“The missing cabinet—the one that matches our second key—is sitting here right next to Hamberly’s desk.”

Jackson hurried back, his expression one of disbelief. “Why the fuck would Professor Wilson have a key to Hamberly’s filing cabinets?”

“I have no idea.” I started going through the files and discovered—rather unsurprisingly given what I’d already seen—an extensive catalogue of explicit photographs.

“He can’t have been involved in whatever scheme Hamberly was running,” Jackson said. “The government would have run background checks on everyone involved in the virus research, and something like this—which rather looks like some sort of blackmailing scheme if Rosen’s check is anything to go by—should have had alarm bells ringing.”

“You’d think so.” I paused to open the next drawer. More photos, but this time, they were simply nudes rather than sexually explicit images. “Maybe Hamberly was running a photography studio, and the blackmail portion of it was just a profitable sideline . . . Most of these look rather professional.”

“To what aim, though?” He picked up a folder and skimmed through it. “Surely there can’t be much of a market for naked middle-aged men?”

“We’d probably be surprised.” I closed the drawer and moved across to one of the smaller units. It had the same key number, as did the one next to it. I guess it was easier than wrestling with a multitude of different keys, although it still didn’t answer the question of why Wilson had a copy of the key in his possession.

I pulled out the top drawer and discovered invoices and receipts rather than photos. I plucked one folder out, dumped it on the table, and started going through it.

Jackson opened another drawer and flicked through the files. “Ah, here we go.” He pulled a folder free and opened it up. “Rosen Junior in all his glory—and in some compromising positions with several older men.”

“Is one of them Hamberly?”

“Yes. They weren’t taken in the studio up here, but rather in the bedroom below.” He turned one of the photos around. “Shot from above, too, so I suspect Junior wasn’t aware of what Hamberly was up to.”

“Or he didn’t damn well care,” I said. “He didn’t have a very high opinion of his father, remember.”

“But he did have a good opinion of Hamberly, and I doubt that would have been the case if he was aware Hamberly was blackmailing his father.”

“It would certainly explain the check, and why Janice was handing it over rather than Rosen. He wouldn’t have risked going anywhere near his blackmailer. He wouldn’t want anyone wondering why he was so regularly meeting someone he supposedly hated, and to start investigating.”

“True,” Jackson said.