you across the roof if you were very brave.'
'I'm not supposed to go on the roof. Mum says it's dangerous.'
'It is, but I'll be with you.'
She glanced towards the door. 'Won't the policemen see us on the roof?'
'Not if we don't want them to,' I told her.
She wriggled forward on her tummy and then slid sideways out from under the bed. Standing up, she brushed dust from the front of her clothes. 'Mum says I'm not to get under the bed, but I've done it before.' Now she was in full view I could see that she had mousey brown hair and wore a long sky blue tee-shirt over dark blue trousers. I judged her about eight years old.
'I expect it's OK,' I said. I loosed the catch on the window again and slid up the sash. The warm breeze tugged at the curtains at either side.
'Shall I carry you?'
'It's OK,' she said. 'I've been on the roof before.'
'Gone across the rooftops?'
'No, but I climbed out on the roof to look at the stars one night. They said on TV that you would be able to see Saturn, but I couldn't find it.'
'There's probably too much light pollution in the city.'
'Too many stars,' she said. 'They all have names, you know.' She said it in a matter of fact way and I didn't contradict her. Maybe they did.
I slipped over the windowsill, deepening the misdirection of my glamour, and then helped her join me. The ease with which she slid over the sill made me think she'd done it more than once. Out on the roof it was breezy and warm, more exposed, but it didn't smell of death like the house. Looking down at her I wondered whether she already knew what had happened in the bedroom below. She must have heard.
'I'll carry you across the gaps and then you can walk the rest of the way,' I volunteered.
She put her arms up and I lifted her. She was more substantial than I'd suspected, but she wrapped her legs around above my hips and her arms around my neck, resting her head against my shoulder. The urge to hug her was strong, given all that'd happened, but I simply said, 'Ready?'
She nodded against my shoulder. Delaying any further would just make it more difficult, so I took a step back and then ran forward, leaping the gaps between the rooftops. It was more difficult with her weight, but I allowed for her and we made it safely across. I walked to the window I had left ajar and she slid down to the flat roof while I opened the window.
'Do you know whose house this is?' I asked her, wondering if she had a friend here.
'No,' she said.
'In that case, be careful not to disturb anything,' I told her. 'We're only visiting.'
I slipped over the sill and she followed me. Inside, she held up her hands again. I hesitated for a moment and then lifted her up. She rested back against my shoulder and we moved quickly down through the house. As we reached the ground floor, the noise from outside increased.
'This is the front door,' I told her. 'There are a lot of people out there, but we'll find someone to look after you, OK?'
She nodded again against my chest.
We went into the front room looking out onto the street through lace curtains. I scanned the crowds. There were police running back and forth up and down the row, and vehicles being backed out through the crowds, but no one paid us any attention.
'Lucy, Something bad has happened. Your mum's not going to be able to look after you. Do you have any relatives — an aunty you could go to?
She spoke into my shoulder, refusing to look up. 'No.'
'What about grandparents?'
'No.'
'Who looks after you when your mum's busy?' I asked her.
'I go to Christa's after school sometimes,' she said.
'Who's Christa?'
'She's a childminder. She looks after me until Mum comes and gets me. She looks after other children as well — Sam and Donna. I play with Sam, but Donna doesn't like me.'
'I see.'
I shifted the weight of her where it rested against me, wondering what I could do. I had rescued her from the house, but she wasn't my child, or my responsibility. I couldn't just kidnap her because her parents were dead. Just because she said she didn't have anyone didn't mean that there wasn't any family willing to take her in. Besides, what would I do with her? I was lodging at the courts until Blackbird and I could find somewhere more permanent, it wasn't our home exactly. It was a mess, but not every mess was my problem.
'Do you think you can be brave one more time?'
She nodded against me.
'You see that ambulance with the blue flashing lights on the top?'
She lifted her head and turned to see.
'Do you see the lady sat on the back step, the one with the blonde hair?'
She nodded.
'I think if you went to talk to her she might let you ride in the ambulance.' It was a poor reward for such a brave girl, but I was running out of time and short of options. 'Would you like that?'
'Will you come with me?'
It was the question I did not want to answer. I shook my head. 'I'm not even supposed to be here, Lucy. I can't come with you. That's why you need to be brave.'
She tucked her head back against my shoulder, and despite myself I hugged her close, thinking all the time that this wasn't helping. We stayed there while I watched people outside, the machinery of a crime scene kicking into motion.
'Will the beast come back?' she asked in a small voice.
'No,' I said.
'It knows how to find us. It can follow you anywhere.'
'Not any more. That much I promise.'
She hugged me a bit more and then allowed herself to be lowered to the ground. I went with her to the front door. 'Will I get in trouble for being in the wrong house?' She asked.
'They won't see you until you're ready,' I told her.
'Will I see you again?'
'Maybe, who knows?' I was reminded of my daughter saying to me, You always say that when you don't want to say no, but you're not going to say yes.
She reached up to the door catch and opened it enough to slip through, tugging it closed until the lock clicked again. I watched her from the window, using my glamour to keep her unnoticed. As she got further away from me it got harder, but I maintained as much of it as I could until she was near the ambulance.
When the blonde lady sat on the steps of the ambulance looked up and saw Lucy, I released it. I saw her ask Lucy where she had come from. Lucy pointed to her house, and the expression on the lady's face changed. She knelt down beside Lucy and had her point again, following the line of Lucy's fingers to the one doorway that was wide open on that side of the street. She beckoned over a colleague and sent him to go and get a policeman, and then talked to Lucy for a moment. I couldn't see what Lucy said, but she looked back at where I was standing behind the lace curtain and then shook her head.
It was time to leave.
I let myself out the back and found Tate waiting.
'Well?' he said.
'Case closed,' I said, though part of me wished otherwise.
