‘Javed?’
‘It’s Helen.’
‘Is everything all right?’
‘It’s fine. Listen, I wondered if you’d be able to call my sister for me? I need to know that everything’s OK with Alfie, that’s all.’
‘No problem,’ Thorne said. ‘What’s the number?’
Helen told him. ‘And tell her that I’m all right and not to worry.’
‘I’ll call you back when I’ve spoken to her,’ Thorne said. ‘Is that OK with him?’
Helen raised her head and asked Akhtar the question. He thought about it for a few seconds, then nodded. ‘It’s fine,’ she said.
They sat in silence, waiting for Thorne to call back, occasionally catching one another’s eye and smiling a little awkwardly like patients in a waiting room. Helen’s stomach rumbled loudly and Akhtar pretended not to hear.
Helen stabbed at the button the instant the phone began to ring.
‘Tom?’
‘Alfie’s fine,’ Thorne said, immediately. ‘He’s asleep now, obviously, but Jenny said he’s in top form. Giving her the runaround by the sound of it.’
Helen’s breath caught in her throat when she tried to speak. She managed to say, ‘Thanks,’ then took a few seconds. ‘Is he eating OK, did she say that? Because sometimes he’s fussy, you know?’
‘He’s fine. I promise.’
‘OK… ’
‘Probably hasn’t even noticed you’re not there,’ Thorne said. ‘You know what kids are like, right?’
Helen managed to laugh, but it felt tight in her chest. ‘Yeah, she’s probably spoiling him rotten.’
‘Course she is.’
‘Is she OK?’
‘She’s worried,’ Thorne said. ‘She’s your sister. But I told her how well you’re doing, and that you’re going to be seeing her very soon.’
‘Did she mention my dad?’
‘Yeah, he’s bearing up, she said. He’s worried too, obviously, but your sister told me she’d send him your love and tell him everything was going to be fine. Helen?’
‘Sorry, yeah… listen, thank you.’ She glanced up at Akhtar. ‘I need to go,’ she said. ‘Thank you, really. I’m sure you’ve got better things to do.’
‘I can’t think of any,’ Thorne said.
Helen laughed and this time it felt a little easier.
‘And it is going to be fine, all right, Helen? So just hold on.’
When Helen had hung up, she held the phone out for Akhtar to take. He stood for a few moments, looking up at the striplight and shaking his head, then walked across to the same cupboard from which he had dragged the camp bed and reached inside.
‘Let’s see what we can do,’ he said.
With a small cry of satisfaction, he retrieved a wooden table lamp with a torn green shade. He carried it across to the desk then fumbled underneath with an adaptor until he had managed to plug it in. As soon as he had switched the lamp on, he turned off the overhead light and considered the effect.
‘Still too bright,’ he said. Then, ‘Wait.’
He stepped across and picked up one of the cushions that Helen had discarded after Mitchell had been shot. He pulled the cover off and held it up triumphantly, as though looking for her approval. Helen watched as he tried and failed to tear it, then walked across to the desk and took a large pair of scissors from one of the drawers. When he had finished cutting the cushion cover in half, he put the scissors back then carefully draped the square of dirty brown material across the lampshade.
‘There,’ he said, making final adjustments. ‘That’s much better. Not perfect, but at least you might be able to get an hour or two’s sleep. Before, it was impossible, I know.’
‘Thanks,’ Helen said.
Akhtar went back to his camp bed and lay down. Helen still thought that the chances of sleep were slim, but the light was better, she had to admit that, softer. Diffused as it was through dirty cotton and dried blood.
THIRTY-NINE
Thorne had barely eaten a thing all day, so had made himself three pieces of cheese on toast as soon as he’d got home. Now, after finishing his conversation with Helen Weeks, he went back into the kitchen to make himself another couple.
He hoped it was a myth, the business about cheese and bad dreams.
It had been uncomfortable, lying to Helen on the phone, but it was not as if Thorne had been given a great deal of choice. Her sister’s landline had been engaged every time he’d called and she had not been answering her mobile. Having sat and eaten in front of the ten o’clock news, Thorne had a fair idea of why that might be. However much those running the operation in Tulse Hill tried to keep a lid on it, the press was persistent and had deep pockets. Leaks were all but inevitable. During the latest report ‘live from the siege’, Helen had finally been mentioned by name, and Thorne guessed that her sister was now leaving her phone off the hook in an effort to avoid the media.
He bent to check what was happening under the grill.
There would almost certainly be a fair-sized scrum of hacks and snappers on the poor woman’s doorstep by now.
So, in the end, he had said the things he felt sure he would have been saying if he had spoken to Helen’s sister. The things Helen was clearly desperate to hear. It had not been easy listening to the emotion in her voice and he had fought to keep it from his own; letting her know simply that all those she loved and who loved her would be waiting on the other side of those shutters.
Waiting, with those who loved Stephen Mitchell, and Javed Akhtar.
When it was ready, Thorne carried his supper back into the living room. He opened a can of supermarket lager and ate while flicking through the channels on the TV.
Supersize v Superskinny, Rude Tube, golf…
I’m sure you’ve got better things to do…
He called Louise.
He was thirty seconds into leaving a rambling message on her answering machine when she picked up.
‘Tom?’
‘Sorry, I was just… I thought you’d probably gone to bed.’ He waited for her to say something. ‘Are you OK?’
‘It’s late.’
‘I know,’ he said. ‘Sorry. I’m on stupid hours at the moment.’ He told her about the situation in Tulse Hill. She had been following developments on the news, but was still surprised to hear that he was involved. Thankfully, as of yet, Thorne’s name had not been mentioned.
‘I would have thought this one was right up your street,’ she said.
‘Why?’
‘Someone to catch and someone to save.’
‘Yeah, well, we’ll see about that.’
‘Chuck in a dead kid,’ she said, ‘I reckon this just about ticks all your boxes. Probably not quite enough bodies yet, but plenty of strangers to care about.’
‘Come on, Lou.’
‘What?’
‘Let’s not get into that.’
There was a long pause, then Louise apologised. She told Thorne that she was still thinking about getting out of the Job and away from London. Then, as if by way of explanation, she talked a little about the case she was working on. The kidnapping of a fourteen-year-old Romanian girl that had widened to become a major investigation into sex trafficking.
‘It’s hard to think of anything but the faces of those girls,’ she said. ‘The marks where they stubbed fags out on them.’
Thorne waited a few seconds. ‘That’s what used to piss me off,’ he said.
‘What?’
‘All that stuff about me caring, when it was always perfectly bloody obvious that you care every bit as much as I do.’
‘Yes, but I care a bit more about myself.’
‘Listen, the reason I was calling,’ he said. ‘We’ve got this hostage negotiator in Tulse Hill… ’
‘What’s his name?’
‘Her. Sue Pascoe?’
Louise hadn’t heard of her and asked if she was any good.
‘She’s fine,’ Thorne said. ‘But you’d be better. Maybe if I talked to the superintendent… ’
‘What, you think we can just arrange a job swap or something?’
‘It might be worth thinking about.’
‘Right, presuming he’d be happy for you to bring your ex-girlfriend in and the woman who’s there already would be happy to step aside, and presuming I hadn’t got anything better to do.’ It was mock-outrage, nothing more, and there was lightness in her voice. ‘Have you actually thought about this?’