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undercover role, and remembered him.’
    â€˜You said, “On the face of it,” Maud,’ Harpur replied. ‘Said it twice. “On the face of it” Parry looked OK for the undercover operation. Why only “on the face of it”?’
    â€˜Harpur will fix on a phrase,’ Iles said. ‘It’s a valid flair.’ He had quit the sombre tone, for now. ‘Don’t write Col off as just my sweeper-up.’
    â€˜Parry got killed,’ Maud said. ‘“On the face of it”, he shouldn’t have got killed because he was near-perfect for undercover, according to US experts and our own. His entry to the firm seems to have been brilliantly carried out – patient and in slow stages. He did some buying, as if for personal use, with officially provided funds. Then he increased the purchase, said he had friends who’d enjoyed some of his stuff and wanted their own supply. He became a sort of courier and could graduate from there. Classic. It’s an expensive way of working because, obviously, he had to be supplied with repeat money, and more repeat money. That can’t be avoided. The outfit was alert to attempted penetration, of course, but very gradually they apparently got to trust him – as much as any of them trust any of them, which is never totally, but say fifty-eight point seven three per cent. So, he’s in and seemingly secure, yet then gets wiped out.’
    â€˜He was ambushed,’ Harpur said. ‘No blame on him for that, surely. Who could have dodged it?’
    Maud said: ‘Well, who? Yes. And who could have laid it on?’
    â€˜The Home Office loves blame – blaming, that is, not
getting
blamed,’ Iles said.
    â€˜Parry was a solid, four-square officer. Those are considerable assets. But perhaps they preclude some other essentials which a different officer might possess,’ Maud said.
    â€˜Which different officer?’ Harpur said.
    â€˜Notional,’ Iles said. ‘It’s a concept, Col, not an actual person. We’re in the realm of the theoretical.’
    â€˜Which essentials?’ Harpur said.
    â€˜You see what I mean about the way he’ll pounce on a word and get at its innards?’ Iles said. ‘Like a lioness with a zebra.’
    â€˜Instincts,’ Maud replied.
    â€˜Instincts?’ Harpur said.
    â€˜The undefinable, but essential,’ Maud replied. ‘Shouldn’t he have sensed, smelled, intuited there was something suspect about the route selected for him to take when Abidan’s call came? He would have learned the local geography by then. We’re referring to a blacked-out construction site where he’d have to walk slowly and gingerly to avoid tripping over foundations and discarded hods. Slowly and gingerly and therefore very hitably. Uncompleted buildings offered fine cover and useful firing points for a sniper, especially if the sniper had night-vision equipment.’
    â€˜So, you
do
think the whole sortie was pre-shaped for the execution of Parry?’ Harpur said.
    â€˜We have no CCTV sightings of Justin Scray that night, but we do know that Abidan put the rallying signal out, which would bring Parry from his search at the shopping mall along the agreed route, including the building site,’ Maud said. ‘Crucially including the building site.’
    â€˜You regard the hunt for Scray as a charade, a fiction, to fool Parry and get him into an easy target area?’ Harpur asked. ‘The real hunt was for
him
? No likelihood of finding Scray at the mall existed?’
    â€˜Or anywhere?’ Iles said.
    â€˜My function is to suggest such questions,’ Maud replied. ‘Only that. But I’d hope they’re questions that have not been adequately dealt with so far, and which, perhaps, you will prioritize.’
    â€˜You believe Parry was reliable and competent but naive?’ Harpur asked.
    â€˜There
are
people like that,