He thanked them and hung up, satisfied that he had at least started proceedings. The paperwork could wait until tomorrow. He stood looking irresolutely around the flat, dreading the call to Jasmine's brother.
Days-old dirty dishes cluttered the kitchen sink, cups containing sticky dregs smudged the dust on the coffee table while books and clothes littered the furniture. Kincaid sighed and sank into a chair, rubbing his face absentmindedly. Even his skin felt rubbery and slack with exhaustion. Leaning back and closing his eyes, he felt a hard lump beneath his shoulder blade-his jacket, Jasmine's address book in the breast pocket. He pulled the slender book out and sat studying it. It suited Jasmine, he thought-emerald green leather stamped with small, gold dragons, elegant and a little exotic. It crossed his mind that he must ask her where she got it, then he shook his head. He had yet to accept it.
The gilt-edged pages of the small book fluttered through his fingers like butterflies' wings and he caught glimpses of Jasmine's tiny italic script. Names jumped out at him. Margaret Bellamy, with an address in Kilburn. Felicity Howarth, Highgate. Theo he discovered under the T's, simply the first name and phone number.
He punched the numbers in more slowly this time. The repeated burring of the phone sounded tinny and distant, and he had almost given up when a man's voice said 'Trifles.'
'I beg your pardon?' Kincaid answered, startled.
'Trifles. Can I help you?' The voice sounded a little peevish this time.
Kincaid collected himself. 'Mr. Dent?'
'Yes. What can I do for you?' Peevishness became definite annoyance.
'Mr. Dent, my name is Duncan Kincaid. I live in the same building as your sister, Jasmine. I'm sorry to have to tell you that she died last night.' The hollow silence on the other end of the line lasted so long that Kincaid wondered if the man were still there. 'Mr. Dent?'
'Jasmine? Are you sure?' Theo Dent sounded bewildered. 'Of course, you're sure,' he continued with a little more strength. 'What an idiotic question. It's just that… I didn't expect-'
'I don't think anyone-'
'Was she… I mean, did she…'
Kincaid answered gently. 'She seemed very peaceful. Mr. Dent, I'm afraid you'll have to come and make arrangements.'
'Oh, of course.' A plan of action seemed to galvanize him into disjointed efficiency. 'Where have they… where is she? I can't come until this evening. I'll have to close the shop. I don't drive, you see. I'll have to get the train in-'
Kincaid interrupted him. 'I could meet you if you like, here at the flat, and give you the details then.' He didn't want to explain over the telephone why the funeral arrangements might be delayed.
Theo gave an audible sigh of relief. 'Could you? That's very kind of you. I'll get the five o'clock train up. Are you upstairs or down? Jasmine never-'
'Up.' Theo's ignorance didn't surprise Kincaid-after all, he hadn't even known that Jasmine had a brother.
They rang off and Kincaid closed his eyes for a moment, the worst of his immediate responsibilities finished. It hadn't been as bad as he'd expected. Jasmine's brother sounded more bewildered than grief-stricken. Perhaps they hadn't been close, although he was finding that Jasmine's silence on a subject was not necessarily indicative. Feeling too fuzzy to think clearly about it, he wandered into the kitchen and peered into the refrigerator-eggs, a shriveled tomato, a suspicious bit of cheese, a few cans of beer. He popped open a beer and took a sip, grimaced and set it down again.
He had his shirt half unbuttoned and had reached the bedroom door when the knock came-sharply official, two raps. Kincaid opened his front door and blinked. He didn't often see Major Keith dressed in anything except his gardening gear, and today he looked particularly natty-tweed suit with regimental tie, shoes polished to a looking- glass shine, neatly creased trilby in his hand, and an anxious expression puckering his round face.
'Major?'
'I just spoke to the postman. He said he'd seen an ambulance pull away from the building when he came past earlier and I wondered-there was no answer when I knocked downstairs just now. Is she all right?'
Oh, lord! Kincaid sagged against the doorjamb. How could he have forgotten that the Major didn't know? And they were friends, not just passing acquaintances-her comfortable afternoon visits with the Major were one thing, at least, mat Jasmine had discussed. 'I'm not sure you'd call them 'chats',' she'd said, laughing. 'Mostly we just sit, like two old dogs in the sun.'
Kincaid pulled himself together, sure that his face was stamped with dismay. 'Come in, Major, do.' He ushered the Major in and waved vaguely in the direction of a chair, but the Major turned and stood quietly facing him, waiting. His eyes were a surprisingly sharp, pale blue.
'You'd best tell me, then,' he said, finally.
Kincaid sighed. 'She didn't answer the door to her nurse this morning. I came along and forced the lock. We found her in bed. She seemed to have died peacefully in her sleep.'
The Major nodded, and an expression flickered across his face that Kincaid couldn't quite place. 'A good lass, in spite of-' He broke off and focused on Kincaid. 'Well, never mind that now.' The remnants of his Scots burr became more pronounced. 'Will you be seeing to things, then?'
Another assumption of an intimacy with Jasmine he hadn't felt he merited, Kincaid thought curiously. 'Temporarily, at least. Her brother's coming up tonight.'
The Major merely nodded again and turned toward the door. 'I'll leave you to get on with it.'
'Major?' Kincaid stopped him as he reached the door. 'Did Jasmine ever mention a brother to you?'
The Major turned in the act of jamming his hat over the thinning hair brushed across his skull. Thoughtfully, he fingered the gray bristles that lay on his upper lip like thatch on a cottage roof. 'Well now, I can't say as she did. She never said much. Remarkable for a female.' The blue eyes crinkled at the corners.
After watching the Major descend the stairs, Kincaid shut his door and leaned against the inside. Even working all night on a nasty case didn't account for the leaden feeling in his limbs and the cotton-wool in his head. Shock, he supposed, the mind's way of holding grief at bay.
He fastened the chain on the door, rammed home the bolt, and lifted the phone out of its cradle as he passed. Shedding clothes, he stumbled into the bedroom. Flies buzzed heavily in and out of the open window. A bar of sunlight lay diagonally across the bed, as substantial as stone. Kincaid fell into it and slept before his face touched the rumpled sheet.
The temperature dropped quickly as the sun set and Kincaid woke with the draft of cool air against his skin. The bit of southern sky he could see through the still-open window was charcoal tinged faintly with pink. He rolled over and looked at the clock, swore, and stumbled out of bed in the direction of the shower.
Fifteen minutes later he'd managed to get himself into jeans and a pullover and was dragging a comb through his damp hair when the bell rang. All his expectations of a male version of Jasmine Dent vanished when he opened the door.
'Mr. Kincaid?' The man's question was hesitant, as if he were afraid he might be rebuffed.
Kincaid examined him, taking in the oval face and small bone structure, but there any resemblance to Jasmine ended. Theo Dent wore an extra layer of padding on his small frame, had a halo of curly brown hair shot with gray, round John Lennon specs, and eyes that were blue rather than brown.
'Mr. Dent.' Kincaid held out his hand and Theo gave it a quick jerk. His palm felt damp and Kincaid had the impression that his hand trembled. 'Do you have a key to your sister's flat, Mr. Dent?'
Theo shook his head. 'No. No, I'm afraid not.'
Kincaid thought for a moment. 'You'd better come in while I hunt something up.' He left Theo standing with his hands clasped in front of him, rocking on his heels, while he rooted around in the bedroom bureau drawer. When he'd worked Theft one of his regulars had given him a set of lockpicks which he had never had occasion to use.
He held up the ring of delicate wires as he returned to the sitting room, and Theo's eyebrows rose questioningly above the rims of his spectacles. 'I didn't mink to look for a key when I locked up again earlier,' Kincaid said in explanation. 'These ought to do the trick.'
'But how… I mean, it was you that found…' 'Yes. I picked it a little less elegantly this morning, I'm afraid. With a paperclip.' If Theo Dent wondered how Kincaid came by a set of lockpicks, he didn't ask.
They descended the stairs and Kincaid made short work of the cheap lock. As he opened the door and stepped
