Free The Bell Ringers by Henry Porter Page A

see a lot of them in this town. It was over the square. This one was larger than usual. You know what the police use them for?’
    â€˜Surveillance.’
    â€˜More than that,’ said Mooney. ‘They mark targets with smart water – crowds and that sort of thing. It’s like being pissed on by a bat. The marker chemical stays on you for weeks. They were marking people in the square, as well as photographing them from the van.’
    â€˜You say that’s proof?’ said Mrs Kidd.
    A short man with wiry black hair and intense black eyes leaned into the group conspiratorially and raised a finger from the rim of the wine glass. ‘Evan Thomas is the name, Miss Lockhart. When are you going to get the message, Diana? We’re being persecuted because we knew David.’
    â€˜Can that really be true?’ asked Kate evenly. ‘Haven’t the authorities got better things to do these days?’
    â€˜Precisely. That’s I exactly what I say,’ said Diana Kidd.
    The man straightened to her. ‘There’s too much evidence for it to bea coincidence. I mean, look at us. We’re ordinary people and we’re being hounded as though we were some kind of terror cell.’
    A voice came from behind Kate and a hand was placed on her shoulder. ‘Well, the day
is
looking up – Kate Koh!’
    She turned to see Oliver Mermagen, a contemporary from Oxford.
    â€˜You were ignoring me?’ He leaned forward to kiss her on both cheeks.
    â€˜I didn’t see you,’ she said. ‘And my name is Lockhart now, Oliver.’
    â€˜Yes, of course: is the lucky man here?’
    â€˜No,’ she said.
    â€˜What a pity,’ he said and then looked at the group around her. ‘I wonder if I can borrow our Kate. I won’t keep her long.’
    She was steered into the middle of the room. ‘I don’t remember you being very close to David,’ she said.
    â€˜Haven’t lost your bite, have you? If you want to know, we became friends after Oxford. We used to have dinner quite often together in London. Of course I didn’t see him much when he moved down here to the sticks.’
    â€˜If you saw David you must know about the illness he had last year; it was quite serious apparently.’
    â€˜I heard nothing about that,’ said Mermagen.
    He went on to tell her that he ran a PR and lobbying business, which seemed a plausible setting for Mermagen’s talents. At Oxford he was always panhandling the room for new connections. Eyam gave him the name ‘Promises’ because of his technique of promising someone what he thought they wanted, whether it was his to give or not. Little seemed to have touched Mermagen. His face had flattened and spread outwards and the eyes had become two feverish dots in an expanse of greyish white flesh. Eyam had always said Mermagen reminded him of a Dover sole.
    â€˜You must at least know why David came here,’ she said.
    His eyes glided across her face. ‘My word, you have been out of it. David fell from grace big time. Everyone knows that. Easy enough when you get to the very top.’
    â€˜How?’
    â€˜I don’t know the details.’
    â€˜You didn’t talk to him to find out what happened?’
    He shook his head. ‘I’m afraid not. What about you?’
    â€˜I didn’t know anything was wrong. I’ve been in the States for nearly eight years, working at Calvert-Mayne in New York.’
    Mermagen saluted the name with a nod. ‘So you weren’t in touch at all. You two used to be so close. I mean, I’d have put money on you eventually getting together, but then you went off and found someone else. Who’s this Lockhart?’
    â€˜Charlie Lockhart: he was in the Foreign Office. He died nearly ten years ago.’
    Mermagan did a good impression of recollection followed by regret. Charlie’s face flashed in front of her. They were playing tennis