Knight's entrance was a simple black door between an antiques shop and a hairdresser's. Donovan pressed the bell button and a woman's voice asked who he was over the intercom.
'Den Donovan for Alex,' said Donovan. The door buzzed and Donovan pushed it open. He went up a narrow flight of stairs, at the top of which a striking brunette had a second black door already open for him.
'Mr. Donovan, good to see you again,' she said.
'Sarah, you're looking good,' said Donovan.
'How's the boy looking after you?'
'Boy? I'm twenty-bloody-eight,' said Alex Knight, striding out of his office. He was tall and gangly with black square-framed spectacles perched high up on his nose. He was wearing a dark blue blazer and when he stuck his hand out to shake he showed several inches of bony wrist.
The two men shook hands.
'Yeah, well, you don't look a day over sixteen,' said Donovan.
'Whatever you're taking, I want some of it.'
'Clean living and early to bed,' said Knight.
'You should try it some time. Come on through.'
Knight's office was about twenty feet square but looked much smaller because every inch of wall space had been lined with metal shelving filled with electrical equipment and technical manuals. His desk was a huge metal table that was also piled high with technical gear.
'Coffee?' asked Knight.
Donovan declined and Sarah closed the door on them. On the back of the door was a blueprint of an electronic device that Donovan could make no sense of.
'So, you old reprobate, what can I do for you?' Knight pushed back his chair and put his feet up on the table. There was a hole in one of his suede loafers.
'I'm going to be back in the UK for a while, and I'm going to be under the microscope,' said Donovan.
'Cops, Customs, spooks. I need to be able to sweep my house and car, and to check if anyone who comes near me is wired.'
'Do you want me to do the sweeping?'
Donovan shook his head.
'No offence, Alex, but I want to do it myself 'No sweat,' said Knight, reaching for a notebook and pen, 'but I'd advise you to let me go over the house once. Show you the ropes, yeah?'
Donovan nodded.
Knight rested the notebook on his lap as he scribbled.
'What about your landline? I've got a gizmo that'll tell you if it's tapped.'
'Waste of time. I can pretty much guarantee that it will be,' said Donovan.
'I won't be using it for anything other than ordering pizzas. I'm more concerned about the house.'
Knight tapped his pen against his cheek.
'Yeah, but you're gonna need a hook switch bypass detector, especially if the spooks are on your case. They can turn any landline into a room monitor and pick up anything that's said. Even when the phone's on the hook. I can fix one to each phone. Five hundred each. Worth the money, Den. No point in sweeping for bugs if your phone is a direct line to Mi5.'
Donovan nodded.
'Okay. You're the expert.'
Knight scribbled on his pad.
'So far as sweeping goes, I've got a state-of-the-art scanner that'll do the job. Brand new RF detector from Taiwan. Pick up anything. Just run it around all suspect surfaces. You can use it on the car, too. I'll show you how to use it, a child can operate it.'
'Okay. And I'm going to need a personal unit.'
'Just what I was going to suggest. I've got a new model in from the States. Bit bigger than a pack of fags, you wear it on your belt like a bleeper. Vibrates when it picks up micro radio frequencies. You know they're wired, but they don't know that you know. Cool thing about this model is that it also picks up most makes of tape recorder. You wear a flat antenna under your watch band with the cable running up your sleeve. It's not one hundred per cent reliable, but close. It'll certainly pick up the shit that the Brits use. They're usually about five years behind the Yanks.'
Donovan grinned. Knight knew his stuff, which is why he'd been using him for the past four years, ever since Knight had picked up his second PhD and decided to leave academia for the commercial world. He wasn't cheap, but Knight's equipment had saved Donovan's skin on several occasions.
Knight tapped the notepad.
'Going back to the house. How about I fix up an acoustic noise generator for you? You're going to be able to sweep for RF bugs and I can give you a metal detector to pick up wired microphones in the walls, but it's easy to miss transmitters in AC outlets. Plus everyone's using laser or microwave reflectors these days, picking up vibrations from windows. Bloody hard to detect. But switch on the noise generator and they'll just pick up static.'
'Excellent,' said Donovan.
'Cash on delivery?'
'As always.' Donovan stood up and held out his hand. Knight swung his legs off the table and shook hands.
'Pleasure doing business with you, Alex.'
'Pleasure's all mine, Den. How's the wife?'
'Don't ask,' said Donovan.
'Just don't ask.'
Stewart Sharkey scrolled through the spreadsheet, a slight smile on his face. Sixty million dollars. He had sixty million dollars. He wondered how much space sixty million dollars would take up. A million was maybe two suitcases full. Sixty million would be one hundred and twenty suitcases. Sharkey tried to picture a hundred and twenty suitcases. He grinned. It was one hell of a lot of money. Invested in bog-standard shares and high-interest offshore accounts, it would earn four or five million dollars a year. More than enough to live on. To live well on. Sharkey had other plans for the money, however. Big plans. And if his plans worked out, he'd turn that sixty million into hundreds of millions. He'd do it legitimately, too. Property development. Central Europe, probably. Get in on the ground floor before they joined the EU bandwagon. There were fortunes to be made in the countries of the former Soviet Union, and Sharkey was the man to do it, now that he had the resources.
The mobile phone on the table next to the computer bleeped and Sharkey grabbed for the receiver.
'Stewart? It's David.'
David Hoyle. A lawyer based in Shepherd's Bush in West London. Sharkey had known him for years, but this was the first time he'd used him professionally.
'Hiya, David. I trust you're using a call box?'
'I am, Stewart, but is this really necessary?'
'You don't know Vicky's husband, David.' That was one of the reasons that Sharkey was using him. Hoyle had never done any work for Den Donovan, or anyone like him. He was a family lawyer who specialised in divorce work and had never been within a mile of a criminal court.
'Even so, Stewart, I feel a bit silly walking out of my office every time I talk to you.'
'A necessary precaution, David. I'm sorry.'
'Where are you?' Hoyle asked. The number that Sharkey had given him was a GSM roaming mobile. It was aUK number but Sharkey could use it anywhere in Europe.
'Not too far away,' said Sharkey.
'Best you don't know the specifics.'
'Oh please, Stewart. That would be covered by client confidentiality.'
Sharkey smiled. He knew that Den Donovan wouldn't be worried about a little thing like client confidentiality.
'How can I help you, David?'
'We've heard back from his lawyers. The husband is applying for sole custody. And of course he will be trying
