86

AN HOUR LATER I SWITCHED MY MOBILE BACK ON AND called Joesbury. He answered on the first ring.

‘You had better have a fucking good explanation—’

‘Shut up and listen,’ I said. ‘Or I hang up.’

No response.

‘I’m going to save you some time,’ I said. ‘I’m just outside Waterloo Station. In twenty seconds I’m going to switch the phone off, take a train and disappear. There is absolutely no point in your trying to trace me.’

A second’s silence, then, ‘Go on,’ he said.

‘My career is over,’ I said, knowing that Joesbury would be instigating the trace as I spoke and scribbling notes to colleagues to get the nearest uniform here. ‘Any talk of damage limitation is just bullshit, so let’s cut to the chase.’

‘Which is?’

‘Joanna Groves is still alive,’ I said, turning away from the traffic.

‘How the fuck—’

‘Listen! The minute I know for certain where she is, or where Llewellyn is, I will call you, so keep your phone close. Until then, the best thing you can do for her is let me get on with it.’

I could almost hear a whole bunch of expletives bursting to get out of Joesbury’s mouth. Somehow he managed to keep it together. ‘Flint, we have spent weeks searching London’s underclass,’ he said in controlled tones. ‘She isn’t living on the streets any more, you won’t find her.’

‘I don’t expect to,’ I said. ‘She’ll find me.’

A sharp hissing sound. Then the noise a chair makes when it’s being pushed roughly over the floor. ‘Lacey, you are going to get yourself killed.’

‘Least of my worries,’ I said. ‘Now, one more thing.’

‘I’m listening.’

‘When you go to my flat, you’ll find something that was delivered early this morning. It’s a rectangular package and inside is a knife. The name Mary is scratched into the edge of the blade.’

‘Jesus, fuckin—’

‘Shut up. The knife is perfectly clean. It hasn’t been used. Joanna is still alive.’

I gave him a second to think about it. Only a second, though. I really had to hang up. Already I was looking nervously up and down the street.

‘It makes no fucking sense,’ he said. ‘Why send you a weapon that hasn’t been used?’

I almost smiled at that. ‘It’s lucky you’re cute, Joesbury,’ I said, ‘because you have shit for brains. The knife is squeaky clean because I’m the one who has to use it. I have to kill Joanna.’