The Trouble With Time Read Online Free PDF Page A

Ryker’s feet, eyes on Jace. Jace said, “This is off the record. Anything you tell me won’t go any further than this room.”
    “Oh yes. What d’you think I’m going to tell you?”
    “I know McGuire had a TiTrav. He brought it with him when he came to see you last Thursday.”
    “That’s your version of events. Not mine.”
    Jace continued, “He didn’t have it on him when he died. You haven’t got it. So who has?”
    Ryker looked at him in disbelief. “You came back here on your own, thinking I’d tell you what I didn’t tell your boss two days ago? How does that work? You’re wasting your time, mate.”
    Jace faced the fact that he wasn’t going to get anything out of Ryker without giving an explanation in exchange. But sharing his suspicions about Quinn – particularly when he could be entirely mistaken – with a man like Ryker was not a sensible idea. He sat for a moment, not saying anything. He shouldn’t have come. What had made him think Ryker would help? He was here because he couldn’t think of any other avenue to explore. This was another wasted journey.
    Ryker was studying him, head a little on one side. Suddenly his eyes narrowed, and an incredulous half smile appeared on his face. “You think one of your lot has got it.” He stared at Jace. “Well, fuck me pink and call me a radish. That’s what you’re doing back here on your own.”
    Only the extreme disquiet which had brought Jace there made him say, reluctantly, “It’s true . . . I do have a suspicion that . . . one of my colleagues in the department . . . may have the TiTrav. If I’m right, then what McGuire told you may help me find out who it is.” Ryker eyed him, assessing him, saying nothing. “If I’m right, then that’s why McGuire’s dead.”
    After a pause, Ryker said, “Did you know he had a daughter? Saffron. She’s seventeen.”
    “Yes.”
    “He wasn’t much of a parent, left home when she was little, but he kept in touch. She’ll miss him.”
    “I know. I’m sorry.”
    “Turn out your pockets.”
    Jace put his dataphone on the desk. That was all he had with him. Ryker took it over to the safe and put it inside, then picked something up from a shelf. “First thing I did Sunday morning after you’d gone, checked you hadn’t left a bug behind. Stand up.”
    Jace stood, and Ryker ran the scanner carefully over him, both sides. Satisfied Jace wasn’t wearing a concealed listening device, he turned it off and sat back in his chair. “If you do find who it is, I’m not saying this in court, okay? I’ll deny telling you anything.”
    “Understood.”
    “Okay, then.” He said nothing for a minute. Jace waited. Then Ryker began to talk.
    “Pete came here Friday all hyped up, and showed me a TiTrav. He wanted to get shot of it fast, and he wanted fifty million for it. He said the buyer had to arrange for the money to look like he’d come into it lawfully, so he could explain where it came from if anyone got curious. He’d thought it all out. I told him, as it happens I know someone who’d pay that and arrange it to look kosher, but he could get more if he gave me time to contact a few likely customers and get them into a bidding war. But he didn’t want to wait. He saw himself buying a nice house outside of London where Saffy could come and stay, and buying her her own little flat here. Setting her up, maybe paying for university too if she fancied it. He wouldn’t have had much change from fifty million after doing that, with property the price it is, but that’s really all he wanted. He was excited about it, about changing his life and Saffy’s, and wanted to do it fast.” Ryker got up. “I need a cup of tea. Want some?”
    “Thanks.”
    Ryker went over to the kitchen. The kitchen unit whose side Farouk had kicked in was now back against the wall, hardboard nailed neatly over the hole. Jace glanced round the room. The stickers that were reachable had gone, but a scattering at the top