Free Fitzrovia Twilight (Nick Valentine Book 1) by James White Page A

attentive.”
                  “What did you do in there?” demanded Carruthers.
                  “My turn to say ‘you don’t know?’” Nick looked at Carruthers’ blank visage and let out a laugh. “My God, you don’t know do you? Your tail not get in?”
                  Carruthers flushed and for an instant Nick thought he might rise from his chair in anger, but the moment passed and he settled back, composed, but yet again, Nick noted, there had been that barely controlled spark.
                  “What I know is that you went in. A while later, a high-ranking officer left, pursued by individuals of interest. Our man followed them.”
                  “So I might have stayed in there all night?”
                  Carruthers gripped the arms of his chair. “You might, but I don’t think you did. Dammit, Nick, what happened in there? Why did Brigadier Johnson come tearing out? Why were those men following him? I want answers.”
                  Nick regarded him coolly. “That makes two of us. I suggest you fill me in.” Nick put his glass down and paced the room. “You asked me to look into Ramona’s death, to see what I could find out, and gave me some vague information about persons of interest. I think you know a lot more and the reason I think that is that we’ve now got a senior army officer on a government advisory board involved, and I don’t think that was news to you. Just what is going on?” Nick stopped pacing and faced Carruthers.
                  “Very well. I will share with you what we know. I told you Ramona was possibly working for a fascist. The truth is, we don’t know who she was working for, or what information she might have got her hands on nor, for that matter, who she might be passing it to. She’d only recently come to our attention.” Carruthers paused and gave a sigh. “The reason she came to our attention was that she started a relationship with Brigadier Johnson. He has access to highly classified information and it’s our jobs to keep tabs on people like that and those they associate with. We weren’t alarmed at first; we considered it a silly mid-life affair. You know, the old officer, finds an attractive dancer in a club. He started seeing her there, then dinner, hotels. It looked like it was getting serious, so we kept keeping an eye on her. That’s when we got really worried. He was seeing her more and more, and she was keeping undesirable company. We only joined the dots a week or so ago and now she’s dead. What I need to know is why she’s dead and what information she may have had; more to the point, who she might have passed it to.” He folded his hands in his lap as the gramophone quietly slurred to a stop behind him.
                  “I notice you didn’t say you wanted to find out who killed her. Shouldn’t there be something in there about bringing the killer to justice?”
                  “That’s the police’s concern,” Carruthers replied coldly. “Obviously we’re interested, but only from an intelligence point of view.”
                  “Nice to know you care,” Nick said bitterly.
                  “There are higher things at stake here. You should know that better than anyone. We may be heading for another war before long and we need all the intelligence we can get, but so does everyone else. That makes for dangerous times. Ramona was a victim of her time and her profession.”
                  “Dancing.”
                  “Spying.”
                  “Do you know that for certain?”
                  Carruthers gave a sigh. “Nothing is certain in this line of work, but we strongly suspect. So what have you found out?”
                  “You know Johnson got Ramona a flat?”
                  “What?”