Tomorrow's ghost

job properly, or because he hadn't done his job properly anyway because he liked his Major Butler, she hadn't time to decide. Nor, for that matter, could she decide whether he hadn't been awkward with her because he liked her, or because he hadn't changed his mind about the Major in nine years.

But that was something she could think about. What mattered now was to sting Extension 223 into confirming her suspicions of him.

'He thinks Colonel Butler's clean.'

'Oh?' Extension 223 sounded sceptical. 'Indeed?'

'He liked him, too.'

'Don't we all! The Thin Red Line in person, of course! But what did he give you, the policeman?' Extension 223 didn't quite slaver over the inference that William Ewart Hedges had revealed something to Colonel Butler's disadvantage, but it was plain to Frances that whatever it might be, it would be received with intense satisfaction.

So Colonel Butler had an enemy where he ought to expect an impartial judge.

'I can't say for sure yet.' That was all the more reason why she must play hard to get: it was the least she could do for Colonel Butler, to offset Extension 223's bias against him, and it was also what she wanted to do.

'Not sure?' Now his voice was positively seductive.

'I gave him a dozen chances of saying one particular thing, and he never said it. And then, at the very end, he suggested it - by accident, I think. But I have to be sure, which is why I must get into the house ... and talk to the children without the housekeeper being there after that.'

'Now you're being oracular.'

'I could be mistaken, that's all.'

Silence at the other end. If she was right about him he'd be thinking now of a way of encouraging her to come back with Colonel Butler's scalp, or not at all.

Still more silence.

'I could be mistaken,' repeated Frances, rearranging the emphasis to suggest that she didn't think she was, nevertheless.

'Of course. And we must be absolutely fair - that's essential.' The voice changed. 'This isn't a witch-hunt. That's the very last thing it must be.'

Frances felt confused, even a little disappointed: it was as though another man had taken over, calm and businesslike, and quite unlike the first one.

'We also appreciate that any sort of truth will be difficult to establish now, Fisher,'

the Number Two voice continued. 'But what you in turn must appreciate is that you'll never have a more important assignment than this one. I'm sure you do understand that

- you must forgive me for sounding pompous after I may have seemed ... a little flippant, perhaps.'

'Not at all,' said Frances.

'And you're right - absolutely right. We cannot afford to make any mistake about Butler. If we do, we'll live to regret it. And some of us may not live to regret it, too. It's up to you - and I shall be at the end of this line twenty- four hours a day to help you. As of now, nothing's too big and nothing's too small if you want it. All you have to do is ask.'

The big league.

Sir Frederick had said as much the night before:

As of now you're a VIP, Frances.

'What's more, nothing goes on the record until you are ready to put it there. You are the boss, Fisher.'

Well, there was a Ring of Power, thought Frances. And it was on her finger, to use as she wished.

'You've already done well. To have picked up anything at all from that file ... and from that policeman. You're not the first one to have tried, believe me.'

Frances had the feeling that she'd been tested -

'You are the first one to succeed.' - and that she'd passed the test. No wonder she'd found Hedges so hard to thaw!

'But that's no accident. You were chosen for this. And what's more, I recommended you, Mrs Fisher - off the record.' He made the recommendation sound like an unpaid debt she had contracted, but which he expected to collect, with interest, soon enough.

'So ... what do you want us to set up for you next - after you've finished in the house, that is?'

He was already taking for granted that whatever it was she was looking for, it was there and she would find it. And she didn't know whether to be flattered or frightened by such confidence.

Also, in a strange way, there was something about this voice that she recognised.

Although she could still swear to herself that she had never heard it before - even allowing for the distortion of the telephone - there was something in it which jarred her memory. But how could she remember hearing something that she had never heard?

'Fisher?'

'Yes ...' Caution replaced her momentary euphoria. And in any case the prospect of after you've finished in the house had a sobering effect: if she found nothing then she was in trouble, yet if her one nagging suspicion was confirmed then Colonel Butler would be in trouble.

'Yes?' He prodded her gently.