Part 18 (2/2)

'Not a hundred per cent. I think he's on his way to the function for invited mourners. It's in a club in Kensington. Pip's on his tail. I'm coming back.'

The private function centre was on a rooftop, landscaped with pergolas, pools and groves of trees, and with sweeping views across the city. In the streets below, unmarked police cars took up position and waited for the MP to reappear, which he did at three thirty p.m., bustling out of the front door as the taxi he'd ordered drew up at the kerb. At the same time a call came through from the car waiting outside the riverside apartments in Battersea. 'Chloe's on the move,' the officer reported. 'Catching a cab.'

At Queen Anne's Gate Kathy and Bren watched the routes of the two taxis converge on West Kensington. Almost simultaneously the following cars reported their destination: the Wintergarden Hotel.

'I want pictures of them together in the lobby, if you can,' Kathy said. 'But don't let anyone see you doing it.'

Bren swore under his breath. 'You were right, Kathy. It is him. This is going to put one h.e.l.l of a cat among the pigeons. I want to see Sharpe's face when we tell him. But even more, I want to see Hadden-Vane's face when we knock on that hotel room door.'

Kathy shook her head. 'No, Bren. We need more, much more. And he mustn't know we're on to him while we get it.'

After a couple of minutes a report came back from one of the cars. 'We've got a couple of shots of them together. They went up to the sixth floor. From the look on the receptionist's face he's a regular here. Shall we speak to her?'

'No,' Kathy said. 'Take pictures as they leave and follow them.'

She took a deep breath and stared at Bren. 'Why? Why would he want Moszynski killed? They were great mates.'

'We know he's a corrupt b.a.s.t.a.r.d with some very dodgy friends, Kathy. Remember the last time? We knew he was tied up with Spider Roach, but we couldn't prove it.'

'That's why we have to be careful. He made mincemeat of us the last time. He destroyed Tom Reeves' career and very nearly took Brock and the rest of us down too.'

'Tom Reeves cut corners. He was a maverick, you know that. And Hadden-Vane destroyed him from behind the screen of parliamentary privilege. But he won't be able to hide from this.'

'All we've got is a record of three very brief phone calls between Harry Peebles' and Hadden-Vane's mobile phones. We don't know what was said. We need further proof of contact between the two of them and we need a convincing motive.'

Bren thought for a moment. 'Maybe there're others involved. Vadim Kuzmin, for instance.'

'A family coup, you mean? Yes, I've wondered about that.'

'Maybe Vadim got Hadden-Vane to use his criminal contacts to do the deed while Vadim was safely out of the country.'

Kathy nodded slowly. 'That's possible.'

'I just wish we could tell Brock,' Bren said. 'This would have him back on his feet in no time.'

By the time she got to the hospital that evening Kathy was filled with a quiet sense of elation. For too long they had lived with the memory of Hadden-Vane's plot-his 'Spider trap' as Brock had called it-to destroy a rival MP and in the process discredit Brock and his team. Now they were surely very close to getting the evidence that would finally expose him. She hurried into the hospital lift, imagining the look on Brock's face when she told him.

Suzanne was standing by the window looking into his cubicle, and when she turned around, Kathy was stopped short by the look of desolation on her face.

'Suzanne?'

'Oh, Kathy.' Tears flooded down her cheeks.

'What's happened!'

'He's dead.'

'What!'

'They've just taken his body away.'

Kathy felt dizzy, hardly able to take in what Suzanne was saying.

'So sudden . . . I was with his mother . . .'

Kathy sucked in air, trying to hold herself together. 'His mother?' Brock had never spoken of his mother.

'Such a lovely woman. Devastated, of course. I had to ring for her husband to come. I had to tell him, Kathy. I had to tell him that Danny was dead.'

'Danny?'

'Yes.'

'My G.o.d, I thought . . . I thought you meant Brock.'

'No, there's no change. But Kathy, you know what this means. They're all going to die. All three of them.' She began shaking with uncontrollable sobs.

'No.' Kathy wrapped her arms around the other woman and held her tight. 'No, it surely doesn't mean that. Have the doctors said so?'

'I haven't spoken to them, but . . .'

'l'll do it.' She made Suzanne sit down and told her to wait while she went along the corridor to the nurses' station, where she found one of the specialists.

There was no way of knowing, he said. Danny had had a sudden relapse, but Peter Namono was still stable, and so was Brock. They were doing everything they could. A new antiviral drug was being flown over from America. They could only wait and hope.

Suzanne was calmer when Kathy returned and pa.s.sed on what she'd been told. Suzanne gave a weary sigh and wiped a hand across her eye. 'I'm sorry, Kathy. I keep thinking the worst.'

'When did you last have a decent meal? Not since last week, I'll bet. Come on, nothing's going to happen tonight. If he could he'd be telling us to get out of here and have a proper feed. I saw an Italian place down the road. How about it?'

Suzanne sniffed and began to form a refusal, then relented.

After the first gla.s.s of Chianti she gave a reluctant smile and said, 'Thanks, Kathy. I did need to get away from that place. If he ever gets out of there I'll kill him for putting us through this.'

Kathy nodded.

'I've been thinking about the work you do, the pair of you,' Suzanne went on. 'And I've thought about how alike you two are. That's why you get on so well, I suppose.'

'I don't think we're alike at all.'

'Oh yes you are. Both stubborn, like terriers when you get your teeth into something. Very loyal, but not always to the right priorities.'

'How do you mean?'

'You both suffer from the same problem, what I used to call Brock's Paradox, the belief that you can only keep a relations.h.i.+p alive by not allowing it to reach its full potential.'

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