‘No, well, yes, sort of,’ said Kate, taking a deep breath. ‘Mom – I’m pregnant.’

Hope did not know what to say. She knew her daughter was desperate for a child. But now? After what Josh had done? After he had left her like that? She waited for Kate to speak again, careful to take the lead from her.

‘I’m pregnant,’ she said again, tears starting to well in her eyes. ‘That’s great news, isn’t it? Aren’t you going to congratulate me?’

Kate laughed, a sour, bitter laugh that soon turned into a sob. Hope let her daughter cry, holding her as her body shook.

‘I’m sorry, mom,’ she said, determined to pull herself together. ‘Honestly, look at me, making a fool of myself.’

‘Darling, don’t be silly. It’s good to have a little breakdown now and again.’

Kate smiled as her mother stroked her hand. ‘But you and Josh – you’re not back together again?’

‘God, no,’ said Kate, snorting with derision. ‘I wouldn’t go back to him if my life depended on it.’

‘So – when – how?’ he mother struggled for the right words.

‘It must have been the last time we went to the clinic. Just before – before Josh decided to - ’

‘Oh my god. Darling. What are you going to do? I mean - ’

‘I’m going to have it, no question about that. I know the circumstances aren’t ideal. But I don’t have the time to wait around for another good-looking bastard to fall in love with me.’

She laughed at her daughter’s sardonic sense of humour. She had always been a touch cynical, even when she was a little girl. She could always see through people, perhaps at times too much so, and as a child she had not been the most popular kid in school. Hope remembered once, when Kate had been in seventh grade, getting an irate phone call from one of the other parents at the school – a screenwriter, she recalled – complaining about her daughter. Apparently, the other girl had been bragging about being given her very own pony for her birthday. Kate, annoyed by the spoilt kid, had turned around to her and told that her parents had only bought her a pony because they felt guilty about not spending enough time with her. True, but hardly diplomatic, and the girl had gone home in tears, accusing her parents of not loving her enough. That had taken some smoothing out.

‘Well, darling, you know I will do everything I can to help.’ She suddenly realised she was going to be a grandmother. Now it was her turn to feel tears sting her eyes. ‘If only your father could have been here.’

‘I know, mom. I know.’

‘He would have been so proud.’

They fell silent for a moment, as they watched a couple of swallows swoop down from the palm tree to drink from the swimming pool. Los Angeles rumbled and sweated beneath them, but here in the hills the breeze from the mountains felt clean and sweet.

‘About the child,’ said Hope. ‘I - ’

But she was cut off by the ringing of her daughter’s cell phone. Kate took it out of her jeans pocket. It was Josh. She stood up and walked over towards the pool, the sight of rippling water suddenly unnerving her.

‘Hi, Kate here,’ she said, pretending not to know it was him.

‘Kate, it’s Josh,’ he said. He sounded under pressure, strained. She wondered what was wrong? Was he okay? Then she realised that she was supposed not to care any more. Caring was for a time when they were still together.

‘Hi,’ she said, trying to sound as indifferent to his call as possible.

‘How are you?’

‘Fine. Really.’

‘Look, I can’t talk for long. It’s been a hell of a night. One of the men in the white collar internet child porn ring we had been tracking has just been found murdered.’

‘Why?’ Even though she no longer had anything to do with the investigation of crimes she found it hard to step away completely. ‘What happened?’

‘Are you really sure you want to know?’ There was a pause on the end of the line. Josh could visualise Kate giving him one of those withering, don’t patronise me stares that she seemed to specialise in. ‘Okay, okay. The victim was found in his bath in his house in Westwood, naked, covered in blood. Looks like the perp cut off the guy’s penis, before - before shoving it into his mouth.’

‘God.’

‘Yeah, I know.’

‘Do you know anything else?’ She couldn’t help herself. Her job had gotten into her blood.

‘We’re not sure yet. There are a few other cuts to the body, mostly surface. But no signs of forced entry, so it seems like he must have known the killer.’

‘So the victim was an abuser? He’d served time?’

‘That’s the weird thing, no. No abuse that we know of. Mr Respectability, well on the surface anyway. Worked in a bank in Century City, divorced with two kids.’

‘But you were investigating him?’

‘Yeah. Downloading child porn, swapping images, those kind of things. Sorry. Anyway, that’s not why I called. It’s about the baby.’

Kate felt her heart beat faster, her face flush. How did he know? Who could have told him?

‘She’s been identified. Sara-Jane Gable.’

She felt a sudden sense of shame.

‘Only child of Susan and Joseph Gable of Los Feliz. Both 28 years of age. Married for two years. He’s an electrician at one of the TV studios, she was a make-up girl before having the baby. Nice kids. It’s not official yet, but we don’t think they’re suspects.’

‘So someone stole into their house and took the baby?’

‘Seems like it, yeah. No prints were found, not much in the way of forensics. You can imagine how they must be feeling.’

‘God, poor things.’

‘Anyway, we got a call from the mother. Seems like she – well, both of them – want to meet you. To ask you a few questions. And, I think, to thank you for trying to save their daughter’s life.’

5

Kate drove down Santa Monica Boulevard, occasionally glancing up at the hills of Griffith Park. She turned left into North Vermont, past a cinema, a couple of cool-looking cafes and a bookshop and into the maze of streets that lay to the east of the avenue. She parked just off the intersection of Franklin and Hillhurst, around the corner from the public library, and walked until she found the Gables’ home.