to be working at.
He said, 'Got your key handy?'
She passed it over. Joe moved along the wall of metal lockers. They came in blocks of eight. Zak's was second from the left. He counted two in the next block and inserted the key. The door opened. He did the same with the next block.
This way the manufacturers only need eight variations on locks and keys instead of an infinity,' he explained.
'But it's lousy security!' she protested angrily.
'Saves rate payers money,' said Joe with civic sternness. 'As for security, your crook's got to work it out first.'
'You worked it out,' she said not un admiringly
That's my job,' he said modestly, not thinking it worthwhile to reveal that the lockers at Robco Engineering where he'd worked nearly twenty years had suffered from the same deficiency which he'd worked out after ten.
'So that means there's my key, and the duplicate key and the master key plus the keys for every second locker in every block in every changing room in the complex?'
That's right,' said Joe. The note that landed on your pillow is a better bet.'
'Why do you say that?' she asked.
'Because,' he said patiently, 'getting into a house is a lot harder than getting into a changing room. Who else was in the house that night?'
She said, 'Mum, dad, Eddie, my kid brother, and Mary.'
'Oh yes. You were telling me about your sister but we got diverted.'
Polite way of putting it.
She looked ready to renew her objections to answering questions about her family, then she took a deep breath and said, 'Mary's four years older than me. When I was a kid, I hung around her all the time. Must have driven her mad but she never showed it. When I got into junior athletics she was really supportive, took me along to her gym to work out, came and shouted for me when I was running.'
'She was into sport too?' asked Joe.
'Oh yes. She's got a great eye. Squash was her thing. She won lots of junior trophies and her first season when she moved up to senior level, she got to the national semis. She was going places.'
'But?'
'But two years ago she was in a car accident. Her knee got busted pretty bad. They put it together again fine, but not so they felt it would stand up to the strain of training for and playing top-level squash. Otherwise though it's completely normal.'
'I thought she had a bit of a limp.'
'Oh yes. No physical reason according to the doctors, but it comes on from time to time.'
Especially when you're around? wondered Joe. But he thought it better to leave it for now.
'She start working for Endor before he became your agent or after?' he asked.
'Oh, after, I think,' she said vaguely. 'She's doing really well.'
'Yeah? Take you over on her own account eventually?'
'Could be. Main thing is she's off work now till the New Year so it's great we can spend time together.'
That's right. Family's important,' said Joe. 'Any chance I can take a look at your house?'
Take a look at the rest of your family, he meant.
'Sure,' she said. 'I've got to finish my day's schedule here. Why don't you come back about four, pick me and my gear up and drive me home? That way you'll look like you're working for your living.'
'OK,' said Joe. 'By the way, what's happened to Star-bright?'
'Missing him already, are you?' grinned Zak. 'Don't worry. He'll be around.'
He was. First person Joe saw as he walked away from the locker room was the cuboid Celt.
'Hi there,' said Joe. Thought you were supposed to be a minder?'
Thought you were supposed to be a detective,' sneered Starbright in his high-pitched voice. 'Saw you arrive. Didn't report straight to Miss Oto though, did you? Had a long chat with Hardiman first.'
'Yeah, well,' said Joe, for some reason feeling as defensive as a preacher spotted going into a cathouse. Turns out he's an old schoolfriend.'
'Very cosy,' said the Welshman. 'Share a cell, did you?'
Joe was getting a bit tired of this.
'I'm a PI,' he said. 'I do my job by talking to people. Thought you did yours by sticking close to whoever you're being paid to look after. What if there'd been a mad axe man in the locker room?'
'Had you to look after her in there, didn't she?' said Star-bright. 'It's a mad axe man you're expecting then?'
