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She had thought maybe the hot tea would take away the coldness down her back and in her stomach and the bitter taste in her mouth, but itin the sink and picked up her phone again

It was scary how fast it happened Onethe buttons on the phone and what see up the stairs, and the room was full of them, two in unifor in, plain clothes, flashing their warrant cards, crowding the space Mia was crying with her face in Hayley’s shoulder Lia, hands on the small beaten-up plastic cars, but faces turned up to the police, staring, staring

Thirty-three

Usually, Serrailler ran up the stairs to his top-floor flat two at a tiht, he walked, and slowly, not only because he had been working since seven that h he had left the station, he could not leave the case there, it ith hih his mind like a printout as he cli was silent, apart from the sound of his own footsteps, all the rooms on the way up locked and dark That was one of thein the only flat at the top of a building full of offices When his as as de and intensive as it had been for the past week or two, the ee his energies He had spent the whole long day talking and listening to people, even during the couple of breaks he had taken for coffee and a sandwich, and now he needed a whisky and his solitude

The long sitting room was calm and tranquil as he switched on the lamps which picked out one or two pictures and sent fans of soft light onto the pale walls He took a deep breath and let it out slowly To his relief, the light was not flashing on his answerphone, though if he was needed by anyone at work, they would use his mobile

He wondered whether to take a shower, then pour his drink and relax in his dressing gown, but as he was deciding that he would, the downstairs entrance buzzer sounded

‘Sinal from my phone and –’

‘Judith?’

‘I’m so sorry to disturb you …’

His stepmother sounded distressed

‘You’re not … Come on up’

She looked unlike her usual composed, cheerful self as she walked into the flat

‘I wouldn’t have bothered you, I kno busy you are just now, but Richard’s in London tonight and I …’ She sat down and took a deep breath ‘I was on ave a lift to a friend As I was co into town, just at the top by the Lanes, my tyre blew out The car went all over the place and I hit a bollard It’s all right, that’s all it was, but the wheel has buckled, and then my phone wouldn’t work so I couldn’t call the AA There were no taxis in the rank and I know it’s safe in town but it was very quiet with all the shops closed I think I panicked’

‘You did absolutely the right thing Let ot the keys?’

‘Oh Sinition’

‘Don’t worry, it doesn’t sound as if anyone’s going to take it far Let et you a drink – I think you could do with it’

Tenon the sofa opposite her, whisky in hand

‘This is the most beautiful roouilt, that this woman as his father’s wife, his own stepuarded his privacy and he had resented her arrival in his family, but he was still asha up at treetop height and looking down the close’

‘Georgian rooht proportion Is that what Ivery articulate’

‘I know you orried being out on your own, but you shouldn’t be You’re probably as safe in the centre at night just now as you’ll ever be’

‘It isn’t rational, I know But reason doesn’t come into it’ She closed her eyes and leaned back ‘I a in London?’

‘He’s gone for aill happen They ave up the editorship but it would be a bitter blow to hiets such a lot of satisfaction from it and it means he’s still in the ive There was talk of the exclusively online – not that that would trouble him, he’s very up to speed’ She took a sip of her Scotch and looked around appreciatively at the pictures On the wall behind his head was the last drawing he had done of his lanced at him, and then away across the roo a taxi for ave a softness to her features, se, and as Simon looked at her, he realised what it was about her that had attracted his father Judith was not beautiful but she had a warmth and a sweetness of feature and expression, coence and a cos because she’d had to do so Itthat she had lost her nerve tonight But in that she was certainly not alone

He realised that it was the first ti everything he brought to his relationship with her of the past and the memory of histo drive by the supers – but I’ll just have an oet home’

‘Let me take you to supper – istered surprise and pleasure – and, he thought, a flash of wariness But she said, ‘I’d like that – if you’re sure you wouldn’t rather be left in peace – please be honest’

‘Absolutely Apart fro else, I’ve had two canteen sandwiches and an apple since seven o’clock this e’

The restaurant was as usual pleasantly full but the proprietor gave Simon his favouritetable It was so Freya Graffha a Ca-familiar menu Now, he looked across and saw Judith He wondered wryly what Cat would say, Cat who had tried to bring hiered hiued with him and then simply fallen silent on the subject And as she would have been the first to concede, saying nothing was farhiu at hi in restaurants and oddly enough Don was just the sairlfriend or Cat, I just never do it I’d like Pars and the saltiato alla Veneziana and a bottle of their drinkable house red

It was as they were finishing their starters and Judith was lifting her glass that quite abruptly she put it down again and said, ‘Oh Si these awful things? I can’t bear it’

It sent hi as now a major operation, to the faces of everyone at the various briefings – serious, disbelieving and deter women flashed up onto the screen, the bleak facts froist

He shook his head

‘And now another? Is there any chance this third girl has just gone off of her own accord somewhere? I’m sorry, perhaps I shouldn’t ask that’