Red Angel by Helen Harper

Author:Helen Harper [Harper, Helen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-06-01T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE: Pizza, Salad and Beer

‘What in the world were you thinking of, Bo?’ my grandfather bawls. ‘Storming an army base? It’s … it’s…’

I’ve never seen him lost for words before. ‘Preposterous?’ I ask, squirming.

‘Exactly!’

The Stuart, Gully and Bancroft representatives depart hastily. Even Arzo seems to have vanished. The only people who remain in the office are Connor, Matt and, irritatingly, Dahlia.

‘Did O’Shea grass me up?’

‘That poor excuse for a daemon? No, he did not.’

I frown. ‘Then who?’

My grandfather marches to his office door and pushes it open. Sitting primly inside, with the damn cat on her lap, is Colonel Arbuckle. My stomach sinks.

‘Oh.’

‘That’s all you have to say? Oh?’

I sigh and meet Arbuckle’s eyes. ‘I thought you didn’t want our paths to cross again.’

‘And I thought you were going to leave this Tobias Renfrew business alone,’ she says.

‘You’re chasing ghosts,’ my grandfather thunders. ‘The man is dead.’

Considering he was already aware of my investigation into the daemon billionaire, his anger is too obvious. The canny bastard is playing up for Arbuckle’s benefit. He’s clearly not happy that I breached Brigstone but the old man is more on my side than hers. The knowledge is remarkably satisfying.

‘I’m not so sure,’ I say calmly, raising my eyebrows at the colonel.

‘How much proof do you require, Ms Blackman?’

I tilt my chin. ‘Your secret photo was staged.’

She seems taken aback. ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’

I watch her carefully. Arbuckle is far too young to have been involved in Renfrew’s disappearance. She’s probably as much in the dark as the rest of us. ‘He was left handed,’ I tell her.

‘So?’ she sneers.

I wait. It takes a second or two for her face to drop. ‘There you go.’ I fold my arms.

My grandfather looks from her to me. ‘Would you like to explain?’

I shrug. ‘I can’t. It’s classified.’

Arbuckle hisses in annoyance. ‘We have a file,’ she says. ‘And a photo of Renfrew’s corpse.’

Dahlia gasps audibly.

‘Supposed photo,’ I remark, enjoying the fact that everyone in the room is sitting up straighter.

Arbuckle stands up, ignoring my grandfather’s cat that takes umbrage at being dumped unceremoniously onto the floor and swipes at her leg. ‘I will look into this further,’ she says stiffly, then stalks out.

My grandfather’s expression remains impassive until it’s clear she’s not coming back. Then he looks at me approvingly. ‘Well, well, well. You may have uncovered a decades-old conspiracy. There was never anything about a photograph of Renfrew’s corpse in MI7’s files.’

‘I don’t get it,’ Connor says slowly. ‘The army have a fake photo of Tobias Renfrew’s death? But if they faked it, then why didn’t they release it for the world to see?’

‘I have no idea,’ I answer. ‘It might have been Renfrew’s body in the picture, I couldn’t tell for sure. If it is him, I believe the army killed him. If it isn’t him, goodness only knows what they were hoping to achieve.’

‘It’s not New Order’s remit to investigate daemons,’ my grandfather says. ‘But I think in this case we can make an exception.

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