Jameson could only hear snippets of the conversation. It sounded like Harry’s children were filling him in on all their achievements over the past few years. He watched the group of girls leave a large pile of plastic frappé cups, napkins, cake wrappers and straws behind them as they walked out chatting and giggling. When he looked back at Harry’s table, Harry’s daughter, Sophie, was leaning in to Karene for a hug and then she moved around the table to put her arms round her dad’s neck. Harry stroked his daughter’s back and spoke softly to her. A moment later Harry’s son said something that made the whole group laugh.

Ten minutes later, Harry, Karene and the children stood up and began to say their goodbyes. Karene had brought Sophie and Jake down from London on the train and was going to escort them home. Jameson wasn’t entirely sure of the rationale, but he guessed that Caroline had refused to come.

Once they had left, Jameson joined Harry at his table. ‘All OK?’

Harry watched his family cross the car park and waved at them as they entered the station. ‘Sure,’ he replied.

In the car park, Jameson saw his friend Vic get out of the car with a laptop bag and follow Karene. His instructions were to follow them the whole way and to ensure that the group made it safely back to Caroline’s house.

57

Antony Bello waved away the youngest of his wives as his phone began to ring beside his bed. The girl skittered away quickly. She looked younger than fourteen. He liked that.

‘His children just met him in a cafe,’ said George when Bello answered.

He sat up, dropped his legs over the side of the bed and slipped his feet into his flip-flops. ‘Where?’

‘Portsmouth. On the south coast of England.’

Bello walked to his desk and typed ‘Portsmouth England’ into the search engine on his laptop. ‘Who else is there?’

‘The children arrived with a woman and there are at least two bodyguards: one in the cafe with them, one out in the car park.’

‘Soldiers?’

‘Probably Special Forces.’

‘Have they seen you?’

‘No, I’m in a vacant office space across the street. What do you want me to do?’