incoherent but comprehensible as Delaney reached towards his plastered arm once more.
Quigley pleaded with his eyes as Delaney's mobile phone rang. He grabbed it out of his jacket pocket and flipped it open.
'Delaney.'
'Jack, it's Diane.'
'I'm at the South Hampstead, interviewing someone.'
'It'll have to wait. I heard about Norrell and I'm sorry, but something's come up.'
'What?'
'We've got a dead body in the woods, South Hampstead Common. A young female.'
'We know who she is?'
'Not a damn thing. Uniform are securing the site, but given the weather we want it processed as soon as possible. Paddington Green should be handling it but they've got some big anti-terrorist initiative tying up their manpower.'
'Lucky us.'
Delaney looked across at the rain-speckled window and through it at the grey clouds overhead. 'Give me the details.' Delaney listened for a moment or two then closed his phone. He put his mobile back in his pocket and gestured to Sally. 'We're out of here.'
The sigh of relief from Quigley was audible. Delaney turned back to him. 'I'll talk to you later. Meanwhile, you better pray Norrell makes it. Because if he doesn't I'm going to come back here and finish the job he started. And I'm a professional.'
Quigley glared at his back as they left his field of vision then closed his eyes nervously, snaked a tongue around his dry lips and swallowed with evident pain.
Kate Walker flicked the end of her long, multi-coloured scarf over one shoulder and walked quickly across the quadrangle and around the corner, passing the main entrance to the South Hampstead Hospital as she started for the car park. Her head was down and although the rain, for the moment at least, had stopped, the north-east wind still had a chill edge to it. She fumbled in her pocket for her keys when a voice called out to her.
'Kate.'
She looked round, her heart thudding in her chest, to see Paul Archer.
He smiled at her, his voice friendly. 'Kate, what are you doing here? Were you looking for me?'
Kate couldn't speak, she couldn't breathe, she leaned back against her car, fighting to control the panic.
Archer smiled at her. 'Is everything all right?'
She found her voice. 'Get away from me.'
Archer looked puzzled. 'What are you talking about?'
'I know what you did. So just stay away from me.'
'I've got no idea what you're talking about. I haven't done anything.'
'Last night . . .'
'Last night was your idea. You invited me back to your place, remember.'
Kate shook her head angrily. 'You're not going to get away with this.'
'Get away with what? I didn't do anything.'
'You're lying.'
'Nothing happened, Kate. We both got drunk, you suggested I stay over. We slept together, but nothing happened, if that's what you're worried about.'
