‘Got to have my hair cut tomorrow. Can’t miss my appointment.’

‘Oh. Shame. Perhaps I could take somebody else.’

‘You do and I’ll break your legs,’ she murmured.

‘What?’ he spun round to face her. At that moment the door opened and a man came in with a suitcase.

‘Is there someone who can sign for this?’

Gary walked forward. ‘That’ll be me.’

‘Check it first please, sir.’

Gary laid the case on the desk and pressed the catches to release the locks. He lifted the lid and gazed on the money, neatly bundled with elastic bands.

‘There’s five hundred in each bundle, sir, and there should be a hundred bundles. Will you count them, please?’

Gary went through the laborious process of counting the money, then signed the form on the clipboard. ‘There you are. You’ll never see me again.’

The man ignored the comment. ‘Thank you, sir.’ He took his clipboard and left the room.

‘Well, there it is then. It’s make your mind up time. Either you elope with me now or your chance has gone forever.’

Sarah pushed her chair back and lifted her legs up on to her desk.

Gary watched the long limbs unfurl. ‘I do wish you wouldn’t do that at work,’ he said.

‘Does it unnerve you?’ she asked.

‘Hugely.’

‘Good. I like “hugely”.’ And then she added, ‘You will be careful, won’t you? You won’t do anything stupid.’

‘’Fraid I can’t promise that,’ he replied. ‘I’ve been doing stupid things all my life. Too late to stop now.’

Chapter 24

Rule 1, on chapter 1 of the book of war is: ‘Do not march on Moscow…’

Rule 2 is: ‘Do not go fighting with your land armies in China.’

Lord Montgomery of Alamein, 1887–1976

Monty Loveday had been quite impressive at the police station. He was not a man to throw his weight about, but he had known the Chief Inspector–another old-car enthusiast–and that had, to use an appropriate metaphor, oiled the wheels. The Chief Inspector accepted that Christopher’s theory involved a good deal of conjecture, but felt that at least they had enough reason to bring in Randall Cummings for questioning. He made it clear, though, that at the moment there was little concrete evidence of malpractice, apart from Christopher’s own knowledge of Cummings’s willingness to provide organs to those who could pay for them. Whether they could get Cummings to admit to any other misdeeds he thought doubtful.

Coming out of the police station the two were in less than high spirits. ‘The trouble is that you and I know from experience that there’s something untoward going on, but in law we probably haven’t got a leg to stand on. Not without some sort of definite proof,’ complained Monty.

‘He didn’t look totally convinced, did he?’ mused Christopher.