“Apparently, Terry’s principal assignment at the moment is to keep tabs on the brigadier. They’ve been surveilling him since his, ah, retirement—with mixed results.”

“‘Mixed’ how?”

“They lost him a couple of times—once for three days and once for several hours, which coincided with the killing of a British vice-admiral with whom Fife-Simpson has had a rocky relationship over the years.”

“That would be Simon Garr.”

“Yes.”

“Tell me, does Fife-Simpson have anyone new in his life? A woman, perhaps?”

“Funny you should mention that. Yes.”

“How did he meet her?”

“In a pub, and apparently they hit it off immediately. They’ve taken a new flat together.”

“Tell me about her—hang on, I want to record this. Go.”

“Jennifer Sands, age thirty-nine, Oxford graduate with a first in languages.”

“Russian one of them, perhaps?”

“Right. She’s attractive and has considerable personal wealth from her father. Oh, and she was once a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain but resigned about a year ago.”

“Clearly, she’s dirty,” Lance said. “Do they know if she—or Fife-Simpson—has had any contact with anyone at the Russian embassy?”

“That wasn’t mentioned last night.”

“Where is this new flat where they’re shacking up?”

“In Eaton Place.”

“Ah, that’s revealing,” Lance said.

“How so?”

“One of London’s finest addresses. That means Fife-Simpson is very important to them. Of course, if Ms. Sands is wealthy, she may be paying. Do you have the exact address?”

“No, but they did say it was a top-floor flat.”

“Good.”

“Why good?”

“Because it makes surveillance easier for us. We’re going to have to take a close look at the woman, then set up our own team on old Roger. We’ll have to stand back a bit, since Felicity already has people on him.”

“I’d be interested in how you would do that,” Stone said.

“We’ll rent a nearby flat, far enough away so that our people aren’t bumping into Felicity’s people, and we’ll use electronic and telescopic methods. We’ll let them follow Fife-Simpson and the woman when they go out, then we’ll follow Felicity’s people.”

“Felicity was annoyed with the lapses in their surveillance of him and ordered Terry to beef up his team.”

“As she would, of course. Those two lapses could account for a multitude of sins, including the murder of Simon Garr. The three-day period sounds like an indoctrination to me. You say they lost contact in south London?”

“Yes.”

“There are a couple of airports down there. They could have transported him somewhere. We’ll get to work on aircraft registration numbers and flight plans filed. It occurs to me, too, that that period could coincide with the increased activity on researching you. Do you think Fife-Simpson could have brought up your name?”

“I’ve no idea. He knows my name, of course.”