Georgia had become claustrophobic in the den. She was frightened, angry, and dizzy with an odd discomfort. Heaton had left the television on with the volume at a jarring level. She had no idea how to work the large over-buttoned remote panel “thingy” on the table, and when she tried to go for help with it, she found that she had been locked in the room, which infuriated her. She was forced to wait for him to return and, even worse, to watch a morning Sky News political panel drone on and on about how the government would now go to hell in a handbag under her watch. Earlier she had thought she heard some gunshots, and at one point there had been an alarm blast, but it quickly went away. She tried and failed to convince herself that maybe she’d imagined the gunfire.
She truly had no idea what to do. She was livid that she had been made a prisoner in this awful man-cave of a room. Almost in answer to her frustration, at a point when she considered using the phone to call her security chief at Downing Street, she heard a key rattling in the door lock. It was Heaton. As usual, he was calm and contained.
“Why did you lock that door, David?”
“Why? Because the fewer people that know you’re here, the better. I didn’t want any of the staff just wandering in.” She stared at him, pretty sure he didn’t even expect her to buy that line.
“Can you please turn that thing down or even off? It’s beyond words how annoying it is.”
“The remote is right there, love, right on the table.”
“That’s not a remote. That’s some kind of machine. You’d need a pilot’s license to operate that.” He smiled, walked over, hit one button, and the room snapped into quiet.
“Now listen to me, Georgia. We need to leave. You and I. Straight off. I need to get you back to Downing Street.”
“Where is Early?”
“I had one of the security staff run him out. He’s doing an errand for me. I sent him with a note to Tatum. A first blush on a negotiation to buy him off.”
“Do you really think that’s going to be possible? Buy him off, then send him away with a new name and it’s all going to be fine?”
“No. No, it’s not at all possible. The press, the people, they’ll need to have him. Either dead or in the docket.” Georgia turned from his gaze and knew exactly what he was saying. She wanted as little to do with it as humanly possible.
“The negotiations will be a means to lure him out, nothing more. There’s something else you need to know, Georgia. Your little friend, the inspector. She’s here.”
“Davina Steel? She’s here? Where is she?”
“She’s here, and she’s detained for now. She came here guns blazing, Georgia. She’s come unhinged. I begged you from the first to have Darling pull her back. I knew she’d be trouble, and she has been. Catastrophically so.”
“I want to see her.” Heaton instantly lost his signature cool in a wild flash of anger.
“She’s just shot the shit out of my security staff, for Christ’s sake! What do you want to say to her, Georgia? You want to tell her how much you love her perfume? Is that what you want to say? Do you have any sense of how off the rails this has all gone? I can hear the gallows being built in the square as we speak!” Georgia once again fought tears. It seemed as if it was all she did lately—suppress panic.
“Now you listen to me. We need to go; we have to get you out of here. Get you back home. Stay here. I’m going to round up a ride for you. I’ll be right back.”
“And what of Steel? What will you do?”
“We don’t have the time for me to answer that, for a variety of reasons. Number one because I don’t know yet, and number two because you won’t like any answer I come up with.” He left for the front of the house. She was crying now. The hell with him. The hell with being strong. She wanted to die. Right there in this overdecorated, horrible, leather-clad room. She wanted it all to end. He had won. Heaton had outplayed her in every hand. He was the prime minister, not she. Events had gone from horrendous to disastrous. There was no scenario now that didn’t end horribly. She was sure of it.