“I told you, ma’am. He’s on holiday.”
“Sounds like a busman’s holiday to me, going around questioning people.” She rested her arms on the table. “Annie, I like DCI Banks, I really do. I respect his abilities and I’d hate to lose him. I can’t always get through to him, myself, but you sometimes seem able to manage it. God knows how.”
“I don’t—”
Gervaise waved her hand in the air. “Please. Hear me out. I don’t like this any more than you do. As a criminal case, this Hardcastle-Silbert business was relatively easy to crack. The one killed the other, then killed himself. There are, however, complications. The people involved, or one of them, at any rate, happens to have some very strong connections with the secret intelligence services and, well, to make no bones about it, with the chief constable himself.
I’ve been advised in very strong terms from the highest level that there is
“What are they going to do?” Annie asked. “Kill him?”
Gervaise banged her fist on the desk. “Don’t be f lippant, DI Cabbot.
These are serious matters of state we’re dealing with here. Things that people like you and DCI Banks can’t just go meddling in willy-nilly.
It’s not only your heads on the block here, you know.”
The violent gesture had shocked Annie. She had seen Gervaise in many moods but hadn’t seen her lose her cool like that before. Someone must have really got to her. “I don’t know what you think I can do,” she said.
“I think you can let me know if DCI Banks gets in touch with you at all, and if he asks you for help in any way, you can refuse and come A L L T H E C O L O R S O F D A R K N E S S
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immediately to me. Let him know if he chooses to pursue this business he’s on his own.”
“You want me to act as an informant?”
“I want you to consider your career and DCI Banks’s career. I want you to grow up. I want you to turn your back on this one and report any anomalies to me. Do you think you can do that?”
Annie said nothing.
“DI Cabbot?”
“I’m not involved,” Annie lied.
“Then keep it that way.” Gervaise made a gesture for Annie to leave. When Annie got to the door, Gervaise called out after her,
“And by the way, DI Cabbot. If I find that you have been involving DS Jackman or any other of my officers in this affair, I’ll not only have you tossed out on your arse, but them too. Got it?”
“Loud and clear, ma’am,” said Annie, and shut the door gently behind her, heart pounding, hands shaking.
B A N K S H A D picked up the Gervaise alert clearly enough when he phoned Annie, so he killed half an hour in a Starbucks on Finchley Road drinking a latte with a double shot of espresso, then phoned her back. This time she told him she could talk; she was walking down King Street on her way to meet Winsome at the comprehensive.
“So what is it?” Banks asked.
“Storm clouds gathering,” said Annie. “You’re definitely persona non grata around these parts.”
“And all those who sail in her?”
“Exactly.”
Annie sounded a bit breathless, as if she’d had a shock. She was walking, Banks realized, but the comprehensive was
“What happened?”
“She knows where you were yesterday, who you talked to.”
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P E T E R R O B I N S O N
“The Townsends?”
“Yes.”
That surprised Banks. He hadn’t expected them to call the police.
When he thought about it, though, it made perfect sense if they were connected to the security services. Another possible way of getting him called off and put back in his cage before he did any real damage.
Or perhaps they had told their masters and it was they who had phoned the police. Either way the result was the same. “What’s the bottom line?” he asked.
“What do you think? I’m to stay out of it if I value my career and let Gervaise know if you get in touch. Then I’m supposed to let you hang out to dry. Why don’t you just take Sophia to Devon or Cornwall for a few days, Alan, make everyone’s life a bit easier, including your own?”
“Et tu, Annie?”
