‘Talk sense, for Christ’s sake,’ Ed told him, ‘If there was any kind of law and order out there – don’t you seriously think that someone would have come looking for Senator Jones by now? A senator disappears, nobody knows where he is, and it’s hardly even mentioned on the news. It’s a jungle outside of this farm, Mr Habeas Corpus Kaiser, and a bright young man like you ought to have the sense to realise it.’

Peter abruptly stood up. ‘I’m going,’ he said. ‘I’m going to walk out of here and you can’t stop me.’

Della stepped forward, her hands on her hips, her big breasts swaying under her shirt. ‘If you so much as take one step out of this room, Mr Kaiser, I’ll blow your head off.’

‘You wouldn’t dare,’ said Peter.

‘Wouldn’t I? This state is under martial law. You’re a dangerous suspect attempting to escape FBI custody.’ Peter shook his head. ‘I think you misunderstood me. You wouldn’t dare because, without me, you wouldn’t have a case. I’m your evidence, apart from those papers you stole, and you know it. So I’m not frightened of you, Mrs J. Edgar Hoover. Not one bit.’

He turned, and walked determinedly towards the door in his flapping khaki pants. Della, almost casually, reached for the pump-gun which she had left propped against the bureau in the corner. She raised it, pumped the action, and said softly, ‘Freeze, Mr Kaiser. You’re under arrest, and if you attempt to get away I’m going to have to shoot you.’ There was a formality in the way Della spoke to him that made Peter hesitate. Halfway through the door, he paused, and looked at her over his shoulder. She was standing with the gun raised to her shoulder, the sights marking his head. He licked his lips, as if he had just finished drinking a bowl of particularly nasty tomato soup.

He stood where he was for what seemed like a whole minute. Then he turned around, and went back to the sofa. ‘The day they started hiring whores for cops, that was when the whole legal system went down the tubes,’ he said. ‘Can you believe this hooker, being a cop?’

Della kept the gun levelled at him, but Ed stepped forward and laid his hand on the barrel. ‘That’s enough, Della. You may be an agent of the law, but this is my house, and that’s my sofa, and I don’t particularly want to have holes blown in it.’