Did she take his hand or slip her arm through his?
Carefully, Elder made his way down towards the old railway track, while above him, whistling cheerfully, a man pushed a buggy containing a well-wrapped toddler towards the nursery. Walking briskly, a woman appeared with her dog and then, as quickly, disappeared. From the reports he had read, the diagrams, Maddy had been attacked above and then been pushed or fallen, the last, fatal blows most likely delivered close by where he now stood.
In all probability, her assailant had continued to stab her after she was dead. No weapon found. Remembering the severity and extent of the wounds, Elder saw him wiping the excess of blood off upon the grass, the ground.
How long had it taken?
How long?
Longer, possibly, to have cleared away all telltale traces than to have committed the crime itself.
How long had it been before someone else had come along, stopped perhaps, thinking they had heard something, and looked down, but, seeing nothing, continued on their way?
And the murderer, which way had he gone?
To the east, the track ran on below Crouch Hill and all the way, almost, to Finsbury Park, a myriad of small side roads with easy access leading off on either side; westwards, it opened out on to Shepherd's Hill, adjacent to the main road leading north towards the motorway. A car conveniently parked. Light traffic flow. Maddy's killer could have been tucked up by midnight, leaving her body to the elements, the foxes and the rodents, small insects, crows.
Elder saw again the post-mortem photographs of her face, the wounds, open, not quite scabbed over, to her torso and along the insides of her arms.
Climbing back up, Elder raised the collar of his coat against the freshness of the wind; mud clung to the cuffs of his trousers, the soles of his shoes.
Back in the street where he had parked, a pair of thirteen-year-olds was considering the possibility of liberating the Astra's radio; seeing Elder approaching, they spat thoughtfully at the ground and strolled, hands in pockets, nonchalantly away.
Off duty, Vanessa was wearing a denim skirt and black woollen tights, calf-length reddish leather boots, a denim jacket over a high-necked purple sweater that seemed to have shrunk in the wash. Her dark hair was curly and closely framed her face; her lipstick, newly applied, was a vivid shade of red.
The cafe where she had suggested meeting was close to the police station in Holmes Road. Most of the tables were taken and the buzz of conversation and occasional hiss of the coffee machine were underscored by music, Middle Eastern, Elder thought, coming from a radio-cassette player on the counter.
Elder made his way to where Vanessa was sitting and introduced himself.
'Managed to pick me out okay, then?' she said with a grin.
Most of the other customers either had small children clamouring round them or were well above pensionable age.
The waiter appeared at Elder's elbow almost as soon as he'd sat down, and he asked for an espresso and a glass of water. Vanessa was tucking into a wedge of sticky straw-coloured pastry and drinking what looked like Coke.
'So what do I call you?' Vanessa asked.
'Frank?'
'No rank or anything?'
'Not any more.'
Vanessa looked at him appraisingly. 'And they've dragged you out of retirement to give a hand?'
'Something like that.'
'Long as the bastard gets caught.'
'Yes.'
'Well, whatever I can do.' Pastry not quite finished, with an air of martyrdom she pushed her plate aside.
'I knew Maddy a little back in Lincoln,' Elder said. 'But that was a long time ago. You can probably give me a better picture of what she was like than anyone.'
'Where do you want me to start?'
'Wherever you like.'
For the next fifteen minutes or so, Vanessa talked and Elder listened, prompting her occasionally, but in the main content to sit and take occasional sips from his espresso.
'Tell me a bit more about this Kennet,' Elder said, when she'd finished. 'Maddy seems to have gone out with him for quite a while.'
'I don't know if there's a lot more to say. I met him a few times, seemed nice enough. Good-looking bloke, I'll give him that. Bit cocky, maybe.' She smiled. 'Not as bad as some.'
'She liked him, though?'
'I suppose so, yes. She'd never have gone with him otherwise.' Vanessa reached over and speared a piece of previously rejected pastry with her fork. 'To be honest, I think it was the sex as much as anything. I don't mean it was so great, not according to Maddy, anyway; nothing earth-shattering, not like Meg Ryan in that film, but, well, she'd not been with anyone in ages and I suppose…' Vanessa laughed. 'Well, I suppose it made a bit of a change. Made her feel good about herself, you know?'
Elder thought he might.
'And, from what you say, it just petered out?'
'In a manner of speaking.' There was a broad grin on Vanessa's face.
'You know how Kennet felt about that?'
'He was fine about it, far as I know. No big scene or anything.' She shrugged. 'I don't think it was such a deal for either of them, not really. Not true love, exactly, you know what I mean?'
Elder signalled the waiter for another espresso. 'These fears of Maddy's, that she was being watched. Spied on. You think they were real?'
Vanessa smiled. 'Or was she just paranoid like the rest of us?'
'If you like.'
'No, I don't think so. Not Maddy. I mean, it might have got a bit exaggerated inside her head, but no, there was something behind it, I'm sure.'
'According to what you said, it all started round about the time of the Grant business.'
'More or less, yes. I suppose it did.'
'This officer who was killed, Draper…'
'Paul, yes.'
'Maddy was there when he was shot, in the same room…'
'Standing right next to him, close as I am to you now.' She leaned in to the table, as if to make her point.
'It must have shaken her up pretty badly.'
'It did, you could tell. Draper's wife and little boy, she was upset about them too. Went round to see them quite a few times.'
'And she didn't talk much about it, other than that? It didn't seem to be preying on her mind?'
'No. Not really, no. Though she did mention it, must have been the last time I saw her, last time we went out together, at least. About the inquiry, you know, into the shooting.'
'What exactly did she say?'
'Just they'd given her a pretty tough time, sounded like. Questions, you know. Maddy thought they were going to have her in again.'
Elder made a mental note to check if that had been the case. He should read the report of the inquiry, certainly, maybe go and talk to the investigating officers.
