Nigel hadn’t liked the switch when it came, but he had no choice. Besides, he knew how good Harry was. He’d never let him down before and there was no reason to believe he would start now, not with so much at stake. What did it matter whether it was Meg or Anna? They had to be pragmatic. This case was too important – until suddenly it wasn’t.
One minute, Harry was relaying to Nigel that Anna had been approached by MI6, who were asking questions about David and Clive. The next, the whole case was being pulled.
Nigel had been jittery when they met at a bench in Regent’s Park overlooking one of the ponds, tourists milling along the path in front of them, their bodies huddled against the wind.
‘The client was Francisco Nguema. It was he who was paying to have the case investigated, presumably to see how easily he could be implicated in the chemical spillage.’
‘I don’t understand,’ Harry said.
Nigel kept his eyes fixed ahead of him. ‘You don’t need to. All you need to know is that it’s over. You got your money, and you’re safe. There’s one thing outstanding – Anna. Can we trust her to stay quiet? She’s not going to have a sudden burst of remorse once the money stops and feel the need to get things off her chest with David, is she? Because that would not go down well with the client.’
Harry lowered his voice. ‘We can trust Anna. I’ll let her know how important it is for her to keep her lip buttoned. Anyway, they have children together. She has a good job. I imagine if anything she will be relieved.’
Even as he said it, he felt a pang of guilt. He wasn’t so blind that he couldn’t see how deeply Anna had felt about him. But this was the best possible outcome, for all of them. As he walked back across the park later that morning, Harry felt a sense of unravelling, as if casting off layers that had bound him for so long.
‘Well then, it’s over,’ Nigel had said. In that instant, they could both have been forgiven for believing it was.