The Invisible Code(14)

‘But if she’s delusional it seems she needs a therapist, not a detective.’

‘You don’t understand,’ said Kasavian. ‘I and my entire department operate within the confines of the Official Secrets Act, and although I’ve told her virtually nothing about my work over the time we’ve been together, she is my wife. Within a marriage there can be no absolute guarantee of privacy. And now she is running around talking to complete strangers, telling them people are casting spells on her. I have no idea what else she’s saying to them. My position here is being compromised. It’s as if she’s two people, ecstatic one minute, suicidal the next. If I thought she was going mad I would force her to seek psychiatric help, but I suspect there’s something more to it.’

‘Why do you think that?’

‘Because this cult of Devil-worshippers she imagines lurking behind every car and tree – I have a feeling she thinks I’m their leader.’

‘Well, you must admit you do look—’ Bryant began, but once again thought the better of it. ‘What do you imagine brought on this sudden change in her behaviour?’

‘I can only think something happened around six weeks ago – perhaps she met someone unsavoury, or did something foolish. Got herself into some kind of trouble. She won’t give me a straight answer.’

‘Then what do you expect us to do?’

‘I need you to find out if there’s anything behind these fantasies of hers,’ said Kasavian. ‘Obviously I wouldn’t be able to grant the case official status, but if you get to the root of the problem I think I can promise a very agreeable recompense.’

‘What did you have in mind?’ asked Bryant.

‘A full exoneration for the unit, an amnesty on your memoirs and a permanent guarantee of official status within the City of London Police structure. You’d no longer face challenges from the Met or the Home Office.’

‘We’d be reinstated and officially recognized?’ asked Bryant, staggered.

‘I just want my wife back,’ said Kasavian, looking suddenly pitiful. ‘Please, find a way to make her sane again.’

‘I haven’t felt this revolting since we wormed Crippen,’ said Bryant as they headed towards Victoria Station. ‘Dracula seeks our services and asks us to sort out his barking wife’s persecution complex? The very unit he’s spent the last few years trying to close down?’

‘You heard him,’ said May. ‘He has no one else to turn to.’

‘Of course not, everybody hates his guts. But we’re not experts on mental health. Quite the reverse, if anything. Besides, if I know Kasavian he’s less concerned about his wife’s sanity than he is about making sure his department isn’t brought into disrepute.’

‘That’s understandable. He’s about to represent British interests in Europe. The last thing he needs right now is something that will break his concentration and damage his reputation. And we might be able to deal with the problem quickly. It sounds as if Sabira’s parents live on a chemically contaminated site, and presumably she was raised there as well, which might explain her mental problems now. We have nothing to lose by taking on the case.’

‘Oh no? What if we fail? He’ll have the perfect ammunition against us.’

‘You heard him say that our involvement would be kept strictly off the record. He won’t be able to blame us if we fail. What have we got to lose?’

‘Do I have to remind you?’ asked Bryant. ‘Anna Marquand may have been murdered because somebody wanted to destroy the notes she made from my interviews.’

‘It would help if you could remember what you told her about your past cases.’

‘The sessions took place over a two-year period. I have no idea what I might have said. You know what my memory’s like. I can’t even remember where I’m living.’

‘Good Lord, I’d forgotten you were moving at the weekend. How is it?’

‘I don’t know, I haven’t been there yet.’

‘But you must have seen the place.’

‘No, I left it all to Alma.’ Alma Sorrowbridge had been Bryant’s long-suffering landlady for over thirty years, and had arranged to find a new flat for them after their old home had received a compulsory purchase order. ‘That’s not important right now. The important thing is … I’ve forgotten the important thing.’

‘Anna Marquand.’

‘Anna, yes. Her attacker had been to Oskar Kasavian’s office. There was a Home Office slip in his pocket with Kasavian’s department named on it.’