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something’s around.’ ‘A factor? A context?’ ‘I have a contact in these dinners,’ Iles said. ‘I get special whispers. You might have given up entirely on the occasions. Not I, not entirely. Abandonment of a project is not my style.’
    â€˜Oh. Are you close to one of the waitresses, sir, close in your style of being close – which might bring special whispers?’
    â€˜I’m given excellent feedback.’
    â€˜Nice.’
    â€˜By means of this contact I have an overview.’
    â€˜I believe some of them are very OK.’
    â€˜Who?’
    â€˜The waitresses. OK in the way you like.’
    â€˜And which way is that, Harpur?’
    â€˜Chirpy. Forthcoming. Game for merrymaking etcetera. They wear greenish Nell Gwyn costumes at the medieval banquets, don’t they?’
    â€˜Nell Gwyn wasn’t medieval, you dull sod.’
    â€˜Her name has come down through the centuries.’
    â€˜My source reports an exceptionally happy and convivial Agincourt dinner.’
    â€˜Ah.’
    â€˜That’s sinister. I’m uneasy, Col.’
    â€˜Ralph and Manse have seen off a lot of competition, mostly East European. Possibly they had rowdiness from their back benchers at previous meetings, including racism, which Ember is quite a bit against and believes should be applied only very selectively. This time, things would all have been serene and pleasant.’
    â€˜Well, of course, you’d have a dull, limited, unimaginative formula explanation for their apparent contentment and good spirits. I have to see beyond that. I want you to think of me as like those youthful locals in South Sea tourist resorts who will dive into the sea and bring up from its considerable depths coins that have been flung in by spectating visitors.’
    â€˜Exactly as I always do think of you, sir.’
    â€˜The surface is an invitation to me. I am not content with it, as its self – mere surface. An invitation to look beneath. I need to see what is hidden.’
    â€˜What is ?’
    â€˜As ever, there’s a surface amity between Ralph and Manse Shale. What does it conceal, Col?’
    â€˜You’ll have an answer to that.’
    â€˜I do believe in the standard routines of basic detective work – the kind of thing you so thoroughly, even commendably, represent, Col, in your tidy fashion, but . . . sources, Col.’
    â€˜True.’
    â€˜We are nothing, nowhere, without a source.’
    â€˜ Are you satisfying one of the waitresses, sir? And she’s grateful – as she damn well should be – and gives you tipoffs in return? You’re not one to mind being mentioned in the Agincourt kitchens as a lover boy with special requirements. People are very understanding these days about kinks.’
    â€˜What do I mean by “factors”, Col? By “context, as applied to the Shale–Ember cartel”?’
    â€˜Some people, when they talk to me about you, say, “Mr Iles is one for factors, not mere facts. And context. Hence gold leaf on his cap.”’
    â€˜Which people?’
    â€˜It would add up to more than quite a few, in my opinion.’
    â€˜How many more?’
    â€˜â€œIn depth”. This is another term they’ll use when talking of your approach. Perhaps they’ve spotted your resemblance to the South Seas boy divers. They’ll refer to your “in depth” methods and outlook. I think they mean it well, on the whole. “In depth” links up with “factors” and “context”. The same ballpark.’
    â€˜You discuss me, do you, Harpur?’
    â€˜Many regard you as a considerable topic, sir. They’re used to ordinary folk such as their spouses or newsagents or chartered surveyors and then you come along, and very few would say you’re ordinary in the least. Probably.’
    â€˜Which very fucking few?’
    â€˜Statistically almost