The Channel had changed. And it had not.
In 2026, it was watched by radar, cameras, patrol vessels, commercial traffic, satellites, mobile telephones and systems unimaginable to the smugglers who once worked the Marsh.
But water remained water. Small craft still crossed it. Fishing boats still moved. Leisure boats still moved.
And information could be more valuable than invisibility.
You did not necessarily need to avoid every watcher. Sometimes you only needed to look ordinary to them.
Relf explained this as they drove.
"Most criminals aren't invisible."
"They're uninteresting."
"Exactly."
"So Margaret doesn't need a ghost ship."
"No."
"She needs a boat with a legitimate reason to be where it is."
"Yes."
"Fishing?"
"Possibly."
"Yacht?"
"Possibly."
"You're doing it again."
"Yes."
They had no proof Margaret intended an illicit crossing. But the timing mattered. Sunday was approaching. Lamb waited.
And somewhere between France and England was a seventy-three-year-old banker who knew the identity of Number Eight.
At 17:26 on Friday, French police found Margaret Sayer.
Not alive.
Her body was in a hotel room outside Calais.
No obvious violence. Medication on the bedside table. A glass of water.
The first impression was natural death.
Eleanor read the message in silence. Relf said:
"Seventy-three."
"That means nothing."
"No."
"Medical history?"
"Being obtained."
"Post-mortem?"
"French authorities."
"Adrian's envelope?"
"Missing."
"Computer?"
"Missing."
"Telephone?"
"Found."
"Anything?"
"One outgoing call after Claire left her."
"To whom?"
Relf looked at her.
"Britain."
"Number?"
"Pay-as-you-go mobile. Unregistered."
"When?"
"Wednesday, 11:18."
"How long?"
"Twenty-three seconds."
"And she left home afterwards?"
"Within the hour."
Eleanor sat down.
"Arthur."
"Yes?"
"If she was going to Lamb on Sunday, why go to a hotel near Calais on Wednesday?"
"To wait."
"For what?"
"Instructions."
"Or transport."
"Yes."
"And somebody reached her first."
"Possibly."
"Don't."
"No."
The French post-mortem took place the following morning. Initial findings did not support natural death. Nor did they immediately prove homicide.
Margaret had a cardiac condition. But the concentration of one of her prescribed drugs was substantially above the expected therapeutic range.
Accidental overdose remained possible. So did suicide. So did administration by another person.
Relf read the preliminary summary.
"Another ambiguous death."
"Like Michael."
"Yes."
"Like Adrian initially."
"Yes."
Eleanor looked at the list of seven.
"That's the pattern."
"What?"
"Not murder."
Relf waited.
"Plausibility."
She stood.
"Every death has to look like something else."
"Accident."
"Suicide."
"Natural causes."
"Misadventure."
"Exactly."
"Because the organisation isn't killing people in anger."
"No."
"It removes problems."
"And a corpse with a bullet in it creates a police investigation."
"Whereas a sixty-year-old man falling in a bell tower—"
"Looks tragic."
"A seventy-three-year-old woman with heart disease dying beside her medication—"
"Looks natural."
"Adrian falling into a bell frame—"
"Looked accidental."
Relf's face hardened.
"We nearly closed it as one."
"Yes."
He looked at her.
"I nearly closed it as one."
Eleanor said nothing. He did not need absolution. He needed the fact.