BLOOD DRAGON by Freddie Peters (books to get back into reading .TXT) 📕

“I’m not using you as a decoy.” Pole had recovered his voice and his pent-up concern had turned into anger.

“Why not? After all I have benefited from the information you gathered on my behalf without asking too many questions, which as you know is not like me at all.”

Pole tried to interrupt but Nancy carried on. “I could have been much more suspicious about that. Instead, it suited me fine to be taking a back seat with the investigation into my father’s disappearance.”

“So now you’re taking the front seat, by making yourself a suspect with Marsh and the counter-terrorist squad?” She imagined Pole, striding along the banks of the River Thames, not having bothered with a coat like most of his colleagues.

“Now that you put it like that, it sounds very dramatic, but at least it will give you and your … contact … time to sort out something that can exonerate you.”

“What if it doesn’t work?”

“I’m not an expert in these matters, but the little I have seen of MI6 tells me they are pretty resourceful when it comes to protecting their sources.”

There, she had said it, and it was a weight off her shoulders to be telling it how it was.

Pole stopped walking. He found the doorway of one of the buildings that lined Victoria Embankment to shelter in.

“You have more faith in them than I have.”

“I don’t have faith in them, Jonathan. I have faith in you.”

“But can’t you at least delay your departure so that we can talk about it … make a plan.”

The thought of being back in her flat, speaking to Pole about her next step made her stomach churn. She could still change her mind, claim an emergency of some kind … BA could unload the luggage … there was still time. “Please, only by one day.” She heard in Pole’s voice he had sensed the shift.

Nancy gulped down the rest of the champagne, warm and acidic now.

“If I don’t do this now, I may not …” She hesitated, felt the pressure in her stomach again. “I may never do it. And in any case, Philippe has gone and he needs someone to shepherd him around, if he is going to find out what happened to Amy. One day can make a big difference in Hong Kong.”

Pole must have been holding his breath. She heard a slow exhale.

“I’ll try to join you as soon as I can,” he finally said.

“No way … that would defeat the object of the exercise. You are needed there to look after Cora, please. And you also need to be in London to keep gathering the information I need.”

“Ollie Wilson’s case might well require me to fly to Hong Kong.”

Nancy thought about the documents Cora had shown her, but perhaps now was not the time to tell Pole she knew about those too.

“As long as Marsh is on your side.”

“Since when do I care about Marsh’s opinion when it comes to solving a case?”

“Since you became the subject of an inquiry led by the counter-terrorist squad.”

“You may have a point,” Pole grumbled.

Then she felt a presence, polite but hovering at her side.

“I’m sorry, Ma’am, but you should think about boarding the aircraft now.”

Nancy turned towards the young man who had approached her and nodded a thank you.

“The flight is boarding now …”

Pole’s voice held back his goodbye for a short moment. “Safe flight then … call me when you’ve settled into your hotel. I’ll text you a new number to use.”

“I’m staying at the Mandarin Oriental.”

“Do I need to say it?”

“I’ll be careful, mon coeur, promise.”

“That does not fill me with the warm glow of certainty.”

Nancy started walking towards the gate. Only a few people remained. She presented her boarding pass.

“But the one thing that should convince you I’ll be careful is that I want to come back to London and to you.”

* * *

“Call me if you remember anything else.” Pole’s warm baritone voice soothed her. Cora felt a little guilty. She knew about Nancy’s imminent departure to Hong Kong, and yet had said nothing.

It was almost time.

She imagined Nancy settled into her business class seat. She had loaded the information she needed to review on her laptop, and taken the documents Cora had photocopied with her.

Cora pulled the soft blanket up to her shoulders and snuggled into the bed. She was still squatting in Beth’s bedroom. The latest from the builders who had visited her flat, was a minimum of six months to clean and rebuild after the fire. A specialist firm had started removing the furniture, and the personal effects that could be salvaged.

She was staggered at the amount of stuff she and Ollie had accumulated. She was grateful she had digitised all of her photos. It was not the fire that had caused such damage, so much as the smoke that had penetrated and covered everything with a thick coat of black soot. Nothing had been spared.

She still hadn’t been able to reach her artwork and the props she had stored at the back of the large L-shaped room where her studio once was.

Some of her work was still at Philippe’s gallery. At least she had saved some of the more recent print editions she had created.

Her mind shifted back to her conversation with Pole.

She had described in detail the visit to Viro-Tech. The reluctance to speak about Randy Zhang. Nicky’s eventual disclosure that he had left under a cloud. Pole had been grateful for the information. She could sense it in his voice. He was perhaps gathering enough information to justify a visit to Ollie’s former company.

She had never shared Ollie’s blind appreciation of Jared Turner, too cordial to be honest, too keen to praise people to be genuine. She didn’t like the man, perhaps because of the condescending way he looked at women when he thought he was not being observed. People were a means to an end, yet he seemed good