“You want to go out for a spot of lunch, Jinx? A beer? Two beers?”
Colin asked me. “Only you look a bit down in the mouth if I may say so.”
I was. Sometimes you start to wonder if things are ever worthwhile or whether you should jack it all in and take up golf or watercolour painting. When I’m away, problems seem to run off me. It’s when I get back to London that things start to sink in. “Why haven’t I been stricter with Jimmy? Why this? Why that?”
“It’s the weather,” I said. “Why do I never see the sun here? Why is the first sign of London from a plane is the top of a thick blanket of cloud?”
I didn’t expect an answer, but Colin stood up. “Let’s get out of here.”
“I’ve only just got here,” I replied, but I followed him.
We passed Ching in the other office. “Call Larry back, will you?”
Colin told her. “Tell him we’ll call back in an hour or so. I need to take care of this sad fellow and hear what he’s got to say.”
You’d never suspect we were equal partners in this business.
Sometimes Colin makes me feel like his wayward teenage son.
We walked, in the rain of course, to a pub on Quebec Street. When we passed Colin’s sandwich take-out place, I noticed that he hesitated, but we walked on by.
We ate beef and ale pie and drank a couple of pints of beer, and by the end, I felt better. What was more, the rain had stopped, and a weak sun was trying to force the cloud to surrender when we emerged two hours later. The problem was that Colin had left me with some unexpected personal questions.
“You said you had some better news,” I said as we sat with our first beers and waited for the food to arrive.
“Anna,” he said.
I looked up. I’d not spoken to her since Bangkok, and I’d wondered earlier if that was adding to my general mood.
“We used her to contact Solomon’s girlfriend, the one called Pim. We thought she might help to find Solomon so I got Ching to call her -
woman to woman you know.”
“Did she answer the phone?”
“It took a few attempts, but then Ching introduced herself, explained she worked for you and me in London, and asked her if she would do us a favour. Anna agreed and Ching gave her a university phone number to start her off. Then we sat back to wait.”
“And?” I asked to speed things up.
“She found Pim. Then it was - well, you know what women are like, Jinx?”
“Do I? Please tell me. I’m still learning.”
“Gossip, man, gossip. Don’t ask me how she managed it, but . . . and bear in mind they were complete strangers. Within a minute, they
were comparing notes about English boyfriends. Anna had one and so did Pim. Anna’s was called David, and Pim’s was also called David.
What a coincidence! Lots of laughter. Can you imagine?”
It took a second or two to realise that Anna’s David was fictitious. I had no idea she could talk bullshit as well as me.
“I’m imagining some of the conversation, Jinx, so hear me out. me.
Anna’s David was very handsome and had an expensive apartment in London. You must have described that sordid little place of yours in Queensway that smells of Turkish kebabs. Anyway, Pim’s David was also good looking and was a scientist just like Pim was. Pim’s David usually worked in America but was now working in Bangkok. Lots more laughter and giggling because Anna’s David had just been in Bangkok, although he’d just left for Africa or somewhere.
“And so,” Colin went on, “if I’m to believe what Anna told Ching, within just a few minutes, Anna had got the surname of Pim’s David.
You were spot on, Jinx. It’s Solomon. We also learned that Pim’s David was an adviser to a virology research laboratory in Thailand, and Pim was also a scientist but knew very little about viruses. Pim’s David, though, was an expert - so expert and so clever, in fact, that he had his own laboratory. Even Pim didn’t know where the laboratory was, so we’ve still got that mystery to solve. Anna and Pim then exchanged phone numbers.”
“Is that it?” I asked Colin.
“You should be proud of her, Jinx. If we ever need a Thai interpreter or a female undercover agent, I’d offer her a job. She was brilliant.
She was as good as Jimmy.”
“Don’t remind me about Jimmy,” I said as our beef and ale pie arrived.
I focussed for a while on eating but I was fighting with the urge to admit that I’d tried calling Anna every day since I’d left Bangkok, and she’d not answered. In the end, I said nothing, and we moved on to discussing Cairo and Nairobi. “I think we are almost out of time before that virus is released,” I concluded.
Colin nodded. “Sounds very much like it, Jinx,” he said. “When we get back to the office, I’ll set up another call with Larry and Kevin.
And you also need to call Charles Brady.”
“Looks like I need to head back to Bangkok and Singapore,” I said.
“Finish your beer first, Jinx,” Colin said. “I hate seeing half empty beer glass.”