Her eye goes to the glass door where one of her news editors is waving at her. She holds up five fingers at him. ‘I haven’t got long. Tell me what you actually know’.

‘Schon advises the biggest companies in the country. They provide pensions to their employees through pension funds that are substantial liabilities for them. Like the Media Corp pension fund which will pay our pensions.’

‘As and when the time comes.’ She has no interest in retiring.

‘All those clients would prefer the tax raid didn’t happen.’

‘We’d all prefer there were no taxes at all. None of that is a story. So what if Schon lobbied the Chancellor?’

‘There is a difference between lobbying and blackmail.’

I’ve now strayed a distance beyond what I actually know. I’m not sure whether Mary sees through me.

Her eyebrows furrow. ‘That’s quite a claim. Are you saying they threatened Kendall?’

‘That’s what I think.’

‘Think, or can prove?’

‘Will prove.’ I can see her deliberating. ‘I know I haven’t got enough. Yet. But what I’d like to do is write about the pressures on the government to drop the pensions tax, and mention the meeting with Schon. Not as cause and effect. But as raising questions that need to be answered. It just might flush someone out of the woodwork who can help with the bigger story. A sprat to catch a mackerel.’

She accepts the logic, warily. ‘It would be stronger if you had more of a hunch about what was motivating Schon. If they were working for a big company, which one?’ Mary’s on it. ‘It’s got to be someone big,’ she muses. ‘Schon represent half the companies in the FTSE. Hell, they even represent us.’ A pause. ‘Are you still with me, Gil?’

Although I’m staring out of the glass cube, I’m hanging on her every word. I’ve remembered what Ringer said at lunch, something that puzzled me. Think about your own pension.

My own pension, courtesy of the FC, is the Media Corp pension scheme.

Robin Muller is working on the Capital deal for Media Corp.

Hell, they even represent us.

I refocus and give an apologetic smile. ‘Sorry. I was just thinking, what if the client was Media Corp? Would you run the story if the client who wanted the policy axed was Breitner?’

‘You mean, would we run a potentially damaging news story about our own employer? Our owner?’ She gazes in mock exasperation at the cream ceiling tiles. ‘You know you’ve always been an absolute pain in the arse, Peck?’

‘You sound like my mum.’

She takes this with a wry smile. ‘We print what our readers need to know. We don’t do favours for anyone, even the owner.’ She leans forward, studying me closely. ‘It was Media Corp, wasn’t it?’

‘Yes, I think so.’