Next in Line (William Warwick, #5)(45)

For the past six weeks, they had been keeping to a strict timetable. They would turn up late every morning, enjoy long lunch breaks, which they then claimed on expenses, before leaving early, all part of a well-orchestrated performance, conducted by William.

When Milner began calling him Bill, he knew Operation Overcharge was falling neatly into place. The Superintendent would have done well to remember that Constable William Warwick hadn’t been nicknamed ‘Choirboy’ by chance when he first joined the force.

The eight o’clock team meetings at the Yard became more regular as they approached the window of opportunity – that ten days when Prince Charles and Diana would be carrying out an overseas tour. Superintendent Milner, DI Reynolds and Sergeant Jennings, who had recently been promoted as a personal protection officer ahead of Constable Jenny Smart, would be with them on the far side of the Atlantic, while DI Ross Hogan would be able to keep a close eye on all of them.

? ? ?

‘How did you manage to pull that off?’ Faulkner asked Tulip as the two men strolled around the exercise yard together.

‘I found a Judas who didn’t even want thirty pieces of silver to betray him,’ replied Tulip. ‘His name is Tareq Omar.’

‘And why is he willing to take such a risk?’

‘Khalifah was responsible for his brother’s death during the recent coup in Algeria, so for him, revenge will be a sufficient reward in itself.’

‘How do we bring the two of them together?’

‘I’ve arranged for Omar to be transferred to cleaning duties on Khalifah’s wing, so their paths will cross regularly, when he’ll pose as a devoted follower of the cause. My only fear is he might kill him.’

‘We want to keep him alive while there’s the slightest chance Khalifah could be my passport out of here.’

‘I thought that was all under control.’

‘So did I,’ said Miles, ‘until BW turned up for our weekly meeting and told me he’d been to see Sir Julian Warwick to confirm our agreement.’

‘What makes you think he didn’t?’ asked Tulip.

‘Lamont says they haven’t seen each other since they met in his chambers soon after he returned from Spain.’

‘Which one of them do you believe?’

‘Lamont, because if he’d been working solely for BW, he would have confirmed his story. So I may need to cash in one of my insurance policies if I’m to have any hope of getting out of this place.’ Tulip knew when not to interrupt the boss. ‘One thing’s for certain,’ continued Miles, ‘I can’t risk meeting Omar myself, so how will he get any worthwhile information he picks up to you, without attracting yard gossip?’

‘My cell’s on the same landing as his, so he can drop in from time to time without anyone becoming suspicious. But it could still be some time before Khalifah trusts him enough to confide in him.’

‘I haven’t got a lot of time left,’ said Miles, not elaborating. ‘If Omar does come up with anything worthwhile, let me know immediately, as I’ve already made an appointment to see Commander Hawksby.’

Tulip couldn’t believe what he’d just heard.

? ? ?

William arrived at Buckingham Gate just before eight o’clock the following morning, to find Rebecca waiting for him on the doorstep. Once the night watch officer had gone home, he locked the front door, aware they couldn’t afford to be disturbed, while Milner and the away team were abroad, watching over their principals.

Paul had left home just before seven a.m., and made only one stop on his way to Windsor, to pick up Jackie. She was entitled to six months’ sick leave, but had soon realized that Rebecca dropping in from time to time to bring her up to date wasn’t that exciting, besides which, she’d already become bored with afternoon television.

The vital piece of the jigsaw had fallen neatly into place when Constable Jenny Smart had decided to resign from the unit and applied to be transferred to another section, having been passed over for promotion once too often.

Paul and Jackie hadn’t needed to break into the administration block, because Jenny had left the door wide open.

They spent night and day during the week poring through file after file that provided them with more than enough of the evidence they needed to convince the Hawk about the lifestyle Milner and his cohorts had been enjoying for the past ten years at the taxpayers’ expense.

As they had only got half-way through the damning evidence by Friday night, they didn’t go home, but, despite sleeping on camp beds during the weekend, they still had two more filing cabinets to go through by the time Milner accompanied the Prince and Princess back on the plane to Heathrow.

Back at Buckingham Gate, William used a pass key to enter Milner’s office, while Rebecca found that DI Reynolds’s door hadn’t been locked. He obviously thought no one would dare to enter his sanctuary while he was away. Sergeant Jennings’s office was locked; that would have to wait, but then he’d only recently been promoted, so his sins wouldn’t be quite as damning.

The four of them worked around the clock for the next ten days, and by the time the royal flight landed back in England, they had gathered enough evidence to ensure that Milner would not be retiring to the country in a couple of years with a KCVO as he’d promised his wife (who never hid the fact she was looking forward to being Lady Milner) but would be summarily dismissed from the force without a pension.