Sitting beside Ross was a man older than him, who Abbott took to be his PA, or perhaps his security consultant. He wore a similar air to Kilgore, almost a Kilgore mini-me.

Beside the Kilgore mini-me sat Montana Norton, who if anything was even more attractive in the flesh than she’d looked on the news. Next to her a guy who could only have been her boyfriend. A surfer dude, for want of a better description. Probably not as laid-back as his normal state of being, but still comfortably the second-most relaxed person in the room.

There was another man present. He sat slightly apart from the others. An older man around Lady Norton’s vintage, healthy-looking but nevertheless seeming distinctly uncomfortable and out-of-place. Was this the lawyer she had referred to, perhaps? Coombs?

Behind them all was a wall of screens and Coombs used a remote control to switch off the screens as Abbott entered. Abbott was just in time to see images being broadcast from what looked like the entire park before the wall of flickering pictures went to black.

And then Lady Norton stood up and with a grand sweep of her hand, said, ‘Everybody, can I introduce you to Alex Abbott, my proxy?’

Chapter 51

CHAPTER 51

They were looking at him carefully, each one of them wondering why he had not cropped up during their own process of selection. Why had their security consultants not proposed this ‘Alex Abbott’? What was so special about him that he was to represent no less a figure than the family matriarch?

The answer was twofold. First, the fact that instead of following the tried-and-tested path of leaving The Circuit and then moving into close protection work, Abbott had gone solo, taking himself off to Singapore to nurture his drinking problem and deal with his PTSD. His son had died. He had suffered the betrayal of former comrades. He had gone back to the bottle. As a result, and because word spreads fast in their industry, he had been considered a bit of a burnout among those in the game. Second, the events of the last two weeks, during which time this burnout had got himself back on track.

‘Green looks less than enthusiastic,’ said Montana Norton, who had been assessing Abbott as though he were a racehorse.

‘Whatever makes you say that, darling?’ smiled Juliet.

Abbott’s eyes had gone to Montana, to Ross, to Clifford. Had they any idea what Sir Charles Norton and his wife had got up to in their spare time? And assuming that they were ignorant, did that make them innocents? Did that mean they should escape Abbott’s wrath?

No – no, it didn’t.

‘Well, it’s the fact that these two men are holding guns on him,’ said Montana sweetly.

‘Yes, that is a bit of a giveaway, Grandmama,’ smirked Ross. ‘Are you sure – I mean, are you absolutely certain – that he’s here of his own accord?’