'Eaglin?' Elder interrupted, recalling that Maureen had mentioned his name.

'I don't know. They didn't stop for much in the way of formal introductions. Turned the place upside down. Rob, he tried to stop them and they punched him, knocked him down and kicked him.'

'They had a warrant?'

'So they said.'

'You didn't see it?'

'I didn't see anything. Just crashing and shouting from upstairs while I was trying to see to Rob. He was bleeding from a gash to the head.'

'And this was when?'

'Two days ago. Monday.'

'What happened then?'

'They came back down, grins all over their rotten faces, waving this bag of crack cocaine. Got you, you bastard. Talk your way out of this one. Claimed they'd found it under the boards in the bedroom.'

'Is that where he kept it?'

'They'd planted it. It wasn't his.'

'Like the heroin in the car wasn't his.'

'No.'

'No? It's no use covering up for him, Kate…'

'I'm not. Not this time. Not about this. I mean…' Angling her head up towards the sky, down towards the ground, avoiding his eyes. 'I mean, that was where he kept stuff, yes, all right, sometimes, but not crack, he didn't deal crack, not ever, hardly ever, and honestly it wasn't his. It wasn't.'

There were tears running down into the hollows of her cheeks. While Elder fumbled in his pockets for a clean tissue, Katherine wiped her face with her sleeve.

'What happened after they arrested him?' Elder said.

'That's it, they didn't.'

'Why not?'

'Because they wanted him to make a deal.'

'What kind of deal?

'They wanted him to give them information.'

'About what?'

'What do you think?'

'Who was supplying him. Other dealers, maybe. I don't know.'

Katherine had started walking again. 'Suppliers, yes. If there was a safe house they used. That was what they seemed to want more than anything.'

'And he told them?'

'There wasn't a lot else he could do.'

They were at the high wall which overlooked Castle Boulevard, the canal and the Meadows. A small flock of birds, six or seven, too white almost to be pigeons, took off from the rock face and scattered out in a random curve before alighting on the roof of the Brewhouse Museum below.

'Rob gave them the address of this flat in Forest Fields, he didn't think they were still using it, it was all he could think of to do. Turns out they were. Bland and his mate went round just as it was getting dark. What we heard they got close on nine thousand in cash and God knows how much crack. H too. If they ever find out it was Rob gave them away, they'll kill him.'

'Where is he now?'

'In hiding.'

'As well as the money and drugs, Bland and Eaglin, did they make any arrests?'

'Not as far as I know.'

For a moment she let him hold her hand.

'Where are you staying?' he asked.

'At Rob's, why?'

'Go home. Go home to your mum's.'

'No.'

'Do it, Kate.'

'But if he wants to get in touch with me…'

'He'd be stupid coming there. He can ring you on your mobile, surely?'

'I suppose.'

'Is there anything you need to collect?'

'No, not really.'

'Then go now, I'll walk along with you.'

'And then what?' Her face thin and pleading. 'Is there anything you can do?'

'I don't know. I can try. What I can't do is promise. Okay? You understand?'

She nodded, sniffing, hands in pockets, so forlorn she was a child again, agonising over a broken toy, a favourite doll lost, her friends had refused to play with her at break time, or she had lost a glove, grazed her knee. He'd never come to terms with loving her as much as he did: never would.

'Come on,' he said. 'Let's go if we're going.'

The sun persisted behind a thin skim of cloud, but close to the Trent the air bit sharp into unprotected skin. Maureen wore scarf and gloves, her anorak zipped and buttoned. She had met Elder on the south side of the bridge, near County Hall, and they had set out along the river towards Wilford, the City Ground at their backs.

A few runners and the occasional dog-walker aside, they had the path pretty much to themselves.

'You believe her?' Maureen said.

'I believe her, yes.'

'Not Summers?'

'Without speaking to him face to face, it's difficult to know. He was obviously lying to me before.'

'Come on, Frank. His girlfriend's father and an ex-copper, what do you expect?'

'It doesn't help me to accept his side of the story at face value, that's all.'

'Katherine, though. She saw what she saw.'

'Yes, I suppose so.'

They continued walking. Nearing the pedestrian bridge that led across to the Memorial Gardens, a pair of swans and sundry assorted ducks swam towards them, hoping for bread.

'Bland and Eaglin, taking down the safe house and pocketing the proceeds, you think it's possible?'

'Anything's possible, Frank, you know that.'

'But likely?'

'Drug Squad, you know, a few of them, old school, pretty much a law to themselves. And these two, they're both known to sail pretty close to the wind. But this… I don't know, Frank, I'd need proof.'

'Yes.'

'Not easy.'

'If something like that went down, word would get around.'

'I know. It's a matter of who to talk to, who to trust.'

'Nothing different there then.'

Maureen smiled. 'Nothing at all.'

At Wilford Bridge they crossed on to the embankment and followed the curve of the river back around.

'What time's your train, Frank?' Maureen asked.

'Quarter past.'

'I'll nose around, see what I come up with. Let you know.'

'You'll be careful.'

She gave him a look.

'Thanks, Maureen.'

They shook hands.

'How's it going down there in the smoke?'

'Three steps up, two back.'

'Better that than the other way round.'

At the station he bought a paper and sat on an empty bench to make some calls. Katherine's phone was switched off and he left a message, 'Great to see you, don't worry. Love, Dad.'

Elder phoned Karen on his mobile as the train was nearing St Pancras: still no sign of Kennet, but they'd got a line on Jane Forest and she was hoping to talk to her later that afternoon.

The scar that ran down one side of Jane Forest's face, beginning just below her right ear and continuing down past her jaw, was only visible when she turned into the light. When her hair swung back from her face. Self-conscious, most days she wore a roll-neck jumper or a scarf inside the collar of her shirt or blouse.

'Why didn't you report it?' Karen asked.

'I was frightened.'

'Of him?'

'Yes, of course. But not just that.'

'What then?'

'What people would say.'

'People?'

'When it got out. Whoever I had to explain it to. The police. You. My parents. Everyone.'

'You were the victim. There's no blame attached to that.'

'Isn't there?' Jane Forest twisted the cap off the bottle of Evian and lifted it to her mouth. They were standing in a small yard at the rear of the florist's where she worked, one of a small parade of shops at the bottom of West Hill, adjacent to Parliament Hill Fields. Jane was wearing a green overall that tied at the back, the name of the shop embroidered in small yellow letters at the front.

'You know the North End of the Heath,' she said, 'up past the Vale of Health?'

Karen shook her head.

'We used to go up there, one or two in the morning. Park round the back of Jack Straw's Castle. Not that we were the only ones. That time of night it's mostly gays, lots of black leather, chains, that kind of thing. Real bondage stuff. Anyway, we'd go out into the middle of the Heath; up there it's mostly bracken, trees, really overgrown, but there are these paths running through. Quite high up, you know. And I'd walk along as if I were on my own, pretending I didn't know Steve was there. And I didn't. I mean I never knew exactly where he was.'