Ash & Bone

'Sorry,' he said, and then, 'Vanessa? It is Vanessa, isn't it? Almost didn't recognise you.' A quick, apologetic smile. 'Miles away.'

He was holding out his hand.

'Steve. Steve Ke

'I know, I know.'

'Haven't seen you since… must be ages. Couple of years, at least.'

Vanessa nodded and said nothing. One of the last times she'd seen Steve Ke

'Terrible, wasn't it?' he said now. 'What happened to Maddy. Couldn't believe it when I first heard. You don't think, do you? Someone you know.'

Vanessa shook her head.

'So, anyway, where've you been?' Perkier now. 'Tonight, I mean. Not working, I hope?'

'Cinema.'

'Anything good?'

'Not really.'

'Pirates of the Caribbean,' Ke

'No.'

'It's good. A laugh, you know?'

'That what you saw tonight?'

'Me? No. Just out for a drink, few beers.'

Vanessa looked out of the window. They were moving slowly along Kentish Town Road, passing close to where she worked. Superimposed on the upper storeys of buildings she could see Ke

'This isn't your stop,' Ke

'Isn't it?'

'Not unless you've moved.'

'How do you know where I live, anyway?'

'We walked past there one night, remember? You and Maddy and me. Going back to her place. That's my street, you said.'

'Well,' Vanessa said, standing. 'Not any more.'

He swung his legs out into the aisle, leaving just enough room to let her pass.

'I'll get off if you like. Walk you home.'

'Don't bother.'

She just made it down the stairs before the doors closed. She stopped herself from looking back up at the bus as it drew away, knowing she would see his face at the window, looking down. She had bought herself a good twenty-minute walk and why? Because she'd been uncomfortable sitting pressed up next to him, certain that any moment he would say something she didn't want to hear, a proposition of some kind?

Two-thirds of the way along Junction Road, she turned right down St John's Grove, cutting through. At the end of her own street, she hesitated, then quickened her pace; it was only as she neared the short path leading to her front door that it occurred to her Ke

The keys slipped from her hand.

Her skin froze.

Only with the door finally open, did she turn.

Nothing, nobody there.

Vanessa, she said to herself, for God's sake get a grip.

In bed less than fifteen minutes later, she lay listening to each sound; another hour almost before she finally drifted off to sleep.

33

The early rain clouds had disappeared, leaving the sky above Primrose Hill a clear, crystal winter blue, the light glinting off the roof of the mosque at the edge of Regent's Park below. From his vantage point near the top, Elder watched Robert Framlingham striding up from Prince Albeit Road like a landowner out to survey the vastness of his acreage and his EC subsidy. Framlingham wearing his Barbour jacket and a pair of softly polished, hand-stitched brogues.

'Frank, good to see you.' His grip was firm and warm. 'Sorry if I'm a couple of minutes late.'

'Sit or stroll?' Elder said.

'Oh, stroll I think, don't you? You can fill me in as we go.'

For the best part of a circuit Elder talked and Framlingham was mostly content to listen, the Hill busy with dog walkers, young mums and the ubiquitous au pairs, students and skivers and OAPs, all making the most of the morning sun.

When Elder had finished, they continued to walk for a while in silence, Framlingham ru

'Ke

'Not necessarily.'

'And Shields? What about her?'

'There's not a lot else for her to latch on to.'

'So far, Frank. So far.' Framlingham paused to ease something off the sole of his shoe. 'That business with Mallory and Repton, that young PC in the car. I wonder if I'd let that go for nothing, after all.'

Elder fixed him with a look. 'You know something that I don't.'

Framlingham allowed a smile to spread slowly across his face. 'A good deal, Frank, a good deal. And much of no conceivable use to man or beast.' He rested his hand for a moment on Elder's arm. 'All I'm saying, don't lose sight of the bigger picture.'

They shook hands.

'Your daughter, Frank. I heard just a little. I'm sorry. If ever there's anything I can do.'

A wave of the hand and he was on his way.

The Brent Cross shopping centre was just off the North Circular Road, no more than ten minutes in the car from where Elder was staying. By mid-morning, the car parks were close to full.

Vicki Wilson was standing in the centre aisle, between Next and He

She'd been there since ten, the best part of an hour, five more to go, and her feet in those stupid shoes were aching already.

Oh, Christ, she thought, when Elder approached. Another sad bastard, can't take his eyes off my tits. Elder had walked past her once slowly, turned and come back around. When he got closer, she revised her opinion. Shit. It's only the fucking law.

'Vicki Wilson?'

'If you're asking that you already know the answer.' Her voice was sharp, east London-edged, Goodmayes or Dagenham.

'Frank Elder.'

'Here.' She pushed a leaflet into his hand.

'What time d'you get a break?' Elder asked.

'Not soon enough.'

'How about a cup of coffee?'

'Now?'

Elder tried a tentative smile. 'Why not?'

'Just hang on a minute.'

She fa

They sat at the end of a row of small tables overlooking one of the aisles; below, shoppers wandered past oases of green-leaved plants, plastic and real, prospering equally beneath a glass roof.

With a small sigh, Vicki eased off her high-heeled shoes. Touch a fingernail to her face, Elder thought, and it would glide like a skater on fresh ice.

'How d'you know where I was?' she asked.

'Your agency.'

'Wonder they didn't give you my address and chest measurements while they were about it.'

'They did.'

'You're fuckin' kidding.'

'Maybe not the chest measurement.'

Vicki tossed her head. 'Coppers, you're all the bloody same.'

Elder held his tongue.

'Jimmy, i

'Jimmy?'

'James William Grant. Jimmy. It was what he liked to be called. By his friends.' Vicki stirred some of the chocolate from the top of her cappuccino into the froth and brought the spoon to her mouth. 'Come to make sure I've done what I was told, I suppose.'