'Delaney?'
'Ah no, sad to hear he's not well.'
'Who is this?'
There was laugher on the other end of the line and the accent changed to English. 'Well now, it's not Santa's little helper. But I could be your lucky charm.'
And Melanie recognised the voice, belatedly hitting the record button built into her digital phone system.
'I'm listening.'
'www.truecrimeways.com.'
'What's that?'
'The password is Whitechapel and your birthday.'
'But what is it?'
The line went dead and Melanie was left listening to a single persistent tone. She blinked for a moment as though mesmerised and then hung up the phone, her fingers flashing across her keyboard with more enthusiasm than she had had all morning.
Delaney winced, held his side and leaned against the wall of the visitors' centre. He put a cigarette in his mouth and searched through his pockets for a box of matches. He twisted his hand to the other pocket and picked out the box with his fingertips. He pulled the box open with his teeth and managed to get a match out. But how he was going to strike it he had absolutely no idea.
'Jack Delaney!'
He looked across and cursed as he saw Kate Walker and Sally Cartwright bearing down on him. Great, he thought, double tagged.
'What the hell do you think you're doing?'
'I'm trying to have a cigarette, Kate.'
Kate glared at him. 'I thought you'd given up?'
'I did. I'm very good at giving up. I do it all the time.'
'You should be in bed, boss,' Sally said, taking the box of matches off him and lighting his cigarette.
Kate shook her head, resigned. 'You realise Norrell has escaped.'
'Yeah, I know.'
'It's not safe for you, Jack.'
'He's not going to do anything to me.'
'How can you be so sure?'
'I just know.' Delaney drew deep on his cigarette. 'Sally, I need you to drive me.'
Kate sneered. 'Are you mad? You're not going anywhere.'
'I have to.'
'For God's sake, Sally, talk some sense into him.'
'Where do you want to go?' Sally asked.
'I'll tell you in the car.'
Kate stepped between them. 'No, if anybody is driving you it will be me.'
Delaney looked across at Sally, then shrugged with a little smile and kissed Kate full on the lips, who was too startled to back away. 'No, I've got another job for you to do.'
'What?'
'There's a man in intensive care. I saw him on my way out and recognised him. He was shot on Hampstead Heath last night. Near where we found the first victim.'
'I thought the latest theory was it was a Jack the
