Shirley Grove’s credentials were serious enough to deliver a smiling and friendly Eva to Reception that grey afternoon. She took them to the café on the first floor and they sat in the corner overlooking the road. ‘I assume you have been to Prague often enough,’ she said, as she placed their coffees in front of them and took a seat opposite.

‘Never,’ Kate said.

Eva gestured at the road outside. ‘Well, it has better views.’

‘I’m sure we’ll get to that.’

‘How about you?’ Eva asked, smiling at Callum in the way most women seemed to.

‘I studied here for a year,’ Callum said.

‘Nice,’ Eva replied. ‘Then you can show your colleague around.’ Eva leant forward, elbows on the table. ‘What can I do for you?’ She was wearing a chic grey suit with a very faint check, a cream blouse and large gold hoop earrings. She had tumbling, wild hair and could have passed as Julie’s older sister. Ian clearly had a type.

‘I don’t think you’ll be surprised to learn that we’re here to talk about Ian Granger,’ Kate said.

‘Why wouldn’t I be surprised?’ Eva asked, without returning Kate’s smile. She had the kind of relaxed wariness common among intelligence officers the world over.

‘You’ve probably heard he’s just been made the new chief of the Secret Intelligence Service,’ Callum said.

She switched her steady gaze to him. ‘You are also with SIS?’

‘No. I work for the prime minister.’

‘So this is positive vetting?’

Aware he was already drifting out of his depth, Callum deferred to Kate. ‘Not exactly,’ she replied.

‘What, then?’

‘It’s probably easier if we don’t outline what we’ve been asked by the prime minister to investigate,’ Kate said.

‘Easier for you or me?’

‘Perhaps both.’

Eva sipped her coffee. She leant back and crossed one perfectly tailored leg over the other. She was thicker-set than in the SIS file photographs. ‘We wanted to ask you about Ian,’ Kate said. ‘I’m very sorry not to be more specific as to our reasons why, but we’d ask you not to discuss what we’re about to talk about with anyone at all, either inside your service or out.’

‘You don’t ask much.’

‘I’m sure there may be a time when the prime minister or I can return the favour.’

Eva weighed this. If she’d checked out Shirley Grove’s credentials and those of this investigation with the Cabinet Office in London, then she was bound to assess this as a promise with some potential. Favours could be useful in this business. ‘All right,’ she said, leaning back and spreading her arms, as if to welcome them in. ‘What is it you want to know?’

‘You first met him in New York?’ Callum asked.

She cracked a smile. It transformed her face, imbuing it with sudden life and warmth. ‘That’s your opener?’

‘His wife suggested you were lovers,’ Kate said.

‘I bet she did.’

‘Were you?’

‘What do you think?’

Eva’s gaze was fixed on Kate now they had finally locked horns. ‘Well,’ Kate said, sipping her coffee and then leaning back in her chair. ‘Since she spent a lifetime trying to pretend Ian’s wandering eye was fixed solely on her, I’d say you can hardly have been subtle about it.’