would be content with a mild protest.’
‘No, not Granddad. He was furious. He said that he would have killed Graham Vernon, if he’d been there.’
Her voice faded then, and he could picture the sudden concern in her eyes as she remembered who she was talking to and what he was. For a few minutes, she had forgotten he was a policeman and had thought of him only as Ben Cooper, as a friend. A warm flood of gratitude ran through him.
‘I know, I know,’ he said. ‘It’s just an expression. Just something that people say. It doesn’t mean they really will kill anybody.’
‘Oh no,’ said Helen faintly. ‘I think he would have done it.’
Cooper listened to Helen’s breathing at the other end of the line. The sound reminded him of the afternoon at Moorhay, when he had stood so near her in the narrow hallway of Dial Cottage. He remembered being able to feel the heat from her body, and being aware of the way her breasts lifted and moved beneath
O J
her halter top as she had turned to close the front door.
‘Apparently Cousin Simeon had been seeing Laura Vernon,’
she said. ‘I didn’t know that.’
‘It meant he was bound to come into the enquiry.’
‘Of course. We don’t see a lot of his parents, you know.’ Helen
paused, and her tone softened and became more hesitant. ‘It was
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kind of you to visit Grandma yesterday, Ben. I didn’t reallv think you would do it. But 1 remember now that you were always very thoughtful. You were never quite like the other hoys I knew.’
Cooper felt himself blushing. ‘To be honest, I was there looking for your grandfather.’
‘Oh. You were on duty then. She didn’t say that.’
‘Yes.’
‘Does that mean you’ve been questiunino Grandma?’
i &
‘Not … exactly.’
Helen sounded desperately disappointed in him. He cast around for something to say that would make things better. He needed to know exactly where he stood with Helen. What Matt had said had left him confused. Could there possibly be a bit of light at the end of the dark tunnel, a light that Helen
o ‘ o
could provide? He needed that gleam of hope, and he needed it now. But in his present state of mind, the subtleties of the situation were beyond his grasp. He had only two options — ring off now, or take the bull by the horns.
Before he could make the decision, the door of the changing room banged open and the tall brown-belt student came in from the hall, sweating and grinning.
‘ o o o
‘Hey, Ben, I thought that friend of yours was just a novice. You never said she was so good.’
‘What?’
‘Sensei Hughes is very impressed.’
‘Ben — are you still there?’
‘Yeah — sorry, Helen, I’m on a mobile. Just a second.’
Cooper eased the door open and peered through the big windows into the training hall. There was some kind of distorting effect of the glass that magnified the scene in the hall, exaggerating the size of the figures moving around there. He could see Diane Fry in her gi, going through her kata sequences, the formal exercises used to limber the body up for action. She performed a downward block, the cat stance, straddle stance and rising block. Every movement was poised and perfectly balanced, the result of well-trained muscles flowing with precision and power, like an animal’s. Around her waist, she was wearing the black belt of the top-grade karatekas.
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‘A fourth clan too,’ said the student over his shoulder ‘She’s terrific, Ben. Where did you find her?’ ‘Helen ‘ ‘Was there something else, Ben? Only I’m on my way out,
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remember?’
‘I was wondering,’ he said, ‘if you’d like to meet up sometime, perhaps go for a drink or a meal. What do you think?’
Helen seemed to consider the suggestion, but answered with another question.
‘You think Granddad was involved in Laura Vernon’s death, don’t you?’
Cooper felt a flush of embarrassment creeping up his neck, and was glad that she couldn’t see him.
o
‘We have to follow up all the possibilities.’
The katas were beautiful when performed correctly. A work of art in themselves. And Fry was performing them perfectly. Knife hand, hook punch, elbow strike, finger jab. Front kick, side kick, back kick, crescent kick. Getting faster and more fluid
