Tom Weston was my sort of ex teacher, academic and second-hand book seller. If all teachers end up like Tom once they retired, the world would be a much more interesting place.
We were jammed into Colin’s office with two extra chairs of the folding sort that people use for picnics so complete with a slot to put your drink. I’d started with a summary of where we were, but could sense as much frustration from Kevin and Tom as we’d had with Larry. They’d heard nothing more from Lord Peterson, so I went through the same arguments as I’d done with Larry. Then, to rub in the seriousness of what we were up against, I described my final night with Jimmy in Nairobi.
“We were sitting in Jimmy’s car in complete darkness when Greg O’Brian emerged with Lunneau. Three Pakistani workers were in the van outside. Ten minutes later two Pakistanis were shot. The third was probably dealt with later. Now we’ve lost Jimmy.”
A sombre mood had descended when Ching put her head around the doorway. “Louise from Nairobi is on the line,” she said.
I’d already worried about Jimmy losing his phone and wallet, but Louise proved it. Someone had called Banda Bookkeeping Services and asked to speak to Mr Franklin. That was me. Louise knew nothing, of course, but he’d then phoned again and asked to speak to Mark Dobson.
“You know what that means,” Colin said. “It means they know Asher
& Asher is involved. GOB himself knows about Asher & Asher. This could make him very angry.” He paused. “I suggest we all wear stab vests and lock up the gardening tools.”
A thoughtful silence fell until I took a deep breath. “I’m not clear about Mohamed El Badry,” I said. “Without photographs, it’s quite possible he could be Mohamed Kader or at least two other men. There is the Egyptian doctor El Khoury with an address in Cairo. This man is linked to Fatima El Badry, and Kevin’s description of the woman at the Chelsea flat where he met Mr El Badry fits perfectly with Maria’s description of the woman at the Shah Medical Clinic in Cairo. But identities are weak for us.”
We turned to David Solomon and Tom took that one up. He had brought along a pile of papers as evidence but there was little new and I couldn’t get excited about a paper that discussed the modification of a retrovirus to deliver DNA into a human cancer cell.
My mood, rather than improving, was deteriorating, but while I’d been talking to Kevin and Tom, Colin had been typing away on his computer. “I’ll be with you shortly,” he kept saying.
He was still at it when Kevin and Tom left, so I asked what he’d been doing. He pointed proudly at the screen.
“It’s a pragmatic explanatory continuum indicator summary of everything we know and everything we suspect, Jinx. It’s six pages of something commonly known as a précis. I’ve listed every darned name we know and linked them with arrows, dotted lines, and curves.
I’ve drawn pie charts and bar charts, inserted tree maps and sunbursts, and, as you can see, it’s all in full and beautiful colour. It’s an objective and detailed report like you and I were once trained to do
for the Crown prosecution service, Jinx, except that I’m better at this sort of crap than anyone else.”