Charlotte looked horrified. 'No! You tricked him, didn't you? You told him lies about me.'

'It wasn't like that. It was an innocent mistake. We told him you hadn't said anything to us. But it is true, isn't it? He is the father?'

Charlotte looked away, towards the vegetable patch in front of which the handyman, George, was on his hands and knees, painstakingly positioning bricks on a bed of sand to form a new path. After a moment she turned back to Kathy. Her lips were pouted like those of a stubborn child.

'No one must know, you understand?' she said fiercely.

'Sandy was a fool to tell you. I don't know what got into his stupid head.' She was trembling and clutching her hands across her front as if to hold herself physically together.

Then suddenly she froze, her eyes looking past Kathy to something behind her and low down. Kathy turned and made out Madelaine Verge's foot just visible through the bottom pane of the French window.

'Come on,' Charlotte muttered, and took off diagonally across the lawn, Kathy hurrying after. When they reached the line of apple trees Charlotte stopped and turned to look back. The gardener got stiffly to his feet and gave her a little wave, then wiped his brow with his handkerchief.

'He's making a path to the end of the vegetable patch, where he's going to build a sandpit for my kid. He's got it all worked out. Sometimes I wish he'd just b.l.o.o.d.y well p.i.s.s off and leave us alone. He's so bossy in his quiet way.'

Him and Gran both, Kathy thought. Between the two of them Charlotte was pretty well chaperoned.

'Can't you tell him to go away?'

'It's not as simple as that. He feels he owes it to Dad to do what he can for me. He was in prison . . .'

'Yes, your grandmother told me the story. Are you his only client?'

'He does Gran's and Luz's gardens, too. I don't know about anybody else. I should be grateful. I'm hopeless at practical stuff like that, and when the baby comes . . .' She took a deep breath. 'In a funny sort of way it's a relief to be able to talk about the baby with somebody who knows the truth. But please, for Christ's sake, you mustn't let it get out. If Gran heard she'd die. And if it got back to my dad . . . wherever he is.'

An interesting thought, Kathy reflected. Would he come back to punish his partner?

'How did it happen?'

'None of your business, is it?' the young woman said bitterly.

'No. It was only if you wanted to talk . . .'

They walked a few paces along the row of gnarled old pippins, then Charlotte stopped again. 'What did he tell you?'

'He said you were in Atlanta together and your dad had to fly home suddenly. He said the two of you decided to drive to Charleston, and stayed there overnight in a motel . . .'

'A crummy little place, but he thought it had a tacky charm. I wondered if he just wanted to make sure we wouldn't b.u.mp into anyone he knew.'

'Did he rape you, Charlotte?

Colour rose up her pale throat. She clenched her jaw. 'It wasn't like that. I suppose I encouraged him.'

Why? Kathy wondered. It was hard to believe that Charlotte would find 'Uncle Sandy', the long-time family friend, physically attractive, though you could never tell.

Was she punishing her father perhaps, for marrying a woman not much older than herself?

'After I split with my last boyfriend I decided I wanted a baby, but not a man to go with it. I thought he would do as well as anyone. Only, when it came to the point . . .'

'But he insisted.'

'Something like that. It was gross, if you want to know.

The first time he was so excited he came all over the front of me, before we'd managed to get undressed. After that I was so shocked I didn't argue. But it worked, didn't it?' She ran a hand across her belly. 'I got my baby.'

'And you told no one else but him?'

'No one.'

'Is it possible that he might have told someone?'

'It's not likely. When I told him he nearly had a fit.

He was petrified that Denise, his wife, might get wind of it.

He was so grateful when I said I didn't want anything from him that he actually wept.' She curled her lip with contempt.

'Why did you bother to tell him?'

'Just in case anything happened to me, and the baby needed someone to look out for it.'

'But surely your father . . . I mean this was before your father disappeared, wasn't it?'

Charlotte shrugged. 'Yes.'

'Just for the record, Charlotte, could you give me the dates this happened?' Kathy turned the pages of Clarke's statement to check what he had said.

'Is that what he said to you? Can I have a look?'

'Sorry, no.'

'It's not right, having my private life being photocopied and pa.s.sed around and I'm not allowed to read it. Anyway, I don't see why he'd lie. We went to Charleston on the sixteenth of February. That's when the baby was conceived, but I told the doctor it was the end of January, when I was still going out with my old boyfriend. That's where the birth date of the twentieth of October comes from, but the baby'll arrive a few weeks late, I dare say. Why, does it matter?' She suddenly glowered at Kathy. 'You think Dad will try to make contact when the baby arrives, don't you?

That's what you're really interested in. You made that perfectly plain the last time.'

'I'm sorry, I know you're in an impossible position in all this. But if he does make contact . . .'

'I won't tell you!'

Kathy nodded. 'I understand.'

As they walked slowly back towards the house Kathy said, 'Sandy mentioned that, on the night before Miki was murdered, he felt that she and your dad were going through some kind of crisis. Were you aware of anything like that?'

She said nothing at first, then spoke softly, as if the handyman or her grandmother might overhear. 'Yes. I don't mean to say he'd kill her, but I thought things were coming to a head between them. It had got so she didn't even pretend to be civil to me, and I could see how it hurt him.

But if it had come to anything physical, she'd have been the first to go for a knife.'

She nodded absently at George, who was getting to his feet. His face was gleaming with sweat and bright red except for the burns on the left side, marbled pale.

'Getting warm now,' he grunted.

'Don't overdo it, George. Stop and have a cool drink.

There's some beer in the fridge.'

'Reckon I will have a bottle, once I've finished this bit here.' He nodded to Kathy and returned to his labours.

They found Madelaine Verge busy in the kitchen.

'Ah,' she smiled at them. 'This is for you, Sergeant.' She handed Kathy a written recipe together with a plastic container of red sauce. 'We've got plenty, so here's some for you to try. You can add some wine if you like, and simmer it for a while to reduce it a bit more. Get some nice seafood to cook with it.'

'That's really very kind of you, Mrs Verge. I must find a supermarket, I'm out of just about everything.'

'Try the new superstore this side of Amersham. It's on your way back. Their seafood is excellent.' She gave directions as she ushered Kathy towards the front door. 'And please do call in whenever you're in the area.' Then her voice dropped suddenly and she grabbed Kathy's wrist tight. 'You're sure there are no new developments? Tell DCI Brock that I demand to be kept in the picture, all right?'

Kathy disengaged her wrist. 'I'll tell him.'

The old lady's wrinkled face reverted to smiles as Charlotte came into earshot. 'Bye bye. I do so hope you enjoy the romesco.'

12.

There was a sting in Madelaine Verge's bounty, Kathy discovered later, though she could hardly blame her for it. She had spotted the superstore on the road back to the A41, just as she'd been directed, and had driven in to the huge car park, relatively quiet at this time on a Friday afternoon. She filled a trolley with groceries, returned to the car and swore. A side window was smashed, chunks of gla.s.s scattered over the tarmac and the seat inside. Looking in she saw that her CD player had been roughly levered out of its housing in the dashboard leaving an ugly gaping hole with wires trailing. Her sungla.s.ses were also gone, and, looking over the back seat, so was her briefcase. They'd left her coat and an umbrella.

'd.a.m.n.'

She felt the crude intrusion like a jolt, and part of her brain observed herself in the role of victim, pa.s.sing through the stages of disbelief and outrage. She looked around at the peaceful rows of late-model suburban cars, a roof rack on one, a dog in another, warming in the autumn sun, and saw no sign of violence. Then she noticed the car parked on the other side of hers, like hers an older model without an alarm, and saw that it too had been violated, its gla.s.s scattered like icy tears across the blacktop.

It's nothing, she told herself. It happens all the time, to everyone, at random. n.o.body hurt, no harm done, just a b.l.o.o.d.y pest. She loaded her groceries into the boot and walked back towards the building, looking between the cars as she walked. There was no sign of her briefcase. It was scuffed and worthless, and they would chuck it once they realised it held nothing of value, no electronic organiser, no mobile phone-but probably miles away.

And it was just then that her phone, fortunately stowed in her shoulder bag, began to chirp like a hungry chick in its nest. Of all the people she least wanted to hear from at that moment, Robert the committee administrative officer was certainly one.

'I'm sorry, who?' she queried, trying to think who the h.e.l.l he was.

'Serving the Crime Strategy Working Party,' he reminded her.

'Oh, oh, of course. Sorry.'

'We're wondering if you could attend a special meeting, Kathy.'

She groaned inwardly. 'Oh, I suppose so, yes. When were you thinking . . .?'

'Now, actually.'

'I'm in darkest Bucks at the moment, Robert,' she heard herself snap. 'And my car's just been broken into.'

'Oh dear,' he said blithely. 'Is it driveable?'

'I a.s.sume so.' The ignition switch hadn't looked as if it had been tampered with. Why would they want to steal a vehicle like that, after all? 'It's just the window that's been smashed and some stuff taken.'

'Suppose I get a secure parking spot for you in the bas.e.m.e.nt here. Will that help?'

Kathy was impressed. Anyone who could command a parking place beneath headquarters building was to be respected.

'Just give my name. In an hour?'

Kathy continued into the hypermarket and found the manager's office, where she reported her break-in to a pink-faced youth. As he painstakingly recorded the details in a book, she speculated that it might be his mates who were doing the cars.

'Have there been others?' she asked.

'Erm . . . I don't think it's company policy to give out that kind of information.'

'I'm a police officer.' She showed her ID.

'Oh . . . Yeah, one or two.'

'I couldn't see any cameras out there.'

'Only at the doors of the building,' he said.

'What's your local cop shop?'

She took a note of the phone number and gave him her card. 'I have to go back to London now. Tell them to ring me if they need to talk to me.'

Within the hour Kathy was shown up to a private office, the door of which bore Robert's name. He was expansive and quietly authoritative, quite unlike the reticent figure she'd seen in the committee meetings. She took the seat he indicated and accepted a cup of coffee.

'Neither of us has time to waste, Kathy,' he said, 'so I'll come to the point. We're becoming rather concerned about the lack of progress of the CSWP. I don't need to tell you that it has been less than productive so far. Now it may be that our choice of some of the members was unwise, but we can't do anything about that now.'

Kathy was surprised by his frankness and wondered uneasily where this was leading.

'The crucial point seems to be the chairmanship. It's become clear, I think, that Desmond's position as chair has become untenable. Would you agree?'

'I thought that wasn't negotiable.'

'There may be a way around it that would satisfy everyone, at least sufficiently to allow us to move forward.

I've been canva.s.sing opinion, and I'd like to run this past you.'

'Fine.'

'We'd like you to take on the chair.'