She turned away, her face clouded with regret. ‘Do I have to? There’s so much that is sad and ugly.’ Then she turned back to him. ‘Does it matter? Does what we have here right now have anything to do with what has gone before? Can we just be us together and not think about all that stuff before?’

He smiled and touched her cheek with his lips. ‘Sure, but I want to know you. Properly. And one day I would like to feel that you can tell me.’

‘Thank you for not prying, for being so patient. You will be rewarded.’ She rolled on to her side, still facing him, pulling the sheets up to cover herself. He sensed the mood changing.

‘There is a way to save Karza. Without money. And there is a reward. A big one.’

Chapter 78

78

Tom’s phone buzzed.

Woolf was on a speakerphone. ‘Bingo. We have a match. The hair we lifted from Vestey’s prayer mat is one of Nurul’s.’ He was practically hyperventilating with excitement.

‘For sure?’

‘A hundred per cent. Good call, Tom. Bloody well done.’

Mandler was in the room as well.

‘So you got your red meat,’ said Tom.

Woolf didn’t wait for his boss to reply. He charged on: ‘This changes everything. Nurul stayed with Vestey, which connects Vestey with the hostel. And here’s another thing: MI6 has put together a record of Nurul’s time in Syria. The rebel group he was with wanted him as a sniper, as you learned from your conversation with his mother, and he was bloody good at it. They only let him go home because he couldn’t cope with all the carnage he saw. He was on his way to full-blown PTSD and would have been no use. With his connection to Vestey and his marksmanship, this puts him bang in the frame for the Walthamstow shooting.’

‘We have to bring Vestey in.’

It was Mandler’s turn. ‘Steady, Tom. Let’s think this through. We do that, it could put Rolt on alert and might blow your cover.’

‘I don’t remember that being a problem before.’

‘Not to mention letting the trail go cold. Which would be a problem.’

Tom felt that the value of potentially getting something out of Vestey outweighed the risk of tipping off Rolt. ‘The man’s complicit in blowing up his own on top of the shooting of a civilian, for fuck’s sake. If you don’t talk to him, I will.’

‘Now, Tom, careful. I suggest you calm down a bit, and think before you speak.’

‘Why? I don’t work for you, remember.’

He heard Mandler’s trademark weary sigh down the phone.