‘I’ll call you in three weeks, and you can tell me whether you are going to start buying the fuel direct, or whether I should start contacting your customers. Have a nice day!’

The grin fell from Slan’s face, but before he had time to ask any more questions, Sleder had shaken his hand, steered him through the double doors into the anteroom, where the girl in the Woolmark label had placed an envelope containing one thousand dollars in cash into his hand, and steered him into the outer room; the security guards had guided him into the elevator, which deposited him at the sixty-fourth floor reception area.

He walked up to the receptionist. ‘Call for you at five thirty, Barbara?’

‘Can hardly wait, Harry,’ she beamed warmly, lying through her glistening teeth and Peach-Blossom Glow Max Factor lipstick.

Slan took the lift down to the ground floor. He was looking forward to tonight; he hadn’t much to look forward to beyond that.

Chapter 15

15

After Gelignite hung up on me, I despatched the least incompetent of my fresh-faced minions to go and watch Whalley for me, and then crashed out for a couple of hours. I woke up at eight feeling considerably worse than when I had lain down, made myself three cups of thick black coffee in a row, then drove in to Portico. I drove past the entrance of all three ramps to see if anyone was keeping watch, and it didn’t seem that anyone was.

I first made a couple of calls. The navy Marina of the night before hadn’t yielded any clues, and the address on the licence the driver had given Hertz was false. The contact with the Capri had got away without being spotted. It was a good start.