The PM’s eyes had already glazed over. ‘As I said, I’m sure you’ve got it all under control.’

A senior PA put her head round the door. ‘The cabinet secretary’s here, Prime Minister.’

The PM sprang to attention. ‘Jolly good.’

Garvey got swiftly to her feet. The last thing she needed right now was to be cross-examined by Clements in front of the PM.

‘And, ma’am, Stephen Mandler’s waiting for you in your office. He said it’s urgent.’

Chapter 73

73

Westminster

Mandler was perched on the edge of the sofa, half folded over as if he had a stitch.

‘You look like a man who’s painted himself into a corner.’

He shrugged dejectedly. The comment had hit home, as Garvey’s comments usually did.

‘So, let me see if I’ve got this right. You’ve got Rolt being funded by people in the US who do surveillance software and private security. And you’ve got an Invicta man whose house you want to turn over without tipping off the Met.’

‘All I’m doing, Sarah, is keeping you in the loop.’

And possibly looking for somewhere else to lay the blame, once it came to it, which it usually did. ‘Thank you, Stephen, that’s most considerate. What is it you actually want?’

‘Leave to keep going, but without involving the police. We may need to lift a few people and question them without sending any shockwaves that might alert Rolt’s friends.’

‘Are you saying Rolt is somehow complicit in the bombing of his own hostel?’

‘Not in so many words – but you’re aware of what we know about the supposed “bomber” and that’s still under wraps for now. But if we take the two incidents together, the shooting in Walthamstow and the bombing, what do they have in common? It would now seem that both were planned specifically to deceive us about who was responsible. The first outraged the Muslim community because it appeared that the police had shot an innocent man, and the second got the rest of the population very worked up – not just over Syrian returnees, but just about everybody with a Koran in the house. If anyone wanted to split the public and turn the two communities against each other this has done it, and Rolt has stepped into that divide. It’s extremely bad news.’

‘But apart from your belief that trouble always comes in threes, and a nasty feeling about Rolt, this doesn’t amount to much.’

‘Look, can I just say, re the location for the summit—’