'You can deal with this.' Another deep breath, then she nodded to herself.
'I've been through worse than this and I've coped.'
'Are you okay?' Donovan shouted again.
'I'll huff and I'll puff and blow the door down.'
'All right, big bad wolf,' replied Tina brightly.
'Here I come, ready or not.'
She opened the bedroom door. Donovan nodded appreciatively.
'Looking good,' he said.
'Why thank you, kind sir.'
Robbie was putting his books into his backpack. He'd changed into his school uniform.
'I don't see why I have to go to school,' he moaned.
'To get an education,' said Donovan, ruffling his hair.
Robbie shook him away.
'First I'm not to go, then you say I'm to go, then you pull me out, now you tell me I've got to go back. That's hardly consistent.'
'It's an inconsistent world,' said Donovan.
'Isn't it, Louise?'
Tina nodded.
They drove to Robbie's school in the Audi roadster, Tina at the wheel and Robbie in the back. Several of Robbie's friends saw him getting out of the car, and that seemed to cheer him up. Donovan figured that there was probably more kudos arriving in a sports car than a Range Rover.
'I'll pick you up tonight,' said Donovan.
'Yeah, I'll believe that when I see it,' said Robbie ruefully, but he returned Donovan's wave before heading into school.
'Now what?' asked Tina.
'Now we go celebrate,' said Donovan. He looked at his watch.
'Party time.'
'It's half past eight in the morning.'
'Now don't be a party-pooper, Louise,' said Donovan.
'It's not every day I fly eight thousand kilos of gear around the world.'
He gave Tina directions and settled back in his seat. She drove across London to St. John's Wood. Donovan told her where to park and climbed out of the car.
Tina locked the Audi, looking around.
'Here?' she said.
'Nah, here's where we lose our tail,' said Donovan.
'I didn't see anyone following us,' said Tina.
'Yeah, well, you wouldn't, not if they were any good,' said Donovan.
'Come on. Home stretch.'
'Tango One is out of the vehicle,' said the detective into his handset.
'On foot. Repeat on foot.'
'Go after him, Alpha Seven,' crackled the speaker.
'Softly, softly, yeah?'
The detective nodded at the driver.
'Let's go.'
The two plainclothes policemen got out of the saloon and walked quickly in the direction they'd seen Donovan and the girl heading.
'I've got a bad feeling about this,' said the detective.
'He didn't know we were on his tail,' said the driver.
'He didn't look around and she hardly checked her mirror.'
'He knows,' said the detective.
'He can smell us.'
The driver grinned.
'You maybe, but I showered in the station.'
Ahead of them they saw the girl's back disappearing down an alley.
'Who is she, anyway?'
'Lap dancer. She's been taking care of his kid.'
'Nice tits.'
'I'm sure she'll be chuffed at the compliment, coming from a connoisseur such as yourself. What the hell are they up to?'
'Going for a quickie in the open air?'
'At nine o'clock in the morning? I doubt it. Oh shit, I know what he's doing.' The detective put his transceiver to his mouth.
'Alpha Seven, he's going to cross the canal on foot. We need cover on the south side of the canal. We're going to lose him.'
The transceiver crackled.
'Affirmative, Alpha Seven.'
The two men hurried down the alley. It branched left and right.
'This way,' said the detective. The driver rushed after him.
The alley led to the canal towpath. A metal footbridge ran across the canal, barely twenty feet above the surface of the water. Donovan and the girl were already dashing down the steps on the far side. A car was waiting at the side of the road, its engine running.
The detective grabbed the driver's arm and pulled them back. There was nothing they could do on foot and there was no point in showing themselves.
'Tango One is getting into a blue saloon. Possibly a Vauxhall. Registration number unknown. We've lost him. Repeat, we have lost Tango One.'
'What do you mean 'we', Alpha Seven?' crackled the transceiver.
'What's going on, Den?' asked Tina as the blue saloon accelerated away from the curb.
Donovan flashed her a smile.
'Gatecrashers,' said Donovan.
'Can't be too careful.' He leaned forward and patted Kim Fletcher on the shoulder.
'Nice one, Kim,' he said.
'Did you get the other thing?'
Fletcher popped open the glove compartment and handed Donovan a video cassette.
'He said something about the early worm catching the bird.'
Donovan stroked the matt black video cassette.
'What is it?' asked Tina.
'The entertainment,' said Donovan. He patted her on the leg.
'Come on, Louise, cheer up. You're behaving like a right wet blanket.'
Tina forced herself to smile.
'That's better,' said Donovan.
He and Tina sat in silence as Fletcher drove through the morning traffic. He kept checking his mirrors and twice did a series of left turns to make sure that he wasn't being followed, then he drove east towards Docklands.
Tina stared out of the window with unseeing eyes, wondering where Donovan was taking her. And why. Did he know who she was? Or did he just suspect and wanted to interrogate her, to find out for sure? And if he was just suspicious, could she lie her way out of it? Or was she better just to confess all, tell him that she was a police officer? No one murdered a police officer in cold blood, not even Tango One.
Now that Fletcher had shaken off any tail, Tina knew that she was on her own. There would be no last- minute rescue, no cavalry charge over the hill. No one knew where she was or the trouble she was in. Why had no
