If Thierry and his friend’s disappearance was a puzzle, the missing computer was even more so. If Nazim had taken them, he’d have had good reason for taking the laptop with the incriminating file loaded on it, too. But he’d also have left men posted in anticipation of Ben’s return, which meant that Ben and Roth would have walked into an ambush just now. And if the Corsicans had taken them, common or garden thugs of that variety would have had no reason to take just the laptop without ransacking the whole apartment into the bargain.

The biggest problem with either theory was that Ben’s safehouse was virtually impossible to find, let alone break into. Its only entrance was inaccessible from the street and protected by a thick steel door strong enough to resist rifle bullets. There were no signs of forced entry.

To Roth, the explanation to the conundrum was a simple one. ‘You said yourself, the guy’s a crook who runs with lowlife sleazebags. It’s obvious he’s just skipped out on you, buddy. He grabbed the dough and ran, and took your shiny new laptop with him to sell for a few extra bucks. Don’t sweat it. You still have the Juneau woman’s phone, with the original file on it. And we have to move on. You want to hear the plan?’

‘You only just got here,’ Ben said. ‘And you have a plan?’

‘I told you, when I move I move fast,’ Roth replied.

Ben looked at him. ‘From St Thomas to Newark, you wanted to move fast. You could have been strapped inside a US Air Force Lockheed Blackbird going at Mach 3, and it wouldn’t have got there soon enough for you. But for the second leg of the journey, you were a guy with time on his hands. Not a care in the world. Whatever you’ve been hiding from me happened somewhere in-between. To be precise, it happened at the airport, during your little stroll. I sense that you’re not quite as out of touch as you pretend to be. Who’d you talk to?’

For an instant Roth seemed as though he was about to deny it; then he broke into a rueful grin. ‘Busted. You’re an observant sonofabitch, aren’t you?’

‘And you’re a sonofabitch with secrets. I like to be able to trust the people I work with.’

Roth reached into his jacket and pulled out a small iPhone. ‘What the hell. Had to come out sooner or later, so I guess now’s confession time. I broke my own rule. One of my contacts came through. But one rule I’ll never break is to compromise my sources, so don’t ask me to name the guy, okay?’

‘Don’t waste time, Tyler. Tell me what he said.’