Elder had seen it once, Othello. When he was in the sixth form. The Grand in Leeds. A matinee. He could remember the teacher forever shushing them, then reading the riot act when they got back to the coach; remember the name of the girl he'd sat next to but not a lot about the play. Desdemona? A handkerchief?

'Wait, wait,' Karen said. 'Titus Andronicus.'

'Who?'

She laughed. 'I don't know. I just know there was a lot of blood.'

Stanley Turrentine seemed to have come to an end. It was comfortably quiet.

'I'm sorry about the other night,' Karen said after a while.

'The other night?'

'At your place. You must have thought I was being a bit of a tease.'

'No.'

'You didn't think I was coming on to you and then backing off?'

'I didn't think you were coming on to me at all.'

Karen threw back her head and laughed. 'God! I must be losing my touch.'

'No, it's me. Forgetting how to read the signs.'

'A little rusty?'

'Something like that.'

'Well,' she picked up the bottle of Scotch and tipped some into his glass, 'what you need is a little lubrication.' And then, aghast, 'I can't believe I just said that.'

'You didn't.'

'No, you're right.'

But he was smiling, smiling with his eyes, and though she wasn't certain, having got this far, she kissed him anyway. Once would have been okay, acceptable, within the limits of the situation, a point of some return, but it was more than once: his mouth, his neck, his cheek, his eyes. His hands on her body, her back, her thighs, her breasts. She pulled him towards her from the chair on to the floor. Oh God, they weren't going to do it on the floor? His fingers warm across her shoulder blades, his leg between hers. Some part of her mind flashing warnings. Her diaphragm was in its box in the bathroom, no condoms, and the chances of his having one were less than nil. As his thumb brushed her nipple she repositioned herself. Buttons and zips. She unbuckled his belt. Salt and sour in her mouth. Grabbing one of the cushions from the settee she raised herself up and touched herself between her legs. He kissed her there and there. Her heels drumming on his spine. If screams could only wake the dead.

Afterwards, they lay side by side. Somehow Karen had contrived to turn the music back on again. 'More Than You Know'. Elder was amazed at the colours of her skin, everything from dark chocolate to iron grey.

'I'm going to have a shower,' Karen said eventually, scrambling to her feet.

Elder lay there wondering what the time was, whether he'd be expected to stay the night. Whether he wanted to.

She came back five minutes later wearing a cotton robe, glass of water in hand, broad smile on her face.

'What?' Elder said.

'Wasn't so long ago, I could have got dressed up, really fit, put on my face, got myself down to the Funky Buddha, Sugar Reef, Chinawhite. Pulled some rising rap star or a brace of Premiership wannabes. And what do I end up with?' She laughed. 'Tired white meat.'

'Thanks. Thanks a lot.'

'My pleasure.'

'You've got a mouth on you, you know that.'

'You should know.'

Elder shook his head. 'Look, I should go.'

'Okay. You need a hand up off the floor?'

He looked at her to see if she were being serious and couldn't tell. When he was in the shower his mobile rang and Karen answered it.

'Here,' she said, handing it to him as, water off, he reached his hand around the shower curtain. 'A woman. Young.'

He knew it was Katherine before he heard her voice. 'Dad. I need to see you. It's important.'

'What about?'

'When I see you, okay?'

'All right, but I'm not sure when -'

'Dad, if it weren't urgent, I wouldn't have asked.'

He knew it was true.

'Tomorrow morning then,' Elder said. 'Nine thirty, ten?'

'Make it ten. The Castle. I'll meet you in the grounds.'

'Katherine -'

'Tomorrow.' And she finished the call.

'Trouble?' Karen asked once he was dressed. She was in the process of making coffee.

'I've got to go up to Nottingham tomorrow. My daughter again. I'll be back down as soon as I can.'

'Don't worry. We'll keep after Kennet. See if we can't trace this Jane Forest. Meantime, it's my turn to call you a cab, okay?'

Elder nodded. 'Okay.'

She kissed him at the door, nothing lingering. 'Not so tired,' she said, grinning. 'Just very white.'

37

It was a peerless winter's day. Elder had considered driving, but in the end had opted for the train. Not so much over an hour and a half, an hour and forty minutes, and he was in the centre of the city, walking past the canal and then the bus station, one edge of the Broad Marsh Centre taking him on to Lister Gate, Castle Gate and Maid Marian Way. The Castle sat on rock, not a child's idea of a castle with turrets and narrow windows and now-crumbling arches, the castle of Robin Hood and King John, sword fights and bows and arrows, but something more recent, more four-square and municipal.

The grounds were as neat and cared for as Elder remembered, the earth in the flower-beds newly turned, the wood of the bandstand looking as if it might have been given a fresh lick of paint, or maybe that was just the untrammelled winter sun, pale but warm enough to lift the chill.

Katherine was standing by the lower wall, leaning against the parapet, staring out. She turned her head as Elder approached, what looked like a man's fleece zipped up almost to the neck, trainers, baggy jeans.

Elder hesitated, bent to kiss her cheek and, as she turned her head aside, kissed the ragged crop of her hair instead.

'Not a bad morning,' he said, needing something to say. 'Nice coming up on the train. Bright, you know. Quick too. No sooner've you glanced at the paper, had a cup of that dreadful tea, than you're here.'

He was babbling.

There were the same dark patches around her eyes that he'd noticed before. The oversized fleece made her look undernourished and small. Unwell. Not so much more than a year ago she'd been running for her county, she'd been… He stopped himself, stopped the thought.

'Last night,' he said. 'You sounded worried.'

'Yeah, well… Let's walk. Can we just walk?'

They set off slowly along the path that would wind them, eventually, up to the Castle itself.

'You've got to promise me,' Katherine eventually began.

'Promise what?'

'You've just got to promise, that's all.'

'What?'

'That you won't snap your rag, get angry. Just let me… let me finish, okay?'

'All right.'

It was a while more before she began again. 'When you came up before, the heroin, it was Rob's, you were right. Well, not his exactly, he was holding it for someone. No, wait, wait. Remember what you said. Calm down, okay? Chill.' Katherine stopped, head down, arms hanging loose by her sides. 'I knew this was a bad idea.'

'No, it's fine,' Elder said. 'Go on, go on.'

They set off again, walking slowly.

'It was my fault, really stupid, if I'd kept my mouth shut we'd have got away with it, nothing would have happened. But once we were at the station and that bastard from the drug squad got involved…'

'Bland?'

'Yes. Him. He'd been on Rob's case for ages, picking him up for this and that, you know, threatening him. How they were going to find him with this huge stash in his possession, get him sent down for a long time. Never actually doing anything – I mean, he could have arrested him plenty of times for little things, but all he ever did was keep on needling him.'

Katherine stopped on the curve of the bend, looking back down towards the gate and over the town.

'Then, after last time, when you came round, he was there a few days later, half-six in the morning, him and some pal of his…'