‘Plus I owe it to Callie to try and help. She’s been good to me.’ At my raised eyebrows, Jon shook his head. ‘For Shaka’s sake, not in that way. We haven’t slept together, if that’s what your eyebrows are suggesting. I mean that she took me on and gave me a job when no one else in her position would. Cross lawyers prefer to use Cross investigators. Even now, some of the lawyers Callie works with still try to tell her that I can’t be trusted, in spite of the fact that I’ve been working with her for years. Plus I messed up once, really badly, and she hauled my delectable butt cheeks out of the fire. I owe her. She’s worried sick about her brother and I suspect that you, like me, are a man who doesn’t let the grass grow under his feet. So here we are.’

I studied Jon. Though he was no spring chicken, he looked like he might be useful in a fight. And he clearly had certain connections and information at his fingertips, data I could obtain if I went through the proper channels, but only by answering a whole heap of questions and arousing a number of suspicions first. My hands were already being tied by Libby’s kidnappers. I couldn’t afford any of the delays that moving this to official channels would bring.

‘Very well, let’s do it. But let me tell you this: you get in my way and I’ll step on you before I step over you,’ I warned.

Jon smiled. ‘I believe you’ll try.’

I walked over to the wall cabinet and removed a smartphone from the left-hand drawer. Switching it on and entering the code, I turned to throw it at Jon who caught it one-handed.

‘The code is six sixes, no thumbprint or face scan required.’

‘What’s this for?’

‘I want to be able to talk to you, text you and leave messages without worrying about who may be tracking or hacking my calls. I know that phone is clean so that’s the one I’ll be using to contact you. It’ll be just you and me using it.’

Jon pushed the phone into his jacket pocket. Good. I wasn’t in the mood for an argument about it.

‘Have you talked to Callie recently?’ I asked, keeping my tone casual.

‘Not recently. Spoke to her mum though.’

‘Sephy? About what?’

Jon frowned. ‘About none of your business.’

This man … I shook my head.

‘What?’ said Jon, swinging his legs round so his feet were back on the floor. ‘You think, just because you’re PM, I should bow down and kiss your buttocks?’

‘I’ll pass, but nicely put.’

‘I have a way with words.’

‘You know, given my title and status, most people are a little more polite when they talk to me,’ I pointed out.