“It was unavoidable. You’ve been a joy to work with, Challice—Helen—and I’m grateful. I look forward to watching your rise; I expect we’ll see you in Scotland Yard soon enough.”

She glowed at him. “That’s very kind. Do you want me to stay or send for anyone, in case he comes back?”

“No. No, I think I’ll just lock the door,” Aaron said, with a weak smile. “Thank you again.”

“I’ll just finish my tea,” Joel said. “See you, Helen.”

Aaron waited for her to leave with what felt like glaringly obvious awkwardness. He went to lock and bolt the door. Then he turned, found Joel right behind him with open arms, and walked into them.

“Jesus,” he said into the mop of copper hair. “Jesus Christ. Thank you, thank you.”

“I have never been more frightened in my fucking life,” Joel said into his shirt. “Your writing.”

“I didn’t know whether to write it and risk you coming here, or refuse and have him put a bullet in my head there and then. I thought you’d realise, but I was so afraid you wouldn’t.”

“Course I saw it. Not a sodding idiot,” Joel mumbled. “Did he hurt you?”

“He was waiting for you to arrive before he did that.”

“Shit. Shit. And what now?”

“He’s finished,” Aaron said. “He wouldn’t have come here like this otherwise. It’s only a question of how much damage he does on the way down, but that’s not my problem any more.”

“No. What happened?”

Aaron sighed. “A bloody awful couple of hours with a variety of increasingly senior people wanting to know why I hadn’t handled it all better and how I let you give the evidence to the press. Apparently I should have reported all my suspicions from the beginning. I asked, ‘Like Sergeant Josling did in Soho?’, which went down poorly.”

Joel cackled. “Nice.”

“Your pernicious influence. This whole thing is going to be a frantic flurry of finding someone to blame. The high-ups will say I should have spoken out earlier, while the rank and file will call me a snout even if Colthorne is found guilty in court. I didn’t feel inclined to stick around for punishment.”

“I don’t blame you.” Joel’s arms were warm and tight around Aaron’s waist. “But I’m sorry.”

“No, it was time. My work was feeling increasingly like an exercise in compromise and hypocrisy. Too many things I wasn’t letting myself see in order to keep the faith. I believe in what I was doing, trying to do, but that’s not enough.”

“No,” Joel said. “I wondered if you’d want to stay and change things.”