The journalist gestured at Sanderson. He wanted to get out of the bathroom. He wanted to get out of the house. He could hear voices downstairs. More policemen, presumably. An ambulance outside, come to take the body away.

They stepped out onto the landing and leaned over the banister, looking down at the hall. The body was still lying there: with paramedics bustling around. Big splashes of blood, like bright red paint, were flung across the polished wooden floor. That wooden floor was Suzie’s pride and joy. Simon wondered, incongruously, how angry she would be: about her floor.

‘You said about his background?’

‘Yeah.’ Sanderson nodded. ‘Likesay, Polish. Came here with his family about ten years ago. A cleanskin. No record of anything suspicious, even trained as a priest. Or monk. But his dad was big in the League of Polish Families. And his brother worked for Radio Maryja.’

‘They are?’

‘Hard right nationalist groups, ultra Catholic political parties. Linked to the Front National in France and various Catholic sects, like Pope Pius the Tenth. Lots of them perfectly legitimate but with…radical right agendas. At the edges anyway.’

‘So he was a Nazi?’

‘Nah. These outfits, from what we can tell, are not really Nazi. More hearth and home. The blessed Virgin Mary and a nice big army. They don’t really go in for kicking shit out of black people. Or killing Anglo-Irish journalists. Not normally anyway.’

‘I don’t understand it.’

‘Nor do I, mate, nor do I.’ He squinted Simon’s way, assessingly. ‘But there may be some link…you know, your witch theory. It alerted us. We’re still checking Tomasky out. He was a passionate churchgoer. Witches and churches, churches and witches? Who knows.’

‘So you listened in on the phone call I made to him?’

‘We did,’ Sanderson answered. ‘He must have thought you were onto something, when you rang him, something he wanted hidden. So his only choice was to take you out.’

‘The Cagots?’

‘Yup. The gist of your call with Tomasky. And these poor bastards in France? Very interesting. What the fuck is all this about?’

‘Sorry?’

The DCI looked momentarily sober, verging on reflective. Even maudlin. ‘Remember what I said way back? How right I was.’

‘What?’

‘This isn’t any old fish and chip job, Quinn, this isn’t a fish and chip job. This is something else. Who the heck knows…’ His vigour returned. ‘OK. Let’s get sorted. Nuff rabbiting. Come on, we need to debrief you, Quinn. Then, I am afraid -’

‘What -?’

‘We’re gonna assign you protection. Just for the while. And your close family.’

They descended the rest of the stairs. Past the body of Tomasky. Tip toeing through the bloodsplashes, apologizing to the paramedics and SOC photographers. The grey drizzly air of late September was enlivening. The sun was battling to be seen through the clouds.

Sanderson opened a car door for Simon, who climbed in. Sanderson sat alongside, in the back. The car began the long journey to New Scotland Yard. Finchley, Hampstead, Belsize Park.

‘And,’ Sanderson said, ‘we will protect your family as well. Your mum and dad, Conor and Suzie will be with you…’

‘You’re putting armed guards on my mother and father?’

Sanderson confirmed this with a curt ‘Yep’, then he leaned and tapped the driver on the shoulder. ‘Cummings, this traffic is a bitch. Try St John’s Wood?’

‘Right you are, sir.’

He turned back to Simon. ‘So that’s it, wife and kid, mum and dad, there’s no one else they can use. Right?’

The journalist nodded, then turned and stared out of the police car window, at the ordinariness of London. Red car yellow car white lorry. Pushchairs. Supermarkets. Bus stops. A knife three millimetres from his eye, a man bellowing with rage, forcing the knife down.

He rubbed his face with his hands, trying to rub away the horror.

‘You will feel weird for a time,’ Sanderson said, quite gently. ‘I’m afraid you better get used to it.’

‘Post-traumatic stress?’

‘Well, yeah. But you can handle it, eh? The Fighting Irish?’

Simon attempted a weak smile. Then said:

‘Tell me about the case, Bob. I need…distraction. What have you found, lately?’

Loosening his tie, Sanderson asked the driver to open the window. Cooler air refreshed the car. He said:

‘We got some interesting leads on GenoMap. There’s a Namibian connection. One of GenoMap’s biggest sponsors was a Namibian diamond company, Kellerman Namcorp.’

‘I remember Fazackerly mentioned them. So? ’

‘Seemed a bit odd to me. When I thought about it. A bleeding diamond company? What’s that got to do with genetics? So I got a bod at the Yard to track down one of the scientists from GenoMap. A Chinese Canadian, Alex Zhenrong. We found him back in Vancouver. And he told us…quite a lot.’

They were passing the Regent’s Park mosque. Its golden dome glittered half heartedly in the uncertain sunshine.

‘Like what?’

‘Like…a lot. He told us GenoMap found it hard getting people to fund the lab, at first, after what happened at Stanford.’

‘But Kellerman were…keen?’

‘They came on board after a year, and they were very keen indeed. Superfuckingduper keen. The only ones. Apparently they poured money into the lab. For several years. Genomics is not cheap but GenoMap got every machine they wanted. From Kellerman Namcorp.’

‘And they are exactly? This corporation?’

‘Diamonds, like I said. Big aggressive multinational, mining and export. They’re up there with De Beers. They run their own part of Namibia, the Sperrgebiet. The Forbidden Zone. The owners are a very old Jewish family, South African. Jewish Dynasty.’

‘Why were they so determined to finance the lab?’

‘Because of Fazackerly and Nairn. According to Zhenrong anyway.’

‘Say again?’

‘Fazackerly was the best geneticist in Britain two decades ago. Big reputation. Nairn was maybe the best young geneticist in the world. Kellerman wanted their brains. And Kellerman wanted their results.’

‘So that was good for GenoMap.’

Sanderson nodded. He glanced out of his window as they overtook a double decker bus. Crowded with shoppers.

‘Yeah, but – so Zhenrong told us – Kellerman also wanted bangs for their bucks. They wanted some payoff for all that investment. So they pushed the research in…a certain way…If you see what I mean.’

‘No. I don’t…’

A brief silence. The journalist looked around the interior of the police car. So calm and sensible and ordinary. So unlike the interior of his mind.

Sanderson explained.

‘By the end, it seems Nairn and Fazackerly weren’t just investigating genetic diversity in the way…you are supposed to.’

‘Explain?’

‘I’m no molecular biologist, Quinn, as you might have twigged. But my understanding is this. The initial idea behind GenoMap was…meant to be medical. Finding cures for diseases, through differering racial genetics.’ Sanderson shook his head. ‘That’s why Alex Zhenrong joined, anyhow. But by the end, with Nathan Kellerman’s strong encouragement, Fazackerly and Nairn, according to this Zhenrong lad, were just looking for genetic differences, full stop. They wanted to find and prove that there are large and serious genetic differences between human races. You understand.’

‘Next stop Joséf Goebbels.’

‘Yup. Maybe.’

‘In which case…You reckon they are, or were, racist? Nairn and Fazackerly. A couple of Nazis? Fits with Tomasky.’

He shivered at the memory of the Polish policeman, teeth bared in rage; he looked across the car.

‘Nope.’ Sanderson shook his head. ‘We don’t think Angus was racist. According to all his mates, and Zhenrong, he just wanted to be famous, to be published. He was ambitious, that’s all. Apparently he was pretty eccentric, as well as very smart. But he, at least, was not a Nazi.’ Sanderson leaned a little closer to Simon, across the front seat of the car. ‘And we think he and Fazackerly may have been onto something quite astounding by the end. Though they wouldn’t tell anyone what it was. But it must’ve been something that the Kellermans really wanted.’