‘Yeah, all right then,’ she said, dropping her handbag and slumping back on to the hard chair. ‘I’ll have a Big Mac.’

He was afraid she might leave while he was at the counter, but when he returned with two trays, she was still there; she even thanked him grudgingly.

Strike tried a different tack.

‘You know Kieran quite well, do you?’ he asked, pursuing the glow that had illuminated her at the mention of his name.

‘Yeah,’ she said, self-consciously. ‘I met him a lot with ’er. ’E wuz always driving ’er.’

‘He says that Lula was writing something in the back of the car, before she arrived at Vashti. Did she show you, or give you, anything she’d written?’

‘No,’ she said. She crammed fries into her mouth and then said, ‘I ain’t seen nuthin like that. Why, what was it?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Maybe it were a shopping list or something?’

‘Yeah, that’s what the police thought. You’re sure you didn’t notice her carrying a bit of paper, a letter, an envelope?’

‘Yeah, I’m sure. Kieran know you’re meeting me?’ asked Rochelle.

‘Yeah, I told him you were on my list. He told me you used to live at St Elmo’s.’

This seemed to please her.

‘Where are you living now?’

‘What’s it to you?’ she demanded, suddenly fierce.

‘It’s nothing to me. I’m just making polite conversation.’

This drew a small snort from Rochelle.

‘I got my own place in Hammersmith now.’

She chewed for a while and then, for the first time, proffered unsolicited information.

‘We usedta listen to Deeby Macc in his car. Me, Kieran and Lula.’

And she began to rap:

No hydroquinone, black to the backbone,

Takin’ Deeby lightly, better buy an early tombstone,

I’m drivin’ my Ferrari –fuck Johari – got my head on straight

Nothin’ talks like money talks –I’m shoutin’ at ya, Mister Jake.

She looked proud, as though she had put him firmly in his place, with no retort possible.

‘Tha’s from “Hydroquinone”,’ she said. ‘On Jake On My Jack.’

‘What’s hydroquinone?’ Strike asked.

‘Skin light’ner. We usedta rap that with the car windows down,’ said Rochelle. A warm, reminiscent smile lit her face out of plainness.

‘Lula was looking forward to meeting Deeby Macc, then, was she?’

‘Yeah, she wuz,’ said Rochelle. ‘She knew ’e liked ’er, she wuz pleased with herself about that. Kieran wuz proper excited an’ all, he kep’ askin’ Lula to introduce him. He wanted to meet Deeby.’

Her smile faded; she picked morosely at her burger, then said:

‘Is that all you wanna know, then? ’Cause I gotta go.’

She began wolfing the remnants of her meal, cramming food into her mouth.

‘Lula must have taken you to a lot of places, did she?’

‘Yeah,’ said Rochelle, her mouth full of burger.

‘Did you go to Uzi with her?’

‘Yeah. Once.’