Three Faces of West (2013) Read Online Free PDF Page B

dealing with something administrative. Appearing rather flustered, or could that be stress, and obviously lower down the career ladder in the Civil Service, she rose rather obediently to greet John and Jack,
    “Good afternoon, I’m Carol. Do you have an appointment?” She asked rather candidly while shaking the two men’s hands. By now the other lady had departed to attend to her other duties,
    “We are here to brief Mr Finnin on a robbery that occurred this morning.” Said John,
    “I believe he should be expecting us.” Added Jack, “Is he in?”
    “I’ll just go and see if he’s available. If you would like to wait here.”
    “Thank you.” Said Jack in a polite tone as Carol disappeared into the adjoining main office. In the brief few seconds that they were both alone, both men savoured their surroundings. The office was a mix of all the trappings of modern technology and fine classical architecture. The paintings on the wall, the 18 th century leather bound volumes in a closed bookcase along one side of the room, the large secretary’s desk with the modern flat screen monitor coupled with the large filing cabinets. It was all very nice,
    “AAARRRGGGHHH!!!” A scream shrieked out from the Finnin’s office. Both West and Hudson instinctively reacted by both looking at each other in the briefest of glances before rushing through the door to the source of the noise.
    What greeted them was a sight of pure horror. Peter Finnin sat at his desk slumped in his chair obviously dead and surrounded by disturbances giving clues as to whatever happened. It was an extremely distressing sight as the body had clearly been mutilated in situ and that was the first thing that struck anyone who saw this. Directly in front of the door stood the assistant Carol, frozen in terror as to what was before her. As West and Hudson entered behind her apart from the terrible scene Hudson noticed her expression, here dark brown eyes wide open unable to take her gaze off the body yet mentally tortured by the scene. Beginning to tremble was the cue for West to open arms as she turned away; shaking like a leaf was the proper bodily response. Jack though for a second,
    “Go and call the police.” He said to her in a reassuring tone. Without looking back she exited the office to make the call obviously, almost desperately trying to compose herself,
    “Well,” Said John, “This is something else.”
    “Go outside and ask if our political friend has anything of value here.” Asked Jack,
    “You think this has similarities to the Cullinan diamond robbery earlier today?” Asked John,
    “Probably, go and ask her”.
    John went back out to the secretary’s office. By now Carol had composed herself somewhat slightly, but she was still shaking. In the process of picking up the phone, John appeared to interrupt,
    “Excuse me,” He said lightly, “What was Mr Finnin’s role here?”
    The secretary paused briefly as if she was thinking of an answer. Her state of mind was understandable but it still seemed a little suspicious nonetheless,
    “He was the seconded to non-terrorist security matters from the home office. His job was to brief senior civil servants and ministers on potential security threats.”
    “How did he do that?” Pressed John,
    “He based his briefs directly from people like you, the security services and also from GCHQ. Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to call the police.”
    John wasn’t going to get much out her at this stage, in frustration he went back to join West who was at that time busy utilising his police background before he joined MI5 to disseminate the scene. Just like he had done earlier at the Duke of Westminster’s apartment,
    “I’m not getting much out of her Jack, she doesn’t seem all that cagey, can’t tell if there is anything of value here.”
    “There must be a motive here, something to commit this crime.” Responded West.
    Hudson cut in, “But what? It’s not for us. We need to