’.
‘I’ll come up and check on you in a few minutes.’
‘But it’s still there, Mummy, under the picture.’
‘I know, but you can’t see it, can you?’
‘I can in my thinking voice.’
‘Oh, yes.’ And short of repainting the whole flipping room there’s nothing I can do about it. It’ll be there for years so you’d better just get used to the idea. ‘Now I’m going downstairs and I’ll come up and check on you soon.’ I tried not to snap.
‘When?’
‘In a few minutes.’
‘How many?’
Count to ten. ‘Fifteen minutes.’
‘Fifteen minutes?’ Horrified. ‘That’s ages!’
‘OK, five.’ There was no clock in her room so she’d not catch me out. I half-expected her to reappear but she didn’t, and gradually I relaxed again as Ray and I continued to discuss the party plans. When I went up an hour later she was fast asleep on the floor beside her bed. Presumably Blu-Tack witches have less power at floor level.
Luke’s solicitor, Dermott Pitt, had his practice in town off Deansgate, a few minutes’ walk from the Metro station. It was far enough from the centre of the blast to have escaped damage. The renovated townhouses were all shiny wrought-iron railings and brass plaques, but inside there wasn’t room to swing a cat.
Dermott Pitt had been able to fit me in between ten thirty and eleven – or, as his secretary put it, ‘He has a ten-thirty window.’ She’d been watching too many American television imports.
He and I sat either side of a solid dark wood desk with a leather blotter. The desk was far too big for the room. A ceiling fan turned slowly and silently above us.
‘Ms Kilkenny,’ he used the prefix effortlessly, ‘you’ve been retained by Mr Victor Wallace to carry out investigations into the death of Ahktar Khan. Yes?’
‘That’s right.’
‘You realise that I represent Luke Wallace and only Luke Wallace. He is my client, not his friends nor his family nor his next-door neighbour.’ He stretched his lips in a parody of a smile. ‘So?’ he challenged me.
‘Yes, I realise that but I took the trouble to ask Luke for his agreement that I talk to you, and I established that he would be happy for you to disclose any relevant details about the case. In confidence, of course.’
He looked a little sick. ‘We have, as I’m sure you are aware, made our own extensive enquiries,’ he stalled, ‘and I believe we have built up the best possible defence for my client. However…’ he spread his hands. If I wished to waste everyone’s time like this…
