The Swap Part 2

Chapter Thirty-three

They walked for a while back the way Harvey and Maisie had come that morning. Bleeder set a faster pace than Maisie and also he didn't hold his hand, so Harvey enjoyed it less and wished they could stop. However, he could see that discussing murder in the high street with numerous Cornish people a type renowned for their inquisitiveness milling about, was not really such a wise idea, so he followed meekly as Bleeder led them back towards the headland. Perhaps they could go in the hotel bar or something, find a quiet corner, get it over with. In truth, he'd have been happy to stay in the pub garden, have another beer, watch Bleeder go and order peppermint cordial in front of a room full of drunken comedians, that would have been fine. But he followed Bleeder's narrow a.r.s.e and watched it make its slightly mincing journey through the busy streets and out onto the quieter, open road that led to the headland. There Bleeder paused and waited for Harvey to join him, then side by side they walked down through the gorse towards the waiting whale rocks.'So the time has come for us to speak, H. I guess I always knew it would.' Bleeder had slowed now and Harvey, relieved, came to a full stop.'Er, yeah, OK. It's good to talk.' Harvey put on an attempt at a c.o.c.kney accent when he said this last sentence, remembering Bob Hoskins. He glanced ahead at the rocks and felt a warm glow of memory. He'd s.h.a.gged up there.'To speak about the past, both distant and recent. To talk it all through . . .' Bleeder's voice was fading in the breeze. 'To finally let it all out. It is something I have been doing in different ways for many years. I have had psychoa.n.a.lysis, H. I have been through that process, and I have trusted it to bring me here, to this point where I can stand with someone I once knew, in a place where we grew up, and feel not anger, nor bitterness, but hope. Dare I say it, I can almost feel pity.' He looked at Harvey with an expression that did seem pitying and Harvey reached for his cigarettes. He hardly knew what to say. Psychoa.n.a.lysis? Jesus, he knew Bleeder was mad. There followed a similar performance around lighting the cigarette although it didn't last as long as it had earlier because the wind had dropped and Harvey had got slightly better at it. Once he had taken a long drag to chase any hint of fresh country air from his lungs, he said: 'Er, yeah, OK, Charles, we can talk but I wouldn't get too many hopes up, yeah? I mean, I don't do that much of this, you know?' He gave a sort of laugh at the end in the hope that Bleeder would smile and they could maybe just have a bit of a joke instead, but Bleeder did not. He nodded in a way that Harvey found rather patronising and then turned to gaze into the distance.'I suppose I should say that for a long time I hated you the most, H. More than Jeff Cooper or Carl Butcher or Rob Calderwood or any of those other sports boys, "the jocks", as the Americans would call them. They were cruel to me, of course, but your cruelty was greater.''Um. OK.' Harvey stepped back and p.r.i.c.kled himself on a gorse bush. 'f.u.c.k, ow. OK.' Did Rob pick on Bleeder too? He couldn't really remember but he a.s.sumed Bleeder must know. He really had managed to unite the school, quite an achievement. Harvey began to grin and then turned it into what he hoped was a sensitive grimace.'You probably want to know what I mean,' Bleeder went on without turning back, thus wasting Harvey's expression, 'because, of course, you didn't pick on me the way those others did.'That was right. Harvey nodded vigorously, he didn't bully Bleeder, whoever told Jarvin that he did was wrong, he was one of the good guys, on the side of righteousness and justice. He pictured Spider-Man for a moment, how he looked after Aunt May died and Mary-Jane left him. So unjustly dealt with. He took a long sad pull on his cigarette. He knew that feeling.'And what I mean is that I looked to you for help. You were one of the people I really thought might stop what was happening. You could have done. You had the status in our year to stop it. You could have made friends with me. I just needed one friend, H, and then I might have been OK. If you had done that I might have survived what happened, might even have had a youth I could remember without a professional there to help me. For so long I hoped that you would be my salvation. That's what my a.n.a.lyst said: you were my fantasy, the one I dreamed would save me. And then I heard the singing outside my house. I heard Rob Calder-wood's voice and next to it I heard yours. Do you remember that day, H? Do you? Do you know what it felt like to have been through that with Jeff only a few weeks before? And to be back there, locked in that house with my mother, hearing those voices again, singing that same song, hearing Mother going out to hide by the wall to try to grab another of them and then to realise that one of the voices was yours? Can you imagine that, H? Is it in your range of possibilities? I think that was the greatest betrayal of them all. I think it was the moment when I realised it wasn't ever going to be all right. Do you remember, Harvey, the day my mother caught you?''Eh?' Harvey's mind had begun to wander slightly at the point when Bleeder said he had status in the school. He did really. He'd been popular and influential. Where had that status gone? Why didn't he have any status now? If the boy is the father of the man, where was his position and influence in his current life? Bossing Josh around, that was about it, and Josh bought Pokemon cards. He wanted to do the sigh, but realised that it might really be Bleeder's perogative. As for the rest, that was b.o.l.l.o.c.ks and Bleeder should know it, especially if he'd had therapy. n.o.body could save anyone else. Harvey had known that as long as he could remember. But this last remark caught him by surprise and he choked a little on smoke.'When she caught me?' he said, spluttering.'The day you were singing outside my house, not the first time probably, but the first that I realised it was you, recognised your voice alongside the others. And she came out and grabbed you, don't you remember that?'Harvey thought for a long moment, then slowly nodded.'Er, yeah, kind of. She sort of told me off and stuff and you said I was your mate and that I didn't do it before, so let me off. So she did, sort of thing.' Harvey shrugged. He did remember, of course, b.l.o.o.d.y scary it had been, but what did Bleeder want, a letter of thanks? Mad woman grabbed him and shouted at him. He should have had her arrested. He took a last drag and flicked the b.u.t.t, with insolent skill, into a rabbit hole.'Yes, I saved you. You see? You would have been beaten, like Jeff, but I stopped that. And then I was beaten instead.' He had turned to look at Harvey now and reacted to his expression. 'Oh yes, I got my licks for being friends with someone who would sing like that. My a.n.a.lyst made a lot of it. I wanted so much to be saved but instead I saved you. You see?''Er, yeah, yeah. Nice one. Clever. I mean cheers, thanks for that, saving me and so on. I didn't know you got whacked.''Oh yes. I got "whacked" when I saved you, but I couldn't save Jeff. Or at least I didn't. I let him be beaten, with the plastic tube. I let him see just what could happen. And I think he saw what life might be like. I mean, after that he pretty much left me alone. But I saved you and took the beating on my own. And I stole the strip of plastic, to bring to you. Do you remember, H? That day we did the swap? The length of plastic that I brought to school. I wanted you to see it. It still had my blood on it, you know? I was waiting for you and you didn't even notice the blood, you wanted it to play at snapping off the nettleheads with. So you swapped it with me, for a comic, a Superman One Superman One. The Superman One Superman One that I kept for so long. That was in the box at my house. You do remember, H, I know you do because you were the one who reminded me.' that I kept for so long. That was in the box at my house. You do remember, H, I know you do because you were the one who reminded me.'Bleeder's voice had been rising and he had begun twisting his head from side to side as if shaking away the memory, as if keeping it at bay as a horse does with a swarm of flies. But now he was slowing and speaking with more precision. 'And I had forgotten that. Blanked it out. Forgotten that day so deeply that even in a.n.a.lysis I didn't speak it. Even when I thought I was cured it was out there in history, in this place, this cruel and vicious place.' He turned right around, spreading out his arms to encompa.s.s the great sweep of Porthminster Point, with St Ives bay away behind it and the sea on either side. Two pa.s.sing hikers gave him a funny look and stepped round his arms. 'Afternoon,' one said and Harvey, who had been watching their approach over Bleeder's shoulder, nodded politely. Bleeder paused until they had pa.s.sed away down the path and disappeared where it snaked around the rocks. 'I had forgotten.' He spoke more quietly and with a limpness in his shoulders, as if the spell holding him together had been broken. 'I had forgotten until you spoke to me in the car at the reunion, asked me if I still had that comic. And it all came flooding back. I remembered that I didn't even tell you what you'd done. That was what I think was buried deepest. That I let you have the strip of plastic as if I was giving away a toy. I remember looking at your fingers as you took it to see if the blood made them red. It's funny how vividly I can remember what was so recently buried away. And I did it for a comic. Is there a more ridiculous story than that? I gave away everything for a comic . . .' He had turned and was looking away, back towards the hotel, the roofs of which could still be seen above the rise of the land. But as he spoke again he swung back, as if unable to be still. 'And that's why I killed her, I suppose. Because that memory was just one too many, and too suddenly recalled. I still needed to make some kind of reparation, you see. To put right what had been done so wrong. So that morning, on the Sunday, when I woke up I knew what I had to do. It was as if my dreams had told me, and they can, my therapist explained that to me. My dreams had brought it to a point, the necessary point where I could finally end it and stop it all. It was easy really. Killing is really very easy.''Er, what?' Aware of the gorse bush, Harvey didn't step backwards again. But he wanted to. Bleeder's eyes were riveted on his own. This would have been so much better in the pub garden, he felt. He glanced round, looking for the hikers, but they were long gone into the rocks. Were they having it off? he wondered vaguely, and the picture of the two mid-seventies male hikers pressed up against the whale rock was so startling that it snapped his attention back to Bleeder.'I killed her, Harvey.''Um, right you are.' Harvey could feel that he was so far out of his depth now that he might as well have been swimming across the bay. What on earth did he say now? 'So you, er, you did the deed, yeah?''Yes, I did the deed.' Bleeder's voice was calm and clear now. 'I don't know why I haven't been arrested for it. In some ways it would be easier if I was.' (Harvey nodded vigorously.) 'But apparently the police have found other evidence of someone breaking in. I don't know what that is about . . .' He tailed off and shut his eyes for a moment. 'I had thought it would be the solution, that everything would be different afterwards, and for those first few days it was, I think. But you know, I'm not sure it works like that for long. I'm not sure it isn't still all there really. It may even be that in the end this will only be one moment, another stage in all the stages I have been through . . .''Yeah, right, well, hey, maybe you should like tell the police, you know?' Despite the gorse, Harvey had moved away a little and could feel it clawing at the back of his trousers. 'I mean, it wouldn't be fair if anyone else gets kind of implicated and stuff, yeah? And also maybe that is what you need to do, maybe if you confess, it will be a release and you will experience closure.' Even as he spoke Harvey was rather proud of his words. Even under pressure like this he could bulls.h.i.t with the best of them. And he'd always known it was Bleeder: that was the thing. If he ever got off this headland and out from the laserbeam of Bleeder's attention he would tell the world, or Maisie at least and b.l.o.o.d.y Jarvin that he'd known it all along: Bleeder, obvious.'In many ways I suppose I have fulfilled my destiny,' Bleeder continued. 'My a.n.a.lyst was rather a Freudian, rather a traditionalist, I suppose for him I am something of a success story.' And Harvey was horrified to hear a sort of cackle at the end of Bleeder's words. As he finished speaking them, Bleeder moved off down the path. 'Come on, Harvey. I want to show you something.' And he set off towards the rocks.Harvey was rooted momentarily to the spot, uncaring of the sharp points in his lower b.u.t.tocks. His mind worked fast. He was on a headland with a self-confessed murderer, he had been accused of being that murderer's worst enemy in childhood, the murderer was leading him towards the cliff edge. He stood for a long moment, uncertain, then shrugged his shoulders and followed Bleeder down the path to the whale rocks. Mad or not, it was still Bleeder, he could take him out no problem.

Chapter Thirty-four

What Bleeder wanted to show him, Harvey had already seen. The disc of rock where you could stand and look down to the angry entrapment of the waves below looked no better with Bleeder on it. He put his back to the blue whale where he'd so recently stood with Maisie and indulged in a happy memory. This time he lit his cigarette with no trouble at all, he was getting used to outdoor smoking, something he was very good at in his youth. After he had lit it and put the pack away he remembered his manners and offered one to his new confidant but got no coherent response as Bleeder stood peering over the edge. Harvey had never stood on a clifftop with a murderer before but was pleased to find that he quickly adapted to the experience.'Um.' He cleared his throat and then broached a subject that was close to his heart. 'About that comic, the Superman One Superman One, Charles, did you, I mean, was it found at the scene sort of thing?''The comic?' Responding this time, Bleeder stood up straight and turned back from the edge. 'Yes, oh yes, it was in the box in the cellar. That's why she died. I started going through my things and there it was, clean as a whistle, just as I left it all those years ago. But you must know that already, H. I sent it to you at your shop.''You sent it to me?' Harvey was astounded. Bleeder sent him the comic; after all these years of dreaming exactly that, it had come true. Was this perhaps the time in his life when everything he had ever hoped for just happened? Why hadn't he hoped for Britney Spears? He put that thought away where it belonged and gazed at Bleeder who nodded.'Of course, where did you think it came from? It just seemed right to return it to you. It was yours, after all. And now you run a comic shop. You had nothing to run away from, you see, in your past there was nothing to hide from so you stayed where you were: reading comics and doing swaps and listening to pop music, all that. That's what I meant about feeling pity. I have come so far from here but you have stayed right where you were, right here in St Ives.'This was so catastrophically unfair that for the first time since they met at the pub, Harvey became genuinely animated.'You f.u.c.king what? I moved to London, mate. I live a life as far away from this as it's possible to b.l.o.o.d.y get. I mean, OK your mother was straight out of the Bates Motel, but that doesn't mean n.o.body else had problems, I had problems.''Like what?' Bleeder was doing that piercing thing with his eyes again and Harvey withered beneath it.'I don't know, stuff, problems, my parents didn't understand me kind of stuff, you know. I mean, OK, I wasn't getting the lash every twenty minutes but that doesn't mean everything was easy. You should meet my dad, he's f.u.c.king weird.''Yes, yes, I'm sure.' Bleeder nodded and spoke without sarcasm but Harvey was aware that the words weren't really adding up.He sighed a sort of medium strength and said: 'OK, look, I mean, thanks for the comic, yeah? I didn't expect it and I have to say it kind of freaked me. I thought someone was setting me up for murder, sort of thing. But I should say that actually it is worth a bit of money, you know, not loads, but, well, quite a load really. So I don't know if maybe you should have it back, or we could share it or something . . . Whatever you think, yeah? Charles?'But Bleeder was moving away from the edge, past where Harvey stood and back along the path. Harvey, with another expert flick of his cigarette over the parapet, followed. Did Bleeder not realise what he'd just said? It was as if he hadn't heard. And Harvey had just made the most generous offer of his life. All he'd dreamed of, the coffee shop with the superhero pictures, the wealthy married life with Maisie, all of it, he'd just offered to give it up, to give it back to Bleeder. And why? s.h.i.t, why? Oh, because Bleeder saved him and Bleeder needed a friend back then, but didn't get one, so he would be a friend now. All this was moving through his mind and melding together to form a large black blob of hurt feelings. This was as moral as he got. This was all he could do, there really wasn't any more. He almost ran after Bleeder who was now pacing the path with swift foot. It had begun to drizzle again and his hair was shining in the gathering light of the afternoon.'I mean it, Charles. You can have it back.' But Bleeder didn't respond in words, he simply stepped off the path and stalked away between two gorse bushes across the high back of the headland. 'Charles?' Really quite plaintive this time, and then he turned.'I think I need some time on my own, H. I've said more than I'd planned and I need to take stock. Let's, let's talk again . . .' He was moving away, the second person that afternoon to need time apart from him to think, and the hurt feelings grew and solidified.'Well, that's charming,' said Harvey. 'Thanks a bundle.''I'm . . . what do you mean?' Bleeder paused, astonished.'The comic. I offer it you back and you don't even respond. It's worth money, Charles, for Christ's sake. I could have sold it if I'd wanted to, you know. I could be well off now. But I didn't, I kept it for you, and all you do when I offer it to you, for nothing, is ignore me.' There were reasons why this wasn't a terribly good speech and Harvey could kind of see them, but really everyone seemed to be just saying what they were thinking today, so it just boiled out. And if it wasn't really true as such, it did at least reflect honestly how he was feeling. Sort of. Bleeder gazed at him with a kind of far-away amazement on his face and then closed his eyes for a long moment.'I think you should keep the comic, Harvey. I think that is probably what you should do, all right? I think perhaps the comic is what this is about for you and I'm glad we could discuss it. But now I must go for a while.' And he turned again to the narrow s.p.a.ce between the bushes that formed a little pathway across the headland and he followed it until it turned and bore him out of sight.Harvey stood for a while where he was. I am experiencing conflicting emotions, he told himself. But it wasn't really true. Jesus Christ, it's mine! And he set off, suddenly pumped up with emotion, until he broke into a run and gambolled like a flat-footed lamb along the path, back towards the hotel. The murder was solved, he was rich and he'd got Maisie, and everything was going to be just totally, totally perfect.

Chapter Thirty-five

Maisie wasn't there, which was the only setback of the day really. There was no one guarding reception so Harvey simply leaned over the counter and stole the key. Once in his room he paced the floor for a while and then had a shower, being still slightly sticky from the first encounter on the cliffs and sweaty from the second. But when she didn't return after about an hour, he went out again. He couldn't be still. Feeling sure that he would meet her on the return journey, he left the hotel, untended as far as he could tell, and walked back into town. He needed a drink, and someone to drink with, preferably female and gorgeous. He made for the Lifeboat, still waiting to meet her eye in the faces that he pa.s.sed, still expecting her voice to call to him in a way that meant she had been looking for him. But she didn't come. The Lifeboat was the pub they always drank in on Friday nights when he was seventeen, good for pulling and good for scrumpy that made you sick after only three pints. He had entered and ordered lager when he heard a voice in his ear.'h.e.l.lo, H, you're early, I thought we weren't meeting till seven.' It was Steve.'Er, yeah, all right, mate?' Harvey allowed the situation to occur without any comment on his part.'It's only half six. Is this the new Harvey Briscow? Weren't you always fashionably late for everything?''Er, yeah, but I've not much to do today.' No point in not lying.'No? Try having a baby, there's never not much to do. That's why I had to get out: bit of peace and quiet. I'm not allowed out that often, but for the great H. Briscow, Jean makes an exception. What am I having, by the way? Oh, pint of Tribute please, thanks, Harv.'So Harvey ordered Steve a drink and relaxed onto his barstool.It was a longer night than he had planned but he wanted to be with someone. Harvey rarely shared confidences, and certainly told Steve nothing of the day's unfolding, but he did like someone there to exchange pointless plat.i.tudes with, someone whose shoulder he could look over in the hope of spotting someone better to talk to. Irrationally he kept thinking she would walk in and their eyes would meet and he'd blow off Steve and she would sit on the barstool next to him and she wouldn't tell tedious stories about childcare and childhood, rather she would listen, rapt, as he recounted the Bleeder experience. Because he was suddenly desperate to tell someone what Bleeder had said. He was off the hook, the nightmare was over. No more tears, as both Johnson's Baby Shampoo and Ozzy Osbourne had put it in their time. No more tears. He did the sigh a few times during the evening. He was off the murder rap and he was rich. But still he had to listen to Steve retell how he deflowered Melanie Simpson in the back of a Ford Capri. It lacked that feeling of momentousness really.When at last they left the pub he found it was nearly midnight and the stars of his youth, mysteriously absent in London, had returned to the night sky. They steered each other in somewhat haphazard style along the seafront where the roar of the surf seemed so like the call of home that for a second Harvey almost thought of relocating the superhero cafe and going back to his roots. This brought to mind a song and he sang it with Steve in enthusiastic if misguided harmony. They carolled American-style harmonies together and then stepped down from the roadway onto the sand and Steve fell over and Harvey fell over Steve and then they lay and smoked on the sand for a bit until Harvey realised that it was b.l.o.o.d.y freezing.'Come on.' He roused his friend who was in danger of sleep and, cursing now and stumbling, they made their way along the road and up the hill towards his hotel.'Igothisway.' Steve said it as one word and, slapping Harvey brutally across the shoulder blades, moved away into the deep darkness of a small country town in winter.'Yeah, and I go that.' Harvey nodded, confident on that point, and set off towards the deeper black of Porthminster Point for a third time.Whatever magic carries drunks homeward also works with hotels and it was only a short time later that Harvey, grimacing with the effort of simply staying upright, found his way into the revolving door of the Atlantic Rollers. Revolving doors are difficult things at the best of times and this one seemed designed to confuse. First it wouldn't go at all, then it went very quickly and Harvey found his nose pressed to the gla.s.s panelling. Trying to right himself only made it go faster and as it completed its journey Harvey shot out of it, as if finishing a running race. As a bolt of light he flew into the foyer, across the polished wood floor and collided, pinball-like, with the counter.'Ow. f.u.c.k.' He put both hands on the top and gasped for air. 's.h.i.t.''Mr Briscow?' The voice made him jump so high that he almost cleared the counter, then, in terror, he peered over it to find a small, bald, disapproving man sitting behind it holding his key.'Er, yeah, thanks.' Harvey took it in trembling fingers and prepared to push himself off from the counter in the direction of the stairs.'There was a message left for you earlier, sir.' The man said 'sir' as he might say 'b.a.s.t.a.r.d' and Harvey bristled.'Yes, what is it?' He spoke not unlike James Bond: Sean Connery or Pierce Brosnan definitely. Without a word, the man held out a piece of paper and Harvey took it with the air of one who often receives messages in hotels. He might have said 'Ah, this will be from M' or he might not, afterwards he couldn't remember. What he did do was make it to the stairs and up them out of sight before he tore the folded paper open and read the message.Dear Harvey,I have had a very long think about things and I have decided I must go to Jeff. Everything Mr Simes and Charles Odd have said only makes me think that I may have completely misunderstood so much that has happened to him and to you. I need to talk it through with Jeff and find out how this affects us. So much has happened. So much seems different from how it was in London. I don't know what happened in the past, I don't know, but you do and you must work it through with Charles. I would stay with you if I could and try to help, but I really need to think too. The last few days have been amazing. Everything about them feels unreal, dream-like. I think you must go and talk to the police now. Jarvin will listen to you and he will believe you as I believe you. I will ring you soon: back at your shop perhaps. Please don't think too harshly of me, I'm just so confused. I'll speak to you very soon, my dear. Love Maisie.It was a long time that Harvey stood in the dim light of the hallway staring at the neat swirls of girlish script in his hand, grunting audibly to himself, before stumbling, half blind, up into the ma.s.sing intestines of the hotel to his room and falling into a dead and painful rest.He read the note again in the morning but still it made no sort of sense. He'd told her what happened in the past. And what had he done since? What had Charles said? Harvey lingered over a breakfast, identical to the one the day before in all but his companion. It somehow didn't taste as good, nor when he patted the drum of his belly did it feel nearly as satisfying. She had gone to Jeff. That was the only salient point as far as he could see, it was certainly the one that he could most immediately understand. She had gone to Jeff.Did that mean that she had gone back to Jeff? Or did it mean she was meeting him for a coffee and a chat about old times: 'I hear you got whipped', 'Yeah', 'Right, see you later' sort of thing. Harvey tried this on in his mind but was unhappy with it. Why go right now? Why not wait so they could leave together today? Why not do it by phone? Why do it at all? He shook his head over the coffee and observed specks of dandruff settle on its surface. His hair was growing, he hadn't had time to get it shaved for two weeks. He needed to consider his position. It would mean him paying for the room, of course, and he'd sort of hoped they'd go Dutch. But that, he insisted firmly to himself, was the least of the issues. It was seventy pound a night, mind, but that was unimportant. He did the sigh. Maybe she'd be sitting swinging her legs on the counter of his shop when he got home. Maybe she'd be standing outside Inaction Comix waiting in the rain, her eyes filled with tears of remorse. Maybe. He took himself out onto the the headland for a breath of fresh air and smoked a cigarette while he did it. His mind ran over the events of yesterday. Had something changed? How had a completely spontaneous s.h.a.g on the rocks transformed into that note? For all the thinking he did he could not find the point of change, the moment of reverse alchemy that turned gold into base rubbish. With heavy heart he returned to his room that had been their room packed his bags and paid the extortionate bill: more than he'd antic.i.p.ated because he'd forgotten that breakfast wasn't included. On the walk to the station he was just pa.s.sing Sainsbury's when his mother came out carrying two plastic bags of shopping and it was only by dropping to his knees behind a parked car and lying on his side in the public thoroughfare that he avoided being seen. Then stealthily shocked into a vivid attention by the closeness of this encounter he slunk to the station and boarded the 10.47to Penzance and from there a direct connection back to London.

Chapter Thirty-six

Maisie stood outside the house she had lived in for eight years, and looked at it for the first time. Often, in the past, her sight had been edged with a bitterness that she saw now as having a reddish hue. But the redness was gone and she was almost surprised to find that it was actually a rather pretty blonde house, built of the local white stone. She did know it: it had so much of her in it, yet she was looking for the first time with the option of not entering, of turning and walking away. She thought for a moment of the mole in The Wind in the Willows The Wind in the Willows hearing the call of home and his whole body trembling with the awareness of it. This was her home and she felt it recognise her and send out its tendrils of welcome. Turning would be hard now, the betrayal greater than it had been before. With a sigh that Harvey would have admired, she hoisted her neat travel case and walked up to the front door. How odd to ring this bell, how odd not to know if anyone was home, and, if they were, how they might receive this particular guest. Her finger paused for a moment over the b.u.t.ton and then with an almost impetuous flourish gave two sharp rings. hearing the call of home and his whole body trembling with the awareness of it. This was her home and she felt it recognise her and send out its tendrils of welcome. Turning would be hard now, the betrayal greater than it had been before. With a sigh that Harvey would have admired, she hoisted her neat travel case and walked up to the front door. How odd to ring this bell, how odd not to know if anyone was home, and, if they were, how they might receive this particular guest. Her finger paused for a moment over the b.u.t.ton and then with an almost impetuous flourish gave two sharp rings.The pause was the worst bit. She could still run. If he was upstairs, or down in the kitchen, she would be away behind the bushes before he got to the door; he probably wouldn't come out down the front garden and into the street. He would think it was a joke or an error and she would be away, off to London, off to anonymity and limitless potential and strange new boyfriends and weird shop a.s.sistants and all the little encounters with all the lives she could have lived, and could still if she ran. She heard a movement inside, still time, still time. But then the latch was turning with a sound that she hadn't known she knew in her soul, until she heard it again. The way this door opened, the squeaky Yale and the way you had to sort of yank it a bit so it sc.r.a.ped away from the jamb. That sound was as familiar to her as her own name. And as the door opened to a crack another face equally familiar gazed out at her.'Oh.' Jeff stood for a long moment in complete surprise. 'Maisie.' And his voice was so known and yet so strange that she needed suddenly and unexpectedly to reestablish contact at once. She dropped her bag on the ground and stepping forward took his face in her hands and he, as if instantly and irresistibly galvanised, pulled her to him so together they stumbled backwards into the generous embrace of the house.'Yes, well, that is interesting. Yes, it interests us very much. No, I think you have done exactly the right thing, sir. No I don't, these things have a habit of coming out at some point in my experience, sir. I would see it as your duty really, sir, as simple as that. Yes, we'll come at once.' Inspector Allen watched his superior officer's face as he responded to the caller's concerns. Jarvin put the telephone down with a look of great unease and Allen put down the pad on which he had been writing.'We must go at once to Old Street,' Jarvin said slowly in just the sort of voice you wouldn't use if you had to go somewhere at once. 'Something has come up. I am unsure about this. As unsure as I have been for a very long time.' He let his eyes rest on his desk and the scribbled notes he had taken of the call. 'I can't believe I am going down the road that seems to beckon me . . .' He looked up and caught Allen's eye. 'Well, we must do what we must do. A road can only lead where it leads. Come along, Allen, let us go to see what we can do. I think that warrant you've been preparing may be unnecessary, but bring it along anyway, there's a good chap; you can never be too sure, can you?''No, sir.' Allen, unfazed by the riddles in which his superior spoke, picked up the envelope that lay on the very top of the pile of papers on his desk and then followed Jarvin to the car.'It was just there.' Josh was hopping from foot to foot as if needing the toilet. 'I saw it on Monday, before Harvey left, but I had bought some Pokemon cards and I didn't want to make him any angrier so I didn't mention it. He chased me out of the shop, you know. He can be quite violent actually.''Really?' Jarvin nodded without raising his eyes from the Superman One Superman One that lay before him on the desk in Harvey's office. that lay before him on the desk in Harvey's office.'Well, not violent as in a killer, yeah? I mean, not a murderer or anything like that, but rough. He had a fight in Cornwall, actually, and he threw me on the ground the other day for no reason: just for a laugh. I'm sure he wouldn't kill anyone, but there it is, there's the comic. When you rang me yesterday to ask about the meeting you arranged with Harvey and why he hadn't come I just had a long think about what I should do, you know? And, like you said, I saw it as my duty.''Yes. Thank you, Mr Wylde. You have handled this I presume?' Jarvin indicated the plastic sleeve.'Er, yes, a bit, and I took the comic out. I mean, I had a look at it. It's the genuine article, actually. Really rare, total privilege even to see one. Total thrill, yeah? So I had a look. So fingerprints, yeah? That's what you're thinking. So mine are there too, don't get confused and lock me up.' Josh giggled and fidgeted the more.'Do you have any idea how this came to be here? Was it wrapped in anything or in an envelope?''Er, yes, it was in that white envelope on the desk, no address or anything. I'm not sure Harvey was going to send it anywhere, I think he just put it in there to keep it safe and stop me finding it.'Jarvin, thinking briefly that the force hadn't suffered too great a loss when Josh ignored the possibilities of a career in the police, nodded and said: 'But you did find it.''Well, I needed to get some money out to pay the Pokemon man and there was nothing to show that it was private.''No, no indeed. But you see there is an issue here. If it was brought here by Mr Briscow then that points in one direction. But if it arrived by post then that points in another. But you don't know of any other envelope of any kind apart from the blank white one we found with it?''Nope. I haven't seen anything like that.' Josh's voice took on a slightly sulky tone. He hadn't thought to look for another envelope.'Well, we will need to search these premises to check for that and to ensure that there is nothing else that might be considered material evidence in the case. Do you have any problem with that, Mr Wylde?''s.h.i.t, yes I do.' Josh looked genuinely alarmed for the first time since they had arrived. 'Harvey will kill me if I let you mess up the shop.''We do have a warrant, sir.' Allen, who had been standing quietly in the office doorway, reached into his pocket and extracted the paper. 'But we will do everything we can to avoid any mess or disturbance. I do think it might be better if you close the shop though, sir. It would be unhelpful to have members of the public intruding on the search.''Close the shop?' Josh's concern was multiplied. 'I can't close the shop, not without Harvey's permission. It's all right, we never get any customers.'But Allen was insistent and Josh was forced, complaining bitterly as he went, to go to the front door and turn the picture of Thor around. He timed this motion perfectly so that he could also let in the four uniformed officers that Allen had summoned to the shop and who would provide the manual labour in the search. He led them back into the office and offered them to Jarvin who was looking at Allen with sadness.'We do now need to find Mr Briscow,' he said.There was a telephone on the train. This struck Harvey as extraordinary but also potentially sinister. He had bought a mobile phone when they first appeared, but, after a long bank-holiday weekend when he watched all the episodes of The Prisoner The Prisoner back-to-back, he had decided that they were the work of a totalitarian system and that they inhibited the essential liberty of the individual; also he was concerned he didn't know enough people to put in his address book. In an act of reckless radicalism he had put his Nokia at the bottom of his sock drawer and forgotten about it. Now it seemed that even after taking this revolutionary stand he was still not free of the potential oppression of monitorable communications. These thoughts crossed his mind as he sipped his third can of Watneys and fumbled for a pound coin. When he had put it in the slot he dialled not an easy thing to do on a train moving at 120miles an hour with a full can of beer in your hand but he did it and then waited for Maisie or Jeff to answer. The number he had found in his old address book Jeff Cooper alongside all those dear old friends, just like he was one of them. He had spent most of the journey as far as Exeter planning the dialogue with Maisie. If Jeff answered it would be less difficult as it just involved slamming the phone down so hard that it might hurt Jeff 's ear a little bit. Harvey wasn't sure which he would prefer. back-to-back, he had decided that they were the work of a totalitarian system and that they inhibited the essential liberty of the individual; also he was concerned he didn't know enough people to put in his address book. In an act of reckless radicalism he had put his Nokia at the bottom of his sock drawer and forgotten about it. Now it seemed that even after taking this revolutionary stand he was still not free of the potential oppression of monitorable communications. These thoughts crossed his mind as he sipped his third can of Watneys and fumbled for a pound coin. When he had put it in the slot he dialled not an easy thing to do on a train moving at 120miles an hour with a full can of beer in your hand but he did it and then waited for Maisie or Jeff to answer. The number he had found in his old address book Jeff Cooper alongside all those dear old friends, just like he was one of them. He had spent most of the journey as far as Exeter planning the dialogue with Maisie. If Jeff answered it would be less difficult as it just involved slamming the phone down so hard that it might hurt Jeff 's ear a little bit. Harvey wasn't sure which he would prefer.He got Maisie. 'h.e.l.lo?' And didn't she sound like the lady of the house? Surely her voice should sound a little less sure and comfortable on her first morning back. What if it was Jeff 's mother or someone?'Er, yeah, all right, Mais?' Off-script already, Harvey gave himself a shake.'Harvey!' He was rather thrilled to hear her voice drop to a sort of husky whisper.'Yeah. I just wondered if you were OK? Didn't see you this morning sort of thing and I got your note but it didn't make a lot of sense to be honest, but hey, not a problem.''Oh, Harvey, you shouldn't be ringing me. I need time to think, remember? I need time away just to think. I ran away from here to try and make sense of things and now I've had to run back for the same reason. You shouldn't be ringing me. I really think I said everything I could say in my note.''No, right. Fair enough. But I need to talk to you, actually. A lot's happened, yeah?''Oh G.o.d, I know. What Simes said and then Charles . . . it just made me feel as if perhaps I'd misread everything. I don't think I understand anything that has happened really. Jeff and I sat up most of last night talking. He's asleep now, but we said more to each other than I think we've ever said. He told me everything, about the past, about that terrible day at the Odds' house. I know everything about that now, Harvey. Charles told me the facts and Jeff has filled in the detail. It is so terrible. What happened to you it could make you . . . Well, I just wonder . . . I do understand, I really do.''Er, OK. But look, I need to see you. Bleeder had a lot of interesting information to pa.s.s on, and I mean a lot. I mean job done. Mission accomplished. We went down there to sleuth and we sleuthed, you know what I mean? So look, I need to talk to you today, before I go to Jarvin, I need to talk it through with you. In fact, you should come with me to see Jarvin, I mean, you are as much a part of this as I am.' Credit where credit's due.'Oh Christ, Harvey, I've just come home. If this is my home. Well, I'm here, and I've just got here. I need to think about what I'm going to do. Maybe I'll go back to Croydon. Maybe I'll just go away for a bit. I feel like I'm in limbo, like I'm cut off and floating. Did you ever feel that, Harvey, like you are just drifting?''Yeah, tricky. But I need to see you now.' Harvey was watching the little screen on the telephone telling him how much money he had used. It seemed to be reducing at an extraordinary rate. 'I need to, Maisie, I need your help.' He heard his voice getting plaintive and pleading, which was one of the things he'd decided wasn't going to happen.'I know you do. I do understand that.' There was a long silence and Harvey watched the little screen with horror before fumbling for more change.'All right.' She spoke as the screen reached critical point and he unhappily fed in another pound. 'I'll come. I can't leave you to do that on your own. I'll come and be with you. We'll go to Jarvin together. Just so long as everything we say is the truth. No more secrets, OK, Harvey? Whatever you did: the cleaning up, hoping to steal the comic . . . well, anything that you did . . . you need to tell him. He'll listen, Harvey. He'll understand, all right? But you must tell him everything.''Um, right, yeah, nice one. But I need you there, Mais, I can't do it on my own.' Even to Harvey that sounded a tad melodramatic, obviously he could take all the credit if he wanted to, but hey, his moment of moral goodness on the clifftop had opened up a new and better Harvey, that's how it felt. 'I need to see you tonight. I'm on the train to London; I'll be at the shop by about five. I need to check on Josh, you could come and meet me and we could have a talk and then we could go and see Jarvin, yeah? We could get it all done today. And then it will be over, Maisie. I also have something else I need to show you at the shop. I think I will call it our future.'The line was silent for a moment and Harvey wondered if they had been cut off. Rising righteous indignation concerning his lost money was replaced by the consideration that perhaps the phone didn't work in tunnels. If it didn't this might be vital information in the battle between free men and the system that he had always felt was somehow one day inevitable. But they weren't in a tunnel and she came back on the line after a moment.'All right, I'll come, Harvey. I'll come because you ask me to. But I don't know about this, and I don't know what you want to show me and I don't know about the future. You must understand that I am only coming now, at this moment, because I feel it is perhaps a duty I should perform.''Er, yeah, OK then, see you at five.' He put the phone down with a sigh of satisfaction. No problem. He returned to the Watneys and a seat within easy reach of the bar.

Chapter Thirty-seven

Paddington looks different when you're rich. The possibilities, always inherent in any railway station, are expanded and brought closer. Yes, you could go home to your small, anonymous flat in Deptford, or to your one-a.s.sistant comic shop in Old Street. But you could also go to Mayfair and find the prettiest prost.i.tute in Shepherd's Market and rent a room at the Ritz, or go to Heathrow and fly to Bangkok. Harvey found he had s.e.x on his mind since the incident in the rocks. Another option was to slump in a pathetic and slightly malodorous heap on a bench, nurse an insipid erection, and gaze up at the arches of the roof as if they were the very b.u.t.tresses of heaven. Harvey selected the last of these choices and lay for a while, breathing heavily and letting salacious thoughts about Maisie drift across his inner vision. She was gone but she might be back. That still seemed, in his mildly inebriated state, a better position to be in than many. And it was the end of this strange journey he had been on. It seemed to have been going on for weeks, although, in fact, it was only a few short days since he found Mrs Odd in the bas.e.m.e.nt. Most of it seemed to have been spent on trains, experienced through the haze of warm ale. Through that same haze he now considered his immediate future. He would talk to Maisie and make her see that Jeff was the past, and he was the future; and they would go to Jarvin and tell him everything Bleeder had said, and Jarvin would smile that slightly unnerving smile that never really went away; and Harvey would sell the Superman One Superman One for a world-record price at the Toronto comic fair in August; and they would go and live in New York, maybe after a few weeks on an island somewhere. Was Maisie ready to see his stomach in broad daylight? Maybe straight to New York, but the point was that everything was going to be fabulous. It would be hard in some ways to leave his little shop for ever. That was Harvey's thought as he rolled off the bench and fell heavily on the cold tiles of the floor. And Josh, of course, he'd miss Josh, he thought as he got up, rubbing his elbow. But he'd survive. He staggered a little as he made his way towards the tube. He'd go to the shop this time, but from now on the magical possibilities that stations held were going to be explored. The easy options of poverty were coming to an end. for a world-record price at the Toronto comic fair in August; and they would go and live in New York, maybe after a few weeks on an island somewhere. Was Maisie ready to see his stomach in broad daylight? Maybe straight to New York, but the point was that everything was going to be fabulous. It would be hard in some ways to leave his little shop for ever. That was Harvey's thought as he rolled off the bench and fell heavily on the cold tiles of the floor. And Josh, of course, he'd miss Josh, he thought as he got up, rubbing his elbow. But he'd survive. He staggered a little as he made his way towards the tube. He'd go to the shop this time, but from now on the magical possibilities that stations held were going to be explored. The easy options of poverty were coming to an end.'Of course I'm going to come in with you. But I promise I'll say nothing, do nothing.' Jeff Cooper glanced across at his wife as he drove, and smiled. 'I'll try just to observe.''Well, you better.' Maisie had been unsure about letting him come with her, but somehow she knew they were involved in this together. 'But you need to let the anger go, Jeff. Just stop being angry for a while.''I know.' Jeff overtook a lorry. 'That's what men are supposed to be: strong and merciless and angry. I learned that from Dad. Then Mrs Odd died and I knew that someone else had done what I'd been thinking about for twenty years. I'd always wanted to kill her. Sounds bad, doesn't it? But she would come into my head at the strangest moments, usually when I was driving like this. I'd be going along and I'd think, I'll turn the car round and drive to St Ives and smash in her skull. I must have had that thought a thousand times. But I never did it. I hope you are aware that that did take a certain sort of courage too, Maisie.''Yes.' She considered this thoughtfully. 'I am aware of that, Jeff. And I'm aware that if you'd told me just a little bit of this twelve years ago maybe we would be different now, maybe we would have a future together . . .'He glanced across, quickly this time, and the car wiggled in its lane.'You mean we don't?''I don't know.' Maisie stared straight ahead and looked at the approaching lights of Hammersmith. 'I don't know. Until yesterday I would have been pretty certain. But now I can't answer that question at all. I suppose it's what I've been saying for a while now and not just to you I really do need time to think.''I didn't know we had that.' Josh picked up a copy of Wonder Woman Wonder Woman with interest from where the constable had carefully placed it. 'Heaven knows what it was doing in with the with interest from where the constable had carefully placed it. 'Heaven knows what it was doing in with the Vampirella Vampirellas. Must have just slipped down there. Well, well.''Mr Wylde, please don't touch anything, I have asked you more than once.' Jarvin, who was standing like a minor deity in the midst of the careful ruination of the shop, spoke with severity.'Sorry, sorry.' Josh put the Wonder Woman Wonder Woman down and wandered over to the graphic novels pile to perch on the edge of a now empty rack. 'But it's about time we had a spring clean. The last time we did this was . . . what am I saying? We've never done this.' down and wandered over to the graphic novels pile to perch on the edge of a now empty rack. 'But it's about time we had a spring clean. The last time we did this was . . . what am I saying? We've never done this.''We are not here to clean, Mr Wylde.' Jarvin did not really want conversation, there was a lot to think through.'No, no.' Josh, on the other hand, was eager to chat. 'Harvey might even like this, he might walk in and thank us . . . He might not, of course.' His face fell slightly.'But where is he, Mr Wylde? Where is Harvey Briscow? You say he went to Cornwall but his parents have not seen him and are now in a state of some concern. His mother is considering organising a search for him through St Ives. Why did he arrange to come to a meeting and then disappear to the other end of the country? Do you know, Mr Wylde? Do you realise how important this is?'Josh, unnerved slightly by these confidences and questions, shook his head. 'I dunno,' he said earnestly, 'but he'll be here in the morning. Harvey's always here in the mornings in case I buy p.o.r.n. Not that I ever do,' he added quickly, 'but you know, just in case. p.o.r.n or Pokemon. I'm not meant to get those. And he doesn't like boxed sets cause they're hard to shift. I got a box set of Batman Returns Batman Returns tie-ins once and he hit me with a pencil.' tie-ins once and he hit me with a pencil.''Yes.' Jarvin realised that he was now involved in a conversation that was entirely unnecessary to him; he began to move away when there was a knock at the shop door. Being the only policeman unemployed, he sprang forward and opened it.'h.e.l.lo, Mrs Cooper, how do you do? And Mr Cooper? Come inside please.' As if he had summoned them himself, as if they were expected guests and he a good host at a casual drinks party, Jarvin let the surprised and potentially querulous new arrivals into the shop, carefully relocked the front door and then took them back into Harvey's office where the search had now been completed. 'We are searching the premises, as you can see, but I would not wish you to read too much into that.' He waved his hand at Harvey's unsanitary sofa and the couple perched awkwardly on the edge of it. 'We have not yet completed our investigations. We are trying to make contact with Mr Briscow, Mrs Cooper, and my understanding was that he was with you.'This was so forthright and to the point that after a moment's shocked silence Jeff Cooper burst into a guffaw of laughter. 'Well, there you are, Maisie, no point in disguising things, is there? Yes, I believe my wife was with Mr Briscow, Chief Inspector, in what sense she was with him needs as yet to be clarified, but she was with him, but is with him no longer. As you can see, she is at present with me.''Yes.' Jarvin frowned and nodded slowly, as though trying to follow a map committed to memory. 'But I wonder if you know where he is, Mrs Cooper? I understood, from Mr Wylde . . . Josh Wylde . . . the shop a.s.sistant, yes, from him,' Jarvin waved vaguely in the direction of the shop where Josh had retrieved the Wonder Woman Wonder Woman and was reading excerpts aloud to the busy constables 'that you were travelling to Cornwall together, and yet he had arranged to come to have a blood test performed on Monday afternoon and to have a meeting with me. His non-appearance is troubling to me. I really do need to contact him, Mrs Cooper.' and was reading excerpts aloud to the busy constables 'that you were travelling to Cornwall together, and yet he had arranged to come to have a blood test performed on Monday afternoon and to have a meeting with me. His non-appearance is troubling to me. I really do need to contact him, Mrs Cooper.''Why?' Maisie unexpectedly went on the cautious offensive. 'I mean, I'm sure he could perform the test another time. Yet here you are searching his shop as if you suspect him of more than missing a blood test.''Yes, we do have something more.' Jarvin had remained standing and he now walked to a plastic evidence box that had been placed on the desk. Opening it, he extracted the Superman One Superman One, still in its wrapper, and held it up carefully between the palms of his hands. 'This was found here by Mr Wylde. I wonder if either of you recognise it?''Only by reputation.' Jeff Cooper leaned forward with interest. 'This is the legendary Superman One Superman One, eh?'Maisie too was leaning forward but her expression was more shock than interest. 'He had the comic? How could he have the comic? That doesn't make any sense. If he had the comic then . . . it wouldn't add up. It's not right. Where did he get it from?''That,' said Jarvin, 'is why we'd rather like to see Mr Briscow, to ask him. But I suppose I am wondering why you feel it doesn't add up, Mrs Cooper.' Maisie was suddenly aware that the green eyes were upon her; like green rays from a lasergun she felt them opening her up. She shook her head, her own eyes closing for a moment.'I don't know,' she said. 'He told me he didn't have it, that it wasn't there . . . Why would he lie?' She frowned in real uncertainty. 'But if he has the comic he can't have killed her, can he? Not that I ever thought he did, but when Charles Odd told me about him getting caught by the mother, I wondered, I really began to wonder . . .''But he must have killed her!' Jeff almost shouted it. 'He got caught too, you just said so. Mrs Odd caught him and she beat him, beat the skin off his back if it was anything like my encounter with her. He carried that around, just like I did. Carried the scars and the bitterness, that terrible dull rage. He carried it and then he cracked. He cracked and G.o.d knows I don't blame him.' He turned his face away and Maisie, almost without thinking, put her hand on his arm.She was clearly thinking hard and Jarvin let her think, watching her face, watching her try to work it through. 'But why . . . ?' It was as if Maisie was trying to open a jam jar with her mind, her head twisting from side to side, as though loosening something with the motion. 'Why the comic? If he went for revenge . . . if he went to kill her . . . then he didn't go to steal. And if he went to steal he wouldn't kill. He wouldn't kill if he has this. He can't have done. Unless . . .' She stopped and looked at Jarvin. 'I will tell you everything I know, Inspector. And I will tell you the truth. But I need to believe that you will listen with sympathy.'Jarvin nodded slowly. 'Everything about this case has made me require that quality, Mrs Cooper,' he said softly. 'I think perhaps I will feel it for Mr Briscow without needing to try.' And then, again slowly, he moved to the door and called Allen who came and sat neatly on his unstable chair with every appearance of the living rock, apart from his right hand, which crossed and recrossed his notepad.'In the Liverpool slums. In the Liverpool slums. They look in the dustbin for something to eat, they find a dead rat and they think it's a treat. In the Liverpool slums,' Harvey sang as he walked from the tube. The train had been full of Scousers down for a midweek evening game with a.r.s.enal and Harvey was happy to sing one of his favourites in their honour. It was past six and he knew that Josh would have gone, and this only improved his mood. He was late, so Maisie would be waiting outside the shop, looking a little bit forlorn possibly, a bit lost and small in the big roaring quiet of the closing city. But he would warm her with a hug. Not too much kissing, his breath must smell like Oliver Reed after he died but a nice long s.e.xy hug. And then he'd take her inside and sit her on the sofa and tell her everything and she would be so impressed and then he'd open the drawer and show her the comic and she would be so thrilled that there was a future for them both, that she'd roll back on the sofa and he'd climb aboard and . . . s.h.i.t. He stopped for a moment and took a few deep breaths and then tried walking again, yes that was better. Perhaps keep the thinking to a minimum. So he sang another chorus or two and peered ahead of him to see if he could see her.When he arrived outside Inaction Comix two things struck him. First she wasn't there and that meant he hadn't kept her waiting, which he'd kind of hoped he would so as to give her a little punishment for leaving him behind in Cornwall. And second the shutters were up and the lights still on, which meant that Josh was here. b.u.g.g.e.r. He stepped back from the window, not wishing to be seen. Perhaps he'd just wait outside for her, she wouldn't be long. But that would mean that she kept him waiting, even though he was meant to be punishing her. Was that fair? What if Josh had let her in? Maybe she was inside. What would Josh be doing to entertain her? Hurriedly Harvey fumbled for his keys and with unprecedented speed found the right one, opened the shop door and stepped inside.'Um.' He looked round with interest. 'Ah.' Jarvin and the Coopers were just emerging from his office so nine faces simultaneously turned to look at him. 'Right.' He shut the door carefully behind him and came rather slowly into his shop. 'So, er . . . how's it going?' he asked.

Chapter Thirty-eight

There was a long silence, long enough for Harvey to wonder if this was pregnant. He felt fairly sure that it was. Pregnant with twins and ready to drop was how he had characterised it before Jarvin spoke.'Mr Briscow,' is what he said. Harvey wasn't sure this really added anything much to the silence, not containing any real information that wasn't obvious to everyone present. Except perhaps the four uniformed policemen who stood watching silently from around the room. Perhaps Jarvin said it to sort of introduce him to them. He wondered what their names were. But something else was niggling at him, something he couldn't place.'We have been trying to find you, Mr Briscow,' Jarvin added and Harvey was aware of Allen going off into the office, presumably to call off a search party. Had they really been hunting for him? Was there an APB out? He felt rather thrilled and also very slightly amused, as well as s.h.i.tting his pants, of course.'Er, well, here I am.' Again this didn't really seem to bring much to the occasion but Harvey felt it right to speak. 'I went to Cornwall, but now I'm back.''You had a blood test booked, Mr Briscow.' Jarvin spoke gently, sounding like a Harley Street specialist.'Yeah, sorry. Bad one that. I just kind of got mixed up and stuff.' Harvey was taking in the room more now, rather than just the faces. It was almost bare. He'd never realised how small it was before. Really it might be better if they turned the comic stands the other way and then had aisles running across . . . He caught Josh's eye and Josh looked instantly hangdog. Harvey wondered what he'd done. He looked round hastily to check for new purchases but there were piles of comics and boxes everywhere and it was hard to tell if he'd bought anything. He gave Josh a long frown but still felt that niggling feeling: something was amiss. Apart from all the obvious things, of course.'We have been searching your shop, Mr Briscow, as you can see,' Jarvin continued. 'Of course, we would rather have done so with your permission and in your presence but unfortunately we could not contact you.''No. Never liked mobiles fascist,' Harvey muttered. But his attention was elsewhere. He'd worked out what had been niggling him: what the f.u.c.k was Jeff Cooper doing here? Why wasn't Maisie jumping into his arms and what in f.u.c.k was Jeff doing with her? When you invite your lover for a rendezvous prior to running away to New York to start a new life together you don't expect her to bring her husband. What the f.u.c.k?'Er, hi, Maisie,' he said.'h.e.l.lo, Harvey.' s.h.i.t. Her voice was low and sad, like his mother's that time he swore at the vicar.'You all right?''Yes, I'm all right. Are you all right, Harvey?''Er, yeah, yeah, no problem. All right, Jeff?''h.e.l.lo, Harvey, how are you?''Good ta. Yeah. Nice one. Right, so . . . you OK, Inspector?''The reason we are searching your shop, Mr Briscow,' Jarvin refused to enter into the spirit of the reunion 'is that something was found here that we are having trouble explaining.' He turned and pointed. Moving with eerie silence, Allen had returned from the office, unnoticed by Harvey, and was standing behind the counter. Like an auctioneer's a.s.sistant he was holding a Superman One Superman One in a gloved hand, its plastic slip cover still smudged with Mrs Odd's blood. in a gloved hand, its plastic slip cover still smudged with Mrs Odd's blood.Harvey nodded. He felt very relieved, actually. That must be what Josh was looking guilty about: squealing on him to the pigs. While a dubious thing for a shop a.s.sistant to do, it was at least better than more Pokemon, or for that matter the Whip Dancers Trilogy Whip Dancers Trilogy.'Yeah, the Superman One Superman One.' He tried to sound airy, although in fact he could feel his bowels tightening to the point where he badly needed the toilet. 'You found that, yeah?''Yes, we did, and of course we don't know this, but we are a.s.suming it is the same one that Charles Odd owned and that was missing from the house in St Ives after his mother was murdered.''Right, yeah, good call.' Harvey nodded.'Now, Mrs Cooper has told us an interesting story, Mr Briscow, about you visiting the house after the murder was committed, intending to steal this comic. However, since then it has been suggested that perhaps you had a motive for murder; that you carried a grudge against Mrs Odd; that you killed her and then returned later to steal the comic and to clean up your tracks. I wonder what you think about that, Mr Briscow.'What Harvey thought was that it was a bit of a public place for such a deeply humiliating statement to be made. Couldn't they do this in private somewhere? He was aware of Maisie trying to catch his eye with what he feared was a look of deepest concern. But for some reason he was thinking about Josh. All the showing-off he'd done about having a girlfriend and now this. He did the sigh, which involved closing his eyes for a moment. When he opened them he became aware that two of the uniformed constables had quietly moved behind him to block the door. He shook his head hard to clear the Watneys a bit. If ever there was a moment for clarity, this was it.'Look,' he said, 'let's get this straight. I did go to the house, yeah? I saw the body; I did a bit of cleaning up, OK I admit that. But I didn't steal the comic, I just happen to sort of have that and I'll explain that in a minute, and I didn't kill Mrs Odd for reasons that I will go into. An