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turned away from the bridge and he walked with her, carrying a sports rucksack on his back. ‘Where are you taking me?’
    ‘To the Hilton.’
    For the first time, Mariam heard Buddy laugh. It was a wet little sound, a wheezy chuckle that reminded her of Dick Dastardly’s dog, Mutt. No, not Mutt. She fought to remember the name of the cartoon character, distracting herself with it as she glanced around for anybody she could possibly interpret as suspicious or overly interested in them. Anyone looking at them would probably wonder at the odd couple. Mariam knew she was an attractive young woman; God knows she’d been told often enough. And Buddy was hardly the catch of a lifetime.
    Mutley! she triumphed as she opened the car door for him. He sounded like Mutley.
     
     

FIVE
    A meeting of staff
     
     
    Robyn woke up with a start, a moan on her lips. She flung out her left hand and it slapped painfully on the cold wooden bedroom floor. She slept naked and she was naked now, the vestiges of another dream leaving her with a sense of horror and desperation. Her right hand was busy and, realising, she stilled and closed her legs. She curled up on her side and gazed at the floorboards shining into perspective, little motes of dust on the varnished surface, a spring of hair.
    The waves rose up. Pressing her legs tightly together, she was suffused in warmth, gasping in the moment. Her heart hammered in her chest and she started to cry, helpless tears to fill the Void as she lay, hunched and foetal.
    A seeming lifetime later, she picked herself off the floor. She was washing her hands when the phone rang. She dried and went through to pick up the handset. It was Heather.
    ‘Good morning, how are you?’
    Robyn brushed her hair behind her ear. ‘Fine, thanks, Heather. How about you?’
    ‘Glorious, dear heart. Listen, would you be up for a meeting with our head of staff, Simon Archer? Perhaps at ten?’
    She glanced at her little bedside clock. ‘No problem.’ It was eight. ‘Will I come down to reception?’
    ‘I’ll see you there.’
    The dream eluded her, the enduring sense of dread and the force unleashed by her involuntary act on the floor disturbed her deeply. Robyn tossed the handset onto her unmade bed and went to shower her shame away.
     
     
    The doorbell of her hotel room rang and Mariam checked in the spy glass before opening it to Alan Kingsthorpe. ‘Good morning, intrepid sleuth and super-hack.’
    She shook her head. ‘Don’t even start.’ She closed the door behind him. ‘I’ve had the night from hell.’
    ‘Our guest all settled, is he? I take it you selected this establishment to subtly punish Adel’s wallet?’
    ‘Our guest is a pain in the ass and yes, I did, actually. It’s quite nice. It’s a two bed suite, so I didn’t have to take the sofa.’
    Kingsthorpe glanced around the glittering silvered surfaces and grey furnishings in the opulent room. ‘Quite. Where is he?’
    ‘Showering. Which must be the first time in a year. Have you had breakfast?’
    ‘No. I came straight here as soon as I got the message. Sorry I missed it last night, it was on silent.’
    Mariam lifted the telephone handset from the sideboard. ‘Hi, could I get three continental breakfasts? With coffee? Thanks.’ She grinned at Kingsthorpe. ‘Breakfast at the Hilton. Woohoo.’
    ‘So what’s the problem with Buddy?’
    ‘You’ll find out. He’s not happy. And nothing’s going to make him happy.’
    ‘He’s free and alive, isn’t that a bonus?’
    ‘Not for Buddy. How’s Adel?’
    ‘Your employer has struck a deal with the Guardian and the Telegraph. We will share product and pool stories, subject only to your little trove being as dynamite as you assured him last night. We’ll need to dickey up some samples for him as soon as. He’s with Iain Carmichael now assessing our legal position.’
    ‘And what’s that?’
    ‘If we knew that, dear girl, we wouldn’t be pressing silver into Iain’s