“You’d better come in,” said Sinead. “Before that lot stone you to death. Albert’s in his room. Just go on up. And don’t be too hard on the lad. Remember, he’s just lost his sister.”

Annie and Gerry climbed the stairs of 14 Southam Terrace and knocked on Albert’s door. They could hear music from inside, but it was playing quietly, and Albert quickly opened the door and asked them in.

“It’s not a very big room, I’m afraid,” he said, turning the radio down, “but there’s a couple of chairs. Sit down. What is it?”

Old clothes were draped over the upright chairs, and Albert quickly scooped them up and dropped them in the laundry basket. Annie felt a bit queasy about sitting where Albert’s dirty underpants had been, but she swallowed her pride and her bile. The room was at the back of the house, so they couldn’t hear or see the crowd of neighbors and reporters, just the slate roofs of the houses across the alley. Albert had his window partially open, which was a mercy, as he was smoking. He sat close to it and the smoke curled in the air as it caught the draft, which whisked it outside.

“Is it true that you’ve got them in custody?” Albert said. “The bastards that did our Mimsy?”

“It’s true that we’re talking to some people, yes, but there’s no proof that any of them killed Mimosa yet.”

“I hope you deport them. They probably cut off people’s heads for killing people back where they come from.”

Annie sighed. “They come from Wytherton, Albert. Unless things have changed since this morning, I don’t think there’ll be any deportation or decapitation.”

“You know what I mean.” He cast a glance at Gerry’s sling. “You look as if you’ve been in the wars. What happened, trip over your truncheon?”

“Baton,” Gerry muttered. She leaned forward, as if to share a confidence. “As a matter of fact, I was set on by four lads not far from here. Asians. I think one of them was called Tariq. Know anyone by that name?”

Annie expected her to blush or offer some sort of reproof, but instead she had to congratulate her DC for knowing an opportunity when she saw one, and for seizing it.

“It figures,” said Albert. “They’re getting everywhere these days, spreading like a pestilence, like a plague of rats.”

“Tariq? Mean anything?”

“No, but I can find out for you. Want him sorted out?”

“That’s all right, thanks,” said Gerry. “We’ll deal with him.”