picture that he was an unlikely repeat offender, and gave it up. I never dealt with him personally again - I had moved onwards and upwards by the time he was out and about once more - but we exchanged a few words the odd time. He even gave me a wave through the door last week when he was in seeing you.
"But what I'm getting at is that I believe what's in this letter, as much as I can't believe he was part of what happened last night. It just doesn't add up, and we won't be able to make much sense of it without talking to him in person. I want you to go to Edinburgh. . . "
He finally put the phone down, then sat back in his chair and turned his attention to Nicole.
"It's getting interesting, isn't it," Campbell opened.
"Indeed," she replied, with a furrow of the brow.
"Interesting, as in 'may you live in interesting times'," he confirmed, expressing his awareness of her discomfiture. "Another day, another dead body. Question is, where does it put us?"
"I've been asking myself that all night."
"Well, the simple answer, for the time being, is that it puts us right here, until our client is actually charged and we're allowed to speak to him. What56
ever progress you might have made yesterday - and you handled the whole thing extremely effectively, I have to say - has been undone by Mr Lafferty's DIY demise."
He picked up a pen, toying absently with it, its turning in his fingers like a wind-turbine powering his thoughts.
"Although the police were right in saying that our letter was of no intrinsic value in terms of proof," Campbell continued, "I think it nonetheless depicted a very plausible scenario that people might be ready to believe, especially in the continuing absence of any substantial alternative. Public opinion would have been with us, even if public sympathy obviously wouldn't. Everyone was bound to be getting bored of conjecture over possible terrorist motives for killing Voss; we offered something a lot more realistic: robbery. What better reason for breaking into the residence - albeit temporary - of one of the richest men in the world? People understand greed a lot better than they understand the politics of intra-European sub-factional splinter-groups. If Voss was an Arab or an Irishman, different story. And of course, if Lafferty had done himself in more conventionally, something a bit more obviously spur-of-thedarkest-moment. . . "
"I know, I know," she commiserated. "Mind you, the post-mortem report could still show up something different. Sub-arachnoid haemorrhage or. . . "
Campbell shook his head and frowned, as if impatient with this futile and misguided optimism.
"I've got some police contacts. PM results won't be through for a while, but they know he took a pill; whether it was cyanide is incidental. The word is that the bloke who found Lafferty walked into the room and saw him pop something into his mouth and swallow it, upon which - get this - he said
'bye-bye' and sat down. The bloke tried to get him to cough up - Heimlich manoeuvre or whatever - but was fought off. Whatever he took, the result was that he was dead in minutes. And the result for us is that suddenly it's all very cloak and dagger again, and this terrorist crap has come crashing back down like a bloody anvil."
Campbell leaned back in his chair, running a hand through his thinning locks and widening his eyes in frustration
"I don't know what to think any more," Nicole confessed, breaking a growing silence. "If Lafferty was working for someone, or even just being used by someone. . . what does that do to what McInnes gave us? It looks now like Lafferty was the middle man, but maybe the whole operation was just to kill Voss. Thomas McInnes told us he was being coerced into carrying out a robbery, but could the letter actually be a cover-up after all? Could he even have been coerced into writing the letter as part of the deal? I mean, if the letter is genuine, why didn't it tell us he was being coerced into carrying out 57
a
"But what I'm getting at is that I believe what's in this letter, as much as I can't believe he was part of what happened last night. It just doesn't add up, and we won't be able to make much sense of it without talking to him in person. I want you to go to Edinburgh. . . "
He finally put the phone down, then sat back in his chair and turned his attention to Nicole.
"It's getting interesting, isn't it," Campbell opened.
"Indeed," she replied, with a furrow of the brow.
"Interesting, as in 'may you live in interesting times'," he confirmed, expressing his awareness of her discomfiture. "Another day, another dead body. Question is, where does it put us?"
"I've been asking myself that all night."
"Well, the simple answer, for the time being, is that it puts us right here, until our client is actually charged and we're allowed to speak to him. What56
ever progress you might have made yesterday - and you handled the whole thing extremely effectively, I have to say - has been undone by Mr Lafferty's DIY demise."
He picked up a pen, toying absently with it, its turning in his fingers like a wind-turbine powering his thoughts.
"Although the police were right in saying that our letter was of no intrinsic value in terms of proof," Campbell continued, "I think it nonetheless depicted a very plausible scenario that people might be ready to believe, especially in the continuing absence of any substantial alternative. Public opinion would have been with us, even if public sympathy obviously wouldn't. Everyone was bound to be getting bored of conjecture over possible terrorist motives for killing Voss; we offered something a lot more realistic: robbery. What better reason for breaking into the residence - albeit temporary - of one of the richest men in the world? People understand greed a lot better than they understand the politics of intra-European sub-factional splinter-groups. If Voss was an Arab or an Irishman, different story. And of course, if Lafferty had done himself in more conventionally, something a bit more obviously spur-of-thedarkest-moment. . . "
"I know, I know," she commiserated. "Mind you, the post-mortem report could still show up something different. Sub-arachnoid haemorrhage or. . . "
Campbell shook his head and frowned, as if impatient with this futile and misguided optimism.
"I've got some police contacts. PM results won't be through for a while, but they know he took a pill; whether it was cyanide is incidental. The word is that the bloke who found Lafferty walked into the room and saw him pop something into his mouth and swallow it, upon which - get this - he said
'bye-bye' and sat down. The bloke tried to get him to cough up - Heimlich manoeuvre or whatever - but was fought off. Whatever he took, the result was that he was dead in minutes. And the result for us is that suddenly it's all very cloak and dagger again, and this terrorist crap has come crashing back down like a bloody anvil."
Campbell leaned back in his chair, running a hand through his thinning locks and widening his eyes in frustration
"I don't know what to think any more," Nicole confessed, breaking a growing silence. "If Lafferty was working for someone, or even just being used by someone. . . what does that do to what McInnes gave us? It looks now like Lafferty was the middle man, but maybe the whole operation was just to kill Voss. Thomas McInnes told us he was being coerced into carrying out a robbery, but could the letter actually be a cover-up after all? Could he even have been coerced into writing the letter as part of the deal? I mean, if the letter is genuine, why didn't it tell us he was being coerced into carrying out 57
a
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