He took them into the kitchen, where he hunted through the drawers until he found his roll of bonsai tools, the Japanese branch cutters and root shears and scissors and potting stick and binding wire, and told them how he was able to shrink everything about the tree to scale, except for the needles and cones, which tried to grow to normal size.
‘Isn’t that cruel?’ Miranda asked grimacing. ‘Cutting their roots? Isn’t that like cutting their toes off?’
‘It doesn’t hurt,’ said Stewart dismissively. ‘Trees can’t feel things. They don’t have nervous systems.’
‘How do you know it doesn’t hurt?’ she protested. ‘Just because it can’t scream!’
Brock saw the tear begin to swell into her eye and said gently, ‘That worried me at first, Miranda. But there is a way you can tell that the tree doesn’t mind.’
‘How?’ She sniffed.
‘Because it grows perfectly. It’s as healthy as an ordinary tree, and will live just as long, if it’s looked after. Unhappy trees don’t do that.’
‘Don’t they?’ She looked as if she wanted to believe him, but wasn’t quite convinced.
Kathy phoned the Adelphi again first thing and made her abject apologies to Leon. She wasn’t sure if he really believed her when she said she’d totally forgotten about the train until it was too late, because he said little.
‘I could get a train up there this morning,’ she suggested.
‘Yes.’ He didn’t sound enthusiastic.
‘Well, do you want me to?’
‘What’ll you do if you don’t come up?’
‘Oh, work. I’ve got some things to follow up.’
‘I think you’d better do that, Kathy. You’ve obviously got a lot on your mind.’
They hung on in silence for a moment, then she said, ‘I’ll meet you at Euston tomorrow evening, then. What time does the train get in?’
He told her and they rang off. For a moment Kathy was inclined to get on a train anyway and surprise him, but then she got cold feet and decided against it.
She drove to the Herbert Morrison estate, parking on the high street and walking to Crocus Court. Naomi’s grandmother answered the door and invited her in, though Naomi, whom she wanted, wasn’t at home.
‘She’s working at Silvermeadow this morning, Sergeant. Is there anything we can do?’
There seemed little point, but Kathy showed them the photographs of North and the others anyway. They recognised none of them.
‘Never mind,’ Kathy said. ‘I suppose Lisa is at work too, is she?’
‘Oh no. Lisa gave up her job at the mall. She won’t go back there now.’
‘Not as tough as our Naomi,’ Mr Tait put in with satisfaction.
‘Naomi isn’t insensitive,’ his wife said quickly. ‘I wouldn’t want you to think that. But she’s more mature than Lisa, better able to face up to reality. Well, she’s had to be, poor little soul. Whereas Lisa is a very sensitive girl. She’s really taken things to heart. Her mum’s quite concerned about her, I think.’
‘Well, I might call round there and check on her,’ Kathy said. ‘Thanks for your help.’
She set off again along the deck, stepping aside for two women with toddlers in pushchairs returning from the shops, and felt suddenly despondent. She’d told Leon that she had a life. What a joke. Everyone else was getting on with theirs, while she wandered round this bleak and sodden housing estate like a stubborn saleswoman peddling something that nobody wanted and in which she herself no longer believed. Yes, that was true, she thought, accusing herself coldly. She wasn’t doing this because she really believed that Kerri’s death was connected to North’s crime; she was doing it because she wanted to make a point to Bren and Leon.
Lisa seemed even more timorous and nervous than the last time. Her mother didn’t introduce Kathy to the man who shuffled away to a bedroom as she came in, clearly not interested in taking part in her conversation with the girl.
‘Sorry to bother you again, Lisa,’ Kathy said, noting the redness round the eyes against the pale complexion. ‘How’ve you been?’
The girl whispered, ‘Okay.’
‘Good. Look, I just wanted to show you a few pictures. See if you can remember seeing any of these people.’ She opened the envelope and took out the photographs once again. Definitely the last time, she told herself.
‘Why?’ Lisa said doubtfully, seeing the men’s faces. ‘Who are they?’
‘They’re just people we want to contact. You may have come across them. Take your time.’
Lisa went through the sheaf slowly, listlessly. ‘No,’ she said when she reached the last one. ‘I don’t know any of these men.’
‘Oh well, can’t be helped.’ Kathy shrugged and began to gather them up again.
‘I know her though,’ Lisa said tentatively, pointing to one of the enlargements from the security cameras in the mall. It showed North as he had been caught on film ten days before, holding the hand of a child.
‘You know the little girl?’
‘Yeah, she lives here, on the estate.’
‘Are you sure?’ Kathy said doubtfully. ‘The picture isn’t all that clear.’
‘Well it looks like her. Kerri…’ She hesitated, biting her lip. ‘Kerri used to baby-sit her.’
‘Kerri knew her? Have you any idea what her name is?’
‘Mandy, I think. Yes, Mandy. I don’t know her other name.’
‘Where did you see her?’
‘I went with Kerri one evening. We stayed there with Mandy till her mum came back from the movies.’
‘Did you meet the girl’s mother? What was she like?’
‘I don’t remember really. Like you, I think. Yes, fair hair, like Mandy.’
‘About my age?’
‘Maybe.’
‘Was that the only time you saw the girl?’
‘I’ve seen her around, with her mum. I do remember what she looked like.’
Kathy looked hard at her, becoming more convinced, aware of her heart thumping. ‘That’s good, Lisa. Very good. Did you ever see her with a man?’
‘Don’t think so.’
‘And you say she lives on the estate?’
Lisa nodded. She was sounding reluctant now, and Kathy realised that she was leaning forward in her eagerness to hear the answers, making the girl anxious. She forced herself to sit back and appear relaxed.
‘Well, that’s interesting. Don’t suppose you remember where exactly?’
‘In one of the other courts. Tulip, I think.’
‘You still eating chocolate bars?’
The girl nodded.
‘How about if we went down to the corner shop and I bought you some as a reward for helping me?’
The girl glanced towards the kitchen where her mother was doing something, the radio on. ‘Okay.’
‘And on the way you could show me where Mandy lives, eh?’
From her car, Kathy called Brock’s home number. When he answered he sounded out of breath.
‘Kathy? What’s up?’ She could hear children’s laughter in the background.
‘Sorry to intrude, Brock.’
‘We’re just on our way out. What is it?’
‘I think… It’s possible that I’ve found the little girl North took with him to Silvermeadow two weeks ago.’
‘What!’
‘I showed Lisa some pictures. She identified the girl as someone that Kerri used to baby-sit. Someone who lives on the Herbert Morrison estate.’
‘ What!’ This time Brock’s voice was a bellow. ‘Kathy…’ He recovered himself. ‘You’re making a habit of this, aren’t you? Dropping bombshells.’
‘I hope this one’s more productive. I wouldn’t have bothered you until I’d checked this out, but then I thought, if there’s any chance that North is with them-’
‘Yes! Quite right. Where are you now?’
‘On the high street, parked outside the estate.’
