“It was a mermaid, and nothing like a Zodiac one, if that’s what you had people looking for. Bigger, Kim said, with thick lines. But Fairfax wasn’t in the Navy, he was a fifty-year-old retired banker, so why did he have a mermaid on his wrist?”

Merton got there quick. “To cover up a smaller image of a woman, you mean?”

“I can’t swear to it. Maybe we’re wrong. But he was a blackmailer, and someone killed him in a pretty nasty way, and—you know, Lord Waring and John Cheveley were Symposium members, just like Fairfax. It doesn’t prove he was Zodiac, but—”

“Straws in the wind. Secretan has rather a knack for catching at those. Why did he not bring this to us at once?”

“Because you sacked him,” Will said. “And it could be nothing. The Met have searched Fairfax’s house and not found anything suspicious.”

“No, they wouldn’t. Thank you very much, Mr. Darling. If you should come across anything that might be of interest to the Bureau in the course of your investigation—”

“That’s up to Kim.”

“I’d hope both you and he would see your duty clear.”

“If you want duty off people, don’t sack them.”

“That’s all very well.” Merton hesitated. “Oh, curse it. There’s something you should probably know. They’re regrouping.”

“Re— What, Zodiac?” Will said, the hairs prickling on his neck. “They’re starting up again? Are you serious?” He’d assumed the organisation had collapsed after Waring’s death. Mind you, he’d assumed someone had arrested the bastards, which would have helped. “What’s happened?”

“Nothing tangible. Not yet. But a few weeks ago we had an approach from the man we suspected to be Pisces. He came to us hinting darkly that one of Waring’s inner circle has appointed himself the new master, with a mission to revive the organisation. It’s Leo, he said, not that that gets us further forward since we haven’t a clue who that is. He said Leo had plans he couldn’t stomach, and he wanted to get out.”

“What the hell is a plan one of Zodiac couldn’t stomach? Considering the things they did—”

“I don’t know, but I don’t like it any more than you do,” Merton said. “Pisces offered all the information we needed, but demanded full immunity, protection, and a substantial payment in exchange. DS sent him off with a flea in his ear to consider his position. He was dead the next day.”

“Jesus. How?”

“Fell under a train. You might recall that Zodiac had a knack for making their enemies fall under trains.”

“I remember,” Will said, and then, “Wait a minute. Train, a few weeks ago? Didn’t a Member of Parliament—”