could hear him breathe. 'This came from a colleague of his, one of the faith. I've no doubt it's true. Mrs Cooper, do you know who happens to own a maroon-coloured sports car?'
She stopped her struggle with the key. She'd just remembered the car she had seen parked outside the Mission Church.
Coughlin said, 'What do you know, Mrs Cooper? What happened on your trip to London that made them so panicky?'
Jenny looked from Coughlin to Starr and noticed they had the same stillness about them, the same certainty behind the eyes. A pair of celibate warriors who wouldn't have much sympathy with her plans for the evening.
'I'm not sure how much good this will do any of us,' Jenny said.
'It's not about us, is it, Mrs Cooper? It's about a man who's in prison for a crime he didn't commit. Surely you can't sleep easy with that on your conscience?'
'Take my advice and get him a good lawyer.'
She tried the key again. It refused to turn.
'We're all afraid of the dark, Mrs Cooper,' Coughlin said, 'none more so than those of us who have found ourselves lost in it.' He spoke to her softly, like a priest. 'Don't you believe that we find ourselves at these crossroads for a reason? It's a privilege to be truly tested, don't you think? Imagine a life without even the opportunity for redemption.'
He reached for Jenny's car key and turned it in the lock without effort.
She touched the handle, but her fingers stiffened. An image of Freddy's fragile body lying on the mortuary slab flashed before her eyes, and she experienced a moment of overpowering grief. Coughlin sensed it and leaned in even closer.
'Let your conscience speak, Mrs Cooper.'
Jenny felt her resistance fall away. She began to talk.
'Before he was saved, Turnbull had parties for his business associates,' Jenny said, the words spilling out of her.
'Eva was at one of them as part of the entertainment. It seems she reminded him of it when she was arguing for a pay rise. He got a court order gagging her. Her lawyers can't discuss her affairs with anyone - it's a total blackout. I persuaded a judge to grant an exception for the purposes of my inquest, but the Ministry of Justice stepped in to shut me up.' She paused. 'This bit I shouldn't tell you . . .'
Coughlin stayed silent, leaving her to make up her own mind.
'I've been promised the police will investigate Turnbull eventually, but only after he's got his law passed.'
'And you gave what in return?'
'I promised not to rock the boat. . .' She glanced over at Starr. 'It seemed like the best deal at the time.'
'This order you got from the judge - could you still use it?'
She shook her head. 'My inquest is over.'
'It was stayed for want of evidence - that's different, surely?'
Jenny thought for a moment, guessing he had been on the phone to a friendly lawyer. 'I can see there might be an argument.'
'Eva's lawyers are the firm in Queen Square, right?'
'You know them?'
'The DC who took the statement about the sports car says they make most of their money from the pornography business - everyone in the trade uses them. One of the partners even owns the warehouses out in Filton where they shoot all the films. He tells me it's a regular little blue Hollywood out there.'
'If that's true, I'm surprised they didn't put up more of a fight against Turnbull,' Jenny said. 'A well-placed leak and they could have wrecked him.'
'A man with his money would have shut them up for small change.'
Jenny thought of Damien Lynd and his pretence of being ethical. No doubt he had performed the same routine while telling Eva that he couldn't sue GlamourX until she had paid his bill for contesting Turnbull's injunction. And at the same time he and his partners would have been negotiating their pay-offs with Ed Prince.
Jenny said, 'Why don't I talk to them after the weekend? I need to think this through.'
Coughlin said, 'I understand Mr Craven didn't take the news of what happened today too well. Between you and me, Father Starr's worried he might do something stupid.' Before Jenny could object, Coughlin said, 'Why we don't we pay these crooks a visit now, while the spirit's with us?'
Jenny sat on the back seat of Coughlin's convertible. Father Starr didn't say a word as they drove the short distance across the centre of town to Queen Square, his eyes unreadable behind