May knew that Kasavian was preparing to present the UK’s case for the European border-security initiative in just over a week’s time. As it was likely that his future career relied upon driving the deal through, he wouldn’t take kindly to being disturbed, even to help his wife. May dreaded to think what his reaction would be when he heard the details of Sabira’s latest outburst.
‘Andy, I’m working with her husband to try and sort this out,’ he explained. ‘When do you think I can get to see her?’
‘Obviously we don’t want to hold her any longer than is necessary, but we need an explanation as to why she had a classified file in her handbag. This isn’t half an hour in the cop shop and a slapped wrist. We’re following protocol now, and you have to realize it could lead to a prosecution.’
‘It could be a set-up, Andy. Maybe Kasavian has an enemy who’s using his wife to get at him.’
Shire gave a cold laugh. ‘Are you kidding? Oskar has nothing but enemies. They’re required to sustain the department. Just don’t ask us to narrow down the suspects.’
The South Bank Centre and the Royal Festival Hall were bedecked with fluttering blue and red flags, turning the promenade into an urban seaside town. Artificial sandbanks had been placed against the embankment walls and topped with beach huts as part of an arts festival.
‘What a mess,’ said May, leaning on the cool stone balustrade of Waterloo Bridge.
‘I don’t know, I quite like it,’ said Bryant, screwing the pieces of his pipe together and digging around for his tobacco pouch. ‘The juxtaposition of sand and grubby old buildings. It’s a bit like Margate.’
‘I mean the investigation. We didn’t ask any of the right questions. It’s my fault. I let her charm me. It was completely inappropriate behaviour.’
‘I’m glad you pointed that out. You’ve always been a sucker for a pretty face. She played you like a Stradivarius, matey. We should have run a thorough background check on her first. I didn’t know about the ex-boyfriend or her past mental-health issues. I’m losing my touch.’
‘I thought it was strange to find her in such an upbeat mood the morning after she’d made a spectacle of herself. I asked Janice to find out if she’s on prescription medication, but she says apparently not. She’s being assessed by her doctor later this afternoon.’
‘Have you ever read Henry Mayhew?’ asked Bryant, looking out over the olivine water as he drew flame into his pipe bowl. ‘London Labour and the London Poor, 1851. Fascinating stuff. Conversations with ordinary working-class Londoners. Of course we still have a tremendous class divide, but the disenfranchised weren’t always outsiders. If anything, they knew more about what was really going on. Mayhew met rat-catchers and fire-jugglers, pickpockets and sewer-hunters, and the thing you notice most when you read their accounts is this: a poor man will tell you everything, and someone in society will tell you nothing.’
‘That’s true enough,’ May agreed. ‘It seems the further up you go, the less you find out.’
‘There are only a handful of major landowners in London, but we never fully discover the truth about them. It’s all part of the invisible code of English conduct that baffles foreigners.’
‘So you think we’re wasting our time even talking to Sabira?’
‘No, I believe she feels she’s been genuinely ill treated.’
‘Isn’t that just naivety on her part?’ asked May.
‘Maybe. When you reach a certain level it’s not about how much money you have, but your background. Knightsbridge and Notting Hill may be home to wealthy New York bankers and Dubai businessmen, but even they have trouble reaching the inner circles of power. It’s certainly not something that’s automatically conferred upon you by marriage. The Foreign Office and the Home Office have always been run by men like Kasavian. I’ll bet you his entire family moves in government circles. He may well worship the ground she walks on, but he’ll never let her in.’ Experience had encouraged Bryant to hold bleak views about the British class system.
‘So it’s his fault she’s behaving like this? You don’t think she just has anger-management issues?’
‘Don’t say “anger-management issues”. What’s wrong with the word “temper”? I’m not saying it’s a conscious act, John. A job at the most senior level of government is a Mephistophelean deal. In return for power you surrender your peace of mind.’
‘Are you sure you’re not just siding with her because of your own working-class background?’