“She used to live here. In Leeds. She was on her holidays with her family in Blackpool when the assault took place.”

“What does she say?”

“That Caxton and another man raped her in a hotel room.”

“How did they get her there?”

Banks explained as best he could to Blackstone what Linda Palmer had told him. “She’s not clear on everything,” he added. “It was a long time ago.”

“You’re telling me.”

“She says she reported it when the family got back home. Here. Her mother went to the police station with her.”

“That would’ve been Brotherton House, back then. Top end of the Headrow.”

“I know,” said Banks. “There’s got to be paperwork somewhere, Ken. That’s the first thing we need to track down. Proof that she reported what happened, proof that nothing was followed up.”

“Might be tougher than you think. The paper trail might be somewhere, maybe. But the question is, where?”

Banks sipped some more beer. It tasted good but didn’t do a lot to slake his thirst. Maybe he should have asked for a pint of chilled lager on a day like this. “Computers?”

“I’m not sure anything that far back has been entered. In fact, it most likely hasn’t been. Let me look into it. I know a good archivist. It’ll give me an excuse to ask her out for lunch or something.”

“Always happy to be of help in the romance department.”

“And what about you?”

“What about me?”

“You know. The love life.”

“What love life?”

“Like that, is it? I thought you had a lovely young girlfriend. Italian, isn’t she?”

“I did. Oriana. It just didn’t work out, that’s all. She was too young. Then either she was too busy or I was. You know the sort of thing. There was never any talk about . . . you know . . . any commitment or anything. We had fun, that’s all.”

“So no pain?”

“I wouldn’t quite say that. I listened to Blood on the Tracks and The Boatman’s Call a few too many times after she left. Drank a bit too much Laphroaig. Felt sorry for myself. But did I slit my wrists? No.”

“With me it’s always In the Wee Small Hours and Macallan eighteen-year-old.”

“Yeah, that’s a good combination, too. I always said you had class.”

“So there’s nothing new on the horizon?”

“Not so far as I can see.”

Blackstone gestured to Banks’s almost empty glass. “Another?”