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I’m amazed you remember their names.’
    â€˜One of my very few gifts. And the famous Kilmartin vegetable garden, which I notice now takes precedence over the problems of Central Asia?’
    Kilmartin smiled but didn’t rise to the bait.
    â€˜I hear the new garden is beautiful. You’ve moved in with your sister, haven’t you?’
    â€˜That’s right – though in fact it is the other way. She came to live with me.’
    â€˜Good, good,’ he said absently and let out a sigh. ‘I expect you’ve read we’ve got a real problem with this blessed toxic red algae in the reservoirs. Our scientists have no idea where it came from or how it’s spreading. People talk about bio-terrorism, migrating waterfowl, global warming. Nobody knows. It’s the sort of thing that can turn an election. Events!’ he said with exasperation and the smile lines moved into perfect parentheses. ‘But that’s not why I asked you to see me.’ He coughed and took a step to the fireplace and rested his hand on the mantelpiece. Temple was over six foot tall but managed to appear much shorter to the public. Kilmartin glanced up at the portrait of William Pitt the Younger above him. He’d read somewhere that on Temple’s order Pitt had replaced the painting of Robert Walpole, the first man to occupy Number Ten as prime minister and the longest-serving prime minister in British history, because he somehow felt closer to Pitt than any other of his predecessors.
    â€˜I heard you were down at High Castle for David Eyam’s inquest.’
    Kilmartin couldn’t have been more surprised. He’d come with a dozen excuses not to go to the Caucasus as special envoy or back to Kazakhstan. ‘My word, you’ve got good sources, prime minister.’
    â€˜Well, one hears things. I wondered if you had any special reason for attending.’
    â€˜He was a friend and I happened to be in the town – the house I bought is not far from High Castle – so I thought I’d pop in.’
    â€˜Tragic business; there’s not a day that goes by without my missing him.’ Temple paused and rubbed his upper lip. ‘He really had such a grasp of the issues – and a most agile mind. That kind of clarity is unique in my experience.’ He looked at the portrait above him. ‘You know what Pitt’s tutor used to say about him? “He seemed never to learn but merely to recollect.” That was Eyam. I valued his advice, just as I do yours, Peter.’
    â€˜That’s very kind of you, prime minister. Is this what you wanted to see me for?’
    â€˜As a matter of fact, yes. As you know, I was very fond of David but there were difficulties at the end of his time here.’ He paused. ‘You know what I’m referring to?’
    â€˜I’m afraid not. I was away abroad at the time – Turkey – and then looking after Helen.’
    â€˜Well, it doesn’t matter: all water under the bridge. But I wonder if you could keep an eye on all this for me.’
    â€˜What? I mean how?’
    â€˜I’m anxious that neither the violent circumstances of his death nor the facts of his departure from government become a matter of speculation. There will be a great temptation to cause mischief by linking it all to the death of poor Christopher Holmes, who was head of the JIC before David Eyam, as you know. We do not want any
mischief
at this stage.’ Mischief was a word the prime minister used to describe everything from anti-social behaviour to terrorism.
    â€˜I haven’t seen a word to that effect in the newspapers,’ said Kilmartin.
    â€˜Of course we could have held the Eyam inquest in camera,’ continued Temple, ‘but I took the view, and the home secretary agreed with me, that it would give rise to speculation.’
    â€˜I didn’t know you had that kind of discretion in the proceedings of a coroner’s