Clemens smiled. It made his eyes water.
‘Then I think we’re all going to get along,’ he said.
96
‘The first thing we have to do,’ said the Portreeve, ‘is to welcome our new member.’ He pointed to the left. ‘The Missionary.’
The new Missionary smiled. ‘Is good to be here. Thank you.’
‘Unfortunately we don’t have time for any further pleasantries. Down to business. Thank you for coming to such a hastily convened meeting. I’m sure you think we could have done all this by phone, but with things getting to a critical point, it may be too risky.’
They were back in their usual meeting room, round the table. There was no water this time.
The Portreeve looked along the table. ‘Teacher?’
The Missionary laughed. The Lawmaker stared at him. He didn’t laugh any more.
‘Perfect from my point of view. Couldn’t have been better. In every respect. Mission accomplished. He took the bait and the information was successfully planted. And I quite enjoyed planting it too.’
The Portreeve shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
‘Sorry.’ The Teacher hesitated, then continued. ‘But everything went to plan.’
The Lawmaker leaned forward. Had picked up something in the Teacher’s hesitation. ‘You sure about that?’
‘Absolutely. Wouldn’t mind doing it again.’
The Lawmaker sat back. ‘That won’t happen.’
The Portreeve turned to the Lawmaker. ‘And you? How’s things at your end?’
The Lawmaker waited until he was sure he had their full attention, then began. ‘Fine, generally. The boy has been successfully returned. Our tracks have been well covered there. There’s no way Lister can be traced back to us.’
‘Shame to lose him,’ said the Teacher. ‘He was a good client.’
‘There’ll be others,’ said the Lawmaker. ‘The investigation is stalling. Into both Weaver’s death and the boy’s abduction. And it doesn’t look like the escapee, Faith Luscombe, is going to trouble us either.’
‘Care to elaborate?’ said the Portreeve.
The Lawmaker shrugged. Clearly not happy to elaborate but going along with the request. ‘One detective has been removed. There was a chance he could have been getting too close.’
‘Removed?’ The Portreeve.
‘Suspended. And another has been removed also.’
‘Suspended again?’
‘No,’ said the Lawmaker. ‘This was in a more permanent capacity.’
There was silence round the table. Just the hum of the air-conditioning.
‘Dead?’ The Portreeve spat the word out like it would contaminate his mouth.
‘Let’s just say permanently removed,’ said the Lawmaker, as nonchalantly as possible. ‘We don’t know who might be listening. She’d worked things out. Got too close. She had to go. Faith Luscombe’s partner has been blamed and framed. So… ’ The Lawmaker shrugged. ‘Every cloud… ’
The Portreeve leaned forward. ‘You’re sure about this? This isn’t going to-’
‘Come back and bite us on the arse?’ said the Lawmaker. ‘No. I’m sure of it.’
The Portreeve sat back, looking at the Lawmaker. Uneasy about the change that had come over him. He seemed calmer. Darker. As if during the events of the last few days he had really started to find himself. Discover his true personality. The Portreeve wasn’t sure he liked it.
Wasn’t sure he wouldn’t be next.
‘And the boy is back with the Gardener?’ he asked.
‘Yeah,’ said the Lawmaker, folding his arms. ‘I’ve been thinking about that.’
The others waited.
‘We discussed this earlier. I think it’s actually time to implement it.’ He gestured to the Missionary. ‘We have our new friend here. We have our new source of income just about to go online. We have no need of the, shall we say, old ways.’
Silence.
‘Go on,’ said the Teacher.
‘Let’s offer him up to the police. Let them have the collar. They catch a deranged serial killer, we have a diversion away from our shipment arriving.’
‘That sounds like a plan,’ said the Teacher. ‘But what if he talks when he’s been arrested?’
The Lawmaker shook his head. ‘Credit me with some intelligence, please. He won’t be arrested. There’ll be a team of armed officers ready to take him down. And they will do.’
‘Sounds… excellent,’ said the Portreeve, unconvincingly. ‘You sure you can make this work?’
‘I’m sure.’
‘D’you know where he’ll be?’
The Lawmaker nodded. ‘The back-up location. The one Faith Luscombe was taken to.’
‘The one she escaped from,’ said the Teacher.
Anger flared in the Lawmaker’s eyes, just for a few seconds. But long enough to unnerve everyone else around the table.
‘It’ll be fine,’ the Lawmaker said.
‘So if the Gardener’s going,’ said the Teacher, ‘what about the Garden? Will that go too?’
The Lawmaker smiled. ‘I don’t think so. I think it’s about to be repopulated.’
‘Good,’ said the Portreeve, looking at his watch. ‘Then I’ll see you all later.’ He looked round the table, ensuring eye contact with everyone there. ‘And we mustn’t lose our nerve. We’re so close, and there’s so much at stake. We can all look forward to a prosperous tomorrow.’
The Lawmaker leaned towards him. Smiled. It sent a shiver down the Portreeve’s spine.
‘My nerve’s fine,’ he said. ‘How’s yours?’
The meeting was over.
97
Marina was standing at her desk in the main MIS office, bent over, the space before her spread with charts and maps. Mickey approached, hovered by her side, moving slowly from foot to foot. Said nothing. Eventually she looked up.
‘You all right there, Mickey?’
‘How’s it going?’
Marina sighed, straightened up. Pushed a hank of stray hair behind her ear. ‘Slowly. I’m seeing if I can create a geographical profile of our would-be killer based on the calendar and where we know he’s been.’ She looked down again. ‘Seeing if certain areas are more suited to different times of the year, that kind of thing.’
‘Any luck?’
She looked up at him. ‘Not yet. It takes a while to do this kind of profiling properly, and you need more information for effective triangulation. I was seeing if I could use the calendar as a short cut.’ Her hair fell down, and once more she pushed it back. ‘What can I do for you?’
Mickey looked round, as if nervous. Or fearful of eavesdroppers. ‘Can I have a word?’
‘Sure.’
‘Not here.’ Still looking round.
Marina did likewise. ‘Where, then?’
