But she was gone. A lovely mover, observed Joe. And animation had turned up the flame a therm or two. Man could do worse than warm his hands on her in a cold spring, happy in the knowledge that, come winter, with luck she'd have achieved her mother's furnace glow.
'Dorrie had to go then?'
'Yeah. Says she's sorry, something she just remembered
'No sweat,' said Joe. 'I just fancy a cappuccino. I brought the little girl a choc bar, that OK?'
'Why not?' smiled Molly. 'Dorrie would play hell, but you don't stay, you can't play, right?'
'Right,' said Joe handing over the bar.
With a Whitey-like sensitivity to the presence of a treat, the child had woken up. She looked around as if making up her mind to take an instant dislike to Daph's, then saw the choc bar in her grandmother's hand, grabbed it, and began to pull off the wrapping.
'Clever,' said Joe.
'Bright as a button,' said Molly proudly. 'She goes to the council creche and they say they've never seen one like her.'
'I can believe it,' said Joe. 'You must be a great help to your daughter, Molly.'
It was a casual, not a probing, remark but it got him a probing look till Molly was satisfied he wasn't trying to nose in on her family.
'Yes, I do what I can,' she said. 'It's no easy thing bringing a child up by yourself, I should know if anyone does. I work mornings, which means most afternoons I can pick the darling up from the creche at lunchtime and take care of her till Dorrie gets home from work. Some evenings too I go round. Girl needs a social life. But so do I, so I can't be on tap all the time. Which is why I got the hump just now when Dorrie suddenly decided to take off. I mean, the place I work is closed this week, and her place too, so we're both off and I thought we could have a nice morning round the sales together, then suddenly it's the baby-sitting again without warning. You need to lay down guidelines in a relationship, Joe. You'll mebbe find that out if you ever get married.'
'Merv told you I'm single then?'
'I asked him. Always check out the good-looking men, says I. So there's the two of you, both footloose and fancy free. Well, to be sure, there's bound to be as many single fathers around as single mothers, only not a lot of them get landed with their babbies!'
'No need to worry about Merv, Molly,' said Joe. 'If he had any responsibilities you'd know about them 'cos he's not a man to duck out of them.'
'I wasn't worried, Joe,' she said, turning her gaze full beam upon him. 'But I like the way you defend your friend first before you defend yourself.'
'Didn't know I was being attacked,' said Joe.
'I believe you. Merv says you're the hones test man he's ever known. Bit of a drawback in your line of business, I'd have thought.'
'Why so?' said Joe. 'My line is finding out the truth of things and I don't see how honesty gets in the way of that.'
'No, I don't suppose it does,' she said. 'How much do you charge, Joe?'
'Well, that depends,' said Joe, surprised at the direct question.
'On who's paying, you mean?' She smiled. 'So how much would you charge a poor widow woman?'
'Don't know any poor widow women,' said Joe. 'But there's a special rate for gorgeous grans. What's on your mind?'
'Well, it's probably nothing at all, just too many tabloids and the telly, but it's little Feelie here.'
'Not getting into bad company, is she?' said Joe, smiling at the little girl who was looking with wide-eyed fascination at Whitey. The cat, who had finished his sandwich and could detect the consumption of food at a range of a furlong, was standing with his forepaws on the child's chair, studying her chocolatey lips with green-eyed greed.
'Not unless that beast of yours is a man-eater,' said Molly.
'No, it's OK,' said Joe as the girl reached out a brown-stained hand which Whitey licked with relish. 'He loves chocolate, but hates undercooked meat. So what's the problem?'
'Well, like I say, I look after her regularly while Dome's at work, and if the weather's dry, I often take her for a walk in Bessey Park which is right opposite my flat. And a couple of times recently, more than a couple in fact, I've noticed this woman watching us.'
'Watching? How do you mean?'
'How do I mean?' said Molly with some irritation. 'I mean, she was watching. How many ways can you do that?'
'Well, through binoculars, maybe. Or hiding in a bush. Or following you close behind. With a smile on her face. Or muttering to herself like she's crazy. Or ...'
'OK, I'm with you. She'd be sitting in the park when we arrived. There's a little pond there, you know it? I'd take a bit of bread to feed the ducks and she'd be sitting there'
'Feeding the ducks?' interrupted Joe.
'No. Just sitting.'
'And you're sure she was watching you? I mean, not just taking a casual interest 'cos maybe there wasn't
