Adrian Magson - No Tears for the Lost

Palmer nodded. ‘From what you say, he had the motive — he hates Myburghe enough to send malicious emails about him — although we still don’t know why.’

‘You need to ask him,’ said Riley. ‘He won’t talk to me.’

Palmer nodded in agreement. ‘Can you set it up for tomorrow?’

The storeroom in 34A was cramped, hot and claustrophobic, and smelled strongly of soap overlaid with the acid bite of industrial bleach. Palmer was amazed anyone could stand it. Yet for someone apparently suffering a form of battle stress, Jacob Worth seemed strangely at ease among the clutter of cleaning materials, boxes of paper towels and other unlabelled equipment stacked around the walls.

‘I’m sorry about Miss Gavin,’ Jacob said politely, when Palmer explained who he was. He tugged at his blue work shirt and straightened his tie. ‘I didn’t realise…’ He shrugged and looked around as if checking everything in his subterranean domain was present and correct. ‘She wasn’t angry, was she? Only she should have said she was… you know. Or had a photo above the articles, the way some journalists do. That way I’d have known.’

‘Don’t worry about it,’ said Palmer easily. He hesitated, wary of starting out too quickly and sending this man scurrying into whatever safe haven he might have built around himself. ‘She’s sorry she upset you.’

‘No worries.’ Jacob reached across his desk and picked up a blue paper towel. It was ridged and creased from being folded many times, and he proceeded to fold it again and again, concentrating on the task, his fingers moving quickly and firmly until the oblong of paper was reduced to a solid block. ‘No worries.’ He peered at Palmer and paused. ‘You want some tea? I can do tea if you’d like.’

Palmer nodded. It had been a long drive and he was feeling jaded. ‘Tea would be great.’

‘Grand. Grand.’ Jacob leapt up and busied himself with a kettle, mugs and teabags. As he did so, a faint buzzing began in the room, and it took Palmer a few seconds to realise that the sound was coming from the former Intelligence officer.

‘What were you, then?’ Jacob turned away from the kettle as it boiled. ‘You weren’t Navy, were you? I’d know if you were Navy. Army, I bet.’ He turned back and made the tea, his movements economical and practised. He placed two mugs on the table with a bag of sugar and pushed one of the mugs in front of Palmer. The tea looked like gravy.

‘RMP,’ said Palmer. ‘Special Investigations Branch. You?’

‘Defence Intelligence Group.’ Jacob spoke proudly, quietly, and pulled his mug towards him. ‘A small department, self-contained… but we did good work.’ He pointed to a photo on the wall. It showed a group of men in tropical whites, smiling at the camera. The detail was too small to make out faces, but Palmer thought he recognised Jacob in the centre of the group. He looked less shy, smiling happily out at the world.

Jacob blinked a few times, then cleared his throat and said, ‘We tried, you know… to get all the Latin American countries not to take sides. Not many people know that. They probably think it was the politicians or the Foreign Office who did everything. But it wasn’t. Not entirely.’ He nodded and sipped his tea. ‘There wasn’t much time, you see. It all blew up, the Falklands did, and suddenly we had to hit the ground running and start talking to our opposite numbers and others to get them onside.’ He smiled almost slyly. ‘Getting them not to be on-side with the Argies, is what it really amounted to. Stepping back from the line. All the same thing, really, I suppose.’

‘Important task,’ said Palmer. ‘It seems to have worked.’

‘Absolutely. Absolutely.’ Jacob’s response was intense, and he nodded eagerly several times. ‘Absolutely. Vital, in fact.’

The words seemed to jump out as if on impulse, and Palmer decided to bring the conversation back in line before Jacob sank into more reminiscing. ‘Where did you meet Sir Kenneth Myburghe?’

Mention of the ambassador’s name seemed to make the man shrink. He peered into his tea, then looked away and flicked on a small television monitor on one side of his desk as if he hadn’t heard. The blue-grey image showed the mens’ room taken from high on the wall. Palmer guessed the camera lens was situated in one corner where it would command a panoramic view.

‘Jacob?’

‘Bloody perverts,’ Jacob muttered, although nobody was there. ‘I have to keep an eye on them, you know. Damned nuisance, they are. Talk to you while you’re peeing — it’s not right. Puts people off coming here.’ He flicked off the monitor and looked at Palmer as if the interruption hadn’t happened. ‘I was in the north for ten days,’ he said, his voice more businesslike, ‘dodging between Bogotá in Colombia and Quito in Ecuador. Had to use shite little planes flown by madmen. I was working on their military people, trying to get them not to side with Galtieri. It wasn’t a matter of taking our side, nothing like that; we just didn’t want them interfering and sending Galtieri any hardware.’

‘Did Myburghe help?’ Palmer desperately wanted to focus the man’s mind, but knew it wasn’t going to be easy; he had too many memories jostling for position, ready to come pouring out, each one acting as another form of distraction.

‘He should have. But he was always too busy, wasn’t he?’ Jacob pulled a sour face. ‘I asked him… I needed him to get me some introductions, like the others. We had orders to get names of relevant personnel from the embassies. But Colombia was difficult, they said. Sensitive. There had been problems with agreements on the control of the drugs trade. I was told to tread carefully. Even Myburghe said I shouldn’t go blundering in without his say-so.’

‘So you waited.’

‘I had no choice. It wasn’t right, though.’ He pulled another paper towel from a box and began folding it. Then he stopped. ‘I wasted days while he ponced about. And all the time things were threatening to go pear-shaped down in the South Atlantic. In the end, I decided to follow him.’ The words were said softly, as if he didn’t want anyone but Palmer to hear him.

‘You did what?’

‘Well, it was the only thing I could think of. I’d had help from everyone else. So did Tom. There were four of us to begin with, but two went sick. Tom Elliott and me, we divvied up the countries left, those that we knew we could approach, which wasn’t many at the end of the day, but what could we do, eh?’

‘Okay. What happened?’

‘I’d been trained in surveillance and undercover work.’ Jacob grinned, displaying an almost childish self-delight at possessing a valued and secret skill. ‘And a few other bits and bobs. The embassy pen pushers didn’t know that. Thought I was just some pretend-spook filling in for the real ones. But I knew my tradecraft. Was good at it, too. Followed Sir Kenneth right to his meetings. Him and his protector.’

‘Did this protector have a name?’ Palmer kept the questions short. There wasn’t much he could do about Jacob’s rambling approach but try to keep him on track.

‘Hilary. David Hilary. Stood out like a hairy mammoth at a tea party. There were others on the protection detail, but they weren’t close, not like Hilary. Him and Myburghe were tight. Big feller, but good at his work. He didn’t see me, though.’ He chuckled proudly and pushed his mug away. ‘They needed eyes in the back of their heads to see me. Tom was my best mate, you know. Solid. Nice bloke.’ His face softened and Palmer said nothing, waiting for the moment of distraction to pass. Then: ‘I got nowhere, of course, with Myburghe. It didn’t take a genius to see he was up to no good. You don’t meet up with the cartels unless you’re stupid or you have official sanction. And he didn’t.’