themselves to be shepherded towards the Range Rover then. Madeleine had taken Gin from Pauline. The little girl had woken up as soon as she was moved, but she made no protest.
Clare dug in the glovebox and produced a tatty bag of chocolate limes, her emergency stash. Aqueel and Gin accepted this offering with some fervour, a symbol of normality in an otherwise blown-apart world.
“If we’re going to leave, I should tell that nice young girl from the Social Services,” Mrs Gadatra said, fussing. “They came round and took names, to try and find us temporary shelter,” she explained. “I will tell her they can give our place to some other poor family. Aqueel, look after your sister.”
Jacob and Clare said they’d go with her. The three of them hurried off through the crowd, and were soon gone from sight in the crush.
Pauline was standing staring back in the direction of Lavender Gardens, hugging her thin cardigan around her shivering body. Friday was glued to her leg. Sean retrieved a rug out of the back of the Patrol and draped it round Pauline’s shoulders, ignoring the warning growl from the dog.
“I don’t suppose you’ve seen anything of Garton-Jones and his men since this all kicked off?” Sean asked her quietly.
Pauline shook her head. “I understand they’re still in there, though, doing what they can,” she said. She glanced across at me. “I know you didn’t think much to Ian – I didn’t, for that matter – but if it wasn’t for him, we probably wouldn’t have got out of there at all.”
Sean was looking at her, surprised. “Didn’t you know?” he said. “Good old Ian Garton-Jones is up to his non- existent bull neck in this whole thing.”
Pauline’s confusion and disbelief were plain. “But that’s ridiculous,” she said faintly. “He’s here to protect us.”
Sean tried to let her down gently, but there wasn’t an easy glide path open to him. “He was on to a winner either way, Mrs Jamieson,” he said. “You were all paying him to keep the estate clear of crime, but we now think he was probably behind the crimewave in the first place. Drumming up business.”
“Oh no, it was Mr O’Bryan who was doing that.”
We all of us froze, then turned very slowly to stare at Aqueel, sitting swinging his heels on the sill of the Range Rover. It was like our heads were suddenly made of steel and he had just become an eight-year-old electromagnet.
The boy himself appeared not to notice the sudden attention his words had gained. The clear cellophane sweet wrapping had ripped, and he was carefully making sure it was all peeled away before he gave the sticky lime to his sister.
It was only when Sean crouched alongside him, brought his eyes down to Aqueel’s level, that the boy tore his gaze away from his task.
“Aqueel, this is important,” he said gently. “Are you sure you mean Mr O’Bryan?”
Aqueel regarded him gravely while he chewed the remainder of his own sweet, mindful of his manners. We held our collective breath until he’d swallowed. Then he said, “Oh yes. My brother told me. Mr O’Bryan was trying to make Nasir do things for him that were wrong, stealing things for him.” His big liquid-dark eyes rested on each of us, serious. “Nasir didn’t want to do that any more. He was going to be a daddy.”
“Was that why you damaged Mr O’Bryan’s car?” I asked, thinking of the group of kids I’d seen running away from the Mercedes.
Aqueel looked a bit sheepish. “We found some things in the boot that had been stolen. Nasir was very pleased. He said he was going to show them to Mr O’Bryan. He said they would make Mr O’Bryan stop bothering him, and leave Ursula alone. I like her,” he admitted shyly, “She’s pretty.”
But Nasir’s amateur attempts at blackmail hadn’t stopped O’Bryan, I realised with a growing sense of horror, they’d made thing ten times worse.
They’d upped the stakes to murder.
I hadn’t considered for a moment that O’Bryan was a player in all this. In fact, I was the one who’d tipped him off at the beginning that Nasir had been making vague threats that day at Fariman and Shahida’s house.
Cold all over, I shut my eyes for a moment, unable to believe how stupid, how gullible I’d been. It wasn’t a surprise now that the CBR had been run off the road and Roger grabbed. After all, I’d told O’Bryan exactly what to look for.
Whatever else he was, the man was efficient. O’Bryan must have set Garton-Jones on the trail of the Honda as soon as he’d walked out of the gym after our last meeting.
Sean was staring at me with the same dismay reflected on his face. “That’s why Roger ran from us at the house,” he murmured. “It wasn’t us he was scared of at all, it was O’Bryan.”
“And it would explain why Nasir thought I was involved,” I said, “if he knew O’Bryan had been to see me.”
“So why was the man trying to get Roger off with a caution for injuring Fariman?” Madeleine wanted to know.
“The reason Roger and the others were in Fariman’s shed in the first place was because O’Bryan had sent them there to rob the place,” Sean told her. His mouth twisted into a mocking smile. “He was just looking after his own, wasn’t he?”
“Where is he now, your brother?” Pauline asked.
Sean jerked his head towards the estate, just as a traffic car came howling past. “They’ve dumped him somewhere in the middle of that lot and they’re going to make damned sure he burns,” he said bitterly.
Mrs Gadatra hurried up at that point saying she was good to go. We began squeezing them all into the Range Rover, piling up children on the back seat.
“We’ll put Friday in the back,” Jacob said, but Pauline shook her head.
“He’s staying,” she said. She handed me his lead. “I think you might need him.”
I opened my mouth to object, but she held up a finger.
“Friday’s a good guard dog,” she said, “but he’s a better tracker, and Rhodesian Ridgebacks were originally bred to fight lions. Take him.”
She glanced in Sean’s direction and lowered her voice. “I know you told me your young man didn’t have anything to do with Nasir’s death, dear,” she added, troubled, “and you’re probably right, but I’d watch him now, if I were you. He’s got blood in his eyes.”
I turned to skim mine over Sean where he stood talking quickly to Madeleine by the Patrol.
“Don’t worry,” I said, dragging up a smile. “I’ll keep a close eye on him. And on Friday, too.”
She gave us both a quick hug, although I didn’t try and lick her face by way of a thank you, then she turned and trotted back to the Range Rover. I watched the four-by-four rumble out of the car park with a sense of relief that they, at least, were out of harm’s way.
The road outside was a mass of vehicles with flashing lights. More police cars arrived in the Black Lion car park, but I didn’t pay much attention to them.
Instead, I walked back over to the Nissan with Friday, who had now transferred his attention firmly to me, treading on my feet all the way. His eyes were anxiously fixed on my face as if looking for some sign that I was going to abandon him, too. I scratched the back of his neck by way of reassurance, and he butted against my legs.
Madeleine glanced at me, her face fearful as her eyes slid to her boss. Sean had moved away to stand near the front of the Patrol and from the back his body was stiff with rage. At his sides, his hands spasmed briefly, once, as though he could already feel his fingers tightening round O’Bryan’s neck.
“Out of the mouths of babes, eh?” he said, not turning round as I closed in. “That little lad knew, all the time, and we never thought to ask him. He could have told us all about O’Bryan right at the start. Dammit!”
“Sean,” I said quietly. “Don’t do it. Leave O’Bryan alone.”
He still spoke without meeting my eyes. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill him?” he said, and it was his conversational tone that scared me most, as though he was discussing washing the car.
“Have you ever killed anyone, Sean?” I asked. He turned then, and as he started to make an impatient gesture I added quickly, “No, I mean really, actually killed someone? Deliberately? Face to face?”
There was a long pause, and I realised I wasn’t going to get an answer. I pressed on doggedly, anyway.
“If you haven’t then you have no idea what it will do to you,” I said, my voice low with feeling. “What it will take away from you. Even if you managed to get away with it, the consequences will stay with you forever. Think
