Exit Music

It was an accident.

Best put behind us.

And never mentioned.

Forget it ever happened…

But how could they? It had happened, and despite herself she'd quite like for it to happen again. She had transferred her a

'Wouldn't surprise me,' he said now, 'if Shiv takes us all for a drink tonight. Keep the team together – it's what good managers do.'

'What you mean is, better that than having John Rebus to herself.'

Tou may have a point.'

'On the other hand,' Hawes added, 'could be she'll want young Todd all to herself…'

He turned towards her. Tou don't really think so?'

'Women work in mysterious ways, Colin.'

'So I've noticed. Why do you think she brought him on to the team?'

'Maybe she just fell for his charms.'

'Seriously, though.'

'The DCFs put her in charge. Means she can recruit who she likes, and young Todd wasn't backwards at coming forwards.'

'She was easy to persuade?' Tibbet's forehead was creased in thought.

'Doesn't mean you can persuade her to put your name forward for promotion.'

'That's not what I was thinking,' Tibbet assured her. He looked through the windscreen. 'It's next right, isn't it?'

Hawes refused to signal, and only crossed the traffic when there was a bus bearing down on them.

'I wish you wouldn't do that,' Tibbet said.

'I know,' Phyllida replied with a thin-lipped smile. 'But when you're driving a car you've just nicked from a forecourt…'

They were headed – Shiv's orders – to Nancy Sievewright's flat.

Had to ask her about the woman in the cowl. Very word Shiv had used – 'cowl' – Hawes checking afterwards that she hadn't meant 'hood'.

'Hood or cowl, Phyl, what's the difference exactly?' Shiv having grown prickly these past couple of weeks.

'Just here on the left,' Colin Tibbet was saying. 'There's a space further down.'

'Which I couldn't possibly have spotted without you, DC Tibbet.'

To which he gave no reaction whatsoever.

The door to the communal stairwell had been wedged open, so they decided not to bother with the intercom. Once you crossed the threshold you were in a cold, shadowy place. The white wall-tiles had been damaged and now sported graffiti tags. Voices echoed from somewhere above. A woman, by far the louder of the two. The deeper male bass was softer, entreating.

'Just get the fuck away from me! Why can't you take a telling?'

'I think you know why.'

'I don't fucking well care!'

The couple seemed unaware of the two new arrivals who were climbing towards them.

The man: 'Look, if you'll only talk to me for a moment.'

Interrupted by Colin Tibbet: 'Is there a problem here?' His ID open, letting them know who – and more importantly what – he was.

'Christ, what now?' the man uttered in exasperation.

'Pretty much what I was asking myself thirty seconds ago, sir,'

Hawes told him. 'It's Mr Anderson, isn't it? My partner and I took the statements from you and your wife.'

'Oh, yes.' Anderson had the good grace to look embarrassed.

Hawes saw that one of the doors on the next landing up was wide open. That would be Nancy Sievewright's flat. Hawes met the eyes of the underfed, underdressed girl.

'We interviewed you, too, Nancy,' she said.

Sievewright nodded her agreement. 'Two birds with one stone,'

Colin Tibbet stated.

'I didn't realise,' Hawes said, 'y°u two knew one another.'

'We don'tV Nancy Sievewright exploded. 'He just keeps coming here!'

'Grossly unfair,' Anderson snarled. Hawes shared a look with Tibbet. They knew what they had to do.

'Let's get you inside,' Hawes told Sievewright.

'And if you'll come downstairs with me, sir,' Tibbet said to Anderson. 'There's a question we were hoping to ask you…'

Sievewright stomped back into her flat and made straight for the narrow kitchen, where she picked up the kettle and filled it. 'The other two, I thought they were going to deal with it.'

Meaning, Hawes guessed, Rebus and Clarke. 'Why does he keep coming round?' she asked.

Sievewright tugged at a straggle of hair above one ear. 'No idea.

Says he wants to check I'm all right. But when I tell him I am, he conies back again! I think he hangs around until he knows I'm in the flat on my own…' She twisted the hair into a tighter skein.

'Fuck him,' she said defiantly, hunting among the mugs on the drainer for the one least likely to poison her.

'You could make a formal complaint,' Hawes told her, 'explain he's harassing you…'

'Reckon that would stop him?'

'It might,' Hawes said, believing it about as much as the girl herself did. Sievewright had rinsed her chosen mug and now dumped a tea bag into it. She patted the kettle, willing it to boil.

'Social call, was it?' she asked at last.

Hawes rewarded her with a friendly smile. 'Not exactly. Some new information's come to light.'

'Meaning you've not arrested anybody.'

'No,' Hawes admitted.

'So what's this information?'

'A woman in a hood, seen hanging around the exit to the multistorey.'

Hawes showed her the e-fit. 'If she was still there, you'd have walked right past her.'

'I didn't see anyone… I've already told you this!'

'Easy, Nancy,' Hawes said quietly. 'Calm yourself down.

'I'm calm.'

'The tea's a good idea.'

'I think the kettle's knackered.' Sievewright was resting the

palm of her hand against it.

'No, it's fine,' Hawes reassured her. 'I can hear it.'

Sievewright was staring at the kettle's reflective surface.

'Sometimes we try to see how long we can stay touching it while it boils.'

'We?'

The and Eddie.' She gave a sad little smile. 'I always win.'

'Eddie being…?'

'My flatmate.' She looked at the detective. 'We're not a couple.'

The front door creaked and they turned to look down the passageway.

It was Colin Tibbet.

'He's gone,' Tibbet told them.

'Good riddance,' Sievewright muttered.

'Did he tell you anything?' Hawes asked her partner.

'Seemed adamant neither he nor his wife saw any woman in a hood. He asked if maybe it was a ghost of some kind.'

'I meant,' Hawes said, voice toneless, 'did he say why he was giving Nancy here such a hard time?'

Tibbet shrugged. 'Told me she'd had this great shock and he wanted to be sure she wasn't bottling it up. “Storing up trouble for later” I think his exact words were.'

Sievewright, one hand still pressed to the kettle, gave a hoot of derision.

'Very noble of him,' Hawes said. 'And the fact that his act of charity isn't at all what Nancy wants…?'

'He promised to stay away.'

'Fat chance,' Sievewright sneered.

'That kettle's nearly boiled,' Tibbet felt it necessary to warn her, having just noticed what she was doing with her hand. He was rewarded with something that was between a grimace and a smile.

'Anyone care to join me?' Nancy Sievewright offered.