‘I’d hoped you’d come around, you know, to giving us a hand.’

‘It’s not quite a vacation. I’m here for Rolt, standing in for him, sort of.’

Woolf sounded genuinely alarmed. ‘Look, you do realize we’ve got no backup for you out there?’

‘I’m perfectly capable of looking after myself. This isn’t exactly Kandahar. The biggest danger is dying from a surfeit of enthusiasm.’

Woolf sounded like he was on the move, running up some stairs. ‘Well, I’m late, as usual. But, if anything, this business about the bomber has made me even more suspicious of Rolt. Keep your eyes and ears open, will you? Something really isn’t right about this.’

‘I will,’ Tom found himself saying.

There was a gust of relief from Woolf’s end. ‘So you are with us. Thank fuck for that.’

‘Don’t push your luck.’

There was a cheery knock on his door: Beth.

‘Gotta go.’

Chapter 44

44

Victoria, London

Sam wanted the first impressions to be the right ones. Earlier in the day, he had put new sheets on the beds, and bought a large bouquet, which he laid on the coffee-table in the living room. He had drawn the curtains, which were heavy and plush. He had then spent some time fussing around, turning up the lights, then dimming them and moving them around to create the most welcoming atmosphere. Eventually he settled for just the single table lamp, which gave off the cosiest glow. The low light and the enclosed feeling, with the outside world and its distractions now excluded, made the place feel much more intimate. Even as he was denying it to himself, he was hoping this would create the right conditions for what he wanted, which was to shut out the rest of the world and be alone with her. The rest of the night lay ahead, full of possibility.

At last they were alone.

The big flat-screen TV faced them across the sofa. Nasima, remote in hand, was flicking between BBC News and CNN. He looked at her luggage, a small wheelie case collected on the way there from Victoria station.

‘Is that all you have?’

‘I don’t need much.’

He was starting to notice how deftly she rebuffed any questions she evidently construed as intrusive. Fair enough, he thought. Take your time. But where was the rest of her life?

‘Would you like to see the . . . rooms?’ He couldn’t quite say ‘bedrooms’.

‘Sure,’ she said, as if she didn’t much care either way.

‘Obviously, you should have the double, the bigger one, I mean. If you prefer.’