Situated at the northern end of Berwick Street’s fruit and veg market, the Flat White café was one of the most celebrated coffee shops in Soho. Inside, the place was crammed, as usual. Even so, Louisa Arbillot was easy to spot in her Avalon T-shirt. They exchanged nods as he stood at the counter and ordered his drink. Sitting underneath a small poster advertising a Grace Jones concert, she sipped daintily on her latte and waited patiently for him to collect his double espresso and take the spare seat at her table.
‘Very nice to meet you, John.’ She offered him a moist hand and, rather reluctantly, he shook it.
‘Thank you for agreeing to see me.’
Louisa studied him closely through dull grey eyes. Draining the last of her coffee, she placed the cup back on the saucer with a flourish. ‘When Helen told me what you were interested in,’ she said, ‘I didn’t think I could help at first.’ Her French accent seemed less obvious now than over the phone, but it was still clearly detectable. Carlyle took a taste of his own coffee and waited for her to get to a point.
‘After all, Avalon is a purely independent charity.’
‘Of course.’
‘And anything that could compromise our integrity’ – she gave him an arch look – ‘such as, for example, informing on behalf of the police, could prove to be very damaging to us.’
Carlyle said nothing. He had little time for people who used words like ‘informing’ or ‘informer’ so readily. In his view, that kind of language was just an excuse adopted when they wanted to look the other way. Being honest with the police was just like being honest full stop. Surely that was a good thing for normal people to aspire to. No one should ever consider themselves above the law.
‘We have to be very . . . proper in the way that we conduct ourselves.’
‘Nothing you say to me will go any further,’ he replied, taking care over the words. ‘This is not any kind of interview. I simply wondered if I might have the benefit of your professional opinion.’
Arbillot placed her hands in her lap. ‘Go ahead.’
‘Well, I’m sure Helen has explained the general situation that I’m dealing with here.’
‘She outlined the general situation, yes,’ Arbillot said. ‘You seem to have got yourself caught up in a very dangerous set of events, Inspector. Helen is very worried. She is really quite angry about it.’
Carlyle shrugged. ‘Our big concern is that there will be more killings. What I was hoping is that you might be able to give me some insights into the, er . . .’ he wondered how he should put it ‘. . . the Arab side of the problem.’
Arbillot leaned forward in her chair and suddenly her eyes were very much alive. ‘I have spent the last six months in Gaza, trying to provide basic medical care – the type of things people here would have taken for granted even fifty years ago, never mind now – while being constantly bombed and shot at by the Israelis.’
Folding his arms, Carlyle sat back in his chair with a carefully neutral expression on his face. He didn’t come here for a political lecture, but was prepared to put up with one for a while.
‘Working for Helen,’ Arbillot went on, ‘you have to be doctor, diplomat and accountant, all in one. She is a tough boss.’
‘I’m sure she is.’ Carlyle smiled.
‘Anyway, I don’t pass any judgements. I am not in any way political, but I understand what motivates these people.’
‘To be honest,’ Carlyle kept his voice even, though he was beginning to run out of patience with this lady, ‘I’m not so much interested in anyone’s motivation. What I am trying to find out is why these Hamas guys were in London and whether some of them are still here. I do not want to see any more officers of the law getting killed.’
Arbillot nodded. ‘Or innocent members of the public, for that matter.’
‘Quite.’
‘Which is why Helen was able to persuade me to meet with you.’
‘Helen?’ Carlyle asked, surprised. Down the years, on the handful of occasions that he’d asked for her help, his ultra-liberal wife was always adamant that she would never try to convince anyone to talk to her copper husband.
‘She said you were a very fair man, especially for a policeman.’
Suddenly embarrassed, Carlyle lowered his gaze to his knees.
‘And she said you genuinely wanted to stop more bloodshed.’
‘I do.’
‘Then go and speak to a man called Fadi Kashkesh.’
Carlyle pulled a pen out of his pocket and cadged a slip of paper from a passing waitress. ‘How do you spell that name?’
Arbillot had to repeat it three times before he got it right.
‘What’s Mr Kashkesh’s story?’ he asked, looking up.
‘A familiar one,’ Arbillot sighed. ‘Intelligent young man with nothing to do and no prospects, moving steadily downwards on a path to destruction. First they throw stones, then they are given guns and sent out to fight the IDF, who make short work of them.’
‘The IDF?’
‘The Israeli Defence Force – part of the army. Fadi would have been dead by now, but he got lucky. I took a bullet out of his abdomen four years ago, and we got him out alive.’
‘We?’
‘The staff at Avalon paid for him to come over to London. He’s found it a bit of a struggle here, but things are now getting better. He’s studying politics and working as an administration assistant for a road-haulage business.’
‘As an illegal?’ Carlyle enquired, already wondering what leverage he might be able to exercise over the guy. ‘He must have a pretty precarious existence.’
‘No,’ Arbillot stated. ‘He’s here legally.’
‘How so?’ Carlyle frowned. ‘Did he get asylum?’
‘No.’ Arbillot smiled sadly. ‘I married him.’
Blimey
, Carlyle thought.
That’s a bit above and beyond the call of duty
.
‘We’re separated now,’ she continued, ‘which I suppose is not really that surprising, given all the difficulties we faced.’
‘No,’ he mumbled, ‘I can see how it would have been . . . tricky.’
She shot Carlyle a defiant look. ‘But you never know – I still see Fadi when I am in London. And there is no plan for us to divorce.’
‘Where will I find him, then?’ Carlyle asked, keen to move the conversation on to less personal matters.
‘You don’t,’ Arbillot said. ‘I will speak to him and he will get in touch with you.’
‘Okay.’ Carlyle wasn’t happy with that arrangement, but knew that he couldn’t really force the issue.
‘Fadi says that he has no contact with anyone from the old days, but you know what men,’ she corrected herself, ‘what boys are like.’
Carlyle nodded.
‘There is quite a big Palestinian community here, and others are passing through London all the time. He will be able to help you find the right people. Or, at least, point you in the right direction.’
‘Good.’
‘And in return,’ she said, a nervousness in her voice now as she got round to naming her price, ‘you will make sure that he doesn’t become the next victim of the Israelis here, in London.’
‘I will do what I can,’ Carlyle said. He sucked the last drops of coffee from his demitasse and stood up. ‘Thank you for your help with this.’
‘You shouldn’t be thanking me,’ Arbillot replied. ‘You should thank your wife. She is the one who got me to understand why we should talk. She is a good woman and a good colleague; a great asset to us and a great asset to you.’
Don
’
t I know it
, Carlyle thought as he headed out into the hustle and bustle of the street.
‘Whose house was it?’
Sitting on a bench on the first floor of the British Museum, Carlyle gazed at a small group of kids clustered round a table, chatting away happily as they painted their decorative tiles. They were coming to the end of an Islamic tile-painting workshop that had been inspired by the museum’s Middle Eastern ceramics collection. It had been Helen’s idea to get Alice together with Marina Silver for a play date. Even though the museum was literally five minutes’ walk from the Carlyle home in Covent Garden, Alice had seemed none too keen. She clearly objected to the idea of hanging out with a younger girl. Once she was actually there, however, she quickly got into the spirit of things and had then taken good care of Marina, even telling her father to go away when he once tried to lend a hand. Carlyle couldn’t have felt prouder of his daughter if she’d been appointed Prime Minister.
The tile painting provided a welcome distraction from certain other matters. He had arrived at the museum undecided about what – if anything – to say to Dom about Sam Hooper and the Middle Market Drugs Project. While trying to make up his mind, he had instead filled him in on the situation with Joe’s killers, and their subsequent murder spree.
The fact that Dom had gone on to ask a very relevant question, one that the inspector should have asked himself, irked Carlyle intensely. Now that this question had been raised, it seemed obvious that he should have given more thought to the very desirable number 17 Peel Street. What was a suspected Hamas terrorist doing in a multi-million-pound townhouse in one of the smartest areas of the city? Now that he belatedly considered it, the place had looked as pristine and unlived-in as a designer hotel. Apart from the blood and brains splattered about the kitchen, of course. ‘We are looking into it,’ he said blandly, unwilling to admit his own oversight.
Sitting next to him on the bench, Dom turned and gave Carlyle one of his famous shit-eating grins. ‘Well, look no more, my friend,’ he said. ‘Dominic has the answer.’
Carlyle was so shocked he almost missed noticing Alice wave at him from across the room. Smiling, he waved back. She held up her tile to show him the result, and he gave her a thumbs-up.
‘You’re joking,’ he hissed out of one side of his mouth.
Dom lifted his gaze to the heavens and lowered it with a more modest smile. ‘No, I’m not. I’ve been there myself a few times.’
Jesus fucking Christ
, Carlyle thought. ‘Not the other night, I hope.’
‘No, no, no. The last time was about eight months ago. The place belongs to a guy called Sol Abramyan, although I’d be amazed if that name showed up on any search. The lease will doubtless be registered to some holding company with a PO Box in the Cayman Islands. Twenty-five middle-men later, you might find Sol’s name crop up, just maybe. Even then you’d have to know who you were looking for. More likely, you could have a dozen accountants on it for twenty years and still get nowhere.’
‘And who is Sol fucking Abramyan?’ Carlyle asked, taking on the familiar role of the slow plod for Dom’s amusement.
‘Sol,’ Dom explained, ‘is an Armenian arms dealer.’ He glanced over at the kids, who were still painting away, and lowered his voice. ‘And an occasional customer of mine. He’s a very quiet, low-key bloke who I don’t suppose will be coming back to London for a while.’
‘Is he here now?’
Dom shook his head. ‘No. Even if he was staying at Peel Street when this shit was going down, he will have vamoosed.’
‘Maybe the Israelis have him.’
‘Hah!’ Dom laughed. ‘More likely the other way round.’
‘No one fucks with Mossad,’ Carlyle said, ‘that’s what they all say.’
Dom gave him a searching look. ‘So why are you trying then, you fucking muppet?’
Carlyle looked away, saying nothing.
‘How many gunmen were there?’ Dom asked quietly.
‘We don’t know. One, maybe two – but not many. All three victims were shot by the same gun.’
‘In that case,’ Dom said, ‘I very much doubt that Sol was there. We can assume that he wasn’t the target.’
‘We don’t know that.’
Dom scratched the back of his neck and stretched out his legs. ‘Well, if he was, and if Mossad are as bloody good as everyone says they are – although all this carnage suggests that they might not be – they wouldn’t have started the shooting without knowing for sure that he was home. They would also have known that it would take at least a dozen of their top guys to take Sol Abramyan down. He always travels with at least two very large Somalian bodyguards, who carry enough weaponry between them to start a small war.’ He grinned like the big kid that he still was at heart. ‘And also to finish it.’
Carlyle made to open his mouth.
‘Before you ask,’ Dom said quickly, ‘I don’t know their names. I only know that they’re Somalian because Solly made a joke one time about their previous career as pirates.’
‘Oh, so it’s
Solly
now, is it?’
‘Hey,’ Dom shrugged, ‘I take people as I find them. He was always an okay guy as far as his dealings with me were concerned. Yes, so he sells guns; it’s not exactly social work, but I’m not judgemental.’
‘That’s handy,’ said Carlyle sarkily.
Dominic tutted. ‘Don’t try and wind me up, John. I’m a drugs dealer, so what gives me the right to get up on my high horse? More to the point, who do you think the biggest arms dealer in this country is?’
Why don
’
t you tell me?
Carlyle thought, giving him a blank look.
‘Her Majesty’s Government,’ Dom said forcefully. ‘In other words, your employer. So you are in no position either to claim the moral high ground.’
Here we go
, Carlyle thought wearily:
the philosopher coke dealer takes to the stage
.
‘Anyway, it’s not like Sol sells to any UK customers. After all, Britain is his home – well, one of them at least.’
‘Good for him,’ Carlyle quipped. ‘It’s good to know that he has standards. But he wasn’t above conducting a bit of business here, was he?’
‘You don’t know that.’
‘No – but why else would he have some senior Hamas guy sitting in his kitchen?’
‘That’s a fair point,’ Dom conceded.
‘Can you get me in front of him?’ Carlyle asked.
‘No.’ Dom shook his head. ‘And even if I could, why in God’s name would you want to do that?’
‘Maybe,’ Carlyle laughed, ‘he could help the police with their enquiries.’
‘Yeah, right.’
‘I’m serious,’ Carlyle persisted. ‘You of all people know that I am pragmatism personified when it comes to dealing with gentlemen criminals.’
‘A gentleman criminal?’ Dom put on a hurt face. ‘So that’s what I am?’
‘You could vouch for me.’