Dave hailed a taxi when they were in Whitehall, “Flemings Hotel please.” They were greeted as they arrived, in the lounge they ordered afternoon tea. They said nothing until it had been served, Dave asked how Sally thought the meeting had gone. “Probably as well as you could hope for, they said you would get more money, I have a paid position. It isn’t as much money, but it’s secure employment, you won’t be running about, well, not too much. I tried to read Jane, but she was giving nothing away, they want you. I wonder how much freedom you will be given, I think you should have mentioned that.”
“Let’s see what they say about how you can operate.” They ate in silence, both of them were still hungry, they moved into the bar where they ordered burgers and fries with salad. Dave sat back in the chair he was sitting on, his eyes were closed. Sally knew he wasn’t sleeping, she tapped his leg with her foot when she saw Jane Goodley come in, Dave’s eyes were open instantly.
He was standing as she approached, there was no kiss. He asked if she wanted a drink. “Water please.” Sally shook her head.
The three were sitting round a table in the bar. “Jane,” Dave got no further than saying her name.
“Miss Goodley please.”
He ignored her, “Jane, why the sudden wall between us?” She again repeated she was to be called ‘Miss Goodley’. “Send whatever you have for us in the post, we’re going home, we will speak to you when you are back to normal, come on Sally.”
He stood up, Sally pulled him back down, she could see tears in Jane’s eyes. “Dave, get us a meeting room,” he was back a few minutes later with a key. The three of them left the bar, Jane slumped down in a chair in the meeting room, tears flowed down her cheeks, she let Sally wipe them away. There were bottles of water on a side table, one was opened and put in front of Jane. She sipped the water, took a tissue from Sally and wiped her eyes.
“I am trying to keep our communications on a business level, the other night I said to much and you took over. It was wrong, wrong for me to have said what I did and wrong for you to do what you did. It won’t happen again.”
“May I ask you a question, you will say no, so I will ask it anyway? Who do you have you can talk to, I don’t mean regarding business, do you have a really close friend other than Ruth, someone you can confide in?”
“You’re doing it again, prying into my personal life.”
“Answer the question please.” Sally could see she was on the verge of tears again.
“There is only one person who knows me as well as Ruth does, you know who it is, it’s you.” The tears started again.
“Jane, you are like most business people, men and women, there is a hard exterior, but inside, there is vulnerability and self-doubt, very few people get to see both sides. It doesn’t make you any less a person, it makes you human, we are all like that. You are a strong person, it’s OK to say I’m having a bad day, or things aren’t going to well at home. Those who know and love you understand, you have a difficult job, there are people round you who will offer support. You have to tell them how you feel, especially Ruth, let her love you when you have had a bad day instead of being snappy with her. I said the other night you make a great couple.”
The tears had stopped. “I hate the way you can see inside me, everything you say is true, I need to let go more. When you are round me, I find it hard to concentrate, I have this feeling you know what I’m thinking, that is why I want our meetings to be on a business footing.”
“Jane, that isn’t going to happen, of course at work, I will always address you as Miss Goodley, but as I have said before, I am compassionate, I can’t change the way I am. I have seen you heartbroken, I want you to be happy, you deserve to be happy, life is too short, enjoy it while you can. Ask Sally, she wasn’t always the happy positive person she is now.” Dave reached out for one of the bottles of water, there was silence in the room. “Sally, take Jane to the toilet, wash her face, if you have any makeup with you, help her. I want to see her smiling when she comes back.” It was almost half an hour before they were back, they had been down to the bar for a drink and a chat. He stood up when they came in, Jane looked better.
“Dave, stay on your feet, come round here,” Jane threw her arms round him and hugged him, she wouldn’t let go. “That’s enough, sit down the pair of you.” It was Sally’s turn to speak. Jane looked down. “Dave, as you know, there is a bit of Jane that loves you, not in a sexual way, she has push that to one side when she is dealing with you, she finds it hard to do at times. She knows what you say to her is right, she finds it hard coming from someone who she is meant to be the boss of.”
Dave wanted to say something, the look from Sally made him change his mind. “I’ve told her you say the things you do as a friend who wants to help, she understands. We are going to leave here, return to the bar or lounge and start this meeting again. Jane and I will go first, what do you want to drink.” Dave said he would have a lager.
Sally was sitting on her own when he found her in the lounge, the table was away from everyone else. Jane walked into the lounge, Dave stood up and kissed her on the cheek. He asked if she wanted a drink, she said no. “I’ve come from the meeting with Sir Rupert, he liked your idea about splitting the duties into admin and investigations, he has asked me to look into the mechanics of making it work. Most of the rest he was OK with, the only issue was with your methods, if he doesn’t know then he cannot comment. That is as close as you will get to a nod of approval. It was too late to have it printed before I left, it will be with you in the morning. Thank you both for staying late to see me.”
She leant back in the chair when she had finished, her eyes closed. “Thank you, we will spend some time over the break thinking about it. You probably know already what the answer will be, but we want to make sure. Can I ask you a question?”
She opened her eyes and sat up, the look on her face said she wasn’t sure if she wanted to hear the question. “Do you want this to happen?”
“Yes, for many reasons I don’t want to go into now, maybe another time.” With that the meeting was over, Jane rang for her car to collect her, “in case we don’t talk again before the end of the week, I hope you both have a Happy Christmas.” Sally wished her and Ruth the same, when the car arrived, there were more hugs before she got into the car, they waited outside until the car drove off.
Sally said she needed a drink. “Dave, she is very mixed up, she loves Ruth, really loves her, but as I said, there is a bit of her in love with you. I’m glad she isn’t bi-sexual, I might have a fight on my hands. She has tried to work it out, but can’t, you have saved her life twice, I think it’s that. The other issue is, what you say to her she knows is right, they did make love the other night when they went home, she told me it was the best for a long time.”
“Let’s go home, I’ve had enough of London. The train to Luton and the M1 were both busy, the exodus for the Christmas break had begun. Neither of them said much on the way home, Sally cooked a meal when the were home, Dave ate, but showed little interest in the food.
“What is it, something is on your mind, is it the job offer?”
“No, something isn’t right, I know it’s Christmas Eve tomorrow, but I’m going to London, what ever it is, the answer is there.”
“Can’t it wait until after Christmas?”
“No, I don’t know whether to leave now and stay at Flemings or leave very early in the morning.”
“Go to bed now, make it an early start.”
“Would you bring me up a coffee, I need to make a phone call, he looked at the time to work out if it would still be daytime in Washington.” He dialled the number for Cyrus Grantly, his contact in the CIA, fortunately he was still in his office. “Cyrus, I need your help.”
“Do you need a reference for your new job?”
“Is nothing secret in the secret service?”
“No, will you accept it?”
“It could be withdrawn soon, I might make myself unpopular again. You know what’s been going on here, supposedly, it’s all sorted, but I have a feeling I’ve missed something. I don’t know what it is, you must have a file on it, can you send it to me, my other option is to look myself, but I’d rather not do that? Ask whoever you have to, I want the information in thirty minutes.”
“David, I can’t just send you a file, I need permission, it will have to go higher.”
“Cyrus, I don’t have time to wait, thirty minutes and then I will look myself.”
“I’ll phone you back as soon as I can.” Sally had brought up his coffee and had heard his side of the conversation.
“You were a little short with him.”
“I want the information quickly, I think there will be a lot to read.”
“What do you think it is?”
“It’s something to do with the meetings on Monday, the more I think about them, the odder they appear, especially the one with the Chief of the Defence Staff. We were given the push over nothing, that’s where I want to start.”
As they were talking his phone rang. “The file will be with you shortly.”
“Cyrus, thank you, is there anything you are withholding?”
“No, you will get everything, I hope you and Sally have a good Christmas. Take care.”
He drank some of the coffee before switching on one of the laptops. “You’re going to be here for ages, I’ll make you something else to eat and power up the other laptop in case you need me to look at anything.” It was another ten minutes before the file arrived, Sally had returned with sandwiches and biscuits.
“Log on to my emails, read the file at the same time, we will compare what we both take from the American reports.” The only sound was Dave eating biscuits, Sally finished reading first, she waited for Dave.
“Nothing is in the correct order, it’s difficult to make sense of it all, I think you are right, there is something, I don’t know what it is. I can’t stay awake much longer and you shouldn’t either, read it once more then come to bed. What time will you be going in the morning?”
“03:00, unfortunately I won’t be able to get the last few bits we need for Christmas Day, will you be OK?”
“Yes, don’t worry, I will get the tree and decorations out from the garage, hopefully when you return the house will look a bit festive. I won’t ask when you will be back.” In bed he lay with his eyes closed, he was trying to make sense of the American information, at 02:30, he woke. Sally never moved as he got out of bed, he kissed her before dressing in the spare bedroom, his backpack had a laptop, a Glock, and a box of shells. He drove to London in his car, he phoned ahead with the registration number to be allowed into the carpark under MI5. He was sitting in an office on the top floor just after 05:00. One of the night team had come to see if he needed any assistance. He said no to the offer.
Logging into the MOD site, he started, his first job was to go through the emails of Admiral Gordon Sheldon, Chief of the Defence Staff. There wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, he didn’t expect to find anything, next were the phone logs from his office, again he thought there wouldn’t be anything, but he had to check. It was the same with his mobile number, all this had taken over two hours, he was aware of someone standing in the doorway to the office he was in. He hadn’t closed the door, no one else had been around when he had started.
He looked up to see Jane Goodley standing looking at him, she was dressed casually. “What are you doing here, the night staff phoned me at 06:00 to say you were in here working?”
“There is something not right, it has all been too easy, we’re missing something, last night I spoke to the Americans, they sent me over their files on the investigation. Jane, I have a bad feeling.”
She came into the office and sat opposite him. “What do you want, there is only a skeleton team in from now on, people are on standby if required.”
“Two researchers who are cleared, can work on their own initiative and will not say anything.”
“There might be one in already, I will find out and come back to you.”
“Stay where you are for a minute, I have a question for you, I cannot avoid it. I will find out if you are lying. Since I started this investigation, you have been different, you look like you are living on your nerves, are you involved in the bombings, or have information you are withholding. My only concern is preventing any more deaths, I’m beginning to think the tube bombing wasn’t accidental.”
“No, you know why I haven’t been well, it’s nothing to do with me being involved.”
“OK, find me a researcher or two please.”
Ten minutes later she was back, a tray had three coffees, a middle aged woman was with her. “This is Janice, she is good and has the necessary clearance.”
“Janice, I need you to check through the phone records of an individual, I will set up the software for you to look, print out anything which you think doesn’t look normal. It’s to do with the recent bombings.”
“Jane said she would assist. “You can look through the emails sent from Simon Pegson, the MP from the Patriotic League. Then find out where his phones are, I want them here, better still do that first, get onto the Met.” Janice was sitting waiting, Dave loaded software, gave her the phone number and showed her how it worked. “Trace the numbers of those he dialled, the software should do it all for you. Any problems, let me know.”
“The phones will be here in an hour, they said they are iPhones and locked.”
“That’s OK, we will soon get into them, before the phones arrived, Janice said everything looked OK. “Can you find his bank account, we will look there next, I will check the credit card companies, once you have his account number I will give you access.”
She looked at Jane. “Aren’t we meant to have authorisation before we do this?”
“It’s alright, we can look anywhere we have to.” Dave put the program on a stick, he would have the machines in the office cleaned by IT when it was over, it was loaded onto the PC Janice was using.
“Type in the sort code and account number, the information will come up shortly.” Jane I will load the iPhone software on your machine, we can look at two phones at once then. The phones were brought up by a security guard, they took one each. Dave was correct in his guess that one would be his phone used on a day to day basis and would be ‘clean’, the other he thought would be more interesting. “Connect the phone up, switch it on and leave it on the login screen, run the software, it could take up to ten minutes to get in.”
He did the same on the phone he had, there was another knock on the door, a woman in her twenties waited outside. Jane moved to open the door. “Are you Harriet?”
“Yes, I was told to report to you.”
“Good, come in, we are carrying out a rushed investigation. We need to use your skills, the others are David and Janice. He is in charge, we do what he says, afterwards, you say nothing to anyone. Sit at a desk and fire up a PC, there is no such thing as anything trivial and there are no stupid questions. While your machine is powering up, would you make four coffees please.” Looking back at her screen, she said the phone was unlocked. “Look through the contacts list, then the messages and finally the emails.”
“David, I am looking at his bank account, would you come here please?” He went over to Janice, he stood behind her. “As well as his salary, there is other money coming in, sometimes several times a week, always from the same account, he then transfers it out once a week.”
“Find out who it comes from and where it goes.” He picked up a phone, “I want someone from IT up here in five minutes please.” Jane said she had the private phone, there was another knock at the door, it was the person from IT. “Sit at the desk Harriet is using, I want a secure folder setting up, to only be accessible by the people in this room. If you need authorisation, Miss Goodley is at one of the desks, she will give you the names of those present. Set up a common password, we will change it later. Janice, will you download all the bank statements, transfer them into the new folder being created. Everyone else, use the folder as a place for anything you find out, we can make sense of it later.”
Jane called Dave over. “Nothing is encrypted, names and phone numbers are here, the Admiral is on the list.”
“Read the messages, try to figure out what I have missed.” Janice said the money was coming in from the MP Simon Pegson and going out to a Major George Armson. He put the software on the PC Harriet was using. “Janice, show Harriet how to look at bank accounts, while you carry on, she can bring up Simon Pegson’s accounts.”
The time was now 10:00, his phone pinged with a message, it was from Sally, she asked if he was OK, his reply said he was making progress. “Jane, I don’t know what strings you have to pull, but I want Simon Pegson brought here from wherever he is on remand, it needs to happen now. Make up an excuse, do not contact anyone in government. Janice, contact the mobile phone company the Admiral uses, I want to know the location of his phone.”
“I’ve spoken to the Deputy Head of the Met, he will be brought here under armed escort, possibly within the hour.”
“We will use one of the secure interview rooms downstairs, will you inform security? Go back to reading the messages, there must also be email addresses we don’t know about, look at them if there is nothing glaring in the messages, go back to before the tube bombing.”
Information was now coming in from the three people in the room, he didn’t go back to his laptop, he was looking over shoulders at screens. Ringing the duty desk, he asked for more coffees, breakfast rolls, biscuits and bottles of water for four people to be brought up. “Jane, find out who is controlling him, he doesn’t have the money to do all this himself. Harriet, are you in to his bank account yet?”
“I’m just waiting for the software to let me in.” The food and drinks were delivered, they ate as they worked. Security called to say the visitor had arrived, and would be in the interview room in ten minutes. Jane said she would be going down as well. “Only one of you can leave the room at a time, do not leave it unattended, we will be back soon.” Jane had seen Dave interview a prisoner before, he was very good, she wanted to see how he would do it this time. There were two armed policemen outside the room, two more were inside. They walked into the room, he said for the two police to wait outside, the interview was about to begin.
© 10210ken 2026
