The Wolf at the Door

‘Thank you, Prime Minister. Putin didn’t say anything he hasn’t said before, but he does have this dangerous gift of sounding quite reasonable.’

‘As I know to my cost, but I must tell you that I’ve had Charles Ferguson on the phone. A terrible business, this incident with his car and the death of the driver.’

‘I don’t know what the general has told you, Prime Minister, but it now seems certain that the driver was party to the whole affair. It would seem likely that the device, whatever it was, exploded prematurely, unfortunately for him. General Ferguson is handling the matter as if it was an accident, not a bomb, so there should be no problem with the media.’

‘Yes, that’s the last thing we need. Ferguson’s also filled me in on the unfortunate business in Long Island, and on your own brush with death in Central Park.’ He sighed. ‘Trouble follows you everywhere I send you—Kosovo, Washington, Lebanon. You always end up shooting someone. You are the most irregular member of parliament I have ever known.’

‘Hardly my fault, Prime Minister, when you send me to places where people are liable to do a bit of shooting themselves.’

‘A valid point. All those years in the Intelligence Corps dealing with the wild men of Ulster made you spectacularly good at violent solutions. Your decision to leave the army on your father’s death and put yourself up for his seat in parliament has proved most fortuitous, although it would have been slightly more convenient if we’d both been members of the same political party.’

‘Well, you can’t have everything,’ Miller said.

‘I’m aware of that. No one in the Cabinet has any kind of military experience whatsoever, which is why I broke the rules and made you an under-secretary of state. You can be, on occasion, a thoroughly ruthless bastard, and there are times when that’s something that’s needed.’

‘But I am attached to you, Prime Minister, and that makes all the difference.’

‘Flattery gets you nowhere, Miller. I’m due in the House soon, so you’ve got fifteen minutes to explain this whole damn mess and what you and Ferguson intend to do about it.’

Which Miller did, rapidly and fluently, covering everything. ‘That’s it, I think.’

‘And quite enough. Prayer cards, killings, a bombing, and to top all that, this suggestion of an IRA link. That can’t be possible. I’ve enough on my plate with all these banks failing plus the worst recession in years. I know there are a few crackpot organizations out there still demanding a United Ireland, but enough is enough. Sort it, Harry, sort it—and quickly.’

He stood up, the door opened behind Miller as he rose, and Henry Frankel ushered him out.

‘How do you know when people are leaving?’ Miller asked. ‘Are you a magician or something?’

‘Absolutely, love. Take care.’

Miller went out, calling Arthur on his mobile. ‘As soon as you like, and we’ll make it Holland Park.’

Dillon, after a shower and change, went to the canteen, where he discovered Roper, hair still damp, sitting in his wheelchair in a blue tracksuit, enjoying breakfast and immensely cheerful. Ferguson was sitting opposite enjoying scrambled eggs.

‘There you are, you devil, what went on in New York then? You were supposed to be his minder. It’s a miracle he was wearing that ankle-holster.’

‘Which I knew nothing about.’

Maggie Hall entered with scrambled eggs, and withdrew.

‘Diplomatic immunity covered us when we landed in the Gulfstream obviously, but he couldn’t have worn it to the UN.’

‘Probably just a whim,’ Ferguson said. ‘There’s no question of him going into parliament with it, but I suspect he does in other places in London.’ He glanced at Dillon. ‘Do you agree?’

Dillon reached down to his right ankle and produced a Colt .25. ‘All the rage these days, I wouldn’t be without one.’

Roper said, ‘A damn good job he was carrying when he took that walk in the park.’

Dillon reached for toast and marmalade and said cheerfully, ‘Oh, I suspect he’d have thought of something ghastly as an alternative. A man of infinite resource and guile, our Harry.’

‘You can say that again.’ He took a piece of Dillon’s toast and his Codex sounded.

It was Billy Salter. ‘That you, Roper? I’m at the Dark Man. We’ve had a right old business down here. Some geezer tried a little arson in the early hours.’

Roper waved a hand at the others and turned his Codex on speaker. ‘Say again, Billy?’

‘We’d all gone to bed early—Ruby, Harry, me, Joe Baxter and Sam Hall,’ he continued, naming the Salters’ minders. ‘Joe was still dressed and watching a late-night movie on television when he heard a noise from the bar. He knocked on Sam’s door to alert him, then smelt petrol, so he moved into the bar, turned on the lights and found this guy emptying a can of petrol all over the place, the till rifled, cash drawers open.’

‘Who was it?’

‘How do I know? They’re just fishing him out of the Thames. He was wearing a black tracksuit and ski mask, Joe said, and he looked like a terrorist from central casting. Joe had his Smith & Wesson with him. He wasn’t keen on firing in case the petrol ignited, so the guy threw the can at him and legged it. Sam had joined Joe by then and they went after him.’

‘What happened?’

‘The old Ford van at the end of the wharf? It always has a key in it, it’s not worth stealing. I reckon he’d checked it out previously, because he ran straight for it, was in and driving off, but the wrong way. There was no place to turn, and he simply ran over the edge of the wharf in the dark.’

‘With him in it?’

‘The police are here now. They’ll have a recovery team get the van later, but a police diver’s been down and he’s found the guy. He’s gone down again with another diver to try and get him. Harry’s here and he’d like a word.’

The unmistakable cockney voice of Billy’s uncle echoed round the canteen. Harry Salter, a gangster for most of his life and now a property millionaire, said, ‘Well, this is nice, Roper, we could all have been roasted in our beds. What the hell was the bugger playing at? There was a grand in the till. Wasn’t that enough?’

It was Ferguson who said, ‘It’s me, Harry, and Dillon’s just back from New York with the strangest story you’ve heard in a long time.’ He turned to Roper. ‘You explain.’

Which Roper did.

Standing on the bank along from his beloved pub, the Dark Man on Cable Wharf in Wapping, Harry said, ‘Jesus Christ, Roper, this is incredible.’

‘But true, Harry. The guy who shot Blake, the one who attacked Miller, and then the general’s rogue driver last night, all were in possession of the same prayer card.’

‘Tell me again what it says.’

Roper did. ‘The police will search your arsonist’s body when they get him up. Billy can use some muscle by flashing his MI5 card. See where it gets you and call back.’

Ferguson said, ‘An interesting one, gentlemen.’

‘What is?’ Harry Miller entered at that moment.

‘Well, it goes something like this,’ Roper began.

At the end of Cable Wharf were three patrol cars and a medium-sized police truck, the sign on one side reading Salvage & Recovery. There were two divers down there in scuba gear, four uniformed policemen, and an inspector who had turned up and gone to examine the bar.

Harry and Billy were standing watching with Baxter and Hall and Ruby Moon, who was wearing a reefer jacket two sizes too large. The inspector emerged from the bar and approached.

‘Nasty business, Mr Salter. Stinks in there. You’ll have to close for a while. Could have been very nasty if he’d dropped a match.’

Harry had known him for years. ‘A real evil bastard, had to be to do a thing like that. We could have all ended up cooked for breakfast.’

‘Sure you haven’t been annoying anyone lately?’