‘I am.’
‘For reasons as yet unknown, Sir Peregrine is suddenly murdered by a person or persons unknown. Geoffrey Bailey is now left without the person who could have got him his medal and his deserved status. There are others in senior positions in the Royal Household who could put him forward for that coveted medal, and maybe Bailey thinks by naming the conspirators and preventing the theft of millions of pounds’ worth of items, he will be awarded the medal. The conspirators as a group, worried about this loose cannon, decide the only way to guarantee his silence is to kill him.’
‘But why the medal down his throat?’ Branson asked.
‘To humiliate him?’ Grace posited. ‘Perhaps sending a message to anyone else he might have told who might try to blackmail them? And putting him in the digester — perhaps they hoped it would decompose most of his body — which it would have done in time. Or perhaps it was symbolic? That he was just a piece of compost?’
‘You might be overthinking it,’ Branson said as they drove uphill across the HQ campus towards the detectives’ parking area. ‘It might have just been a convenient place to dump his body.’
Grace smiled. ‘You could well be right. The simplest solution, and all that. I’ll leave this hypothesis off tomorrow’s press briefing.’
‘I think that would be smart, boss.’
As they pulled into a space a short distance behind his office, Grace asked, ‘So, what do you make of Shannon’s work so far?’
Branson nodded. ‘Yeah, she’s smart and she knows her way around the internet for sure. She’s worked for some pretty big internet players, including Elon Musk, as well as a company funded by MI6. Sure, she wants to please us, to justify what we’ve done to get her out of jail, but I feel she does really know what she’s doing. Evidenced by what Sir Tommy said a short while ago.’
Grace signalled he agreed, but his expression was uneasy.
83
Tuesday 28 November 2023
Moments later, Polly Sweeney rang. Grace switched to loudspeaker, and both of them listened.
‘Roy, I’m sitting with Lady Greaves, and I just put the question to her that you asked: whether Sir Peregrine had recently taken any refresher course in computer coding. Lady Greaves just told me that he did an intense course quite recently, which finished a few months ago. But he wouldn’t tell her why he was doing it.’
‘Did he give a reason he wouldn’t tell her?’ Grace and Branson frowned at each other.
‘Well — apparently, when she pressed him, all he would say was it was at the personal request of The King. That his boss was concerned about cyber-security and thought Sir Peregrine’s military intelligence background might be helpful in establishing a firewall layer for the Royal Household network... Hang on a sec, Roy, Lady Greaves is saying something.’
They waited for a moment then heard her voice again. ‘Lady Greaves has just told me that The King had asked him how up to speed with current internet technology he was, and when he told him that he didn’t feel he was that much up to speed, The King suggested a fairly elaborate course he should enrol in — which he duly did. He had obviously researched it.’
‘And that was a few months ago.’
‘Hold on a second, sir.’ There was another pause, then Polly Sweeney came back on the line. ‘Lady Greaves says he finished the course in July.’
‘Please thank her,’ Grace said. ‘This is very helpful.’
When the call ended, he turned to Branson and gave him a quizzical look.
‘Interesting,’ Branson said.
‘Very. I guess there’s one person who can verify whether Sir Peregrine was telling his wife the truth or not.’
‘Who’s that?’
Grace smiled.
84
Tuesday 28 November 2023
Precisely 4.40 p.m. That was the time Sir Tommy had given him, suggesting he dial in a couple of minutes before, as His Majesty was somewhat a stickler for punctuality and had a particularly rammed afternoon.
Despite all his professionalism kicking in, Roy Grace felt butterflies in his stomach, and his finger on the keypad wasn’t as steady as usual. Although King Charles had been very friendly on their last meeting, he was nervous now all the same. He’d never actually phoned The King of England before.
The phone began ringing and a moment later he heard a female voice. ‘Good afternoon, Buckingham Palace.’
Grace’s voice came out sounding very small, he thought. ‘Good afternoon, may I please speak to The King.’
‘Your name, sir?’
‘My name is Detective Superintendent Grace.’
‘Roy Grace?’
‘Correct.’
‘He is expecting you. One moment please, Detective Superintendent, I’m putting you through.’
Grace took three deep breaths. A moment later he heard The King’s now familiar voice. ‘Detective Superintendent Grace, good afternoon, I gather you wanted to speak to me. How are you?’
‘I’m... I’m fine, thank you, Your Majesty.’
‘Good. Do you have some news? Good news, I hope?’
His voice was warm but understandably tinged with anxiety, Grace thought. The King was not only Head of State and Head of the Commonwealth, but he also carried the normal burdens of any human being. Grace remembered a former Chief of the Met Police once saying that wearing a uniform does not protect you from trauma. The same could apply to The King — he might be head of the Royal Family and have all the privileges that went with it, but he was also just a human being, extremely worried about the safety of the woman he loved.
‘We are making good progress, Your Majesty.’
‘I’m pleased to hear it — I hope you can make sense of this terrible tragedy — well, two terrible tragedies now.’
‘If I can give you any reassurance, Your Majesty, the further we get with our enquiries, the more certain I am that Her Majesty was not the intended target in this tragic shooting, and that her life is not under threat.’
‘I would so much like to share your optimism, Detective Superintendent. I really would.’
There was such warmth and passion — and sadness — in those last words that Grace felt extremely moved. He wished desperately at this moment that he could say something that would put The King’s mind completely at rest. All he could do was deliver what he knew was a rather lame-sounding platitude. ‘I’m sure we will be able to give you something positive very soon, sir.’
‘I do hope so.’
‘I believe Sir Tommy has been keeping you up to speed, sir.’
‘Yes, he has. So, what was it you wanted to ask me?’
‘I know you are very busy, sir, it was just one quick question — regarding Sir Peregrine.’
‘Yes, of course, fire away.’
‘Can I ask, did you and Sir Peregrine have a conversation earlier this year or late last year about how up to speed he was with current internet technology?’
‘Well, we talked daily about all matters.’ There was a brief silence before he spoke again. ‘How up to speed with internet technology, you said?’
‘Yes, Sir.’
‘Hmm. No, I don’t recall talking about that specifically, no. But we may have discussed it at some point — we had issues with the Palace Wi-Fi a while back and Peregrine was fairly tech savvy, but it was Tommy who really knew the right people to bring in, not Peregrine.’
‘What I need to know, Sir, is did you ever suggest to Sir Peregrine that he should enrol in a specialist course on internet technology?’
The King came back without hesitation. ‘No. Never. Absolutely not. I’d remember that.’