be hind her.
I couldn't see anything else, but then, if she had the police or Luther's boys on either side of her, they weren't going to be showing their faces.
I looked at her and tried to interpret what was going on from her eyes. They would soon tell me if there were ten policemen around the corner bristling with body armor and firepower.
I said, 'It's OK, not today, thank you, we're sleeping.'
I saw her look down and heard, 'Sorry, sir, you didn't have your sign out.'
'Oh, OK.'
'Would you like some towels?'
'Hang on, I'm just coming out of the shower. I'll get some clothes on.'
It would be natural to be wanting towels.
I put the weapon in my left hand, undid the lock, and opened the door just a fraction. The weapon was pointing through the door on the left side; if any fucker pushed her to get in, it would be the last thing he did.
I opened the door a little more, held it with my leg, and put my head in the gap. I smiled, 'Ah, hiya,' the gun pointing at her behind the door. I didn't put my hand out to get the towels; I didn't want someone grabbing it. I said, 'I just need two big towels, that'll be fine and have you got some more shampoo?'
She gave me what I wanted. I said, 'Thank you,' and she smiled back. I closed the door.
Kelly was lying on the bed openmouthed, watching my every move.
I shrugged.
'Don't you just hate it when people do that?' She started laughing. So did I. 'They nearly had us that time!' I said.
Her expression changed, and she slowly shook her head.
'I
know you won't ever let them get me.'
It was 10:30: another twenty minutes to go before I went up and changed the tapes. I picked up the one we'd been watching the night before, slapped it back into the player, and rewound it for the next session.
This time I only had to smile at her and she jumped up and went to the door, ready to drop the latch.
'While I'm out I want you to take a shower. Will you do that?'
She shrugged.
'Whatever. I get all the good jobs.'
I went upstairs to the roof.
The weather was still shitty.
There was still an hour to go before the noon call. We sat down together to watch the latest footage.
I said, 'It's really important; we might see somebody we know. Then we can give the tape to Daddy and he can find out who was shouting at him. Anybody you think you might know, like Melissa's dad or the man at the grocery store, or even the men who came to see Daddy, tell me and we can have a closer look, OK?'
I started to fast-forward, stopping the tape whenever there was traffic. I logged what they looked like: male, female, black, white, Asian; and what they were wearing: black on blue, red on blue.
The game wasn't as much fun for Kelly the second time around.
'What about him?' I enthused.
'No.'
'That lady?'
'No.'
'You sure you've never seen this man?'
'Never!'
At last she spotted somebody she knew. I rewound the tape.
'Who is he?'
'Mr. Mooner on Fox Kids.'
'OK, I'll write that down.'
Another guy started to walk up the stairs. I stopped the tape and rewound. I said, 'Do you know him?'
She shook her head.
I said, 'Well, I know somebody who looks exactly like him. A man I used to work with who could never remember where he left things, and one day we hid his false teeth and he had to eat soup all week!' She had a little laugh; it kept her going a bit longer.
At 11:45 we were still going through the tape and logging.
I stopped at two men who were going in together.
'Do you know either of them? Because I don't. I can't think of anybody who even looks like them.' I was racking my brains trying to think of another story to keep her interested.
'No, I've never seen them before.'
'Oh, all right then. Just a couple more, then we'll do some thing else.' I started to fast-forward, saw a figure coming out of the building, rewound, and played it.
She moved to the edge of the bed.
'I know that man,' she said.
I pressed Freeze-frame. We were looking at a black guy in his mid-thirties.
'Who is he?'
'He came to see Daddy with the other men.'
I tried to sound calm.
'What's his name? Do you know any of their names?' 'Can I go home and see Mommy now? You said I could go home tomorrow and now it's tomorrow.'
'We have to sort this out first, Kelly. Daddy needs to know their names. He can't remember.'
I was trying to do the psychology bit but I knew more about fly-fishing now than I did about child psychology.
She shook her head.
'Daddy knew them though, didn't he?'
'Yeah. They came to see Daddy.'
'Can you remember anything else about them? Were they smoking?'
'I don't remember. I don't think so.'
'Did any of them have glasses?'
'I think this guy had glasses.'
I looked closer at the screen. He wore thin wire frames.
'OK.' were they wearing rings or anything?'
'I don't know, I didn't see.'
I tried the color of the car, their shoes, their coats. Did they talk to each other using different names? Were they American?
She was starting to get upset, but I had to know.
I said, 'Kelly, are you sure this man came to see Daddy the day I found you?'
Her eyes were welling up. I'd gone too far.
'Don't cry.' I put my arm around her.
'It's OK. This man came with the other men, yes?'
I felt her nod.
'That's very good, because I can give this information to Daddy when I see him and that will help catch them. You see, you've helped him!'
She looked up at me. There was a slight smile under the tears. If she was right, what we had was one of the people who killed Kev coming out of an office that was fronting for PIRA.
There was still more tape to run. I tried to sound upbeat.
'OK then, let's have a look and see if we can see the other men. They were black, too, weren't they?'
'No, they were white.'
'Oh yes, of course.'
We went on through the tape. I came out with a possible ID of Nelson Mandela, and she saw Michael
