Grest sneered a little as if the very idea were absurd. ‘Which Party officials?’

I held my nerve. ‘Tim Honeysette. Deputy Secretary at the Ministry of Food. He tried to buy some from me yesterday.’ I felt guilty handing over his name – he had only bought whatever it was Nick was supplying him with – but I had no other way of getting Nick out of there.

There was a pause. ‘Impossible,’ Grest replied. But I knew he had believed me. ‘And what was he trying to buy?’

‘I’m not sure.’

The book had detailed the trade, each section noting a batch of orders smuggled from America. The first column, I knew, listed telephone numbers for the buyers. That was how they were identified. Then the second column, a string of three letters, probably recorded what they had ordered, but I couldn’t decipher it. ‘It cost ten pounds, though, and he might do you a favour or two if you let Nick out to keep up the supply.’ He sat back and stared at me again. Most NatSec officers were true believers and Nick couldn’t have approached them with such a confession and offer. But Tibbot had already told me that Grest had a history of looking the other way in return for a few quid. And here I was, also dangling before him the prospect of entry to the Closed Shops. ‘It can all be confirmed by a woman called Rachel Burton. She’s in a hospital in Kent. She was part of the group. There will be other buyers too. Maybe in the Ministry of Justice.’

‘Who?’ The prospect of rapid promotion was the most magnetic to him.

‘I don’t know. You’ll have to find out.’

‘How did they bring in the medicines?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘I see.’

I gained a little courage. ‘My husband isn’t working for the CIA. I don’t know why you ever thought he was – you half heard something somewhere and came to the wrong conclusion.’

He waved away my words. ‘Can you get me the details – where they came from, who they were going to?’

‘No, only my husband could do that.’

‘If you’re lying to me, Mrs Cawson, it will go hard with you, and with your husband,’ he said. I nodded. He shifted in his seat. ‘This Comrade Honeysette. Did he approach you?’

‘No, I went to his house.’

A flicker of surprise. ‘How did you know he was buying from your husband?’ I hesitated. I didn’t want to mention the ledger unless I had to – I wanted to keep a bargaining chip for later in case Grest went back on his word and kept Nick in custody. If I told him, he would demand I hand it over and then I would have nothing if he reneged on the deal.

‘I heard him and Nick talking about it once,’ I said.