Page 103 of Fire Must Burn

‘There’s one more person I need to talk to here,’ said Iris. ‘Wait for me.’

She walked out into the entrance hall. Sure enough, the Brigadier’s man was lingering about. She wandered past him, ignoring him while heading towards the telephone boxes. He gave her a few seconds, then turned and followed her.

‘You have a good holiday, Sparks?’ he asked.

‘Was the firm keeping track of my whereabouts?’ she asked.

‘No,’ he said. ‘But you weren’t here yesterday, and you’re coming in late today with luggage, so I figured you were off somewhere. Lucky you.’

‘You’ve been on surveillance the entire time?’

‘Trading twelve-hour shifts,’ he said. ‘One of the more boring jobs I’ve had. Essential, but boring. Looks like I’m stuck here for the duration.’

‘It’s like that sometimes, isn’t it?’ said Sparks. ‘Tell you what, when this is all over we should go out for drinks.’

‘Yeah?’

‘Why not? I might as well confine my social life to the firm since I don’t have any privacy anyway. Give me your name and number and I’ll ring you.’

‘I’m not supposed to do that,’ he said dubiously.

‘You’ll find that “I’m not supposed to do that, but here we go” is my motto,’ said Iris with a grin. ‘Especially after a couple of drinks.’

‘If the Brigadier finds out—’

‘You can tell him you were conducting some independent surveillance, acting on a hunch. He likes initiative.’

‘He doesn’t, you know,’ he said, thinking it over. ‘But we’re both working for him, yeah? My name’s Carlton. Carlton Edwards. You got something to write on?’

She produced her notebook and a pencil and handed it to him. He scribbled down a number and handed it back.

‘How long do you think this assignment’s going to last?’ she asked

‘No telling,’ he said.

‘Well, I’ll ring you either way,’ she said. ‘Nice to finally have a name to put to the face. Which is a nice face, by the way.’

‘Likewise,’ he grinned.

She smiled, then walked back to Gwen.

Men are such idiots, she thought.

‘That porter,’ said Gwen as Iris rejoined her. ‘He’s the dock worker who first contacted us, isn’t he?’

‘Yes. He’s been monitoring Tony here.’

‘Did you just pick him up?’

‘I did. I have his number in the same notebook I used for beetling.’

‘Another life-list acquisition?’

‘Hopefully not,’ said Iris. ‘Let’s go home.’

The taxi pulled up by theCeciliaby six.

‘Are you sure you don’t want to have dinner?’ asked Gwen as the cabbie fetched Iris’s suitcase from the boot.