In the Cadver Grenville sat in his office until midnight, worrying. He thought he had managed things badly. Olivia’s attitude throughout the evening had disturbed him and he was wondering if his impulse to involve Palmer-Jones had been mistaken. He should have thought the thing through more carefully, right from the beginning when Craven first contacted him. The approach to George at the conference had been the result of panic; at Whitehall George had the reputation of being a careful handler. In his work for the Home Office he had been seen to deal discreetly with the most troublesome of problems: disputes between senior police officers, even occasionally, it was rumoured, with embarrassments in the security services, and there had never been the hint of scandal. Marcus had seen his presence at the conference as fortunate, but thought now that he had acted precipitate.

Then, as the evening wore on, Grenville wondered if he should have told George more. Laid all the facts on the table, as it were. Come clean. But he thought that even George’s loyalty had a limit and that it would be safer to tell him only what he needed to know. He had always thought that his political judgement was sound and it upset him now to think he had made such a mess of things.

Chapter Twelve

Molly went to Monk’s Wood in the morning. She did not phone Alex to warn her of the visit. She did not want to make too much of it. It would be a courtesy call, an elderly woman informing an acquaintance of the death of a family friend. Perhaps Alex would be out. Her children would be quite grown up by now and it was probable that she would be at work. In that case Molly would leave a note and call back later. Monk’s Wood was close enough to Back Rigg to make a visit on impulse quite plausible.

George had woken optimistic, ravenous, full of energy. He had driven early to Appleworth to buy sausage and bacon and Molly had cooked a huge breakfast.

‘Why do you want to go there?’ he demanded when she told him she was going to Monk’s Wood.

‘I think Ursula was there in the week before her death. Alex was a close friend of Joanna’s. She might know something…’

George seemed hardly to hear. He was wrapped up in his own ideas.