And if Gimball wanted aggression, that’s what he’d get.
‘No,’ he said. ‘You havn’t.’
Dennis looked taken aback, but Dodie pursed her lips, as if having a presentiment confirmed.
‘I’m not sure I’m going to offer you a drink,’ she said.
‘I won’t be staying long. Perhaps we could …’ He gestured towards the open door.
‘If we must,’ said Dennis, leading the way.
The room had been knocked through, so there were windows at both ends, allowing for more daylight than the property’s outside appearance suggested. A pair of overstuffed sofas faced each other across the middle of the floor. Perhaps the Gimballs each had their own, and lay in parallel, purring across the divide. For the moment, though, neither sat, nor offered Whelan the opportunity to do so.
‘It might be best if I spoke to your husband in private,’ he said to Dodie.
‘Seriously?’
‘It’s always best to say that up front,’ he said. ‘That way, nobody can pretend they weren’t warned.’
‘Oh, if warnings are being passed around, here’s one for you. If you attempt to come the heavy with my husband, you’ll understand the meaning of the power of the press.’
She thought herself impregnable, Whelan knew. What she hadn’t yet realised was that the leash her editor kept her on might be long, but remained a leash. She just hadn’t felt its limit yet. But her editor imagined a knighthood in his future, and her paper’s proprietor a seat in the Lords. There was little doubt whose interests would win if it came to bare knuckles.
He looked at Dennis. ‘I gather you have plans for this evening.’
‘That’s no secret,’ Gimball said. ‘It’s a public engagement, widely advertised. You’re welcome to attend, in fact. Come along. You might learn something.’
‘And you’re going to use the occasion to make wild accusations about Zafar Jaffrey.’
‘Wild accusations?’
‘That’s the information I have.’
‘I don’t suppose there’s any point my asking where it comes from? No, of course not. The Establishment closing ranks, as usual.’
Dennis Gimball, as all present well knew, was the public-school-educated son of the owner of a high street fashion chain. It was funny, if tiresome, how self-appointed rebels always believed themselves to have ploughed their own furrow.
Whelan said, ‘Be that as it may, with the national mood as it is, there’s a feeling that it would not be useful to have you indulge in rabble-rousing.’
‘… “Rabble-rousing”?’
‘Stirring people up.’
‘I’m aware of what the phrase means, Whelan, I’m questioning your application of it.’
‘There’ve already been public disturbances in several cities, mostly in areas with a high immigrant population. It’s in nobody’s interests that we see any more.’
‘I’m flattered that you think anything I say could have such a wide-ranging effect.’
‘You really shouldn’t be.’
‘But what we’re seeing is the natural revulsion felt by the law-abiding majority to the atrocity in Abbotsfield. And if you imagine I’m going to keep quiet when I have information which might lead to those responsible being apprehended, well, that’s rather casting doubt on my patriotism, wouldn’t you say?’
‘Nobody doubts your patriotism for a moment. But if you have any such information, I’d suggest you convey it to the appropriate authorities rather than deliver it to a public gathering.’
‘The appropriate authorities being …?’
‘The police, obviously. Or, if you prefer, you could give it directly to me.’
‘Ah, yes. To be suppressed or twisted, no doubt.’
‘That’s not how we operate.’
‘Really? Because my impression was, the PM speaks and his poodle barks. That’s really why you’re here, isn’t it? Nothing to do with Jaffrey. Everything to do with the effect that what I say will have on the PM’s chances of remaining in office.’
‘I’m not interested in party politics, Mr Gimball. I’m interested in national security.’
‘And a fine job you’re making of it. What was today’s triumph? A bomb on a train? How many people have to die before you admit you’re unfit for office?’
‘Nobody died today, Mr Gimball.’
‘But twelve people died at Abbotsfield,’ Dodie Gimball said. Up until now, she’d been watching this like a ferret watching someone juggle eggs. ‘And that would be on your watch, would it not?’
He wanted to say: there’s no system in the world can prevent a bunch of homicidal lunatics shooting up a village if they get the urge – no system, that is, that anyone sensible would want to see. It was a question of balance. You lived in a democracy, and accepted that certain freedoms came hand in hand with certain dangers, or you opted for full-scale oppression, which severely curtailed the opportunities for unofficial slaughter, but potentially maximised the official kind. But this was not a conversation to have with Dennis Gimball. So instead he said, ‘I take full responsibility for all the failures of the Service. And have a duty to prevent, as far as it’s in my ability to do so, any further such failures. Which is why I have to ask you not to make the speech you’re intending to make tonight, Mr Gimball. It might have serious consequences.’
