The lady nodded. “I can get what you need, you wait there.”
Eva sniffed, rubbed at her nose. “You have handkerchief?” Burst into loud sobbing again, wailing for Kathy.
The housekeeper sighed. “You must be quiet.”
Eva pushed the volume higher.
“Come, come.” The housekeeper ushered her inside and deposited her in an immaculate lounge that was bigger than the downstairs of Eva’s house used to be. She closed her eyes against her last image of it.
Eva counted what she hoped was enough seconds for her to have reached the first floor, before padding through the enormous hallway to the kitchen. Wow, no excuse to be a terrible cook in there. Every gadget imaginable lined one wall, filed away in individual cubby holes behind glass doors.
To have escaped notice, the poison had to be tasteless, odourless. She checked the bin, the bag inside was empty.
Peering through the windows, there was nothing as pedestrian as a dustbin outside, but on the ground lay a disposable coffee cup. An odd place to leave it, or, so used to being cosseted, the drinker didn’t bother putting it in the bin.
The back door was unlocked, giving Eva the chance to step outside to look at it. Wouldn’t it have been neat and tidy if it bore the Coffee Espresso logo? The generic brownness of the unbranded cup meant it could have come from anywhere.
“What are you doing?” The housekeeper rapped Eva with her voice.
“Whose drink was this?”
“You need to leave, I’m calling security.”
43
“I’ll be honest with you,” Eva dropped her accent. “I’m not a friend of Kathy’s. I’m working on this case as a consultant for the security services. Kathy was poisoned, so was Aleksandr. He may not live. If he dies, you lose your job. Help me figure out what hurt them. Who brought this in?”
The housekeeper opened one of the dozens of kitchen cupboards to show Eva a leaning tower of twin cups. No one here worried about saving the planet. “The Oblovs make their coffee here.” She gestured at the huge gleaming coffee machine.
“Did either of them eat or drink anything from outside the house yesterday?”
She shook her head.
“Do you eat and drink here?”
The woman nodded, her eyes widening, her hand flying to her mouth as she realised what Eva was actually asking.
“The Oblovs aren’t the first to be poisoned in this way. May I?” Eva gestured at the gap between them. The woman looked totally confused. “I need to make sure you haven’t been affected.”
At her vigorous nodding, Eva stepped close and sniffed her cheek. “Thank you. I just need to make a phone call.”
“Have I? Have I been poisoned?” Her eyes filled with tears.
“Not exactly, but you have ingested a drug. It won’t harm you if you do exactly as I say, okay?” the woman looked like she might die from a heart attack first. “It’s vital that you’re not given hydroxocobalamin, you understand? You’re quite safe unless you’re given that drug.” Eva hoped. “That’s what killed Kathy. Aleksandr hasn’t had it, that’s why he’s still alive. Do you understand?”
Tears ran down the housekeeper’s cheeks, but she repeated the name of the drug at Eva’s insistence until she said it fluently. Eva sat her down in the lounge and called the situation in to Nora, adding that someone needed to check the bodyguard.
She sat with the terrified housekeeper until the house got busy with the arrival of the police, CSI, paramedics and a couple of guys who didn’t ID themselves but came in unchallenged. MI5, potentially Six.
The waiting gave Eva a lot of time in which to argue with herself. She had too much evidence to the contrary now to not go with her Plan B. She shifted on the sofa, the house-keeper clutched her hand tighter. “I’m not going anywhere.” Eva reassured, “until I know you’ll be safe.” And then she’d have no choice but to do what she didn’t want to.
While she watched the efficiency of the authorities evaluating what this might be and how to deal with it, something tickled at the edges of Eva’s mind, something she already knew. What was linked? But the more she questioned it, the further away from her the feeling fled, further still as she explained the situation to the paramedic examining the housekeeper.
“Repeat it back to me, please.” At his look Eva added, “I need to be sure for when you hand her on so please humour me.”
The paramedic repeated her words exactly. “Though the patient is presenting with the appearance of having ingested cyanide, it’s a priming agent. And administering hydroxocobalamin will be fatal.”
Eva nodded. “Dr Asha Chakrabarti at St Thomas’ knows about this, she’s treating the owners of the house. This appears to be a two-part process, the hydroxocobalamin, potentially any drug, could finish it.”
“Got it.” The paramedic shifted attention to the housekeeper.
“You’ll be okay.” Eva squeezed the stricken woman’s hand and let the officer in charge know she was leaving. It felt good giving her contact details as SIS, a sense of belonging she hadn’t realised she’d missed.
The bus deposited Eva close to her next destination. She watched the house from the street corner. No sign of anyone in there, but there hadn’t been the first time she’d been there.
She’d do anything to keep Lily safe, that was all this was, looking after her baby girl. She could do that.
As bold and confident as possible with her limp and her churning insides, she walked up the front path and knocked. And again. CJ probably wouldn’t let her in out of choice. That was what the pick gun—she’d had to start again with the requisition form, using its correct name—was for. One more knock, ignored. You don’t have the choice, CJ, you’re going to help me.
She pressed the front door, almost immoveable in its frame. Starting with the deadbolt, she inserted the tool’s pick into the lock, a quick press and she heard the unlocking she wanted. Same procedure in the top
