A woman with salon-perfect big blonde hair bowled towards her. Grinning like Eva was her favourite person, Nora slapped a hand, still favouring a bright red manicure at the unlock button, and the interior door swished open.
“Eva!” Her name accosted her before Nora did, enfolding her in a protocol be damned hug. “Times like this we need our people around us.” Eva winced beneath her enthusiasm.
Nora released her, frowned. “You’ve been in the wars.”
“It’s nothing. How are you? Your daughters and grandchildren?”
“Eight little monkeys now keeping me busy. How’s your little lady? Let me see, picture please.”
Eva flicked through a few photos of Lily while Nora cooed and clucked like the mother hen she was.
“Muuuuum,” Lily hadn’t wanted Eva to film her that day, poking her tongue out, until she laughed, tossing her hair, fluttering her eyelashes, golden-brown eyes wide as she pulled exaggerated catwalk poses.
“Look at her, she’s so grown-up.”
Eva smiled. “Eleven going on fifteen.”
“It’s a fun age. Come on then, I know Gordon’s chomping to see you. We can catch up afterwards.”
Eva followed her down the dark corridor towards a utilitarian staircase at the back of the building.
“I’m happy Gordon has his own unit.”
“Despite himself, you might say. What do you think of our prestigious office space?”
“This is some place.” Eva allowed. “Hiding in plain sight?”
“Something like that,” Nora puffed up the second flight of stairs. “Got to get my 10,000 steps in.”
“I wondered if you might have retired by now.”
“I thought about it, but what would I do? Bake cakes, there’s only so many of those I should eat. Coffee mornings? I’d go mad in five minutes. I’ve got a few years before they put me out to pasture.”
“They’d hate to lose you for sure.”
“There you go,” Nora rapped her knuckles on the first closed door on the top floor before presenting a swipe card to the panel beside it. When it beeped permission, she pushed the door open so Eva could step inside the office and seven years into the past.
“Eva, it’s good to see you. Would that it were in happier circumstances. We don’t lose one of our own often but when it happens, it hurts.” Gordon Stamford gestured at the chairs in front of his desk, shunting over to one side so he could see her around the enormous monitor that took up most of its surface area.
“I know.” Eva shook his hand. “Thanks for seeing me. There must be something in the water here, you and Nora look almost the same as you did the last time I saw you.”
“Though a few too many lunches, too much whisky,” he patted his rounded stomach. Still a full head of unruly hair, though it had worked its way from sandy brown to light grey and keen blue eyes behind his rimless glasses. Gordon didn’t miss much.
“How are you? How is everyone?”
“You know how it is. Right now we’re all shocked, then will come anger, the need to avenge him if foul play is suspected. That’ll be harder to manage. He stayed in Vauxhall Cross when we moved here, but he had strong ties to people in this unit.” He peered at Eva’s face. “You don’t look like you’re taking good care of yourself.”
She stopped herself from shrugging. “A disagreement with a cyclist. Congratulations on your unit chief position. It’s well deserved.”
Gordon laughed. “Sometimes I think they put me over here to get me out of the way. So why the visit now?”
“The police have questioned me twice about Eric, they just told me they think someone poisoned him. Do you know what it was?”
“I know nothing yet. So far it’s being treated as a civilian case.” He frowned, his face settling into well-practiced furrows. “Why are they interested in you?”
“Because Eric and I met the day he died. He told me he needed help on something but—”
“Official Secrets Act still covers you.”
“I know but I’m so far out of the loop, I’m barely in the same country, I have no clue what’s current, who the major players are, might be. Things have changed so much since I was here, they have agendas now I couldn’t have dreamt about then.”
Gordon’s desk phone rang. He held up one finger and hoiked the handset to his ear, listened.
It was like a time warp, his office. The cracked leather-bound books in the case behind him were probably still in the same order they’d been over in Vauxhall Cross, everything transported over here and reassembled exactly. She’d never seen him need to refer to them, his extraordinary memory was the stuff of legend. Apart from that one time.
He finished his call. “What is it?”
It was hard to smile there, then. “I was just remembering when you and Eric were testing each other, him on Google and you with your books.”
“And a lot of fine whisky.”
“He only just beat you.”
“Because I was topping everybody up.” Gordon smiled too. “It’s a good memory, Eva, thank you.” His voice changed, all business now. “I only have a few minutes, I’m needed.” He checked his watch, he still favoured expensive timepieces, this one showing the interior workings in gold.
“Yesterday’s incident?”
He nodded. “You’ll hear it on the news. The powder was inert, nothing dangerous, the ‘victims’ psychosomatic.”
“Who’s claimed it?”
“That’s the strange part, no one. We’re pooling resources, see if we can figure it out. Could be anything, could be nothing.” He sighed. “Terrorism has the easier hand, they can lock down any part of the country, terrify a population with a hoax phone call. We’re labelling this a win for the intelligence services and police. An extra drill, expertly carried out. Why did you come?”
“Because I know something I didn’t tell the police.” She
