Page 119 of The Other Woman

“My children are well, and my wife seems to be reasonably fond of me at the moment.” Gabriel shrugged. “So, yes, I suppose I’m as happy as I’m ever going to be.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“A good friend of mine is under fire for something that wasn’t his fault. I’m concerned about his well-being.”

“Sounds like something I read once in a sympathy card.”

“Come on, Graham, let’s not do this. We’ve been through too much together, you and I.”

“And once again, you’re the hero, and I’m the one who gets to clean up the mess.”

“There are no heroes in a situation like this. Everyone loses.”

“Except the Russians.” Seymour went to the trolley and poured an inch of whisky into a glass. “Keller sends his best, by the way.”

“How is he?”

“Unfortunately, the doctors say he’ll live. He’s walking around with a very important secret in his head.”

“Something tells me your secret is safe with Christopher Keller. Who else knows?”

“No one other than the prime minister.”

“A total of three people inside HMG,” Gabriel pointed out.

“Four,” said Seymour, “if you include Nigel Whitcombe, who has a pretty good idea.”

“And then there’s Rebecca.”

Seymour made no reply.

“Is she talking?” asked Gabriel.

“The last person in the world I want to talk,” said Seymour, “is Rebecca Manning.”

“I’d like a word with her.”

“You already had your chance.” Seymour contemplated Gabriel over his whisky. “How did you know she was going to be there?”

“I had a feeling she would want to pick up something on her way out of the country. Something her father left there in 1951 after Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean defected.”

“The camera and the film?”

Gabriel nodded.

“That would explain the shovel. But how did you know where the stuff was buried?”

“I was reliably informed.”

“By Charlotte Bettencourt?”

Gabriel said nothing.

“If only you’d taken that shovel when you left...”

Gabriel invited Seymour to elaborate.

“We could have slipped Rebecca out of Washington without the Americans knowing,” Seymour went on. “The video of her purchasing the shovel from that hardware store is what doomed her.”