them. ‘So, I take it that you have come to see me quietly off the premises?’
‘No, not really,’ Carlyle replied. ‘I just wanted to see you before you left to say thank you for all your help with my investigation.’
‘Come now, Inspector,’ Orb grinned, ‘I do not get the impression that you are the type of man to come all the way to the airport just to fulfil a minor social pleasantry.’
Carlyle took another mouthful of Scotch, letting it sit under his tongue before it slipped down his throat. ‘Well, maybe I’m not just here to say thank you. I hoped you might be able to clear up a few things for me — some loose ends.’
Orb raised an eyebrow. ‘There are loose ends?’
‘Not officially. My case — the murder of Agatha Mills — is closed.’
‘Good.’
‘The final verdict was that her husband did it.’
‘I see.’
‘But…’
The Ambassador smiled. ‘But you do not think this was a simple case of a man killing his wife?’
Carlyle shrugged. ‘Things are often more complicated than they might seem.’
‘Inspector, I am — I was a diplomat — I know that things are always more complicated than they seem. Or, if not, then we make them so.’ Orb chuckled. ‘What do you think happened here?’
‘I think that Matias Gori killed Agatha Mills,’ Carlyle said softly, ‘along with another woman, Sandra Groves and probably a third, Monica Hartson.’
Orb looked at the inspector, giving nothing away. ‘Why?’
‘Because they wanted to have him arrested and tried for war crimes. They think he murdered a whole family in Iraq.’
A soothing female voice with a perfect Home Counties accent came over the tannoy: ‘ Passengers are now invited to begin boarding BA flight 93 to Toronto and Santiago.’
Placing his juice on the table, Orb shifted in his seat.
‘I assume that you knew about all this,’ Carlyle continued, ‘because those women wrote to you, asking for action to be taken against Gori.’
‘You should never assume, Inspector, said Orb, holding his gaze. ‘Assumptions can be misleading — dangerous even.’
‘Only if they’re wrong.’ Carlyle shrugged. ‘My job is all about making assumptions. The facts either fit them or they don’t. If they don’t, I make some new ones.’
‘It’s an approach, I suppose.’
‘Did you know about the accusations against Gori?’
‘Lots of people write to the Embassy, Inspector. The Ambassador gets to read hardly any of this correspondence. If any of those ladies ever wrote to me, I am sure that I did not see it. For that I apologise.’
‘Sir.’ Carlyle pushed himself to the edge of his seat and leaned forward. ‘I am not here in any official capacity. I am certainly not looking to cause you any trouble. Nothing that we say will go any further.’
Orb stared into his drink.
‘I just want to know what happened.’
‘Why?’ Orb asked. ‘We both know that this… mess has been dealt with. It’s over now.’
Good question. The inspector sipped his whisky. ‘Agatha Mills spent forty years fighting on behalf of her brother. She, and the others, fought for what they believed in.’
The Ambassador smiled. ‘And you think they deserve answers?’
‘I suppose so,’ Carlyle mumbled into his glass.
‘Then I fear that you will be disappointed,’ Orb sighed. ‘You see, I made some enquiries of my own. It seems that there are a number of cases relating to the 1973 coup that are in the process of being dropped. The Pettigrew case is one of them. There will therefore be no trial.’
Finishing his drink, Carlyle thought about the empty space in the family mausoleum in North London that would never be filled. ‘That is a shame.’
‘That is life, Inspector.’
‘Yes, I suppose it is. But the Pettigrew trial was not what was concerning Gori.’
‘That was the other thing I checked,’ Orb said. ‘Matias has never been cited in any of the various investigations, either concluded or ongoing, into the Ishaqi massacre in Iraq.’ Carlyle made to say something, but the Ambassador held up a hand. ‘He didn’t even get a mention. Whatever these ladies, or indeed Matias himself, might have thought, no one else was paying any attention.’
‘Maybe they should have done.’
Orb raised an eyebrow. ‘For a policeman, that sounds a little limp, if you don’t mind me saying so.’
Carlyle sucked down a little more of the Scotch. ‘Not at all.’
‘ This is a second call for BA flight 93 to Toronto and Santiago. ’
The Ambassador pulled a boarding card from his jacket pocket and started playing with it. ‘We both know,’ he said quietly, ‘that there was something wrong with Matias. The wiring in his brain wasn’t quite right. He was the kind of man who would have been very much at home in the Chile of 1973.’ He looked at Carlyle. ‘In the London of today, he did not fit in so well.’
‘So he did kill those women?’
Orb stood up. ‘Really,’ he said, ‘I don’t know. I assume so, but I don’t know.’
The inspector placed his empty glass on a nearby table and got to his feet. ‘What about his death?’ he asked.
Orb picked up a small tan leather case from beside his chair and weighed it in his hand. ‘That was a surprise, for Matias to step off the roof like that.’ He gazed up at the monitor above his head telling him to go to Gate 72. ‘Maybe he was overcome with remorse.’
Carlyle laughed. ‘Maybe.’
Orb extended a hand. ‘Remorse can be a good thing.’
Carlyle shook his hand. ‘Indeed it can. I hope you have a safe journey home, sir, and good luck with your retirement.’
&n
bsp; ‘Thank you, Inspector. My wife has plenty of plans to keep me busy, so I’m not sure that I’ll even notice being retired!’
‘I know the feeling,’ Carlyle said. ‘My wife doesn’t like to see me idle either.’
‘Good luck to both of us, then.’ Orb smiled as he turned away, heading for the terminal and his departure gate.
Watching him go, Carlyle looked up the time on the screen listing upcoming departures. The day was ebbing away; by the time he managed to get back into the city, the working day would be over. Settling back into his seat, he thought that he might just enjoy his luxurious surroundings here for a little while longer.
He had just finished his second whisky — a sixteen-year-old Lagavulin — and was contemplating a third, when his private phone rang. That’ll be Helen, he thought. I shouldn’t have made that quip about her keeping me busy. Answering, he tried to assume his most sober voice. ‘Yes?’
The voice on the other end of the line wasn’t his wife’s, but was immediately recognisable all the same. Not bothering with any pleasantries, Dominic Silver got straight to the point.
‘I’ve found the boy.’
FORTY
Carlyle looked along the empty road and wondered quite how he had ended up here. Behind him was a two-storey, steel-framed warehouse on the edge of an industrial estate near the M25. Standing under an orange street light, he looked up at the seemingly deserted offices on the first floor. Ferociously tired, he hopped from foot to foot to try and keep himself alert while he waited.
Eventually, Dominic Silver appeared out of a side door and strolled across the car park. As he approached Carlyle, Silver pointed at a car parked on the other side of the road. It was some kind of Toyota hatchback. Without saying a word, Dominic walked past him and over to the vehicle. Popping the trunk, he beckoned the policeman over to take a look.
Carlyle stuck his head closer to the bundle inside, and watched the covering blanket move up and down with the child’s breathing. Jake Hagger was asleep. The inspector realised he had been holding his breath and now let out a long sigh. Reaching into the trunk, he was careful to get a good hold on both boy and blanket before carefully lifting them out into the cold night air. Jake groaned but he did not wake. He felt light in Carlyle’s arms, somewhat less than the inspector imagined a boy of his age ought to weigh. They would have to check him thoroughly at the hospital. Dominic opened the door and Carlyle laid Jake gently across the back seat before stepping away and easing the door shut as quietly as he could.
The two men stood in silence for several moments, unwilling to look at each other. The inspector knew better than to ask how the boy was found. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something emerge from the bushes about twenty yards away. The fox sauntered right into the middle of the road, eyed the pair of them briefly, then trotted off in the opposite direction.
Dominic let out a low whistle. ‘First time I’ve seen that!’ He stuck a hand in his trouser pocket and pulled out a car key. ‘Here you go,’ he said, tossing it to Carlyle. ‘Now get the kid out of here.’
‘What about…?’ Carlyle made the vaguest of gestures towards the doomed men inside the warehouse.
‘That’s my business,’ said Dominic firmly. ‘Just go.’
Carlyle stared at the key as he turned it around in his hand. ‘I can’t drive.’
‘What?’ Dominic said, somewhat dumbfounded.
‘I never learned to drive.’ Carlyle shrugged. ‘In London you don’t really need to.’
Dominic put his hands on his hips and stared into the night. ‘For God’s sake.’
‘Half the people in London don’t have a car,’ Carlyle protested.
‘I’m sure most of them can fucking drive, though.’ Dominic shook his head. ‘You really are a useless tosser.’
‘Sorry.’
‘Get in.’
Carlyle headed for the passenger side.
Dominic grabbed his arm. ‘Get in the driver’s side, before I fucking thump you.’
Over the next few minutes, Dominic showed Carlyle the basics. Fortunately for the inspector, the vehicle was an automatic. Once it was switched on, all he really had to worry about was the accelerator and the brake.
‘Take him to A and E at UCH,’ Dominic said, once the tutorial was over. Slipping out of the passenger seat, he pointed at a small box on the dashboard. ‘Use the SatNav.’
‘What?’
‘For fuck’s sake.’ Dom did a little dance on the tarmac, fists clenched, as if he was getting ready to clock the inspector. ‘Just follow the bloody signs for Central London.’
‘Okay.’ Carlyle thought he could manage that. Probably.
‘Take it slow. Nothing above thirty miles an hour. Even at that pace, it shouldn’t take you much more than an hour. There’s no traffic at this time of night anyway. When you get there, leave the keys in the ignition. Maybe someone will nick it. If not, it will get towed. It’s clean anyway.’
‘What about a licence?’ Carlyle asked.
‘If anybody stops you, just show them your Warrant Card.’ Dominic grinned widely. ‘Don’t worry, there are no coppers about this late — I should know. As long as you don’t hit anything, or go so slow that you might be mistaken for a kerb crawler or a cruising car bomber, you’ll be fine.’
Carlyle looked doubtful.
‘Even if you get stopped, so what? You’re a hero,’ Dom went on. ‘Socially inept when it comes to motors, but a hero nonetheless. Just remember your story.’
Carlyle nodded obediently.
‘It was an anonymous tip. You picked the car up half a mile down the road. Don’t bring anyone back here, at least for a while.’ Slamming the passenger door shut, Dom stuck his hand through the open window and they shook.
‘Thanks,’ said Carlyle.
‘No problem,’ said Dominic, eyeing the inspector carefully. ‘Do we have a deal?’
‘Yes,’ Carlyle said, ‘we have a deal.’ Taking his foot off the brake, he pressed tentatively on the accelerator. The engine squealed and they moved slowly forward. Looking in the rear-view mirror, he saw Dominic head back towards the warehouse and out of sight.
In the back, the boy was still sleeping peacefully. Carlyle’s heart rose and sank at the same time. They were heading for home, wherever that might be.
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