The Hollow Man by Oliver Harris

Author:Oliver Harris
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2012-10-31T16:00:00+00:00

33

He was out of the grounds in minutes, back in the comforting speed of a Mercedes.

“Drop me at Hampstead police station,” Belsey said when they were approaching Golders Green. The driver looked at him again, but didn’t say anything. “You know where it is?” Belsey said.

“Yes, sir.”

“Let’s get some speed on.”

The night had emptied. Mist wound its way around Hampstead’s brickwork. A panda car crawled through the empty streets, fog lights on. That would be PCs Andrews and Robinson, Belsey thought, probably silent together, thinking of their families. He had moved past tiredness, on his own night duty. He had always thrived on it: the brief moment when the sleepless gained possession of all; when the nocturnal made their plans.

The Merc pulled up on Rosslyn Hill. Belsey checked the police station windows. The first-floor lights were off.

“It’s all on the account?”

“It’s all on the account.”

“Thank you.” Belsey got out. He wondered if you were expected to tip chauffeurs. “Here.” Belsey offered him Devereux’s fake Rolex. “You’ve been excellent.”

“No, sir. Please.” The driver declined the gift. Belsey waited as he drove off, then put the watch back on and headed into the station.

Three forty-five a.m. A civilian worker sat in the canteen, in the light of a muted TV. Occasionally a man in one of the cells would break into a few lines of song. Belsey climbed the stairs to the CID office. He left the lights off and turned on his computer.

Max Kovar had no domestic criminal record but he came up flagged on an international list, linked with a racetrack operator who shot his accountant in Berlin on New Year’s Eve 2003. There was an investigation into some of Kovar’s Madrid property deals the following year, involving a local official found at the bottom of a swimming pool, but no charges. Kovar was found in possession of seven doctored horse passports on the border of the United Arab Emirates, 23 June 2007, but he was shifting stallions sold to him by the Al Nhayan royal family and didn’t even have to pay a fine.

Kovar had seemed very keen. He had seemed very rich. Belsey wondered if he had been given an easier means of exploiting Devereux’s identity. He felt a tingle of anticipation. Kovar believed Belsey was a direct line to the oligarch. Belsey had been trying to steal Devereux’s past, but what about his achievements still to come?

The City Children’s Fund came up online as a registered charity. It had been set up to help deprived children of inner-city London. It also came up linked to stories of foreign donors buying favours through the back door. A group called Campaign for Open Government pointed out that it was set up at a time when several investigations were under way, looking at anonymous foreign donations to Granby and his associates. Milton Granby sat on the Fund’s board of trustees.

Belsey gathered everything on Granby that was in the public domain. The Chamberlain lived on a very secluded residential road in the Vale of Health.

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