The Teeth of the Tiger - Tom Clancy [160]
"Anything unusual in your most recent meeting?" the cop asked.
"No, not really. He was quite randy, but, you know, some years ago I had a john die on me-I mean, he came and went, as they say. It was bloody awful, not the sort of thing you forget, and so I keep an eye on my clients for that. I mean, I'd never leave one to die. I'm not a barbarian, you know. I really do have a heart," she assured the cop.
Well, your friend Sali doesn't anymore, Willow thought, without saying it. "I see. So last night he was completely normal?"
"Entirely. Not a single sign that anything was amiss." She paused to work on her composure. Better to appear more regretful, lest he think her to be an uncaring robot. "This is terrible news. He was so generous, and always polite. How very sad for him."
"And for you," Willow said in sympathy. After all, she'd just lost a major source of income.
"Oh. Yes, oh yes, for me too, love," she said, catching up with the news finally. But she didn't even try to fool the detective with tears. Waste of time. He'd see right through it. Pity about Sali. She'd miss the presents. Well, surely she'd get some more referral business. Her world hadn't ended. Just his. And that was his bad luck-with some thrown in for her, but nothing she couldn't recover from.
"Miss Parker, did he ever give you any hints on his business activities?"
"Mostly, he talked about real estate, you know, buying and selling those posh houses. Once, he took me to a house he was buying in the West End, said he wanted my opinion on painting it, but I think he was just trying to show me how important he was."
"Ever meet any of his friends?"
"Not too many-three, maybe four, I think. All were Arabs, most about his age, perhaps five years older, but not more than that. They all looked me over closely, but no business resulted from it. That surprised me. Arabs can be horny buggers, but they are good at paying a girl. You think he might have been involved in illegal activity?" she asked delicately.
"It's a possibility," Willow allowed.
"Never saw a hint of it, love. If he played with bad boys, it was out of my sight entirely. Love to help you, but there's nothing to say." She seemed sincere to the detective, but he reminded himself that when it came to dissimulation, a whore of this class could probably have shamed Dame Judith Anderson.
"Well, thank you for coming in. If anything-anything at all-comes to mind, do give me a call."
"That I will, love." She stood and smiled her way out the door. He was a nice chap, this Detective Willow. Pity he couldn't afford her. Bert Willow was already back on his computer, typing up his contact report. Miss Parker actually seemed a nice girl, literate and very charming. Part of that had been learned for her business persona, but maybe part of it was genuine. If so, he hoped she'd find a new line of work before her character was completely destroyed. He was a romantic, Willow was, and someday it might be his downfall. And he knew it, but he had no desire to change himself for his job as she had probably done. Fifteen minutes later, he e-mailed the report to Thames House, and then printed it up for the Sali file, which would in due course go to the closed files in Central Records, probably never to be heard from again.
"Told you," Jack said to his roomie.
"Well, then you can pat yourself on the back," Wills responded. "So, what's the story, or do I have to call up the documents?"
"Uda bin Sali dropped dead of an apparent heart attack. His Security Service tail didn't see anything unusual, just the guy collapsing on the street. Zap, no more Uda to swap funds for the bad guys."
"How do you feel about it?" Wills asked.
"It's fine with me, Tony. He played with the wrong kids, on the wrong playground. End of story," Ryan the younger said coldly. I wonder how they did it? he wondered more quietly. "Was it our guys helping him along, you think?"
"Not our department. We provide information to others. What they do with it out of our sight is not for us to