Elizabeth George - A Suitable Vengeance

'So you do think Roderick's involved?'

'Not necessarily. Probably not at all. But he could inadvertently give the word to someone who is. Why phone him and allow for that chance?'

Lynley spoke as if he hadn't heard St James' words. 'If he is, St James, if he is…' He turned the Bentley right, into the Fulham Road. They passed the dress shops and antique dealers, the bistros and restaurants of trendy London where the streets were peopled by fashionably dressed shoppers and trim-looking matrons on their way to rendezvous.

'We don't have all the facts yet, Tommy. There's no sense in tormenting yourself about it now.'

Again, St James' words seemed to make no difference. 'It would destroy my mother,' Lynley said.

They drove on to Paddington. Deborah met them in the small lobby of the Shrewsbury Court Apartments where she had apparently been waiting for them, pacing back and forth across the black and white tiles. She pulled the door open before they'd had a chance to ring the bell.

'Dad phoned to tell me you were on your way. Tommy, are you all right? Dad said there's still been no sign of Peter.'

Lynley's response was to say her name like a sigh. He drew her to him. 'What a mess this weekend's been for you. I'm sorry, Deb.'

'If s all right. It's nothing.'

St James looked past them. The sign concierge on a nearby door was done in calligraphy, he noted. But the hand was inexpert and the dot above the i had blurred and become a part of the second c. He examined this, considered this – each letter, each detail – keeping his eyes fastened to the sign until Deborah spoke.

'Helen's waiting up above.' She moved with Lynley towards the lift.

They found Lady Helen on the telephone in Deborah's flat. She was saying nothing, merely listening, and from her look in his direction and the expression on her face when she replaced the receiver St James realized whom she had been trying to reach. 'Sidney?' he asked her.

'I can't find her, Simon. Her agency gave me a list of names, friends of hers. But no-one's heard a word. I just tried her flat again. Nothing. I've phoned your mother as well, but there's no answer there. Shall I keep trying her?'

Cold prickling ran its way down St James' spine. 'No. She'll only worry.'

Lady Helen spoke again. 'I've begun to think about Justin Brooke's death.'

She didn't need to say more. St James' own thoughts had made that same leap forward the moment she told him that his sister had still not turned up. Again, he cursed himself for allowing Sidney to leave Cornwall alone. If she had walked into danger, if she was hurt in any way… He felt the fingers of his right hand dig into his palm. He forced them to relax.

'Has Tina Cogin returned?'

'Not yet.'

'Then, perhaps we ought to make certain about the key.' He looked at Lynley. 'Have you brought them?'

'Brought them?' Lady Helen asked blankly.

'Harry Cambrey's managed to get us Mick's set of keys from Boscowan,' Lynley explained. 'We wanted to see if one of them might unlock Tina's door.'

He kept them in suspense only as long as it took to get to the next flat, to insert and turn the proper key in the lock. He swung the door open. They walked inside.

'All right. He had his own key,' Lady Helen said. 'But, really, Tommy, where does that get us? It can't be a surprise. We already knew he'd been here. Deborah told us that. So all we know beyond that fact is that he was special enough to Tina Cogin to merit a key to her door.'

'It changes the nature of their relationship, Helen. This obviously isn't a call girl and her client. Prostitutes don't generally give out their keys.'

From his position near the tiny kitchen, St James was scrutinizing the room. Its furnishings were expensive, but they told little about the inhabitant. And there were no personal objects on display: no photographs, no mementoes, no collection of any kind. Indeed, the entire bed-sitting room had the look of having been put together by a decorator for a hotel. He walked to the desk.

The red light of the answering machine was blinking, indicating a message. He pushed the button. A man's voice said, 'Colin Sage. I'm phoning about the advert,' and he gave a number for a return call. A second message was much the same. St James wrote down the numbers and gave them to Lady Helen.

'An advertisement?' she asked. 'That can't be how she makes her arrangements.'

'You said there was a savings book?' St James replied.

Deborah came to his side. 'Here,' she said. 'There's this as well.'

From a drawer she took both the savings book and a manila folder. He looked at the latter first, frowning down at the neatly typed list of names and addresses. Mostly London. The furthest was Brighton. Behind him, he heard Lynley going through the chest of drawers.

'What is this?' Meditatively St James asked the question of himself, but Deborah replied.

'We thought of clients at first. But, of course, that can't be. There are women on the list. And, even if there weren't any women at all, it's hard to imagine anyone managing to…' She hesitated. St James looked up. Her cheeks had coloured.

'Service this many men?' he asked.

'Well, of course, she's indicated on the tab that they're just prospects, hasn't she? So at first we thought that she was using the list to… before we actually opened up the file and saw… I mean, how exactly would a prostitute build up a clientele? Through word of mouth?' Her colour deepened. 'Lord. Is that a dreadful sort of pun?'

He chuckled at the question. 'What did you imagine she was doing with this list – sending out brochures?'

Deborah gave a rueful laugh. 'I'm hopeless at this sort of thing. A hundred clues shrieking to be noticed, and I can't make sense of a single one.'

'I thought you'd decided she wasn't a prostitute. I thought we'd all decided that.'

'It's just something about the way she talked and her appearance.'

'Perhaps we can let go of whatever her appearance might have suggested,' Lynley said.

Across the room, he stood at the wardrobe with Lady Helen at his side. He had taken down the four hatboxes from the top shelf, had opened and placed them on the floor in a line. He was bending over one of these, separating the folds of white tissue paper. From the centre of the nest which the paper created, he withdrew a wig. Long black hair, wispy fringe. He balanced it on his fist.

Deborah gaped at it. Lady Helen sighed.

'Wonderful,' she said. 'The woman actually wears a wig! So what little we know of her – not to mention Deborah's description – must be virtually meaningless. She's a chimera, isn't she? False fingernails. False hair.' She glanced at the chest of drawers. Something seemed to occur to her, for she went to them, pulled one open, and fingered through the undergarments. She held up a black brassiere. 'False everything else.'

St James joined them. He took the wig from Lynley and carried it to the window where he opened the curtains and held it under the natural light. The texture told him that the hair was real.

'Did you know she wore a wig, Deb?' Lynley asked.

'No, of course not. How could I have known?'

'It's a high-quality piece,' St James said. 'You'd have no cause to think it a wig.' He examined it closely, running his fingers across the inner webbing. As he did so, a hair came loose – not one of those which comprised the wig, but another shorter hair that had detached itself from the wearer, becoming caught up in the webbing. St James plucked it completely free, held it up to the light, and handed the wig back to Lynley.

'What is it, Simon?' Lady Helen asked.

He didn't reply at once. Instead, he stared at the single hair between his fingers, realizing what it had to imply and coming to terms with what that implication had to mean. There was only one explanation that made any sense, only one explanation that accounted for Tina Cogin's disappearance. Still, he took a moment to test his theory.