‘Not yet. We have to track down the babies. And then do something about the adopters. Poor devils are going to be in a terrible state.’ He stopped. ‘I wonder if it’d be OK for them to have the baby that came in yesterday with the courier? I gather Dr Kydd’s been looking after him, and he’s in reasonable shape. About a fortnight old, and not HIV positive as far as they can tell. The tests will be going on, I suppose. And if not him, there’ll be more coming in, I suspect. Interpol are doing what they can to stop the trade but they’re not likely to do it just like that. And I can’t see the authorities sending the babies back. So, offering them to the people Collinson cheated could help them. Poor sods’ll have had a bad time of it. If they’ve learned to love the babies they got it won’t be easy for them to give them up, but —’
‘But a new kitten might help,’ George finished and Gus looked uncomfortable.
‘I was afraid it’d sound like that. Anyway, it’s out of our hands. Social Services are dealing with that side of the case. I’m glad I don’t have to.’
‘Me too.’
‘Mmm,’ he said. ‘By the way, why did they die? The babies Collinson put in the places of the Chowdary, Popodopoulos and Lennon children?’
It was George’s turn to be uncomfortable. ‘It was Valium. It’s not a killer usually, of course. Generally you’d only die from Valium if a lorryload fell on you, but these were fragile babies and the heavy doses they were given to make sure they didn’t move or cry during the journey and give away their hiding place flattened them so much they died of — well, they just stopped breathing. So it was a sort of cot death. But I should have found the drug in the PM I did.’ She brooded. ‘It’s not what you’d look for, that’s the thing. And anyway, I’m not even sure I’d have been able to find it.’
‘The last thing you have to do is feel bad about what you might have missed,’ he said. ‘Like the Oxford case, ducks, if you hadn’t pressed and pushed we’d never have got anywhere. It’s your case, not ours, and you did a good job on it.’
‘Yes, Gus,’ she said in a mock cockney voice, and he flicked his fingers at his invisible hat brim and said gruffly, ‘That’s OK, babe,’ in the broadest Brooklyn twang he could manage.
Much later that night, curled up together in front of the flickering flames of her gas fire, George said sleepily, ‘Gus?’
‘Hmm?’
‘I suppose you don’t quote Shakespeare much, do you?’
‘Try me.’
‘Hamlet, Act One, Scene II. Lines seventy-two to seventy-three.’
‘Hmm. What about ‘em?’
‘Ma said it to me. Told me it’d make me feel better about her. I meant to look it up as soon as I got home but …’
He laughed softly and she felt the vibration of his chuckle through the bare skin of his chest against her cheek. ‘All my fault, with my nasty seductive ways. Arf arf, once aboard the sofa and the girl was mine! Popeye’s got nothing on me!’
‘Sofa?’ she said and it was her turn to chuckle. ‘We weren’t on it all that long.’
‘Complaining?’
‘No, I like hearthrugs. So you don’t know that bit of Hamlet?’
‘Who said I didn’t?’
‘Then what is it?’
He was silent, thinking, and then said softly, ‘“Thou know’st ‘tis common; all that lives must die, Passing through nature to eternity.”‘
She was quiet for a long time and then said simply, ‘Oh.’
He held her closer still, if that were possible. ‘It’s all right, George,’ he said. ‘I’m here, you know. And I intend to stay.’
She took a deep breath and relaxed. ‘D’you know, Gus, I rather thought you did. And I’m very glad about it. I think Ma will be too.’ And she sighed again and closed her eyes against the flicker of the flames, and fell asleep.
Table of Contents
Cover
Other Books By This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37