He desperately wanted to know what was going on at the Met. Commissioner Sir William Horwood had come up with a lot of pap about investigations taking time and the proper channels, but he’d be lucky. The brewing scandal had already been dubbed the IOU Affair by the press, and two of the papers were running observations about the rumours of a Sabini connection to King’s Cross CID. Joel just hoped Darby Sabini didn’t blame him for that.

Aaron had managed not to be interviewed by anyone, but there were a couple of blurry photographs of him entering Scotland Yard, grim-faced. He was of course featured in the story as the investigating officer on the Marks murder; he’d be answering a lot more questions behind the scenes, Joel knew. But they had wrenched the story from Colthorne’s hands, and prevented it from being quietly covered up, and on the whole, he was proud.

Thursday came and went with more interview requests, a twentyfold increase in the number of letters, and still nothing from Aaron. Joel, who hadn’t left the building since Tuesday, was increasingly bored and frustrated. He wanted to see Aaron and to hear what was going on. He wished his landlady had a telephone.

He’d paid her son to get him all the papers. The lad duly delivered the Evening Standard, which had a sidebar about the story on the front page pointing to a spread on pages 2 and 3. Joel turned to it and almost dropped the paper.

Sergeant In IOU Affair, Marks Murder Case Leaves Force

Detective Sergeant Aaron Fowler, who led the investigation into Gerald Marks’ death, abruptly left the Metropolitan Police this morning, according to reports. It is unclear if he resigned or was dismissed. The Standard’s requests for more information were not answered...

“Shit,” Joel muttered. Had Aaron been pushed too far? Or was this Colthorne getting the upper hand? He hadn’t made a statement beyond the obligatory one about not commenting on active investigations and expecting all allegations to be cleared up shortly.

Aaron would surely get in touch now. Joel would just have to sit tight and wait for the next post; there was usually one around five-thirty.

It came and went without a letter. Joel paced up and down his room feeling like a kennelled dog. Had he fucked this up? He might have fucked this up. He’d insisted on taking the lead, but maybe that had made Aaron seem incompetent or incapable. Perhaps Colthorne had been able to use Joel’s record and his words to Sabini against Aaron. Maybe he oughtn’t have thrown Aaron’s cousin to the wolves?

Maybe Aaron was just being highly cautious and not contacting him like they’d agreed, and Joel should stop working himself into a tizzy for no reason.