Peter continued to watch her on screen, until he grew bored and switched the video off. He lay back on the bed and sighed . . . Sometimes, more times than he cared to think about, she made him feel inadequate. But tonight he didn’t just feel that way, he was also irritated by her, annoyed by her attitude, her temper, her ambition. He started counting all the emotions she aroused in him, and it was like counting sheep. There were too many, too many to remember. He fell asleep.

Chapter 7

7

“I was outside Ladbroke Grove underground station,” Helen Masters was telling DCI Tennison, “waiting to meet one of the girls from the Hammersmith halfway house, Susan Lyons. She’d absconded a few days earlier, then she called to ask me to meet her. But she was late.”

Tennison nodded. Helen Masters was a terrific witness, a social worker, calm and unruffled, with, most important of all, a retentive memory.

“Were you standing on the pavement, or in the entrance? Tennison asked.

“Mostly in the ticket area, it was a pretty cold night, but I kept checking outside in case I’d missed her. That was when I saw them.”

“And who did you see?”

“The man, at first. I just watched him for something to do. There’s a bank across the road, a few yards down, and he was standing near the cash dispenser. He had dark hair . . . Then I saw Karen, the girl who was murdered. I’d seen her photographs in the newspapers, but it didn’t register until I saw them in color, on the TV program. For a second I thought it was Susan, she’s blond too. I stepped forward . . .”

“How close were you?”

“Oh, about five yards . . .” She looked around and pointed to a WPC on the other side of the room. “She was about there.”

“And then what?”

“The man over the road walked to the edge of the pavement and called to Karen.”

Tennison leaned forward and watched Helen closely as she asked her next question. “You heard him clearly, calling her name?”

Helen nodded. “There was quite a lot of traffic noise, but he definitely called out her name.”

Tennison relaxed a little. “Can you tell me what he was wearing?”

“A brownish jacket, with a light shirt underneath.”

There was a brief knock on the door and a uniformed DI entered. He gave Tennison a nod. “We’re ready for you, Miss Masters,” he said.

DI Sleeth led Helen Masters to the observation room next door, explaining the procedure as he did so.

“You will be able to see them, but they can’t see you, it’s one-way glass. Anything you want them to do, tell me and I’ll give the instructions over the address system. Take your time, and don’t worry. Any questions?”