photograph, which he saw had been cut with scissors to fit the oval shape. There was nothing behind it but the back of the locket.
He turned the photograph over. On the back was some very small, neat writing.
BZ793A58
He handed it to Slider. ‘Eight randomly assorted numbers and letters,’ he said.
When Slider came back to the table from the telephone, he said, ‘Jimmy Pak says there’s an absolute mass of information there – notes, scanned documents, letters, cuttings from newspapers, you name it. It looks like the goods all right.’
Joanna reached over and kissed Atherton on the cheek. ‘Genius!’ she said. ‘Old planet-brain, the boy wonder.’
‘Fluke,’ said Atherton. ‘It was Ed Stonax who was the clever one, thinking of hiding it that way.’
‘I don’t know why I didn’t think of it,’ Emily said. ‘I’m embarrassed.’
‘Don’t be. How were you to know?’
‘But he said he had something important to tell me. I suppose when I got here he was going to tell me everything, show me the documents.’
‘I’m not quite there,’ Joanna said. ‘He copied everything into the computer and encrypted the files?’
‘The Arbuthnots heard him tapping away day and night,’ Slider said.
‘Then why did he keep the original stuff – assuming that was what was in the file that was stolen?’
‘Insurance,’ Atherton said, ‘in case of a break-in. The way I see it, he wouldn’t leave everything in the file, but enough to look convincing, so that if they broke in they’d think they’d got the lot and (a) not tear the place apart and (b) feel confident they’d covered themselves. He knew they were ruthless – he must at least have suspected Danny’s “accident” was helped along. But probably he didn’t realise just how ruthless they were. He can’t have thought that they’d actually kill him – only cut him off at the pass like they did the first time.’
‘If he’d known,’ Emily said quietly, ‘it wouldn’t have stopped him.’
‘But he might have gone about it a different way,’ Slider said.
‘So if he had all Danny’s stuff,’ Joanna said, ‘what was he waiting for? Why didn’t he go public right away?’
‘Hard to say, until we see what there actually is in the encrypted files,’ Slider said. ‘It might be that there was something else he still needed. Or he might have been working it up into a final report. Or he may have had someone else involved and was waiting for them to act.’
‘But no-one else has come forward to say they were working with him.’
‘True. Well, I don’t know the answer to that.’
‘Of course, there wasn’t any particular hurry,’ Atherton said. ‘It wasn’t as if the leisure park was going to be built in one day, starting tomorrow. He may just have been considering what course his action should take. He had plenty of time.’
‘Except that he didn’t,’ Emily said. There was an uncomfortable silence, which in the end she broke. ‘So is this enough to get them, now?’
‘I don’t know until I look at the stuff. Jimmy Pak’s making copies, and we’ll have to go through it all tomorrow and see what we’ve got. And then get Porson in on it and start making up a case. But if your father took this trouble to get the information to you, I’m betting it will be significant.’
‘But you still don’t know where Bates is,’ Joanna said. ‘Not to rain on the party, but we can’t go home until you get him.’ She anticipated Atherton’s next words and said, ‘We can’t stay here with you for ever, Jim. Even if you were willing to keep
‘Derek?’
‘The baby.’
‘Why on earth—?’
‘Don’t ask,’ said Slider. ‘Is that your phone?’
Atherton went out into the kitchen, where they heard him say, ‘Oh, hi . . . Yes, he is. Did you want to . . . What? Good for you! Yeah, yeah, I’m writing it down. Brilliant. OK, I’ll tell him. Love to Tony . . . No, I mean it. Bye.’
He came back in, grinning. ‘That was Norma. She was waiting for a call back from an estate agent friend – or in her case, probably a former lover.’
‘Pots and kettles,’ Joanna muttered.
‘Anyway, she’s found – or rather he had found – Richard Tyler. He’s bought a house in Holland Park Avenue. And given what property costs along there, he must have done very well out of Brussels and whatever else he’s been up to since he went away. He moved in at the end of August.’
‘Just about the time Bates escaped,’ said Joanna.
‘Holland Park Avenue’s right on our doorstep,’ Slider said. ‘Not much more than half a mile from the station.’
‘Also just round the corner from Aubrey Walk,’ Atherton added, ‘where Bates’s house is.’
‘And a hundred yards or so from where they found the black Focus,’ Slider added grimly. Joanna glanced at him, and knew that expression. She felt a cold chill, though she wasn’t sure what she feared. ‘I said that Bates hadn’t a friend in the world but Tyler – if you can call him a friend. But friend or not, he’s the one person Bates can be sure won’t shop him. What would be more natural than that he should hole up with Tyler? On his old stamping ground, which criminals always like, being creatures of habit. And handy for his old house if he needs a bit of equipment. I’m sure Tyler could arrange that. Tyler came back to England at the end of July, and Bates was sprung at the end of August.’
‘And all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t find him,’ Atherton said. ‘Well, of course they couldn’t if he was under the wing of a former minister and EU commissioner.’
Joanna was still looking at Slider and reading his mind. ‘Bill, no. You’re not to.’
‘Just a look,’ he said. ‘I promise I’m not going to do anything, but I just want to have a look.’
Atherton looked at him too. ‘What, now?’
‘Why not?’
‘I’m coming with you, then.’
Slider said to Joanna. ‘Just a look. And I’ll feel better about leaving you because you won’t be alone, with Emily.’
‘Better let them get it out of their system,’ Emily said to her. ‘You know what boys are like.’
She was easy about letting Atherton go, Joanna thought, because their love was so new, and she couldn’t yet imagine anything bad happening to him. Perhaps it was another thing to lay at pregnancy’s door. But she had never tried to stop him doing what he felt he had to. It was just that the longer she knew him and the more she loved him, the harder it was to let him go.
Nineteen
Down and Out
They drove to the station in Atherton’s car and left it there, to take an unmarked car out of the pool instead. It was possible, Slider thought, that they knew the number of Atherton’s car as well as his, and he didn’t want them to look out of the window and see it, and know they were being watched. Atherton thought he was being unnecessarily cautious.
‘But since you are, hadn’t we better tell someone upstairs where we’re going?’
They went up to the department, where Mackay was on night duty. He was at his desk having a bunny with Fathom, who was sitting on the other side of it, evidently waylaid on his way home, since he was wearing his street clothes, a bomber jacket and a pair of lamentable cut-away leather driving gloves.
‘Hello, guv. Something up?’ Mackay said.
Slider explained, and Mackay whistled. ‘Very nice. Very cosy, and handy for everything. No wonder Bates could follow you around so easy, guv. What’re you going to do?’
‘Just go and have a gander at the house,’ Slider said. ‘Tyler’s not going anywhere, we know that, but I’d like
