went to look at all the paperwork in his office.’
Zara nodded. ‘And you discovered that he knew a lot more than he was telling you.’
‘So you knew?’ James gasped. ‘You knew that Ewart had the CIA tape and didn’t bother telling me?’
‘It was an extremely difficult decision,’ Zara said. ‘We wanted to put you out of your misery, but MI5 were pressuring us to send you down to London for more interviews. We couldn’t risk even the slightest chance that you’d let something slip out during a long interview.’
‘I’m trained for that kind of stuff,’ James said. ‘You could have trusted me.’
‘I know you are,’ Zara smiled. ‘But MI5 interrogators are trained to wheedle secrets out of intelligence agents with a lot more experience than you. One slip of the tongue, one flippant answer, or even just the fact that you seemed a bit more confident than you had done in previous interviews might have tipped them off that Ewart’s investigation was close to uncovering the truth.’
‘And you were dealing with some powerful people,’ Dana nodded.
‘Exactly,’ Zara said. ‘When you’re trying to bring down one of the richest men in the country, and his son, who also happens to be junior intelligence minister, you can’t take any unnecessary risks.’
‘We were sure Ewart was taking bribes off Lord Hilton when we saw the new Lexus,’ James added.
Zara burst out laughing. ‘It was Ewart’s thirtieth birthday present from me. I got a good raise when I was promoted to chairman. We’d never really had a decent car before and I wanted something that was a bit flash, but also safe and comfortable for the kids.’
James decided to cut to the chase. ‘So are me and Dana getting nailed for going after Ewart, or what?’
Zara shrugged. ‘I can’t condone you going through secret papers in my husband’s office, or breaking out of campus in a stolen car. But, you’ve been through a miserable few weeks, what with getting beaten up and then worrying about the investigation, and I can hardly ignore the fact that you saved my husband’s life. I guess the two sets of factors just about cancel each other out.’
‘What about me?’ Dana asked.
‘How long have you got to carry on cleaning the mission preparation building?’
‘Two and bit weeks.’
‘You can take today off, then get back at it tomorrow, OK?’
James felt like a massive weight had been lifted off. For the first time in weeks he didn’t have to worry about the investigation, or the threat of being kicked out of CHERUB.
‘What about the envelope?’ he asked.
‘I spoke to Ewart about it,’ Zara said. ‘He reckons that Jason McLoud will want it now that he knows Sarah Thomas isn’t a crackpot. McLoud can break the story and save us the awkward task of having to explain where we fit in; but we’ll keep the originals of everything just in case.’
Dana smiled at James. ‘Do you realise, we’d have been spared all of this if McLoud had bothered returning his answerphone message from Sarah Thomas two weeks ago?’
‘Yeah,’ James moped. ‘Stupid old codger.’
‘We’d better get moving,’ Zara said. ‘I want to get all of the documents and tapes back to campus ASAP. Once our bods have made duplicates of everything inside the envelope, we’ll have someone drive it down to McLoud’s house and slip it through his letterbox. If he gets his act together, he should be able to sell an exclusive to one of the Sunday papers.’
‘We know the Hiltons have McLoud’s phone tapped already,’ James said. ‘What if they try and bump him off?’
‘It’s a possibility,’ Zara nodded. ‘I’ll have someone keep him under close surveillance until the story breaks.’
Zara led James and Dana out of the canteen and on to a staircase that led towards the parking lot at the back of the police station.
‘You know,’ Zara said, as they hurried down the steps. ‘Maybe you snuck out of campus for the wrong reasons, but it took guts to step in when the father of my children had a gun pointing at his head. I reckon you two are gonna look good dressed in black …’
37. FOOD
James got back to campus at three-thirty. He ran through the corridors near the science labs and grabbed hold of Lauren as she left her last lesson of the day.
‘Black T-shirt,’ Lauren grinned, as Bethany walked out behind her. ‘Congratulations. Of course, I got mine first, so I’m still senior.’
‘Whatever,’ James said anxiously. ‘What did you tell Kerry?’
Bethany started laughing. ‘You’re ghost white,