LITMIR.BIZ

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ambush him, it was rather unfair to blame Dillon. The thing is, Carter hates Ferguson’s guts.’

      ‘Well, he would,’ Belov said. ‘What was Ferguson’s reaction?’

      ‘Oh, he agreed with the Prime Minister that Dillon couldn’t be blamed, especially as Dillon had actually forecast that January 30 would claim credit for the killing.’

      ‘He what?’ Tom Curry said. ‘But how could he know?’

      Lang turned to Grace. ‘You, I’m afraid, my sweet. That Sons of Ulster thing. He said that before riding away you raised your arm in a kind of salute.’

      ‘So?’ Grace Browning said calmly.

      ‘It seems you spoke to him tonight.’

      ‘Quite deliberately in a very Pakistani accent,’ she said. ‘To use your favourite phrase, Rupert, it muddies the waters.’

      ‘Fine, but you could have shot him and didn’t.’

      ‘But if he was dead, darling, nobody would know that the Muslim even existed, never mind had a Pakistani accent. Bernstein was too far away to see anything.’

      ‘But according to the report, the old priest at the church saw you run past.’

      ‘That was chance, Rupert. I didn’t know I’d be seeing the priest when I confronted Dillon.’

      ‘I follow your logic,’ Belov told her, ‘but the arm raised in salute – it’s a trifle theatrical.’

      ‘But then I am,’ she said simply.

      ‘Anyway,’ Lang said. ‘The Prime Minister has ordered Ferguson to mount a special investigation into January 30. Go right through the files. See what the computer comes up with. He’s asked Carter to get his people to come up with something similar.’

      ‘I don’t think we need to worry about that,’ Belov said. ‘An old story. They’ve tried before and got nowhere.’

      ‘I agree,’ Tom Curry said.

      Lang shrugged. ‘If you say so.’

      Belov said, ‘Anything more?’

      ‘Yes, actually.’ Lang smiled. ‘I was saving the best till last. The Prime Minister is flying out tomorrow in secret to Washington. The Irish Prime Minister will join him there.’

      ‘And the purpose of the meeting?’

      ‘To discuss the final negotiations leading to Sinn Fein persuading the IRA to call a truce of some sort. You know how it goes. Come to the peace table. All is forgiven. He’ll be back in twenty-four hours.’

      ‘Now that is interesting,’ Belov said. ‘You really must keep me informed on that one, Rupert.’ He stood up. ‘We’d better let you get to bed, Grace.’

      She nodded. ‘Yes, I could do with it. It’s been a heavy night.’

      She took them to the door and got their coats. Rupert kissed her on the cheek. ‘How about lunch tomorrow? The Caprice suit you?’

      ‘Marvellous.’

      ‘Not me, I’m afraid,’ Belov said. ‘Too conspicuous.’

      ‘I’ll be there,’ Curry told her. ‘You can count on it.’

      They stood for a moment on the pavement, waiting for Belov to adjust his collapsible umbrella. ‘I’ll get a taxi at the Albert Bridge,’ Belov said. ‘And you?’

      ‘Going the other way. We could always walk – it’s only a mile and a half to Dean Close.’

      Belov hesitated. ‘A pity she did what she did. I mean alerting Dillon like that. Why on earth this business of the arm raised in salute?’

      ‘One brave acknowledging another,’ Curry suggested.

      ‘Well, it worries me,’ Belov said. ‘Smacks of unbalance.’

      ‘She never guaranteed you sanity, old sport,’ Rupert Lang said, ‘only a performance. It’s theatre to Grace, an exciting game, and you’ll just have to put up with that.’

      ‘I take your point. Still …’ Belov shrugged. ‘I’d better get off.’

      They parted and Grace Browning watched them go from the parted curtains of her bedroom. She turned and moved through the quiet dark and got into bed. When she closed her eyes, the shadow man was there again, the gun raised, but only for a split second, then he disappeared. She smiled and drifted into sleep.

      ‘But why didn’t she shoot you?’ Hannah asked.

      It was the following morning and she and Dillon were working in one of the side offices of Ferguson’s suite at the Ministry of Defence.

      ‘Try this for size,’ Ferguson said from the doorway. ‘Many assassins stick to the target and don’t deviate. Many psychological profiles agree on that.’

      ‘He’s right,’ Dillon told her. ‘If you take underworld killings, a professional hit man only goes for his target because that’s all he’s paid for.’

      ‘Unless you happen to get in his way,’ Hannah said.

      ‘Of course.’

      Ferguson said, ‘I’ll leave you two to sort it out, I’ve got other fish to fry. Check the letter file on my desk, Chief Inspector, and send them out. I’m due at the Home Office.’

      The door closed and Hannah said, ‘The fact is she could have killed you and didn’t.’

      ‘Even more interesting, she could have let me die in Belfast but saved my life instead, that’s the real puzzle.’

      ‘What do you mean?’

      ‘Well, wrap your fine police brain around this. There is only one possible explanation for Belfast. She was protecting me.’

      ‘So?’

      ‘But there’s more than one possible explanation for her action last night.’

      ‘We’ve just agreed you weren’t the target. What else do you suggest?’

      ‘To start with I don’t buy the Muslim woman act – it’s too up front – but let’s say she wanted me to see her in that guise. And calling to me in that Pakistani voice would reinforce the whole idea. Without me we wouldn’t have known that the assassin was apparently a Muslim.’

      ‘Except for Father Tom.’

      ‘And he was an accident.’

      ‘Exactly.’

      She sighed. ‘I’ll have to go and see to the Brigadier’s mail.’ She went to the door. ‘What about you?’

      ‘I’m going to start with that first hit in Wapping, the Arab. Go through the others step by step. See if there’s a pattern.’

      ‘They did all that at Scotland Yard. They even allowed the FBI to go through the files after that CIA man was killed. None of them came up with a thing.’

      ‘When ordinary men have failed, the great Dillon may achieve much. On your way, woman.’

      She started to laugh helplessly and went out.

      It was just before lunch when she returned. Dillon was surrounded by files and working away at the computer keyboard.

      ‘How are you getting on?’

      ‘I’m treating the whole thing as if nothing’s been done, punching in the facts from each case as I see them, picking out items which seem strange or unnatural to me and asking the computer to comment:’

      ‘And?’

      ‘Oh, nothing yet. I’ll wait until everything is there before putting it into the search pattern.’

      ‘Anything strike you particularly?’

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