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Once William had accompanied Robin Cook safely back to his office in Whitehall, Danny drove him on to Scotland Yard so he could brief the Commander on how the morning had gone.

Without a hitch, but last night …

•••

William arrived at the Yard just after eleven to find the Commander already seated behind his desk. Within minutes, Ross, Paul, Rebecca and Jackie had joined them and taken their places around the conference table.

‘What I can’t work out,’ said the Hawk, as he took his place at the top of the table, ‘is why would Faulkner visit Ahmed in the middle of the night.’

‘Ahmed must have something Faulkner wants,’ suggested Ross.

‘But what could those two possibly have in common?’ said William.

‘They’d both murder their grandmothers if there was something in it for them,’ commented Jackie.

‘I would guess,’ said Rebecca, ‘that an extra one hundred and fifty million pieces of silver is more than enough for Ahmed and Khalil to want to risk anything to ensure the French and not the British end up with the arms contract.’

‘But Faulkner’s never shown any interest in arms or oil in the past,’ said the Hawk, almost talking to himself. ‘It’s not his world.’

They all fell silent until Rebecca said, ‘It isn’t their grandmothers they’d have to kill to make sure the French get the arms deal.’

‘Only Avril Dubois,’ said William. ‘But that still doesn’t explain what Faulkner’s involvement is.’

‘If Prince Ahmed arranged for Faulkner to have Avril killed,’ said Ross, ‘Ahmed would be off the hook and the one hundred and fifty million would be his.’

‘But what would Faulkner expect in return?’ said Paul. ‘It has to be more than thirty pieces of silver to take such a huge risk. If he was implicated in Avril’s murder, he would be spending the rest of his life in prison.’

Another long silence followed before the Hawk said, ‘That’s one mystery we won’t solve sitting around this table, so we’ll have to keep Faulkner under surveillance twenty-four-seven, because if he does plan to have Avril killed, he’ll have to employ someone else to do his dirty work, and I need to know who, and even more important, when.’

CHAPTER 16

MILES TOOK HIS TIME FILLINGin the form, especially when it came toprevious offences.

After signing his name on the bottom line, he posted the application recorded delivery, but didn’t receive a reply confirming his request had been granted for another five days.

He made a note in his diary.

•••

Ross burst into William’s office when he was on the phone. ‘Faulkner’s applied for a prison visit next Thursday,’ he said.

‘I’ll call you back,’ said William, before putting down the phone. He looked at Ross and all he asked was, ‘Who?’

‘Tulip. His eyes and ears when he was in the Scrubs.’

‘Serving twelve years for the murder of a police witness during one of Faulkner’s earlier trials, if I remember correctly.’

‘The same,’ said Ross.

‘Then I want to know every word that passes between them, because it may be our only hope of finding out what the connection is between Miles Faulkner and Prince Ahmed.’

Ross nodded. ‘I’ll have the four best lip readers available on the balcony, picking up every word.’

‘They’ll need to be good, because those two will know they’re up there.’

‘They’re the best,’ said Ross, ‘and Faulkner and Tulip may not be able to spot them,’ he added without explanation.

‘And Ross,’ said William firmly, as he got up and turned to leave, ‘for obvious reasons I don’t want any of our team anywhere near the Scrubs next Thursday. So pick your contacts carefully, because one or two of the prison officers could well be on Faulkner’s payroll.’