Good Bait

53

‘Auchentoshan.’

‘What?’

‘How you say it, apparently. Aw-ken-tosh-an. At least, that’s what the guy in Oddbins told me.’

‘And he’d know.’

‘Doubt if he’s been north of Luton in his life.’

Karen had fetched two glasses; tumblers, but heavy bottomed enough to be close to the real thing.

There was a standard lamp with a shade in an odd colour of lime green in one corner; a small anglepoise on one of the shelves near the stereo. The curtains were drawn across, shutting out the London night.

With a choice of the one easy chair or a two-seater settee which abutted it at right angles, Alex had taken the chair. A low table sat between, cluttered with several unopened brown envelopes, the previous week’s Highbury and Islington Gazette, a book of short stories by someone with the unlikely name of Maile Meloy, and a letter from Karen’s mother in Jamaica. Karen dumped them all on the floor and set the glasses down in their place.

Alex swivelled the stopper from the bottle, leaned forward and began to pour.

‘I shouldn’t, you know,’ Karen said.

‘On the wagon?’

‘Just the opposite.’

‘Heavy night?’

‘Champagne cocktails at One Aldwych, if you please.’

‘Date? Celebration?’

‘Not a date. My friend, Carla.’

‘That’s the actress, right? I met her once. Some party?’

‘God, that was years ago. How on earth d’you remember?’

Alex smiled. ‘Collect information, store it away, it’s what I do.’ She tapped a finger against her temple, pushed a hand up through her short crop of hair. ‘All here, in the hard drive.’

Karen sat back, glass in hand. ‘You’re lucky. All I’ve got in there is mush.’

‘You say.’

The whisky was bright, not peaty, slightly sweet and went down a dream.

‘So what do you think?’ Alex asked.

‘About what?’

‘This.’ Alex held up her glass.

‘It’s good. Very good.’ She lifted the bottle. ‘Not heard of it before. More of a vodka drinker, I suppose.’

‘It was Roger introduced me to this. Couple of Christmases back.’

‘How is he? Roger?’

‘Fine. Off to Whitby with the kids. Bit of a half-term ritual. Stiff sea breezes and walks along the pier. Thinks it’s character forming.’

Karen laughed. Carla aside, it was with Alex, she supposed, that she felt most relaxed. Alex herself certainly looked relaxed enough, feet tucked up beneath her, wearing what seemed to be her usual off-duty outfit of blue jeans and a denim shirt, worn out and unbuttoned over a pale lavender vest. Her coat she’d shucked off the minute she came through the door.

In comparison, Karen, still in her glad rags, felt overdressed.

‘I guess,’ Alex said, leaning forward again to top up their glasses, ‘I should have brought something to go with this. Something for ballast. Fancy crisps, at least.’

‘Oh, wait. Wait.’ Karen jumped up, heading for the kitchen, then wished she hadn’t moved quite so fast. ‘I’ve got crisps out here. Sea salt and something or other. Two for one in Tesco. And there’s salami in the fridge. At least, I think there is. And cheese.’

She scurried round, unwrapping, finding plates, ferreting out a jar of olives from where it had got trapped behind the Tabasco and the soy sauce. When she turned, Alex was there, standing in the doorway. Just leaning, leaning sideways against the frame, one foot crossed over the other, hands by her sides.

‘Need some help?’

The light from overhead was catching the red in her hair.

‘No, thanks. It’s okay, I’m fine.’

From nowhere, Karen wanted to touch her hair.

Alex smiled: stayed where she was.

Pearl of her skin.

Karen fumbled a fork and it clattered to the floor.

‘It’s okay,’ Alex said, taking half a pace forward. ‘Leave it where it is.’

Karen caught her breath. And then she was touching her, touching her hair, the crown of her head, the ends where they tapered softly down towards her neck. The corner of her mouth. Then kissing her.

Oh, Christ!

Alex’s hand on her breast.

When Karen woke it was past four. A line of sweat zigzagged, dry and crystalline, from her navel to the hollow of her neck. Beside her, one arm raised up towards her face, Alex slept. Mouth slightly open, a faint whistle of breath.

Karen needed to pee.

As she swung her legs round from the bed, Alex stirred.

‘It’s early,’ Karen said. ‘Go back to sleep.’

But when she returned, Alex was sitting up, pillows propped at her back, smiling sleepily.

‘Get you something?’ Karen asked. ‘Juice? Tea?’

‘Juice would be great. Thanks. And then tea.’

‘Peppermint? Builder’s?’

‘Peppermint.’

Karen brought it all to the bed on a tray and climbed back in.

‘Thank you.’ Dipping her head, Alex kissed her on the shoulder.

‘What for?’

A grin on Alex’s face. ‘The tea, of course. What did you think?’

It felt strange, the two of them, sitting there like that after what had gone before. Strange, Karen thought, but somehow natural. Natural yet strange.

‘You make a habit of this?’ Karen asked.

‘With you? I’d have remembered.’

‘That wasn’t what I meant.’

‘I know. And, no, not exactly.’

‘But you knew, when you came round. Waited.’

‘What I wanted, yes. At least, I thought I did.’ She stroked Karen’s arm. ‘I wasn’t at all sure about you.’

Karen covered her face with her hands.

‘Regrets?’ Alex said.

‘No. Yes. Yes, a million of them, probably. But no. Not really. Not at all.’

‘Come out together after breakfast then, shall we? You know, an announcement. Facebook. Twitter.’

Karen had to look at her carefully to be sure she was joking.

‘Can you imagine …?’

‘All too easily.’

It was still dark outside and would be for a good couple of hours.

‘Roger,’ Karen said. ‘What if …’

‘Roger’s in Whitby, remember?’

‘Yes, but does he …?’

‘Know sometimes I swing the other way?’

‘Yes, I suppose so.’

Alex smiled. ‘What he doesn’t know, can’t hurt him.’

‘You believe that?’

‘Maybe I have to.’ She lifted her tea. ‘When I’ve finished this, I’ll go. Maybe a quick shower.’

‘Breakfast? There’d be time.’

‘No, it’s fine.’

‘Toast? There’s toast. Could be.’

‘Okay, toast it is.’

Toast with marmalade; with the last few scrapings of Marmite; with raspberry jam. Uncertain in the kitchen, doing her best to ignore the alcohol ache in her head, Karen made coffee as she listened to the throw of water in the shower.

Alex emerged looking fresh, still towelling her hair. Karen pulled back the curtain and they sat at the table in the shallow bay, looking out across the empty street.

‘Burcher,’ Alex said suddenly. ‘Has he ever said anything to you about a Paul Milescu?’

‘You mean Ion’s father? Ion, the friend of the Andronic boy?’

‘Yes.’

‘Why d’you ask?’

‘That last meeting. You remember Burcher asked me to stay behind? A private word.’

Karen nodded.

‘It’s Milescu he was asking about. Were we investigating him? If so, at what level? What reason? Did we think there was any link with Kosach? Anton Kosach. Anyone else we’d been discussing?’

‘He give a reason?’

‘Not really. Name had cropped up, something vague like that.’

‘That’s interesting,’ Karen said, leaning forward. ‘Quite early on in all this, way back before Camden or Stansted, when it was just an investigation into the Andronic murder, I’d been out to talk to Ion Milescu and Burcher came looking for me — no two ways about it — stopped me on the way home. Quizzed me about the boy’s involvement. Claimed his father had been making waves, calling in favours. Friends in high places, that’s what he said. After that, I did a little checking, spoke to Tom Brewer in Economic and Specialist Crime. Worst he could come up with, Milescu had maybe sailed close to the wind a few times, but no more no less than anyone else.’

Alex took a quick glance at her watch. ‘Well, Burcher, Milescu, something’s going on somewhere.’ She took a last swig of coffee and got to her feet.

‘That morning in December. When you were called out to the ponds, early. How long did it take Burcher to arrive?’

Karen thought, shrugged. ‘No time at all. In the area that night, he said, staying with friends.’

‘Paul Milescu’s address,’ Alex said. ‘New End Square, Hampstead. Might be nothing to it, but maybe the friends in high places include Burcher himself.’