Roy cooked some extra food for Kaitlynn, who arrived an hour later to babysit, then he and Cleo headed into Brighton for the concert.
He had temporarily parked the shadow of Guy Batchelor in another compartment and was feeling relaxed and happy. He was looking forward to his night out with Cleo and seeing the rock band again — they had been to see them at this same venue a year ago on the recommendation of friends, when they had played their first gig in Brighton, and both of them had really liked their music.
When they walked into the Hope and Ruin pub, near the bottom of Queens Road, there was a sign up saying that the concert was delayed, and would start in approximately one hour. Grace stood with Cleo just inside the entrance for some moments, glancing around the packed room, clocking every face. He couldn’t help it, he did it every time he entered a restaurant or a bar, like many coppers. He never wanted to find he had spent an hour in a room where there was a wanted villain he had missed, nor to enter a place that was about to kick off.
He bought a glass of Chardonnay for Cleo and a pint of Guinness for himself and they found a small, free table at the back of the packed downstairs bar. One chair was against the wall, the other facing it.
‘Which would you like, darling?’ he asked.
She took the one facing the wall. ‘I think you’re going to want the policeman’s chair, aren’t you?’
She was right, she knew him too well. He grinned, setting their glasses down and squeezing behind the table. He was never comfortable sitting with his back to a crowded room.
He raised his glass and chinked against hers. ‘Cheers, darling.’
‘Cheers. Quite a treat to have you for a whole afternoon and evening as well!’ She looked genuinely happy. ‘You haven’t told me how it was, climbing up that ladder. I don’t know how you did it.’
He shrugged.
‘Weren’t you scared? You hate heights.’
He sipped his beer. ‘You know, it’s a funny thing, I’ve talked to many colleagues over the years. At some point in their career, almost every police officer is going to be in a situation where his or her life is in danger. Your training just kicks in and you don’t think about it at the time. It’s only afterwards, when it’s over. That’s when you think, Shit, what the hell did I do that for? But you know what you did it for. You did it because that’s what you signed up to do.’
‘At some point in their career?’
‘Uh-huh.’
‘You’ve been in danger more than once, my love. Every time you leave home I worry about you, wondering what your day will bring.’
‘Both of us do a tough job. You are dealing with dead bodies all day long. Some of them pretty gruesome. But you cope.’
‘There’s a big difference, Roy. I respect the dead, but they don’t pose any threat to me. You are dealing with dangerous people all the time. Even one of your most trusted colleagues turns out to be dangerous. You’ve got two children now, dependent on you. I know I’m never going to change you, and I wouldn’t ever want to. I understand you’re a decent man doing your best. I just don’t ever want you to be a dead hero. You know what would be my worst nightmare?’
‘No.’
‘You arriving in the mortuary for a postmortem.’
He tapped his chest. ‘Probably mine too.’
‘I’ll drink to that.’
He raised his glass.
114
Sunday 1 May
Kaitlynn settled down in front of the television, with a small tub of pistachio ice cream Cleo had left her, and began channel surfing. An hour later, watching an old episode of Californication — one of her favourites — she heard Noah crying on the monitor. Then his cries turned to screams.
She paused the television and hurried upstairs, but the screams died down, almost as suddenly as they had started. Entering Noah’s bedroom, she was surprised to see Bruno in there, cradling his little half-brother in his arms. He turned and gave Kaitlynn a smile.
‘He’s OK! I think he was having a bad dream, perhaps. Do babies have bad dreams?’
‘I don’t remember,’ she said with a grin. ‘I was too young.’
He gave her a quizzical look, as if trying to work that one out. Then he said, looking very serious, ‘I think I was also too young to remember. But he is OK now.’ Looking down with a loving smile, he said, ‘You’re OK, Noah, aren’t you? Yes, yes you are!’
Noah giggled.
‘Want me to take him?’ she asked.
Bruno raised a finger to his lips. ‘I will put him back in his cot. Let’s see. Maybe he goes to sleep again.’
She stood and watched as Bruno laid him tenderly down, and pulled his knitted blanket over him. Noah put his thumb in his mouth and closed his eyes.
‘Magic!’ she said.
‘I don’t think so,’ Bruno replied. ‘But he’s fine now, he’s OK.’
They both walked to the door. ‘You seem to have an amazingly calming effect on him, Bruno,’ Kaitlynn said quietly.
‘Maybe. Perhaps.’ He turned the dial, dimming the light in the room low. Then they both went out.
A few minutes later, as Noah slept, a spider with a two-inch span crept slowly up the inside of the cot. It had a brown, shiny abdomen, and a white marking that looked a little like a skull. There had recently been an invasion of them due to the milder climate. It was a Noble False Widow, the most poisonous spider in the UK.
But fortunately for Noah, its bite is seldom fatal. And it would only bite if attacked.
Noah slept on, oblivious to the creature.
115
Sunday 1 May
Grace and Cleo stood in the rammed upstairs room. Against the backdrop of a huge Jack Daniel’s sign, the musicians were playing a crowd-pleaser. The whole room swayed to the rhythm of the song, ‘Furr’.
Roy had his arm round Cleo. They both sang along to the lyrics.
‘When suddenly a girl, with skin the colour of a pearl,
Wandered aimlessly, but she didn’t seem to see,
She was listenin’ for the angels, just like me.’
He kissed her on the cheek and she squeezed him back hard.
These were the moments, he thought. Listening to great music, with the person you loved, surrounded by happy people all enjoying the same thing, the same feeling.
The moments when you forgot about all the evil that was out there in this city and in the world beyond.
He was thinking about an interview he had read with Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon. The astronaut had said that looking down at Earth, just an incredibly beautiful sight, it was almost impossible to imagine or understand all the evil deeds that happened on that planet. Why couldn’t everyone just enjoy it?
Then he felt his phone vibrating in his pocket.
Still with an arm round Cleo, he pulled it out and peered at the display. There was a text message from Glenn Branson, whom he had this morning appointed his deputy SIO.
Call me as soon as you can, Roy, it’s urgent.
Tempted to ignore it, he jammed the phone back in his pocket. Then, moments later, he felt it vibrating again. This time it was ringing. He pulled it out again, signalled an apology to Cleo and squeezed through the crowd to the back of the room, putting the phone to his ear.
‘Roy Grace,’ he answered.
But the sound of the music was too loud to hear anything.
‘Hold on a sec!’ he said.
He hurried downstairs, through the bar and out onto the street. ‘Sorry about that!’