‘I thought the same. But now? With the arrest in London? Do you think that takes this in another direction?’

‘Like I said, at first it doesn’t seem to fit. It seems to make a terrorist attack the more likely explanation. But what if that’s the point?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘What if things were arranged to point right instead of left. Away from the White House, instead of towards it?’

‘You mean a fall guy?’

‘Exactly.’

‘OK. That happens.’ Kirk exhaled hard. ‘Christ, in a previous life I’d have been the one making that happen. But the guy has confessed, Joe. Why would a fall guy confess?’

‘What if it’s not on the level? The confession, I mean?’

Kirk sat forward in her seat. Until now they had been discussing information they both knew. From Dempsey’s expression, that state of affairs had come to an end.

‘What do you know?’ she asked.

‘Mansour confessed to putting the bag on the plane, that’s true. But he didn’t know it was a bomb. He believed the bag was full of drugs.’

‘How can you know that?’

‘Trust me when I say it’s come from a solid source.’

Kirk hesitated. She would usually want more. But this was Joe Dempsey. He had earned the right to be discreet.

‘OK. But I’m not promising we won’t come back to that question.’

‘Understood, ma’am.’ Dempsey’s reply was immediate and formal. The instinctive response of a soldier.

‘So if Mansour thought he was placing drugs on the plane, then who was he working for?’

‘An Italian crime group. The same group who had helped his brother reach Britain from Syria a few years ago. They gave Mansour the bag, telling him it was filled with cocaine, and instructed him to place it in a very particular part of Flight PA16’s baggage hold.’

‘And he just did what he was told, did he?’ Kirk was sceptical. ‘I’ve got to tell you, Joe, this doesn’t exactly sound compelling. The “I’m not a terrorist, I’m a drug trafficker” defence isn’t the best one I’ve heard. And why would anyone take the word of a self-confessed criminal?’

‘Mansour’s no criminal,’ Dempsey replied. ‘He wasn’t involved willingly. Not in what he did, and not in what he thought he was doing. Every action the man took, he took it for his sister.’

‘His sister?’

‘She was trying to get to England. To join her brothers. When Mansour had saved the money to get her there, he used it to engage the same Italians who’d brought his brother to Europe. He paid them and they brought her from Syria to Italy. To Naples. But once she was there they changed the terms. She became a captive, and they told Mansour they’d only release her if he placed a package on a plane for them. If he did that, they’d bring her the rest of the way. If he didn’t, they’d kill her.’

Kirk took a moment to consider what she was being told. It sounded plausible.