The Hornbeam Tree (50 page)

‘It’s OK, it’s OK,’ Judy said, stepping out of the shadows. ‘I’ve got you. Come on, in we go. She’ll be all right. She’ll come back.’

‘Oh God, I’m making such a mess of it all,’ Katie gasped. ‘I tried to tell her, but she won’t listen.’

‘She will. Now you’ve opened it up, she won’t be able to deny it much longer.’

Katie buried her face in her hands. ‘I’ve been so busy trying to fill my life with Tom’s story, and surrounding myself with people and things to blot it all out, that I haven’t really been thinking about her.’

‘Yes you have,’ Judy assured her. ‘She’s always come first.’

Katie shook her head. ‘No, I’ve been avoiding it every bit as much as she has,’ she said, ‘in fact that’s why she’s finding it so hard now, because she’s taken a lead from me. Oh God, why didn’t I see this before? How have I let this happen? She’s so afraid and now she’s gone off … She doesn’t even have her phone.’

‘She’ll go to Allison’s, you know that,’ Judy said.

‘I should go round there. She’ll hate me for it, but we can’t leave things like this.’

‘Give her a bit of time,’ Judy advised. ‘Let her talk to her friend, then call the house and ask to speak to her. She’ll probably be ready to come home by then.’

Sighing heavily, Katie blew her nose and looked down at Trotty who was eyeing her with deep
concern
. ‘They worry me, those friends of hers,’ she said, lifting the dog on to her lap. ‘I wish I knew more about them. I should have insisted on meeting them, but I haven’t because I’m afraid Molly’s ashamed of the way I look.’

As Judy’s face fell Katie raised a hand to stop her from replying.

‘And then there’s this new boyfriend,’ Katie continued. ‘He’ll be one of that set, I’m sure, older than her, much more sophisticated … Oh God, Judy, how do I get this right?’

‘Katie,’ Judy said firmly, ‘this is one of the hardest things in the world to get right, so please stop beating yourself up. You’re trying, that’s what matters. You’re making sure that Molly has someone when you go, and you’re doing what you can to forge that bond now.’

‘It’s not working though, is it?’

‘You might be surprised. Often things have to come to a head before they get properly resolved, or before they can move on to the next phase, so perhaps you should look on tonight as a turning point.’

Katie’s smile was wry. ‘It feels more like a disaster,’ she commented, glancing at the clock. ‘I ought to call Allison’s to make sure she’s there.’

‘Of course,’ Judy said, and picked up the phone to pass it over.

A few minutes later Mrs Fortescue-Bond’s voice slurred down the line. ‘Oh yes, yes, Molly’s just arrived,’ she said, when Katie asked. ‘Would you like to speak to her?’

‘Yes please,’ Katie responded, and put her hand over the mouthpiece as she said to Judy, ‘I’ve
never
spoken to this woman when she’s sober, which is another reason I’m not keen on Molly going over there. They’re a dysfunctional family if ever there was one, and that’s not what she needs right now.’

‘No-one ever does,’ Judy assured her, ‘but we get them anyway.’

Katie couldn’t help but laugh, for it was true. She, Molly and Michelle could hardly be described any other way with all that was going on between them, so maybe she shouldn’t be so fast at slinging stones from her own dodgy greenhouse.

‘What?’ Molly’s voice came abruptly down the line.

‘Sweetheart, I want you to come home so we can talk,’ Katie said.

‘I don’t want to.’

‘Molly, don’t be childish now …’

‘Don’t speak to me like that,’ Molly raged. ‘You’re always treating me like a baby, and I’m not going to put up with it any more.’

‘All right, but if you want to be treated like an adult, you have to behave like one, and running away isn’t adult behaviour.’

‘I wasn’t running away. I just didn’t want to listen to you going on and on …’

‘We have to resolve this business about Michelle,’ Katie said, hoping to lure her back with the easier option.

‘I don’t want to talk about it. You don’t believe me, so what’s the point?’

‘But I do understand why you’re doing it,’ Katie told her. ‘So please, sweetheart, stop hiding over there …’

‘No way am I coming back if she’s going to be there.’

‘She’s not here. She’s gone to London.’

There was a moment’s hesitation before Molly said, ‘I’m not coming back unless you say you believe me.’

Katie closed her eyes and struggled desperately for the right words. ‘All right,’ she said eventually, ‘I promise we won’t talk about anything until you’re ready to. Now will you come home?’

Molly’s silence was mutinous.

‘Molly?’

‘You didn’t say you believe me.’

Again Katie had to take a moment to think how to answer. In the end, wishing she didn’t have to do this on the phone, she said, ‘Do you swear on my life that it’s true?’

The silence was deadly.

‘Molly …’

Still no reply, but she knew Molly was there. Finally, unable to bear keeping her in such a terrible position, Katie said, ‘Be home by nine. No later.’

‘I’m not talking about anything, all right,’ Molly snarled.

‘All right. Just don’t be late.’

Judy watched Katie click off the line. ‘Doesn’t sound as though it went too badly,’ she said with a grimace.

Katie lifted her eyebrows and nodded. ‘At least we know where she is, and she’s agreeing to come home,’ she responded. ‘I suppose that’s the best we can hope for tonight.’ Her eyes went to Judy. ‘You’re a good friend,’ she said. ‘I really owe you
for
the way you’ve helped bail us all out these last few days.’

‘If you’re referring to Tom now, we enjoyed it,’ Judy confessed. ‘Most adventurous we ever are on a Sunday afternoon is a bit of rumpy-pumpy while the kids are at my mum’s. So is he all right? Do you know where he is?’

‘Yes, but it’s better that I don’t say. We’ve already put you in a difficult enough position, so I don’t want to make it any worse. In fact, let’s hope that someone out there has taken on board the fact that Michelle’s not here any more, because frankly, I don’t think I could deal with them
and
Molly right now.’

Chapter Twenty-One

FELLOWES LOOKED UP
as Nancy Goodman came into his office.

‘Still nothing,’ she told him, handing him the latest tracking report that had come in from GCHQ based in Cheltenham, who were attempting to locate Chambers and Russell.

Fellowes’s face tightened with frustration. ‘Well they’ve got to be somewhere,’ he growled, ‘and they’ve got to be using phones, emails, or some kind of communication, so it can’t be that hard to find them.’

‘Of course not, sir,’ Goodman responded.

He glanced over the tracking report, then balled it in his fist. ‘First we manage to screw up with the press … Anything broken on that yet?’

‘Not yet, sir.’

‘Now we don’t know where the hell Chambers is. What the fuck is going on here?’

Goodman went to pour him a coffee. ‘It’ll work out, sir,’ she assured him. ‘The legal case against him is watertight now, and if he resists arrest the
orders
are clear.’ She put the coffee down in front of him. ‘Unless, of course, he manages to get the story to print before we find him,’ she added.

‘Well that’s definitely not going to happen,’ he told her roughly. ‘Have we got those computers yet? The ones belonging to Forbes and Russell. The Executive wants a full picture by the end of today of how much they’ve got.’

‘I believe the computers were brought in an hour ago, sir,’ she responded, ‘but I’ll go and check.’

‘If there’s one thing I hate more than doorstepping politicians,’ Laurie grumbled as she came into the flat, ‘it’s doorstepping the flaming police. What a day!’

‘Did you get anything?’ Michelle asked, looking up from her comfy cushion next to the coffee table, where the final pages of both projects were laid out.

‘Plenty, actually, though most of it amounts to fudging or hedging, or deliberately misleading. I did manage a quick word with Detective Inspector Wilding though, who politely asked me to hand over the tape I shot on Sunday, and when I refused he informed me that my non-co-operation was putting me fully into the hands of the American authorities, who, I quote, “have their own way of dealing with terror-related cases”.’

Michelle’s eyes widened. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘I guess I’ll find out when our FBI attaché friend is ready to show his hand. I’m only surprised that no-one’s contacted us already, if only to get heavy about the tape. Nothing while I was out?’

Michelle shook her head. ‘Not from that quarter,’
she
answered, ‘but there is from this one. In fact, I think we’ve now got exactly what we’re looking for.’

Immediately Laurie dropped her bag and sank down on the floor next to her.

‘OK, I’ll read the ’97 version first,’ Michelle said, handing her a single page. ‘Then you can read the 2002, where it’s highlighted.’

As she quickly scanned the words, Laurie’s insides began knotting, for she’d spotted this paragraph before they’d had the ’97 version, and even then it had rung alarm bells.

‘So this is what the original 1997 version says,’ Michelle began. ‘“The process of revolutionary change which would see the US as supreme global leader of a newly democratized world with systems set up by the US, is likely to be a long one. To speed up this process, and to galvanize public support behind our policies and our military, we would require a cataclysmic event such as Pearl Harbor.”’

Laurie’s eyes boggled as her ears almost refused to believe what they’d just heard. ‘And that was written in ’97,’ she said incredulously, ‘four years
before
the “cataclysmic event” that we now know rocketed forward the neo-conservative agenda and plunged us all into a global war on terror.’

‘Now go to the revised version,’ Michelle said, ‘amended in 2002
after
the event.’

Laurie read aloud. ‘“The process of global transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor.”’ She looked up, eyes glittering with excitement.
‘Almost
the same, except the ’97 version stipulates precisely what they need to happen to get their world-dominance agenda under way. Then lo and behold the “cataclysmic event” happens, and suddenly we have the totally watered-down 2002 version.’

‘Precisely,’ Michelle responded. ‘So either someone very obligingly and coincidentally pulled off their cataclysmic event for them, or …’ She deliberately left the sentence unfinished. Enquiries into the attacks of September 11th still abounded, but nothing as damning as this had come to light before.

Laurie was dumbfounded. ‘Of course it’s not proof of anything,’ she said, ‘nor does it give us an irrefutable connection to the P2OG, but it’s got to be one of the most damning indictments against any political organisation in history. And if they’re capable of something like this, no-one’s going to have a problem believing they’d be behind the plot that’s fallen into Tom’s hands.’

‘So what we have is not proof,’ Michelle said, ‘but total credibility, which is enough.’

Laurie was shaking her head in amazement. ‘It’s no wonder they’re so keen to stop Tom. This is what they’ve been afraid he’d get hold of. It has to be. My God, once they know he’s made this connection they are
not
going to be happy.’

Michelle shuddered. ‘Don’t let’s go there,’ she said. ‘Let’s just get it to him so he can go to print, because if this document proves anything at all, it’s that we’re up against an unstoppable machine here.’

Laurie was already on her feet. As she reached
her
study she came to a sudden halt. ‘My computer,’ she said, blinking at her empty desk.

Confused, Michelle looked up.

Laurie’s heart was starting to thud. ‘It was here when I left. I used it. So where is it now?’

Mystified, Michelle came to look.

‘What about Elliot’s?’ Laurie demanded, starting across the hall and throwing open his study door. ‘His has gone too.’

‘But it can’t have,’ Michelle protested. ‘I was here the whole time – except when I went down to get a sandwich, which couldn’t have been more than ten minutes.’

‘Well it seems it was enough,’ Laurie said, starting for the phone.

‘Is the email routing system on either of them?’ Michelle asked.

‘No, thank God. Only the first stop. After that they’d still have a complete maze to get through before they could read any of the messages.’

‘And anyway none of them matter as much as what we have here,’ Michelle reminded her.

‘Exactly.’ After connecting with Gino, the only member of her team who was in London at the moment, and establishing that all was intact at the office, Laurie quickly helped Michelle gather up the documents, then grabbing their coats they dashed out to take the river bus along to Limehouse.

‘All we need now,’ Laurie said, starting to dial Nick’s mobile, ‘is confirmation that the editors are lined up.’ Relieved when she merely got his voicemail she left him a message to call asap to update her on his progress, then left a similar message for Max.

By the time they reached the office on Narrow Street, there wasn’t much doubt in either of their minds that they were being followed.

‘They’re not even trying to hide it,’ Laurie said, as she unlocked the front door.

Michelle glanced back to where two casually dressed men in their mid-to-late thirties were idling in front of Bootles, the restaurant, only half-pretending to peruse the menu that was chalked on a board outside. ‘We could find these computers snatched from under our very noses,’ she said, cautiously.

‘Just what I was thinking,’ Laurie responded, as she pushed the door open, ‘so stay by the window and keep an eye on them, while I send the email and erase everything, hopefully before they decide to strike – if indeed that’s what they’re intending.’

After taking up position by the window, Michelle stood quietly in the semi-darkness, listening to the tapping of the keyboard as Laurie typed in, word for word, what they’d found, while the two men kicked their heels, and one of them made a mobile phone call. Though this was by no means the first time she’d been in a situation where she was being watched, she was still gripped with unease, for no matter which language a stalker spoke, or which side of the law they were on, the encroaching sense of violation was still the same.