get it.’
After a couple of minutes a report came back from one of the cars. ‘We’ve got a couple of shots of them together. They went up to the sixth floor. From the look on the receptionist’s face he’s a regular here. Shall we speak to her?’
‘No,’ Kathy said. ‘Take pictures as they leave and follow them.’
She took a deep breath and stared at Bren. ‘Why? Why would he want Moszynski killed? They were great mates.’
‘We know he’s a corrupt bastard with some very dodgy friends, Kathy. Remember the last time? We knew he was tied up with Spider Roach, but we couldn’t prove it.’
‘That’s why we have to be careful. He made mincemeat of us the last time. He destroyed Tom Reeves’ career and very nearly took Brock and the rest of us down too.’
‘Tom Reeves cut corners. He was a maverick, you know that. And Hadden-Vane destroyed him from behind the screen of parliamentary privilege. But he won’t be able to hide from this.’
‘All we’ve got is a record of three very brief phone calls between Harry Peebles’ and Hadden-Vane’s mobile phones. We don’t know what was said. We need further proof of contact between the two of them and we need a convincing motive.’
Bren thought for a moment. ‘Maybe there’re others involved. Vadim Kuzmin, for instance.’
‘A family coup, you mean? Yes, I’ve wondered about that.’
‘Maybe Vadim got Hadden-Vane to use his criminal contacts to do the deed while Vadim was safely out of the country.’
Kathy nodded slowly. ‘That’s possible.’
‘I just wish we could tell Brock,’ Bren said. ‘This would have him back on his feet in no time.’
By the time she got to the hospital that evening Kathy was filled with a quiet sense of elation. For too long they had lived with the memory of Hadden-Vane’s plot-his ‘Spider trap’ as Brock had called it-to destroy a rival MP and in the process discredit Brock and his team. Now they were surely very close to getting the evidence that would finally expose him. She hurried into the hospital lift, imagining the look on Brock’s face when she told him.
Suzanne was standing by the window looking into his cubicle, and when she turned around, Kathy was stopped short by the look of desolation on her face.
‘Suzanne?’
‘Oh, Kathy.’ Tears flooded down her cheeks.
‘What’s happened!’
‘He’s dead.’
‘What!’
‘They’ve just taken his body away.’
Kathy felt dizzy, hardly able to take in what Suzanne was saying.
‘So sudden… I was with his mother…’
Kathy sucked in air, trying to hold herself together. ‘His mother?’ Brock had never spoken of his mother.
‘Such a lovely woman. Devastated, of course. I had to ring for her husband to come. I had to tell him, Kathy. I had to tell him that Danny was dead.’
‘Danny?’
‘Yes.’
‘My God, I thought… I thought you meant Brock.’
‘No, there’s no change. But Kathy, you know what this means. They’re all going to die. All three of them.’ She began shaking with uncontrollable sobs.
‘No.’ Kathy wrapped her arms around the other woman and held her tight. ‘No, it surely doesn’t mean that. Have the doctors said so?’
‘I haven’t spoken to them, but…’
‘l’ll do it.’ She made Suzanne sit down and told her to wait while she went along the corridor to the nurses’ station, where she found one of the specialists.
There was no way of knowing, he said. Danny had had a sudden relapse, but Peter Namono was still stable, and so was Brock. They were doing everything they could. A new antiviral drug was being flown over from America. They could only wait and hope.
Suzanne was calmer when Kathy returned and passed on what she’d been told. Suzanne gave a weary sigh and wiped a hand across her eye. ‘I’m sorry, Kathy. I keep thinking the worst.’
‘When did you last have a decent meal? Not since last week, I’ll bet. Come on, nothing’s going to happen tonight. If he could he’d be telling us to get out of here and have a proper feed. I saw an Italian place down the road. How about it?’
Suzanne sniffed and began to form a refusal, then relented.
After the first glass of Chianti she gave a reluctant smile and said, ‘Thanks, Kathy. I did need to get away from that place. If he ever gets out of there I’ll kill him for putting us through this.’
Kathy nodded.
‘I’ve been thinking about the work you do, the pair of you,’ Suzanne went on. ‘And I’ve thought about how alike you two are. That’s why you get on so well, I suppose.’
‘I don’t think we’re alike at all.’
‘Oh yes you are. Both stubborn, like terriers when you get your teeth into something. Very loyal, but not always to the right priorities.’
‘How do you mean?’
‘You both suffer from the same problem, what I used to call Brock’s Paradox, the belief that you can only keep a relationship alive by not allowing it to reach its full potential.’
Kathy sat back, feeling as if she’d been unexpectedly slapped.
‘Oh, I’m sorry,’ Suzanne said. ‘I’ve upset you. Please, forget it. I’ve had so much on my mind and I-’
‘Do you really think that’s true?’
‘About him, yes. Maybe not about you. Maybe you’ve just been unlucky with your men. What happened to the one who went to the Middle East?’
‘He’s moved on to Shanghai.’
‘Oh, that is rather inconvenient.’ She took another sip of her wine and then said, ‘That Canadian you’re working with obviously thinks the world of you.’
‘What? John Greenslade? You’ve met him?’
‘Yes. He came to the hospital a few days ago, Friday I think, with a beautiful bunch of spring flowers. He said he’d never met Brock, but just wanted to pay his respects. And then we had quite a conversation about you and the work he’s helping you with. Quite star-struck, he was.’
Kathy felt a blush creeping up her neck, and was saved from replying by the arrival of their vitello tonnato, the speciality of the house.
TWENTY-ONE
‘L isten, I’m goin’ fuckin’ mad. Everybody wants me. I’m gettin’ out of here.’
Kathy listened to her ranting down the phone, about being cooped up in quarantine with her mother-in-law, about the press hounding her, about the stupid rumours they were printing, then said, conciliatory, ‘It must be terrible for you, Shaka, and I wouldn’t bother you again if I could avoid it. Are you at home in Chelsea now?’
‘No way. I’m goin’ crazy in that house. I’m at Derek’s office. The little shit’s home in his bed, thinks he’s sick now, so I’m hidin’ out in his office.’
‘I’ll come and see you there.’
‘I told you, I’m leavin’. Today.’
‘Just stay there. I’ll be with you in a few minutes. I won’t take up much of your time.’
The agent’s office was in Golden Square in Soho. In the taxi over there Kathy thought about the plight of Shaka, one of the most beautiful and admired women in the country who was being driven mad by the constant
