‘Detective Inspector Kelly Porter was at the scene, the same detective who was only hours before giving evidence at the Ian Burton trial…’

‘Mummy’s famous,’ Millie said to Lizzie.

‘So far, the cause of the crash is unknown, but it is too soon to rule out sabotage, considering that Lord Reilly was attending the controversial climate summit over the weekend…’

‘That’s what the press would like,’ Kelly said. ‘The more drama to report, the better.’

‘Lord Reilly was the victim of an egg-thrower over the weekend…’

This caught Kelly’s attention and she flicked on the small TV on the kitchen countertop. Sure enough, the news was all about the crash, as was expected. They showed Lord Reilly from archive footage, as well as the egging incident over the weekend, and the man who’d been arrested for it: Neil Hardy, a known climate activist who’d been arrested for violence towards fox hunters and capitalists over the years. He was a serial protester.

She buttered toast for herself and Millie and plopped an egg on top of each slice. She finished making her coffee and sat down. Her phone began to buzz and then didn’t stop. She sat, coffee in one hand, and toast dripping in egg yolk in the other, and watched as messages flooded onto her phone. They were all telling her the same thing. The duty sergeant at Eden House, Kate, the press office, and her father: all were asking her if she’d seen the news. Something was going on, and she flicked channels, coming to one which had an up-to-date report.

Word was circulating that the crash wasn’t an accident. Some punter at the Wasdale Inn was claiming he was an expert, and a helicopter instructor, holidaying in the Lake District. That was what Johnny must have been bothering her about.

She dialled his number and drained her coffee.

Chapter 19

Lord Donald Reilly survived the night.

Elaine had refused to leave the corridor outside his room. Now she was allowed inside it. She’d convinced her children last night to go to the hotel booked for them by the prime minister’s office. They were chauffeured there and had called her this morning at five a.m. She promised them she’d slept but she hadn’t. Her mind wouldn’t let her rest. But at some point before dawn, which was now breaking outside, she’d dozed off against a machine next to one of the chairs, and her neck had gone into spasm. She rubbed it and for a moment forgot where she was, until she saw her husband and heard the bleeps. She sighed.