been despatched, as arranged, with the waybill number. Parnell telephoned Harry Johnson first on the internal system, and immediately afterwards Barry Jackson on an external line. The lawyer said clients always had to pay for lunch.
‘I should have been told Parnell knew about the box-number facility,’ complained Harry Johnson.
‘I didn’t know myself until yesterday,’ said Newton, determined to get as much as he could from the abruptly demanded meeting with the security chief.
‘How much does he know?’
‘The president isn’t sure,’ said Newton, taking the first step to distance himself as much as possible from Edward C. Grant.
Johnson shook his head. ‘I don’t understand this. I’ve just had a call from Parnell asking me to collect some outstanding samples from Paris “that would be arriving the box-number route”. Those were his exact words, the box-number route. How does he know there is such a system? It’s supposed to be restricted!’
‘You’re going to have to ask him, I guess,’ said Newton.
Johnson looked at him suspiciously. ‘You’ve specifically spoken to the president about this?’
‘In New York, yesterday,’ confirmed Newton.
‘So, what did he say?’ insisted the security chief, impatiently.
‘You normally deal direct with Grant, don’t you?’ challenged Newton.
‘I wanted guidance this time, before I did.’
‘That might be a good idea in the future, you and I talking to each other,’ suggested Newton. Could he make an ally – an informant – of this man?
‘Why?’ asked Johnson, the tone openly suspicious now.
‘It was me he spoke to, about Parnell’s call to Paris. And he told me that it should be handled as it normally is. I don’t know why he didn’t bother to call you, as well.’
‘Saby didn’t call me, which was the arrangement I understood,’ agreed Johnson.
‘We’d both avoid being left out of decisions if we talked to each other. Things are too uncertain to be left out.’
‘Maybe you’re right,’ accepted Johnson. ‘So, I’m to collect it, as Parnell’s asked me to?’
‘Yes.’
‘Who do I give it to?’
‘Parnell.’
‘Not you? Or Russell Benn?’
‘Parnell,’ repeated the research director. ‘And you’re to reimpose the surveillance on Parnell.’
‘New York tell you that, too?’
‘Yes.’
Johnson stared challengingly at Newton. ‘Do Dubette think they can afford to cut me out of the loop?’
‘I don’t know what that means, Harry.’ He’d sown more doubt than he’d imagined possible, decided Newton.
‘I’ll talk to New York,’ said the security chief, intending it to sound like a threat.
‘I don’t know what your direct contact is all about,’ said Newton. ‘But I definitely think you should get on to New York. But it’ll still be an idea for us to talk about it, too. And for you to let me know what happens when you deliver the French stuff to Parnell.’ How much was he protectively going to learn from this man, wondered Newton.
Parnell was disappointed at Barry Jackson’s calm reaction. The lawyer continued to pick at his Caesar salad and sip at the mineral water he’d chosen in preference to Parnell’s wine, and when Parnell finished recounting his morning discoveries in Dubette’s personnel department, said: ‘Have you spoken with Beverley?’
‘Beverley? What’s she got to do with what I’ve just told you?’
‘Nothing. My misunderstanding. Forget it.’
‘Barry, haven’t you heard anything I’ve said?’
‘Every word.’
‘So, why are you asking about Beverley?’
‘Professional indiscretion. I said forget it.’
Parnell didn’t respond for several moments, totally confused. ‘So, what have I just told you?’
‘Something intriguing.’
‘Intriguing enough to tell Dingley and Benton?’
‘Definitely,’ decided the lawyer. ‘But not yet. Not before we serve the wrongful-arrest writs upon Bellamy and Montgomery, which we’ll do within the next twenty-four hours. As well, now, as summoning Johnson as a material witness, locking him into the frame. Incidentally, I’m setting the claim against Metro DC police department at ten million dollars.’
‘What?’ demanded Parnell, not immediately understanding.
‘It’s a civil case. We’re claiming damages for loss of reputation and character. You’re a publicly known guy, with a reputation and character to protect. We won’t get anything like that, of course, but it’ll concentrate their minds. And stop any intimidation move against you. You OK with that figure?’
‘I’m not interested in any figure,’ said Parnell, still curious at Jackson’s reference to Beverley.
Jackson grinned at him. ‘You might be when you get my final bill.’
Parnell didn’t smile back. ‘What I’ve told you fits in with what Dingley and Benton said, about Rebecca’s death having something to do with her workplace, doesn’t it?’
‘No,’ refused Jackson, at once. ‘It gives them a very good reason to talk to Harry Johnson again, that’s all.’
‘He lied, about not knowing what car I drove. The fucking number’s in a file he read the very same night my car was vandalized in the car park!’
‘There’s proof he read your personnel file. Not that he noted your car make and number.’
‘That’s playing with words.’
‘That’s what the law is, playing with words. You’ve got to make those words work in your favour.’
‘What about Johnson’s involvement – knowledge – of the French situation – the sideways route that made Rebecca so damned curious?’
‘Exactly what it is, damned curious,’ agreed Jackson. ‘Which is what I’ll get him to explain in a lot more detail in a court, on oath. That’s where we can have him twisting in the wind.’
Parnell pushed aside his pastrami sandwich, half of it uneaten. ‘It’ll make public what the French division, with Washington’s approval, were preparing to do – did do, if it’s not all recalled – won’t it? Conceivably destroy the company?’
Now Jackson finished eating. ‘Don’t get faint-hearted, after what almost happened to you – after what happened to Rebecca. And could have happened to God knows how many people, kids, in Africa, if you hadn’t picked up on it.’
‘I’m not getting faint-hearted,’ denied Parnell.
‘What, then?’
‘It’s difficult sometimes, like now, fully to accept what the outcome of it all could be… to believe that it’s real and that I’m part of it.’
‘Not part of it,’ corrected Jackson. ‘Central to it.’
‘I don’t understand why you asked about Beverley.’
‘I told you, I misunderstood.’
‘What did you misunderstand?’
‘What would you say if I told you it was covered by client confidentiality?’
‘I’d say bullshit.’ Should he tell the lawyer about the two utterly meaningless occasions?
‘It’s covered by client confidentiality,’ recited Jackson.
‘Bullshit,’ said Parnell. But nothing more.
Barry Jackson had compromised, driving part of the way out to McLean, so Parnell was back at the Dubette complex by two o’clock. Only Deke Pulbrow and Mark Easton were in the department.
Pulbrow said: ‘Everyone else is at lunch except Ted. He’s got a dental appointment. Getting to be like a regular workplace, nothing to do, lots of time in which to do it.’
