‘I can try,’ he said, trying to sound confident. ‘If they’re out of the house, I can search their bedroom.’
‘Might be easier than that,’ said Peele. ‘There’s a safe where Luc and Rosamund keep the family jewels. Ask them. Maybe you can get the combination or the key, take a look when you’re putting your own passport inside.’
‘Too complicated,’ said Strawson. ‘Not important. What else?’
‘There’s a bodyguard. Abbas.’
‘We know.’
‘Not exactly friendly.’ Kite remembered the black look Abbas had given him as he jogged past moments earlier. ‘I’ve tried saying hello a couple of times, but he acts like I’m not there.’
‘Don’t engage with him,’ Peele replied. ‘It’s his job to protect his boss from Iranian exile groups, not to make pals with eighteen-year-old public schoolboys on their gap year.’
‘What about the ghetto blaster?’ Strawson asked. ‘Or what are we calling it? The stereo.’
‘Stuck by the pool,’ Kite told him. ‘I’ll try bringing it up tonight so that we can listen to music on the terrace. Hopefully it’ll get left there. But I know Xavier likes having it down by the sun loungers. He had it on last night.’
‘Yeah, we heard.’ Peele rolled his eyes. ‘How many times can two teenage boys listen to Appetite for Destruction without losing the will to live?’
‘It was G N’R Lies,’ said Kite. ‘Same band. Different album.’
All three men ignored him. Kite took a sip of the coffee. It was still boiling hot. Carl hadn’t offered him sugar or milk. He was wary of asking for either.
‘And the girl?’ Strawson asked.
Kite knew that he meant Martha but played dumb.
‘Which girl?’
‘Brigitte Bardot via Raquel Welch. The one with the curves. Martha, is it?’
‘Martha, yeah.’ Kite thought it was a bit of a stretch to compare her to Brigitte Bardot and Raquel Welch, but felt oddly reassured by the remark, as if Strawson were complimenting him on his good taste. ‘She’s great. Old school friend of Jacqui’s. Very relaxed, very clever. Seems fun.’
‘Yeah? You falling for her? Because we sure as shit don’t need you with your head up your ass the next two weeks. Leave her to Xavier.’
Kite, irritated, said: ‘I think that’s going to happen anyway’, even though at dinner he had detected what he was sure was Martha’s gathering interest in him. She had told him about her childhood in America, where she had lived until the age of ten, and seemed impressed by Kite’s knowledge of books and paintings. It made sense for them to be together. Martha was hardly likely to risk annoying Jacqui by hooking up with her errant older brother. Besides, Xavier had been astonishingly flirtatious with Hana, who had seemed to enjoy his company whenever Eskandarian’s back was turned. She was only seven or eight years older than both of them, which probably made her the same age as Alison from Mud Club. Kite understood Xavier well enough to know that he wouldn’t think twice about stealing Eskandarian’s girlfriend from under his nose. In fact, he would see it as a challenge.
‘She likes taking photos.’ Kite had stumbled on something harmless to say.
‘What kind of photos?’ Carl asked.
Peele looked up, as if Carl had been under orders not to say anything. ‘The ones you take with a camera?’
Kite rescued him, saying: ‘All sorts. She’s always snapping away. In Mougins, at dinner, down by the pool …’
‘Encourage that,’ said Peele with a firmness that slightly concerned Kite.
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean encourage it! Make sure she keeps taking lots of photographs. Especially of anybody who comes to see our man. There haven’t been any visitors to the house so far. Am I correct?’
Kite could feel BOX 88 creeping into Martha’s privacy. He didn’t like it, yet there was nothing he could do to prevent it. He was hardly in a position to tell Peele and Strawson to ignore her.
‘Time?’ Strawson asked.
‘I should go soon,’ Kite replied, without looking at his watch. ‘What else do you need apart from Hana’s surname?’
‘You haven’t told us anything about the reason we’re all here,’ said Peele. ‘Eskandarian. What do you make of him? First impressions. The famous Kite intuition.’
Kite took another sip of the coffee, flattered by the description. He spotted a small jug of milk by the window. He walked over, picked it up, poured some into his coffee and sat back down.
‘He’s a lot more westernised than I was expecting. Smokes Winston Lights, drank a Kir before we all sat down for dinner, then lots of wine, cognac afterwards. Didn’t seem to affect him. I’ve seen guests at Killantringan put away what he drank last night and pass out in the residents’ lounge.’ Strawson was listening intently. ‘He seemed to be well versed in French culture. There was a conversation going on that I couldn’t really hear about Jean-Paul Sartre and Paris in the sixties. He’s very hands-off with Hana, no touching, no kissing. She said he only invited her to Mougins two weeks ago. Rosamund was keeping an eye on her at dinner, but it’s hard to work out if she approves or disapproves—’
‘Eskandarian,’ said Peele, pointedly looking at his watch. ‘Stay with your thoughts on him, not Lady Muck. What kind of things was he talking about at dinner?’
Kite was embarrassed to admit that he had barely spoken to the Iranian all night. He painted a picture of his friendship with Luc as something deep and lasting; the two men had obviously been very happy to see one another. Strawson and Peele seemed particularly interested by this, though the depth of the relationship came as no surprise to them.
‘There was no mention of Malta or New York or anything to do with Lockerbie. He’s very charismatic. Speaks fluent English and French.’ Kite began to feel that he was telling Strawson and Peele things they already knew.
‘It’s OK,’ said Peele, seeing that Kite was struggling. ‘Early
