‘Well . . .’ Now Nula was actually talking to the woman, she found she didn’t know what to say. Did you send us a psycho? No. That sounded wrong. ‘Look, Mrs Bushell, we’ve got some concerns about Harlan and what we’re wondering is, do you have any information about the kind of background he had before he went into care? That sort of thing?’

‘Oh.’ Silence again.

‘If we could have information like that . . . ?’ said Nula.

‘Well, I would have to look into my records. If I can take your number, Mrs Stone, and call you back tomorrow?’

‘You’ve probably got it on file,’ said Nula.

‘Let me take it again anyway.’

Nula reeled off the number.

‘I’ll get those details for you, Mrs Stone,’ said Mrs Bushell, and put the phone down.

Nula went over to the photostat machine and quickly took a copy of the form containing the agency’s contact details. Charlie had said it was a government agency, completely above board. Then she went out into the hall to head for the kitchen and make herself a cup of coffee. Later, she would phone up and get the desk repaired. And she would phone the agency number again, maybe check it in the Yellow Pages, make sure she had that right.

Now, she needed caffeine. She felt unsettled by the conversation she’d just had with the Bushell woman. As she was crossing the hall, she nearly tripped over Harlan, crouched near the doorway to the sitting room.

‘Shit!’ she exclaimed, startled.

Harlan looked up at her and smiled that thin smile of his.

Had he heard any of that?

Now she really was getting paranoid. Of course he hadn’t. He was absorbed in his own little world, as always.

56

Terry didn’t like this. That consignment falling prey to Customs down in Southampton? All right, if one was stopped there were still a hundred more that would get through. He knew it wasn’t a big deal. But it gave him an uneasy feeling because he had never traced it back to anyone. Someone had blown the whistle on them, and if they’d done it once, and gone undiscovered, then they could certainly do it again and possibly with greater consequences to the whole Stone operation.

No shit had stuck to them that time. They’d been lucky. But he didn’t want to risk the same thing ever happening again.

Then it did.