‘Shock?’ said Marlene Higson, after Strike had bought them both beer, and joined her at the table. ‘You can say that again, when I’d gave ’er up for lost. It near broke my ’eart when she wen’, but I fort I was giving ’er a better life. I wouldna ’ad the strenf to do it uvverwise. Fort I was giving ’er all the fings I never ’ad. I grew up poor, proper poor. We ’ad nothing. Nothing.’

She looked away from him, drawing hard on her Rothman’s; when her mouth puckered into hard little lines around the cigarette, it looked like a cat’s anus.

‘And Dez, me boyfriend, see, wasn’t too keen – you know, with ’er being coloured, it were obvious she weren’t ’is. They go darker, see; when she were born, she looked white. But I still never woulda given ’er up if I ’adn’t seen a chance for ’er to get a better life, and I fort, she won’t miss me, she’s too young. I’ve gave ’er a good start, and mebbe, when she’s older, she’ll come and find me. And me dream come true,’ she added, with a ghastly show of pathos. ‘She come’n’ found me.

‘I’ll tell you somefing reely strange, right,’ she said, without drawing breath. ‘A man friend of mine says to me, just a week before I got the call from ’er, “You know ’oo you look like?” he says. I says, “Dahn be ser silly,” but he says, “Straight up. Across the eyes, and the shape of the eyebrows, y’know?”’

She looked hopefully at Strike, who could not bring himself to respond. It seemed impossible that the face of Nefertiti could have sprung from this grey and purple mess.

‘You can see it in photos of me when I were younger,’ she said, with a hint of pique. ‘Point is, I fort I was giving her a better life, and then they went an’ give her to those bastards, pardon my language. If I’d’a known, I’d of kept ’er, and I told ’er that. That made ’er cry. I’d of kept her and never let ’er go.

‘Oh yeah. She talked to me. It all poured out. She got on all right wiv the father, with S’Ralec. He sounded all right. The mother’s a right mad bitch, though. Oh yeah. Pills. Poppin’ pills. Fackin’ rich bitches takin’ pills f’ their fackin’ nerves. Lula could talk to me, see. Well, it’s a bond, innit. You can’ break it, blood.