‘John!’ Helen gestured for him to cover his mouth.
‘Sorry, it was a loooong night.’ Inhaling her perfume — Chanel No. 5 Eau de Parfum — he meekly complied. She was wearing the Paul Smith polka-dot jacket — the one he’d splashed out on last Christmas — over a conservative pearl-coloured blouse, with a single button undone at the neck. With her hair pulled back in a ponytail and minimal make-up, he caught more than a glimpse of the girl he’d fallen for, all those years ago. I’m a lucky, lucky man, he thought, with a beautiful wife who puts up with me rolling in at all hours, looking like shit.
Catching him staring at her, she gave him a quizzical look. ‘What?’
‘Nothing,’ he smiled. ‘I was just thinking how lovely you look.’ There was nothing he would have liked better than for them to finish their breakfast and head back to bed for another kip, and maybe something else. If only. .
‘You do look very tired.’
‘I look old,’ he grumbled.
‘No, just tired.’ Reaching across the table, she ran her hand through his hair. ‘With some extra grey around the temples, perhaps.’
‘Comes with the territory.’
‘You could always go and see my guy in Berwick Street.’
‘Ha!’ Carlyle studiously avoided thinking about how much Helen spent on her Aussie hairdresser in Soho.
‘Scott is really good.’
‘You’ve got to be kidding. I’m not going to get it dyed.’
‘Okay, okay.’ His wife gave him a consoling squeeze on the arm. ‘How was it last night? What a terrible situation!’
‘It was all a bit of a mess, really.’ Explaining further what had happened, Carlyle was careful to imply that neither he nor Joe had been anywhere near poor Horatio Mosman when he departed this earth.
Listening attentively to her husband, Helen blew on her green tea before taking a cautious sip. When he had finished, she looked him carefully up and down, making it clear that she understood he was being economical with the actualite. ‘It sounds appalling even by your standards.’
‘It was fairly rough,’ Carlyle admitted, reaching for his own mug. With more than enough coffee in his system already, he had passed on his usual double macchiato and gone for a green tea like his wife. There was no way, however, he was going to pass on the outsized raisin Danish which Marcello, the cafe’s Italian owner, had placed on the table almost before they had sat down. Picking up a knife, he carefully cut the pastry into quarters. Popping one section into his mouth, he began chewing.
‘Who would want to blow up a teenage boy?’ Helen asked, nibbling on a slice of brown toast lightly covered in raspberry jam.
‘No idea.’
‘Will you catch them?’
‘No idea.’ Keen to change the subject, Carlyle gestured at the hardback book Helen had placed on the table. On the spine, the title MONEY HONEY was blocked out in capital letters. ‘Any good?’
‘So-so.’ Helen shrugged. ‘I borrowed it from someone at work.’
Carlyle grinned lasciviously. ‘Mummy porn, is it?’
‘No, no,’ Helen said. ‘It’s written by an academic who argues that women should exploit their erotic assets to get ahead.’
‘I thought they already did.’
She shot him a sharp look.
‘Joke,’ Carlyle said.
‘It’s just written to be provocative and get reviews,’ Helen told him.
‘Like that woman who wrote about her divorce?’
‘Exactly. It’s amazing how some people can generate ink.’
‘Meanwhile, writers like Lee Child get ignored by the literary snobs. After all, writing good stories and selling books — where’s the interest in that?’ Carlyle was himself a Lee Child man. He gestured once more to the book on the table. ‘So, how does one exploit one’s erotic assets then?’
‘It’s all about where you draw the line,’ Helen explained. ‘For instance, is it okay to marry a footballer for lifestyle reasons? Should prostitution be legalized?’
Prostitution is legal, Carlyle thought. Kind of.
‘Is surrogate pregnancy a legitimate source of income?’
‘Interesting questions.’
‘A lot of it is quite offensive.’
So why are you reading it then? Carlyle wondered, keeping his mouth clamped firmly shut.
‘Maybe,’ Helen sighed, ‘I’m just a prisoner of my post-feminist Puritan Anglo-Saxon antagonism to sexuality.’
He had no idea what she was talking about. ‘Good for you.’
She tapped the cover of the book. ‘I don’t think I’ll bother finishing it.’ Then after taking another sip of her tea, she asked, ‘Oh, by the way, did you read the thing in the paper about your celebrity friend?’
‘Which celebrity friend?’ Carlyle waved a hand airily. ‘I have so many.’
‘Rosanna Snowdon.’
‘Ah, yes.’
‘Marcello?’ Helen flashed the cafe-owner the kind of winning smile she no longer needed to waste on her husband. ‘Do you happen to have a copy of yesterday’s Standard?’
Behind the counter, the old man wiped his hands on a tea-towel draped over his left shoulder. ‘Probably,’ he said, ducking into the back room. A few moments later he was back, newspaper in hand.
‘Thanks.’ Helen began flicking through the pages, reading off various headlines as she did so. ‘ “Madame Tussauds forced to employ guards to prevent tourists making offensive Hitler salutes next to a waxwork of the dictator”. . It was here somewhere.’ She turned another page. ‘Ah yes, here you go. “TV presenter death. Suspect arrested for a second time”.’
Folding the newspaper in half, she placed it on the table between them. Carlyle scanned the article. The gist of it seemed to be that new, unspecified forensic evidence had convinced the Crown Prosecution Service that they could now successfully place Rosanna’s stalker, Simon Lovell, at the scene of the crime.
‘Better late than never,’ Carlyle said.
‘If they’re actually right this time.’
‘Of course.’ He finished reading the article. Rosanna’s parents themselves had declined to comment but Lovell’s current lawyer — an ambulance-chaser by the name of Nigel Bradfield — was talking a good game.
‘The police and the CPS should be focused on trying to catch the real killer of Rosanna Snowdon,’ Bradfield was quoted as saying. ‘This attempt to railroad my client does not help anyone, including Rosanna’s family. The previous trial was stopped almost even before it had begun. This time we may well not even get to court. Simon Lovell has already been a victim of this investigation. His chances of a normal life have been severely diminished and we will be seeking substantial compensation in due course.’
‘Lovell did it, didn’t he?’ Helen asked once he’d finished reading the piece.
Carlyle placed the newspaper at the far end of the table. ‘No idea. You have to assume so. The CPS is very risk-averse, so I can’t believe they would come back for a second go at this guy if they weren’t supremely confident. I just hope they’ve got it right. Apart from anything else, it would be very cruel to get her parents’ hopes up again after all this time.’ He popped another quarter of the Danish into his mouth and washed it down with some more green tea.
Helen smiled. ‘It’s good, the way you and Joe go and visit them from time to time.’
‘It’s not a big deal,’ Carlyle grunted. Just then, his mobile started vibrating in the breast pocket of his jacket. Fishing it out, he studied the screen. ‘It’s Joe.’
Waving at Marcello for the bill, he hit the receive button. ‘Morning.’ Wedging the phone between his head and shoulder, he pulled out his wallet and handed Helen a tenner. ‘Where?. . Are you there now?. . Okay, I’m only five minutes away. I’ll be right there.’
Ending the call, he jumped to his feet.
‘Problem?’ Helen asked.
‘Yeah. It’s certainly all happening today.’ Leaning across the table, he gave her a kiss on the top of her head, then scooped up the plate containing the remaining quarters of his pastry. ‘Marcello,’ he asked, ‘can I have a bag to put these in, please?