“What happens if you take tomorrow off sick?” Joel asked. “Go search his office again, and his rooms.”

“I...could do that. And I might talk to Challice, the detective constable who was with me. I think I can trust her. She was the other hand you read, the Head Girl character.”

“Oh, yes, I liked her. And I’ll talk to Darby Sabini.”

“Joel—”

“I can’t avoid him: he knows where I live. Suppose I tell him you’re a complete fool for graphology?”

“Rather than for a graphologist?” Aaron asked, and there went Joel’s heart again, squeezing painfully, because Aaron flirting ineptly was so much better than the most practised seducer. “No, but what do you have in mind?”

“What if I claim you’re convinced I have mystical powers? You think you’ll be solving crimes like billy-oh with me as your secret weapon, and I’m taking your money, and that’s why we’ve been seen together. That wouldn’t be illegal for you, would it?”

“It could probably be presented as a form of misconduct,” Aaron said thoughtfully. “In fact...with the right spin, it might be enough for Sabini to believe you’ve given him something useful to pass on.”

“I’ll say that, then. You talk to your constable, if you think you can. And your cousin?”

“Oh, I will be talking to my cousin,” Aaron said, with intent. “Although not yet, if you don’t mind looking as though you’re capitulating.”

“That’s fine. Should I reply to him?”

“Hold off. Darby Sabini is enough for now. Are you sure you’re willing to do this?”

‘Willing’ might be overstating it. Joel didn’t have any great desire to cross a senior policeman or a gang boss, to risk pain or prison. Actually, he’d have preferred all of it to go away, but life didn’t work like that.

“One of the men in my ambulance division was an older chap,” he said. “Boer War injury, not fit to fight, volunteered for us instead. I said, you surely didn’t need to come out, do you enjoy wars or what? He whacked me round the head. And then he said, ‘It won’t be over till someone’s lost, so here I am, helping ’em lose.’”

“You could so easily not,” Aaron said hoarsely. “You could so easily walk away.”

“Problem is, it wouldn’t be easy.” He put his hand over Aaron’s. “Which is your fault, by the way.”

“Dear God, Joel,” Aaron said, and pulled him over again.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN