He closed his eyes.
Lucy put a hand against the wall to steady herself. ‘What’s your real name?’ she whispered.
Again, he looked away. He was clenching and unclenching his fists.
‘Tell me!’ she suddenly yelled.
‘You should go,’ he snapped. ‘I don’t want my sodding cover blown.’
‘You shit.’ She was incredulous. ‘You won’t tell me?’
He glanced at the door. Made dampening motions with his hands. ‘Christ, Lucy. This isn’t the time, okay?’
‘Why won’t you?’ She stepped close, peering up at him. ‘What are you afraid of?’
‘It’s not that, it’s–’
‘You lied to Mum. She thought you were someone else, for God’s sake! And you lied to me. How could you?’
‘It was work!’
‘But we’re your family!’
He looked as though he wanted to tear his hair out. ‘You know how dangerous it is being on a long-term undercover assignment. If my targets found out, they’d go for you and Mum, no hesitation. Can’t you see?’
‘Plenty of undercover officers have families who know what they do. What makes you so different?’
‘I was dealing with people who were killers, don’t you get it? If they got a whiff that I was a cop, you and Mum would have been in the firing line. I did it to protect you! There was no other way!’
‘That’s pathetic,’ she spat. ‘There’s always a way. You caused immeasurable damage and you call it work.’
She went to the door and yanked it open. Before she stepped outside, she looked at him standing there, a combination of misery and defiance in his stance.
‘I hate you,’ she said.
He gave her a sad smile.
‘That’s exactly what your mother said.’
46
Dan was shocked when he saw Isla. Gone was the smart, bright and confident young flight attendant and in her place was a diminished, frightened woman. He’d been surprised how easy it had been to gain access to her ward, especially since the media coverage of her and BreatheZero, but he’d simply given her name at ward reception, said he was a friend, and he was directed to her room, where she was sitting with her friend Emily.
Emily was also American, a vivid Californian blonde with freckles across the bridge of her nose and green eyes that reminded him of Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn, who come hell or high water, he was going to avenge.
He introduced himself, saying that Isla had looked after him on the Miami flight eleven days ago. He wasn’t surprised that she couldn’t remember him. She had to have met dozens of business-class travellers over the past month alone.
‘I wanted to talk to you about BreatheZero,’ he said.
‘What about it?’ Her tone was cautious.
He couldn’t very well say that Tomas, a criminal friend of Lucy’s, had given them a tip-off that might help them find a woman who was suspected of trying to kill an accountant called Ricky Shaw, so he settled for: ‘I’m working with the police. We’re investigating BreatheZero.’
At that Emily’s eyes widened. ‘No way.’
‘Shoot.’ Isla’s features became animated. ‘Why? What have they done?’
He prevaricated. ‘It’s part of another investigation. I’m sorry I can’t say exactly what. You could say I’m information gathering.’
Emily leaned forward. ‘What do you need to know?’
‘Just a few basic things. Like how they approached Isla in the first instance.’
Isla glanced in Emily’s direction. ‘Shall I tell him?’
‘I can’t see why not.’
Isla spoke. ‘It was a journalist from the London Herald who came and saw me. Nykko. He was doing a story on aerotoxicity. Apparently, I was on the front page of his newspaper.’ She plucked at her blanket. ‘But I knew nothing of it until a woman from BreatheZero came to see me.’
‘What was her name?’
‘Amina Amari. She was really nice, wasn’t she, Em? And the professor too.’
‘Yeah, he was really cute.’ Emily nodded. ‘And his accent! So British! I could listen to him for–’
‘Em…’ Isla’s tone had a smile in it, but it was also warning. ‘Mr Forrester doesn’t need to hear about–’
‘So I made a date with him!’ Emily flung up her hands. ‘Where’s the harm in that?’
Silence.
‘Would you be talking about Professor Gerald Dunsfold?’ Dan asked. He’d just returned from Oxford this morning, where he’d been researching the professor who was, apparently, the founder of BreatheZero.
Emily glanced at Isla. Gave a sheepish nod.
‘What did they want?’ Dan asked.
It was Emily who replied. ‘Amina wants Isla to be the “face” of their company. To help her sell more masks and save more lives from being ruined by breathing bled air in jet aeroplanes. She’s convinced we’ll all be multi-millionaires before the year is out.’
‘She brought in a contract,’ Isla said, her voice small.
Dan raised his eyebrows.
‘No, we didn’t sign it,’ said Emily.
‘No.’ Isla looked dejected. ‘I don’t have aerotoxicity, you see. I have a brain tumour.’
‘Oh, Isla.’ Dan’s heart went out to her. ‘I’m so sorry.’
‘Yeah, it’s really crap.’
They talked about the operation that was going to happen the next day, her terror of staying awake for the four- to six-hour operation, and then Dan returned to the subject that had brought him here.
‘Isla. About BreatheZero. Did you know that your face is already on their website? And that you’re being shown in their ads?’
‘What?’
Emily sprang to her feet. Isla sat bolt upright.
Dan brought out his phone. Showed Emily the ad Lucy had seen in the weekend papers.
‘They’re quoting Isla too,’ he added.
Emily read out what some of what Isla was supposed to have said. ‘Protect your pregnancy… think of the tiny baby inside you, growing and changing day by day… there is great potential for the toxins to pass through the placenta and be absorbed by your unborn baby…’
‘But I didn’t say any of this!’ Isla cried.
‘How dare they!’ Emily strode to the window and back, her hair almost crackling with fury. ‘No contract, no money, but they’re using you anyway! What a shitty thing to do. And I am certainly not going to see Gerald fucking Dunsfold for that drink now, am I? Bastard. He can sit there all night for all I care.’
Dan’s
