The Whole Truth (A. Shaw 1)

The sergeant said, “You must be new here. You’ll have to use the loo in the basement, lad, that one’s busted.”

Shaw could hear Royce clearly now.

“Shaw? Damn it, Shaw!”

The MI5 agent appeared at the top of the stairs, breathless and red-faced. He charged right at Shaw waving a piece of paper.

“What the hell do you know about this?” he demanded.

Shaw read the paper. It was a printout from an online news service. The story was short but to the point. The Chinese government owned or had ties to The Phoenix Group. And it was also revealed that evidence found inside the building allegedly proved that The Phoenix Group was behind the Red Menace campaign, which implied, of course, that the Chinese had been behind it. That, according to the news service’s unnamed source, was why Gorshkov’s men had attacked the place. It was a simple connect-the-dots explanation that would play very well all over the world.

“This is all over the Net,” Royce yelled, pointing a finger at Shaw. “And now all over the bloody world.”

Frank had read the story over Shaw’s shoulder. “So why is that his problem?”

“I’m not the source,” Shaw said calmly. “I haven’t told anyone about anything that’s gone on in here.”

Royce’s features clearly showed he didn’t believe that answer. “Not even your friend, James? Another scoop for her maybe?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Shaw said heatedly.

“Are you denying that you know the lady?”

Shaw hesitated.

“I already know the answer to that question, so don’t lie to me, damn it.”

“How did you know?” Shaw said impassively, even as he glanced curiously at the uniformed police sergeant.

“I’m a bloody intelligence agent, that’s what I do.”

“I haven’t seen her lately. And I have no idea where she-” Shaw froze as the tech walked past him and down the stairs.

Frank faced off with Royce. “If you’ve got a problem with leaks, Royce, why don’t you discuss it with your people?” he said. “Because there is no way in hell that Shaw is the source for that story.”

“I can’t believe any of my lads would have anything to do with it,” Royce said indignantly.

While Frank and Royce were arguing Shaw grabbed the sleeve of the sergeant who’d issued the warning about the bathroom.

In a low voice he asked, “How long has that toilet been broken?”

The sergeant gave a weary smile. “Ever since we got here, sir. Right inconvenient. Locked up it was. Pipe broke, or so’s I could see when I finally got the door open. It’s an old building after all. And not like those poor folks ever had a chance to get it fixed. So I locked it back up. Now the gents got to go to the basement to take a pee ’cause the only other loo is for the ladies on the first floor. Though some of the lads have been using that one too. Guess it don’t matter now, does it?”

“Exactly where is the first floor ladies’ room located?”

“End of the hall, furthest from the stairs, near the rear of the building.”

Shaw walked down the hall and saw the nameplate set into the wood of the door: William Harris. He looked at the room where the copier was. It was equidistant between Harris’s office and the locked bathroom.

Royce came thundering down the hall with Frank scurrying after him. “Shaw?” Royce said. “I want the bloody truth!”

Shaw looked down the stairs, the mental images racing across his brain. Even if Lesnik had misspoken and had used the basement bathroom or even the ladies’ room on the first floor instead of the locked-up one on the second it couldn’t have happened the way he said it had. Katie said he’d told her that he’d heard shots when leaving the bathroom. The assault team was already on the first floor covering both ends by then. Coming back from the basement and especially the first floor he’d have run right into them. He’d be dead. He’d never hid in the copier. He had probably never been in the building.

And it all came down to where you took a leak. Or didn’t take a leak.

He sprinted down the steps, leaving Royce to scream after him, but he never heard the curses raining down on him. He called the number Katie had left him.

“Come on, answer, answer the damn phone.” It rang three, four, five times. Shaw was sure it was going to go to voice mail. Sonofabitch!