“So why do you have the gun, Fiona?”
“Well I’d have thought that even you could have worked that one out, Jake?”
“You’ve not been doing this cloak and dagger stuff long have you?” I said, adding. “And that’s a really crap answer, by the way. I’m disappointed that you don’t trust me. No matter what you think of me personally. My only hope is that you know how shoot the thing, and more importantly, that you know when to shoot it?”
“I can assure you, Jake, that when the time comes I know exactly what has to be done. But thank you for your concern.”
“Um, I’m sure you do.” I said jumping down off the boat. At the heavy double doors I paused just for a second; giving her yet another opportunity to come clean about who she worked for, before pushing one of them open, and walking out into the grey daylight.
“So what happens next, Jake?” Fiona shouted after me.
“I really don’t know, Fiona. But I’m going to find out.” I said over my shoulder as the door swung closed behind me.
Chapter 15
I made a call to Detective Inspector Daniel Jacobs, who was part of the Special Branch team investigating Robert Flackyard. Although not forthcoming initially, after being suitably reminded about a certain incident during our time at university together, he relented and give me what I wanted.
“So you see, Jake, Fiona Price is part of a team investigating Robert Flackyard and Harry Caplin. When we heard that your assignment was taking you to Dorset, it was too good an opportunity to miss. But it was deemed necessary at the outset to let you think that she was sent to simply help you, sorry about that. Your Mr LevensonJones knew, of course.”
“Of course,” I replied. “Forgive me, Daniel for being just a tad miffed about not knowing. It would have made my job a lot easier if someone had told me at the start of this assignment, but thank you for being honest with me now.” I hung up and walked back down in the pouring rain to the boathouse. Fiona looked up as I opened the door, but carried on zipping up one of the bags containing her diving equipment.
“I think I owe you an apology,” I said.
“Oh, no you don’t, Jake. What I said earlier? Well, it was unforgivable, the way I spoke to you and my attitude towards you. It’s me who should be apologising, not you.”
“What — no, not that. Although I agree you were a little harsh calling me a bastard. True some of the time, but not always. It’s just that I feel professionally that we got off on the wrong foot. Look, to be truthful, Fiona, Charlie and I thought that you were sent to spy on us or something like that.”
“Anyway, what with those photographs being stolen and various other things happening, it could only have been someone on the inside. Afraid I jumped to a conclusion about you that was quite clearly wrong. And for that, I’m truly sorry. You see, everyone else on this team was already known to each other, and then you arrived out of the blue. I then tried to run a check on you through the firm’s database, which came up with a great big zero.” Walking the length of the sleek cruiser I sat down on a pile of wooden crates that were stacked against the side of the boathouse.
Fiona walked up towards me, running her finger along the side of the boat as she went. “Look, you don’t have to beat yourself up you know. I should never have agreed to go along with LJ’s theory that a certain person would be getting sticky fingers on this particular assignment. He specifically asked for me, wanted me here not because of my diving experience and the logbook, I’m afraid, was just another one of his smoke screens. My father and LJ go back as long as I can remember. Dad had a phone call late one evening, asking him if he had anyone in his department or someone he knew from experience, who could act, throw a tantrum or two, was a qualified open water diver and would be able to look after themselves in any situation. Well, after a considerable amount of thought, all of ten seconds, he came up with me. But I really wasn’t sent here to snoop on you or Charlie, bless him. It’s Mr Rumple that LJ is concerned about.”
I said with surprise. “Rumple, what exactly have you got on him?”
“So far all we know…”
“We, who exactly is we,” I snapped at her. Just managing to suppress the sudden surge of anger rising inside me, as I remembered Rumple boasting once that he could detonate a bomb, while at the same time having a cup of tea a hundred miles away.
“We, are the Partners of Ferran & Cardini and in particular LJ, the Serious Drugs Squad to which I am currently seconded to, and the Whitehall department for which I actually work. Now if I may continue?” I nodded my head ever so slightly.
“As you quite rightly say, Jake, Mr Rumple is a very experienced field operative. For many years both he and Mrs Rumple along with their particular skills have been successfully used, and well paid I might add, by various intelligence agencies as well as going out on loan to other friendly Governments around the world. The CIA were always asking for them. It was decided at the highest level, however, that they were becoming too much in demand and a little too arrogant for their own good.”
So the head of department at that time was instructed to retire them from active service, but to somewhere that HMG could, if they so required, call them back from. To cut a very long story short, they were pensioned off to your firm. Why, I hear you ask, because all of the Partners and in particular LJ still have an active involvement, as you are well aware, with HMG. That last bit comes under the Official Secrets Act, by the way.”
“Um, well, I already knew most of that, including the last bit. But why start batting for the other team now and for what reason? Surely not just the money, would they really risk everything they have built up?” I paced up and down the side of the boathouse. Running my hands through my hair I continued. “It just doesn’t make sense, I’ve known them for many years.”
“Rumple’s actions of late are so out of character. There must be more to this than you’re telling me.”
I started to open the door to leave.
“Jake, please come back inside. Look, I’ll tell you everything I know.”
I went back to the side of the cruiser, climbed the ladder onto the deck and went into the main cabin. I poured us both a large whisky. Fiona sat down and took the glass from me, gulping back the amber coloured liquid in one hit.
I refilled her glass and sat down opposite her. “So, go on tell me the rest.”
“Well, the department head that retired them was Edward Levenson-Jones.” She brought her right hand up as if stopping the traffic at rush hour.
“Before you say it, yes it does get worse. The picture becomes much clearer when you know who the person is that told LJ to wield the axe on the Rumples. I’m afraid it’s none other than the right honourable Oliver Hawkworth MP. So you see why certain people have become very nervous about these two becoming loose cannons and taking some sort of revenge, as well as a large payment from Flackyard. The fact is that LJ should never have succumbed to the Partners and their devious ways, it would have been much safer to keep them away from this assignment altogether. We think that Flackyard paid someone on the inside to dig around at Ferran & Cardini.
“Get to know about this, and well the rest is history, as they say.”
“Hell — this whole assignment has been a shambles from the start.” I finished the whisky, not knowing whether the burning inside my stomach was the anger I still felt or the alcohol. In the end, I decided that it was the whisky and that being angry was going to achieve nothing but melancholy.