'A pierced lung and a nicked artery. Other than that you're fine’
He laughed faintly. 'Aye, I feel just great. Stabbed, eh. Of the two, I think I prefer being shot.'
Alex looked up at Sarah in astonishment. Like her father's colleagues, she had been told the alternative version of that chapter from his past. 'Let's hope you never have to make the comparison for real,' said his wife, trying to cover his gaffe.
Bob squeezed his daughter's hand. 'Hi, Babe. How're you doing?'
She smiled at him, her face still streaked with tears. 'Fine, now,' she said. 'Oh God, we were so worried about you.' She lifted his hand off the bed and pressed it to her moist cheek. As she did so, the diamonds on her finger sparkled with reflected light.
`Hey,' said Bob. 'What's this?'
She stared at him, startled. 'My engagement ring. Remember, we unveiled it on Saturday night.'
A shadow of confusion crossed his face. 'No,' he said, in the faintest of whispers. 'I don't remember.' He stared up at Sarah, frowning. ‘What bloody day is this?'
She sat down on the edge of the bed. 'It's Tuesday. You were attacked early on Monday morning. But don't worry, honey. Traumatic amnesia is quite common. What's the last thing you can recall?'
He shook his head, frustrated.
Okay then, tell me about the last meal you ate.'
He knitted his brow. 'Fresh pasta with a bacon, mushroom and tomato sauce,' he whispered. 'Chocolate mousse to follow. A bottle of Tyrell's Long Flat Red between us.'
`That was on Thursday,' Sarah said. 'A long time back, but don't let it worry you. You did have a pretty severe trauma. The memory gaps will fill up before too long.'
The corner of his mouth twisted. 'I don't know if I want them to. Here, did they get the bastards that knifed me?'
‘Yup. Charged with attempted murder.'
`Pity. That means I won't get my hands on them.'
She laughed. 'You did already! But don't let's talk about that. Not yet anyway. You just relax and concentrate on getting better. You're still a sick puppy, you know.'
`Yes, Doc. Very good, Doc.' He tried to shift his position, and a spasm of pain crossed his face. 'Christ, I believe you.'
She reached out and touched his face. 'Easy now. They gave you quite a mauling in surgery. We'll get you some painkillers now you're awake.'
I'm not going to burst open again, am I?'
`No, not now. There's been no sign of any more bleeding, so I reckon the arterial repair will be secure already. But you'll be in here for a while yet. Your body has to have time, and rest, to recover.'
He looked at her mournfully. 'If you say so.' Suddenly his face lit up. 'Hey, how's James Andrew Skinner?'
`Jazz is fine. I'll bring him to see you in a couple of days, when we've got you sitting up.'
`That's good. I miss the wee chap'
And he misses you, I think,' said Alex. 'Andy picked him up this morning, and his face lit up. But then he saw it wasn't you and he started to cry.'
Bob grinned at the thought, then gasped as another image of a baby flashed for an instant, unbidden, across his mind. 'What is it?' said Alex anxiously.
`Nothing,' he murmured. 'Just a memory flash' Laboriously he reached up and tapped his head. 'All sorts of stuff going on in there, you know.'
`Yeah,' said Sarah. 'What was going through your mind when you were unconscious? In theory there shouldn't have been anything.'
`Can't remember that either.'
`Nothing at all?'
He paused, staring up at the ceiling. 'Yes. I remember someone holding my hand. And perfume. Are either of you wearing perfume?'
I am,' said Alex.
`Then I remember that. Back in there…' he tapped his head once more.. I remember the smell of your perfume. Chanel No. 5 — I'd know it anywhere'
Alex looked at him, puzzled. 'Your nose must be affected aswell, in that case. You might know Chanel anywhere, but like always, I'm wearing Rive Gauche!'
SIXTY
‘He bloody what?' Adam Arrow's eyebrows shot halfway up his high forehead.
`He said 'No', Adam. The Prime Minister won't release the file on Davey.'
`Not even when he heard where the request came from?' Andy Martin shook his head.
I know that Kercheval character,' said Arrow. 'Bob might get on with 'im, but from what I've seen he's a real MI5 traditionalist. Know what I mean? Sees himself as the cream of the crop, and all the rest of us as bungling semi-pros, not to be trusted with the real stuff.
I wonder if he mentioned to anyone that the request for Davey's file came from Bob.'
There was a grim look in the little soldier's eyes. Wrinkles showed as they narrowed. Did he say anything else to the lads?'
`No. Only that the file was under wraps.
`So they were wasting their time all along.'
A faint smile played around the corners of Martin's mouth.
`Not quite,' he murmured. 'He's not as smart as he thinks, is our man Kercheval.'
`No, he ain't,' said Joe Doherty, leaning back in his chair, grinning. 'I know him too.
He's not so much a spook, more Caspar the Friendly Ghost.'
Are you two going to let the rest of us in on the secret?' Arrow growled. Beside him, Merle Gower sat staring at Doherty: but beyond her, out of the soldier's line of vision, the light of comprehension was dawning in Maggie Rose's expression as she grasped the same implication that had occurred to her colleagues.
`Well,' said Doherty. ‘For openers, he admitted to the guys from the start that there is a file on Davey. If he had told them that he'd have to find out whether one existed or not, he'd have left his options open. But being Kercheval he couldn't pass up a chance to impress two cops by letting them see that he's the sort of important guy who knows where the most important bodies are buried.'
`That's right,' said Andy Martin emphatically. 'And when the Prime Minister put a block on its release, there he was with egg all over his coupon. He couldn't turn around and say
'Sorry, boys, I was wrong. There isn't a file,' because he's told them for sure that there is.
He couldn't even say that his DG stopped him, because he knows that Joe here wouldn't accept that level of refusal. So he had to come clean and pin the blame on the PM. He even compounded it by saying that if it was up to him he'd have released it.'
Doherty laughed out loud. 'That's old Cyril! No one knows better than him.
`So it seems,' said Martin. 'Anyway, the upshot of it all is that Cyril has effectively told us not only that there is a file on Davey, but also that it contains material so sensitive that even in circumstances like these, with American interests involved as well as our own, our Prime Minister won't sanction its release.'
`Why not, d'you think?' asked Arrow.
The detective shrugged. 'I can only come up with two reasons, and they're both essentially the same. Either what's in the file would cost the Government Davey's seat in the by- election at a time when it can't afford to lose it, or it's so serious that it would bring it down altogether.'
The soldier shook his head and smiled. 'Know what, Andy?
You've been around Bob so long, you're thinking just like him: The policeman grinned back across the table. 'That's the biggest compliment I've been paid in a while, mate. `So what would he do now?' asked Doherty.
