“You took ten minutes to answer the bloody door,” said Tariq. Bloody, that was as bad as his language ever got. He still sounded like the Eton schoolboy he’d once been. “I should simply have dealt with the lock myself.”

“Sure, if you wanted your fool head blown to smithereens.” Jesse turned at me. “He wanted to see you, and I told him there was no way on the Lord’s green earth that I was wakin’ you up to get interrogated.”

“Fortunately, Lily left that note on the table,” said Tariq. “Otherwise, I would still be twiddling my thumbs back at your flat.”

“Then I had to hog-tie him so he didn’t go rarin’ off and surprise you here. That’s why I called you, Lil. But the line went dead and you didn’t answer when I called again, so I came over here with him.” He tucked my hair back behind my ears. “I’m sorry, honey, I shoulda just let him come over here straightaway.”

Across the hall, the door opened. “We are calling the police,” shrieked Mrs. Decarno. “You shouldn’t be allowed to carry on with men in this hallway. It is a disgrace! You are nothing but a tramp, Claudia Moore.” She had shrunk since I’d last seen her, or maybe it was just that her skinny neck couldn’t support the weight of her big head and mouth anymore. The lines on her face were deeper than wrinkles, more like scars.

“Wrong sister. I’m Lily,” I called back.

“Not that old bat again,” Tariq groaned. Mrs. Decarno’s eyes narrowed to slits.

“Come on, now,” said Jesse softly. “She’s an ole lady. Leave her be.”

Mrs. Decarno propelled herself into the hallway on her skinny, blue-veined legs, which were on display between the hem of her furry robe and fluffy slippers. Mr. Decarno’s fat globe of a head poked out the doorway, but his body stayed inside. The missus always had been the vicious one. “I should have known you were back, Lily,” she snapped. “That explains all the men buzzing around here like flies. Your sister is a low-life drug addict, but she’s not a prostitute like you.”

“Just a minute here…” said Jesse.

“What do you mean, ‘all the men’?” I asked.

“Him for one,” Mrs. Decarno said, jabbing a bony finger at Tariq’s chest. “I saw you over here, three days after Christmas, carrying on like a maniac. You kicked her door.”

“I hope that you enjoyed the show, madam,” Tariq commented.

Mrs. Decarno glared at Jesse. “Haven’t seen this one around in a long time, but there’ve been others. Plenty of others.”

“What others? When?” I demanded.

“There were two of them over on New Year’s Eve,” hissed Mrs. Decarno. “Obviously close friends of hers, if you know what I mean.”

“I have no idea.”

“Two men and one woman! Disgusting.” Mrs. Decarno spat out.