‘Either Mortimer hid the files himself, or whoever broke into the flat thought that he had wiped them out. Whichever it was, this is the link. That’s what the twenty grand was for.’

‘It answers that question,’ said Skinner, ‘but it throws up others. Just for a start, why them?’

‘Probably because Fuzzy knew that Rachel was loyal to the cause. Mortimer gets involved because he was loyal to Rachel.’

‘Some machine, this Fuzzy. He comes back into the lives of Rachel and the Harveys after all these years, and he uses them. Now they’re dead, and it looks as if he may have killed them all.’

Martin broke in. ‘But why kill anyone over this. It’s a good piece of work, but other people could do this research and reach the same conclusion. It’s been written for use, not to be kept secret, so why kill the authors?’

‘I don’t know. I’m not convinced that friend Fuzzy did that anyway. But they are dead, and they sure were killed. Maybe the Israelis found out and decided to clean out the whole house. Maybe Fuzzy’s on the run from them.

‘No, my guess is that this is only part of something very big indeed. When we find Fuzzy we might find out what it is.’