‘There must be an archive,’ Kate said.

Danny shrugged, but there was. He searched ‘Jamaica’ there, too: 6,112 documents. ‘Christ,’ he whispered.

He started scrolling through them despairingly. ‘What are we even looking for?’ he asked.

Kate sat back in her chair. It was like searching for a needle in a haystack, except that it was more complicated than that since they weren’t even sure if they were looking for a needle or something else entirely.

Imogen was no longer sifting her red boxes. She was glued to her phone and texting furiously. It was only a few more minutes before the first call came in, and Danny’s attempt to find something relevant in connection with James Ryan’s trip to Jamaica in the archive was accompanied by the sound of Imogen cooing down the phone to MPs she was attempting to woo. ‘He doesn’t listen,’ she said, to more than one. ‘You’re quite right. That’s what needs to change.’

Kate had long since learnt that when a backbench MP complained that Downing Street was not listening, he or she meant that the prime minister and his team were not listening to him or her.

Between calls, Kate interrupted. ‘When you go abroad, who arranges your travel?’

Imogen looked at her in confusion, as if the question had been posed in Spanish. ‘What?’ she asked, her mind in the faraway reaches of her ascent to ultimate power.

‘When you travel, who arranges it?’ Kate repeated.

‘My team,’ Imogen said airily.

‘Who in particular?’

Imogen thought about this, as if it was the most difficult question she had faced all year. ‘Erm. Stacy. She’s the assistant private secretary.’

‘What’s her surname?’

‘Er …’ A longer pause. ‘Evans. No … Hughes. Yes! Stacy Hughes.’

‘And she liaises with Travel?’

‘Travel?’

‘I assume she doesn’t book your air tickets herself.’

‘No. You mean the travel department here?’

‘Yes.’

‘I suppose so,’ Imogen said. ‘I must admit, I’ve never really thought about it.’

Not the only thing you never reflect on, Kate thought. ‘Was she here before you arrived?’

‘Yes, I think so.’ A light suddenly flooded Imogen’s crowded mind. ‘Actually, no. Now I come to think about it, someone said James had been shagging the previous girl.’

‘What was her name?’

‘I don’t know. I’m sorry.’ Imogen was immediately lost to her political battle for power. She switched on the TV on the wall opposite, turned up the volume and began to flick through the morning news programmes. Most were focusing on the upcoming vote of no confidence in the prime minister, with running tallies of confirmed supporters, for and against. There was also a great deal of speculation about who, apart from Imogen, might run if the prime minister lost.

‘Look in her inbox for a “handover”,’ Kate instructed Danny. He did as she’d asked and it didn’t take them long to find an email that told Imogen Stacy Hughes would soon be taking over duties, including arranging her travel, from Petra Willis.