‘I’ve probably met him four, five times over the years,’ Wolf said. ‘He handed me out certain jobs that were considered to be of an especially sensitive nature. Political hits.’

‘I don’t want to know.’

‘Good, because I ain’t telling.’

Ben asked, ‘What’s his name?’

‘Curnow. That’s what I know him as, but of course it’s not his real name. Nothing about these people is real.’

Except for ordering the deaths of their unsuspecting victims, and slaughtering young female captives in the woods, Ben thought. ‘You say he’s in his mid-sixties?’

‘Thereabouts. Hard to say.’

‘Describe him to me.’

Wolf thought for a moment, recalling the details. ‘There’s nothing all that distinctive about the guy, physically. Not tall, not short, not fat, not thin. Hair receding, but what he’s got left of it is quite thick, curly and kind of scruffy-looking. He wears glasses with a heavy black frame and seriously thick lenses that make his eyes look huge. His ears stick out, and he’s got a big nose with thread veins all over it, like he drinks too much. Got a wart the size of a pea next to his nose, too. Not too pretty.’

Wolf had always been highly observant. He hadn’t lost his touch.

Ben said, ‘That’s him. That’s Saunders.’

Chapter 18

Wolf said, ‘Seriously? Curnow is Saunders?’

‘You just gave a perfect description of the man I met on the plane,’ Ben told him. ‘So now we know two of his aliases. Still doesn’t tell us his real identity. But it’s a start. What happened then?’

‘The chauffeur got back in the Roller, they were waved through the security check, and followed the line of other cars out of sight to wherever they were all parking. Must’ve been a couple dozen vehicles at least. But I didn’t hang around watching. I made my way through the grounds around the back of the house as the guests started gathering inside. To the side of the house is all woodland. I found a spot in the trees where I could get a pretty good view through the windows.’

‘What were they doing in there?’

‘Nothing extraordinary, not at first. It was a black-tie event. Maybe fifty guests. All men, not a single woman. That’s not so unusual in those circles. A lot of these posh dos are boys-only-club affairs. Cigars and strippers and all that. Or at least, that’s what I thought.’

Ben stopped him, wanting to get it clear in his mind. ‘Let me understand this correctly. The man you had been following, the target you were supposed to kill earlier that same day – he was at this gathering too?’

Wolf nodded. ‘He’s one of them, obviously. When his wife and kids turned up that afternoon, he looked pissed off. Probably thinking about the night’s entertainment he might miss because of his unexpected visitors.’