“And that’s why we’re sitting in this lame pub in this gross village waiting for some naff food.”
Annie smiled. “That’s just about it, Winsome.”
Winsome muttered something underneath her breath.
“Want in?” said Annie.
“It looks like I’m stuck here, doesn’t it? You’ve got the car keys.”
“There’s always a bus.”
“On the hour every hour. It’s five past six.”
“Maybe it’ll be late.”
Winsome held her palm up. “Okay, all right, enough. I’m in.
Unless you start crossing any serious boundaries.”
“What’s a serious boundary?”
“One you know when you’re crossing it.”
Annie paused for a moment as their food arrived, a beef burger and chips for Winsome and a mini pizza margherita for her. She had strayed a little from her vegetarianism lately, to the extent of a coq au vin and a potted meat sandwich, and she was also finding that she enjoyed fish more often. On the whole, though, she tried to stick with it, and she certainly avoided red meat. Their knives and forks were tightly wrapped in serviettes and bound with a strip of blue paper.
Winsome’s knife was spotty from the dishwasher.
“What did you think of Nicky Haskell this time?” Annie asked as she picked up a slice of pizza with her fingers. “It’s the third time we’ve talked to him and his story hasn’t changed. The mention of Hardcastle was the only thing that was new, and he’d obviously just seen something about that on TV by accident. Not a newspaper reader, our Nicky, I shouldn’t think.”
“Dunno,” said Winsome around a mouthful of burger. “It was on the news the night before last. Silbert and Hardcastle.” She dabbed her lips with the serviette. “Did he seem more scared this time to you?”
“He did,” Annie said. “And he’s such a tough-enough nut himself that I really don’t think he’d be scared of Jackie Binns or his mates.”
“So what is it? Misguided loyalty? Instinctive aversion to talking to the police?”
“Could be either or both,” Annie said. “Could also be that there’s someone else involved he really is scared of.”
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“Now
They ate their meals in silence for a while, each pausing occasionally for a sip of beer or wine. When she had finished about half her pizza, Annie asked casually, “Got a boyfriend at the moment, Winsome?”
“Nah. There was . . . there was someone from technical support, but . . . you know, his hours, my hours, it just didn’t work out.”
“Do you want a husband and kids?”
“No way. Least not yet for a while, not for a long while. Why? Do you?”
“Sometimes I think so,” Annie said, “and then sometimes I feel the same way you do. Trouble is, my biological clock’s running out and yours has got plenty of time left on it.”
“What about . . . you know . . . DCI Banks?”
Annie rolled her eyes. “He’s in lo-ove.” Then she burst into laughter.
Winsome laughed, too. “Seriously, what you were saying before, this theory of his about the Hardcastle-Silbert case.”
Annie pushed her plate aside with one piece left and sipped some Abbot’s. “Yes? What about it?”
“Does DCI Banks really think the Secret Intelligence Service goaded Hardcastle into bumping off Silbert for some sort of twisted government reason?”
“Well,” said Annie, “government reasoning is usually pretty twisted, as far as I can make out, so he might not be far wrong. Thing is, though, what Nicky Haskell just told us changes things.”
“It does? Derek Wyman?”
“Well, yes. Think about it. If it was Wyman did the Iago bit, then it might have had nothing to do with Silbert’s MI6 career. Wyman probably didn’t even know about that, or even if he did, it wouldn’t necessarily mean anything to him. He did, however, stand to lose his position at the theater if Hardcastle got his new group of players going, and Hardcastle needed Silbert’s backing for that.”
“So why did this Browne bloke pay DCI Banks a visit, then?”
“A fishing expedition? To see which way the wind was blowing?
They’re bound to be interested if it was one of their blokes who copped it, aren’t they? Silbert probably knew all kinds of secrets, did 1 7 6 P E T E R
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all sorts of nefarious deeds that could bring down the government, or at least bring about a clean sweep of the intelligence services, if they became public. They’re running scared. Only natural they’d be worried about that, isn’t it?”
