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Hugh,’ Audley continued, ‘Llewelyn isn’t such a bad candidate for assassination, because in his own way he’s a pretty important person. I know Butler said he wasn’t up to anything. But when you wield the sort of influence Llewelyn does there’ll always be sufficient motive for somebody to have a go, if that’s the way they’re inclined.
    ‘But Jenkins wasn’t important. At least, he shouldn’t have been. Yet he suddenly became supremely important to somebody.’
    ‘Somebody who knew too bloody much about the way the Department works, too,’ said Roskill. ‘They must have known exactly what would happen if Maitland couldn’t be contacted.’
    ‘They also knew where Llewelyn was. They knew how everyone’s mind worked.’ There was a note of puzzlement in Audley’s voice. ‘Yet if it was accidental death they wanted to simulate they set about it in the most extraordinary manner. A simple road accident would have been so much neater. Nobody would have thought twice about it. Unless of course they didn’t know where Jenkins lived. Did he live in some inaccessible place?’
    ‘I really don’t know.’ Roskill thought hard. ‘He was always changing his digs, certainly. I think he did it to get his old girlfriends off his back – he’d never leave a forwarding address.’
    ‘Well, that might account for it.’ Audley’s head bobbed. ‘They had to catch up with him quickly and they didn’t know where to find him. But they knew what his job was – that really might explain it!’
    It was a cold thought: failing to find him, they had created a situation in which Jenkins and his death had converged on each other, with death riding in a Vanden Plas Princess.
    They were both silent for a time. Then Audley spoke.
    ‘The point is, Hugh, I don’t think other people will see things quite the way we do. When they realise that the heat’s off Llewelyn I think there’ll be a great big sigh of relief higher up. Then the reaction will set in; they won’t want too much fuss and bother. They won’t want any awkwardness. And that will mean that they won’t want us poking around, because we’re liable to become awkward. They know me too well already – and you’ve got this mysterious personal stake of yours…’
    Audley tailed off, waiting once more for an explanation. But that was in line with what everyone said about the man: the facts and figures were never enough for him – he nagged endlessly at the whys behind them. So now he’d never give up, he’d never leave such a loose end as Roskill’s motive for vengeance untied behind him.
    ‘Let me put it another way, Hugh. There’s got to be some mutual trust between us. I’ve trusted you. Don’t you think you can trust me?’
    Roskill looked at him in surprise. ‘You’ve trusted me?’
    ‘I have indeed! Last night I chose to believe that you thought out the Jenkins angle on your own, without any prompting from Butler. I’ve given you the benefit of the doubt, in fact.’
    ‘What doubt?’
    ‘My dear fellow – hasn’t it occurred to you that Llewelyn might have calculated that I couldn’t resist making a fool of him? I wouldn’t put it past him, you know!’
    ‘But the facts – when you look at the facts, David. Llewelyn didn’t bring down that tree, damn it!’
    ‘Facts can be arranged. But, as I say – I chose to believe you. That’s why I’ve let you convince me – which is what they’d planned in the beginning. If Butler failed, there was Faith. If Faith failed, there was you – I simply want to know why in the end it was you!’
    Koskill sighed. It would have been better if he had revealed rather more the previous night, when Audley wasn’t concentrating on him. Now, in simple self-defence, he’d have to give him Harry.
    Harry …
    ‘ I didn’t know Alan Jenkins very well really, David. He was in electronic counter-measures, the bugging business. It was his brother I knew – his elder brother.’
    He paused, searching for