The traffic was dwindling, the pavements becoming less populated as they headed into the suburbs. She had no idea where they were going, and Ursula was the only person she’d confided in this time and who knew what Alice was doing.

“What else did she say?”

“She told me that you’re a good ’un.”

Alice wondered if there might be something between Joe and Elizabeth, or even between him and Olive, or if there was another reason for the apparent bond between the three of them.

“What’s he like, your boss?” she asked, her voice apprehensive as she considered the man she was about to meet.

“He’s as slippery as they come,” Joe replied, unsmiling. “But he’ll be charming. Just tell him what you told me about your friends. Don’t think about it too much or it won’t come out as natural. And the less you say the better; then there’s not so much to remember that might trip you up. He’ll ask lots of questions.”

“Will there be any children there?”

“No, of course not,” he said, looking at her as they pulled up at a traffic light. “I wouldn’t take you there.”

She thought of the newspaper descriptions of the homes with dirt and maggots, and of Eadie lying in a similarly infested crib, and her skin prickled and grew cold.

“But you know where they are . . . the houses where they keep the children before the handovers?” she said, swallowing away her emotion.

“Yes.”

The lights changed, and Joe crunched the gears before the Austin accelerated away in a cloud of exhaust, a horn blaring behind them.

“So,” Alice said, “what do you know?”

“Not much. She told me about your cousin’s baby, and that you might try to contact me.”

“You could have said so to begin with.”

“It was after we first met; besides, I’m just getting my own back,” he said and smiled.

She relaxed into the leather seat, relieved to have one less pretense. “I appreciate your help.”

“I figure if you’re prepared to show up like this, well . . . then you must be desperate.”

“If you’ve spoken to Elizabeth, then you’d know that I am. But not as much as my cousin.” Olive still didn’t know that it was her baby they were searching for, and there wasn’t any reason to change that now.

Joe’s thumbs drummed on the steering wheel as he drove, and she wondered if he too felt nervous. “I told her I don’t know where your cousin’s baby is. That’s got nothing to do with my line of work.”

They drove for another few minutes in a thoughtful silence, and Alice considered why Joe was prepared to take the risk to help.

“What exactly do you do for them?” she asked, noticing how tight his grip was on the steering wheel.