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Back Limelight
Chapters (49)
  1. Cover
  2. Table of Contents
  3. Also by Graham Hurley
  4. LIMELIGHT
  5. Copyright
  6. Dedication
  7. Epigraph
  8. ONE
  9. TWO
  10. THREE
  11. FOUR
  12. FIVE
  13. SIX
  14. SEVEN
  15. EIGHT
  16. NINE
  17. TEN
  18. ELEVEN
  19. TWELVE
  20. THIRTEEN
  21. FOURTEEN
  22. FIFTEEN
  23. SIXTEEN
  24. SEVENTEEN
  25. EIGHTEEN
  26. NINETEEN
  27. TWENTY
  28. TWENTY-ONE
  29. TWENTY-TWO
  30. TWENTY-THREE
  31. TWENTY-FOUR
  32. TWENTY-FIVE
  33. TWENTY-SIX
  34. TWENTY-SEVEN
  35. TWENTY-EIGHT
  36. TWENTY-NINE
  37. THIRTY
  38. THIRTY-ONE
  39. THIRTY-TWO
  40. THIRTY-THREE
  41. THIRTY-FOUR
  42. THIRTY-FIVE
  43. THIRTY-SIX
  44. THIRTY-SEVEN
  45. THIRTY-EIGHT
  46. THIRTY-NINE
  47. FORTY
  48. FORTY-ONE
  49. AFTERWARDS

‘No, England. That’s what this story is about, and Beth knows it. I doubt she does loads of reading. I doubt she’s up to speed on the demographics, and the wealth gap, and in-depth Brexit voter profiles, and all the rest of the Economist shit, but she doesn’t have to be. All she has to do is take a deep breath and look around her. We’re getting older. One per cent of us are getting way richer. Another ten per cent are doing just fine, and this Budleigh of hers is where a lot of them end up. Their dream is a ripe old age but they’re starting to have a serious think about what happens afterwards and what none of them want is a diagnosis like your Christianne’s. That, dare I say it, would be a major piss-off. Lots of these people will be offended, and you know why? Because they’ve made their own decisions for most of their lives, and now comes the biggest one of all, but – guess what – the law is telling them what they can or can’t do. Beth gets that. These people are fighters. They have the money, and the time, and the breeding, and the sheer balls to stand up for themselves. They want the government out of their face. Nathan gets it, too. The word he used was crusade.’

Crusade? I raise an eyebrow. This sounds just a little over-the-top, Mitch at full throttle, but mention of our pilot has prompted another thought.

‘That little excursion to Exmouth this morning,’ he says. ‘You were wondering how Nathan knew where to go.’

‘And?’

‘It turns out he also has a mate at police headquarters. Harry hasn’t got a name, but he seems to think it’s someone at the top of the organization.’ He throws me a look. ‘Would that make any sense?’

It would, indeed. What happened back in the summer would have gone to every corner of the organization, along with Pavel’s address. Millions of pounds’ worth of cocaine? A body bleeding out on the carpet of a local pub? A young DC glassed to within an inch of his life? No wonder Nathan Kline knew where to point his little plane.

‘Thanks, Mitch.’ I mean it. ‘So, what happens next?’

THIRTY-THREE

Arrests, I later learn, are deliberately timed for six o’clock in the morning. At that hour, few of us are in a good place. Dazed, and a little hungover after sharing half a bottle of brandy with Mitch last night, I open the front door in Evelyn’s borrowed dressing gown. There are two of them, both middle-aged, both plain clothes, and the woman appears to be in charge. She’s looking me up and down. The dressing gown is way too small, and I’m freezing.