King Rat spoke, and just as it had in the police cell, his voicetook on a rhythm, a dislocating monotony like a bagpipe drone. Thesense and meaning of what he said crept into Saul’s head as much byinsinuation as by conscious understanding.

‘This here Rome-vill, London, that’s my manor, but I been aroundwherever my little courtiers found grain and rubbish to Tea Leaf. Andthey did my bidding, because I’m their king. But I was never alone,Saul; that’s never how it was. Rats believe in their Godfers, chuckout broods, the more mouths to filch, the better.’

‘What do you know about your mother, Saul?’

The question took him by surprise. ‘The… her name was Eloise…She was, uh, a health visitor… She died when I was born, somethingwent wrong…’

‘Seen any Beechams?’

Saul shook his head in confusion.

‘Beechams: pictures, photos…’

‘Of course… she’s short and dark, pretty… What’s this about?Where are you going?’

‘Sometimes, me old China, sometimes there are black sheep,ne’er-do-wells, if you clock me. I’d lay good money you and your dadwere snarling at each other’s throats sometimes, am I right? Didn’tget on like you might have hoped? Well, do you really think ratsaren’t the same?’

‘She was always the gentry mort, your ma. Took to your daddy awhole lot, and he to her. What a beauty she was, luscious, who’d havepassed that up?’ King Rat finished his sentence with a flourish,twisted his head and looked at Saul from around the corner of hisface.

‘Your ma made a choice, Saul. Health visitor! That was a cheekylittle joke. Set a thief to catch a thief, they say, isn’t it, andso, likewise, with her. Walk into a place, one sniff of the ISuppose, and your ma knew exactly how many rats was in there, andwhere. Recidivist, traitor, they called her, but I suppose that’s thepower of love…’

Saul was incredulous, staring and staring at King Rat.

‘She wasn’t built for the likes of you. You bumped her off onarrival. You’re a big strong lad, sonny, stronger than you probablythink. There’s a lot you can do you don’t know about. I bet yougawped out of all those night-time windows longer and harder than anyof your mates. I think you’ve been scrabbling to get into this cityfor real for a long time.’

‘You want to know who did the deed on your old man, I know. That’swhat you call petulance, that is, that bod smashed out front, in thegarden.’

‘The one who did that… he was after you. Your old dad just gotin the way.’

‘You’re a special boy, Saul, got special blood in your veins, andthere’s one in the city who’d like to see it spilled. Your mum was mysister, Saul.’

‘Your mum was a rat.’

With that insane allegation hanging in the air, King Rat rockedback onto the flesh of his arse and fell silent.

Saul shook his head and struggled between incredulity andexcitement and disgust.

‘She was… what?’

‘A… fucking… rat.’ King Rat spoke slowly. ‘She crept out ofthe sewers because she fell for your dad. More tragic than Romeo andJuliet. And her of royal blood, too, but still she went. Couldn’t getshot of me, though. I used to come see her on the nows and thens;she’d tell me to sling my hook. Wanted all that behind her, but withher new nose she stank to herself. Couldn’t shake birthright, youknow. Blood’s thicker than water, and rat blood’s the thickest ofall.’

Somewhere in the tar-black below, a patrol car lurched out of thepound spewing blue light.

‘And since your mum got put in the ground, I’ve been keeping alittle eye out for you: trying to keep you out of trouble. What’sfamily for, Saul? But it looks like things have caught up. Can’toutrun your blood, Saul. Looks like you’ve been rumbled, and your dadhad to take a fall.’

Saul sat still and gazed over King Rat’s shoulder. The words, thedeadly understatement delivered with something like a flourish,unlocked a door inside him. He could see his father in a hundredimages. And, like a backdrop to all the frozen moments he recalled,Saul could see a powerful fat body pitching in slow motion throughthe night air, the mouth a distended yawn of shock and terror, eyesrolling in frantic search for safety, thinning hair flickering likecandlelight, jowls trembling with gravity’s sudden shift, paddlingineffectually with those thick limbs, jagged scintillas of glasswhirling around him as he flew towards the dark lawn, its soilfrost-hardened like tundra.

Saul’s throat caught, and he let out a tiny sound of grief. Histears amazed him with their speed, flooding his vision instantly.

‘Oh Dad…’ he sobbed.

King Rat was incensed.

‘Leave it out now, leave it out, will you give it a fuckingrest?’

His hand snapped out and he slapped Saul lightly across theface.

‘Hey. Hey. Fucking enough.’

‘Fuck off!’ Saul found a voice between sniffing, weeping andwiping his nose on the sleeve of the police-issue jumper. ‘Just stopfor a minute. Just leave me alone…’

Saul relapsed into tears for his father. He beat himself on thehead in his loneliness, screwed up his eyes as if he were beingtortured, moaned rhythmically as he pummelled his forehead.

‘I’m sorry Dad I’m sorry I’m sorry…’ he crooned between hisquiet cries. His words were garbled and confused in isolation andterrible inchoate anger. He wrapped his arms around his head,desperate and alone up on the roof.

Through the gap between his arms, he saw that King Rat was nolonger sitting before him, that he had risen without a sound and hadsomehow reached the other end of the roof, where he stood looking outover London, facing away from Saul whose sadness angered him so much.Saul’s body moved with sobs, as he stared from behind his hands atthe strange figure perched between two outcroppings of brick, KingRat. His uncle.

Saul wriggled backwards, still weeping, until he felt the damppressure of the chimney on his back. He looked over his shoulder andsaw a place where two chimney stacks met near the roof edge, leavinga space between them, a rooftop cubby-hole into which he crept with aquick contortion. He curled up in this little space, insulated fromthe sky and the sickening drop on all sides, out of the sight of KingRat. He was so tired, exhaustion had soaked into his bones. He lay onhis side in the cramped, sloping chamber he had found and covered hishead with his hands. He cried some more until his tears becamemechanical, like a child who has forgotten what he is weeping for.Saul lay there on the slate slope under the chimneys, without foodinside him, in someone else’s ruined clothes, lonely and utterlyconfused, until, amazingly, he slept.

When he woke, the sky was still dark, with only a faint fringe ofdun in the east. There was no time for a luxurious morning state forSaul, no slow stretches or confusion, no slow remembrance of where hewas and why. He opened his eyes onto red brick, and realized with ashudder of claustrophobia that he was surrounded, that curled uparound him was King Rat. He started, pulled himself upright out ofthat passionless, utilitarian embrace. King Rat’s eyes were open.

‘Morning, boy. Bit parky in the small hours. Thought we’d share abit of warmth to help you kip.’

King Rat uncoiled and rose, stretching each limb individually. Hegrabbed the top of the high chimney and hauled himself up with hisarms, his legs dangling. He looked slowly from one side to the other,surveying the dim urban sprawl, before hawking noisily and spitting agob of phlegm down the chimney. Only then did he relax his arms andlower himself to the roof again. Saul struggled to his feet, slippingon the slope. He wiped rheum and rubbish from his face.

King Rat turned to him. ‘We never finished our little chat. We was… interrupted last night. You’ve an awful lot to learn, matey, andyou’re looking at teacher, like it or not. But first off, let’s makeourselves scarce.’ He laughed: a filthy, throaty bark that tickledSaul’s ear. ‘They were going hell for leather for you last night. Nosirens, mind — didn’t want to warn you off, I reckon, but they werefrantic: cars and constables running around like the blue-arsedproverbials, in a right old state, and all the time there I amplaying at peek-a-boo over their gables.’ He laughed again, the noiseof it, like all he issued, sounding as if it were just inches fromSaul’s ear. ‘Oh yes, I am a most accomplished thief.’ He said thisfinal line with stilted gusto, as if delivering lines in a play.