Inspector Lynley 18 - Just One Evil Act

their system.
    Barbara didn’t believe him. There was something in his voice that told her something else was up.
    He went on to declare briskly that
as
he’d done everything he could and
as
he couldn’t help her and
as
he’d shown good faith in at least making every possible attempt at fulfilling her wishes, he wanted all his backup information that she was carrying round with her returned to him.
    It was the briskness that gave him away. But “It doesn’t work that way, Bryan” didn’t get her far.
    “You’re in this deep and so am I and what I suggest is that we protect each other” was his immediate reply.
    That was all he would say. But the fact that he would say it when
she
was the person holding the information that would land
him
in gaol suggested that he was holding information about her as well, and it wasn’t of the nature that Doughty’s was: just filmed documentation of her innocent visits to the man.
    She said sharply, “What’s going on, Bryan?”
    He said, “Give me the memory sticks and I’m happy to share on that subject.”
    “Are you actually trying to blackmail me?”
    “Go to bed with thieves and don’t complain when they steal your jimjams,” he replied evenly. “In a word—or three—things have changed.”
    “Then I’ll ask again: What’s going on?”
    “And I’ll say the same: Return my backup system.”
    “You can’t be claiming you have only one system, Bryan. Bloke like you? You wouldn’t make a mistake like that.”
    “That’s hardly the point.”
    “Then what
is
the point?”
    “The point is the mistakes
you’ve
made, not those that you’d like to assign to me. Full stop.”
    That was his final word. What was left to her was to decide if he was bluffing on the subject of her alleged mistakes. In his position, she would have bluffed her way to hell and back. But in his position, she also would have reckoned that the information on his memory sticks could be copied endlessly so what was the advantage to him in demanding their return?
    And what did it matter since he had to know that she couldn’t return his backup. Do that, and her leverage over him was gone. She said, “I’m holding on to what I’ve got till you manage our little SO12 problem. I don’t believe that you can’t do it, and I don’t believe you’re friendless in the area of hacking, either. You can’t do it, you know someone who can. So get on the blower—or however else you contact your techno mates—and find a bigger genius than yourself.”
    “You aren’t hearing me very well,” he told her. “I do that, and I’m finished. But here’s what you ought to look at more closely: So are you. Am I being clear? I change those tickets, you’re finished, Sergeant. You hang on to my backup files, you’re finished as well. You’re as good as finished anyway and so am I, but the only thing that proves it is the backup system, which—in your possession,
mate
—also proves you’re finished. Because it proves what I’ve already told them and how much clearer am I going to have to be with you, eh? I’m doing what I do for a living which, let’s face it, is illegal as hell. But what
you’re
doing is
not
what you’re supposed to be doing for a living and the bloody gaff is bloody blown so if you have any bloody sense, you’re going to give me the memory sticks and you’re going to make sure that no one else has a copy of what’s on them.”
    Hearing this, she’d thought back frantically. When it came to Doughty and his merry crew, she’d been more than careful with what she’d reported to Lynley while he’d been acting as liaison officer. And when it came to Smythe, Lynley knew nothing at all. She’d covered her tracks by making absolutely sure she saw to the work assigned to her by John Stewart, and even if the ground was shaky when it came to everything she’d declared about her mum, it wasn’t as if that ground was going to crumble beneath her. No, she had to move forward and stick to the plan and get Azhar cleared of this mess.
    “Find the genius we need or do it yourself, Bryan” was her parting remark to the man in South Hackney. She wasn’t about to let Azhar go down for kidnapping.
    That final thought was fixed inside her head as she careened home. She sent a message of thanks heavenward when she saw that Azhar’s car was in the driveway next to the house. She sent a second message heavenward when she blasted out of her own car—parked behind his to