Rose was about to call for a cab when the doorbell rang. It was almost nine o’clock. Joshua looked edgy and told Rose to stay where she was and he went downstairs. She saw him put the chain on and open the door slowly. He had an exchange with someone then he took the chain off and pulled the door back. Rose saw the detective from Brewster Road, Wendy Clarke, standing at the bottom of the stairs. She was pointing to Joshua’s bandaged ear and asking him what had happened. Rose had recognised her at once even though she looked very different to when she’d seen her more than a week before. Her ginger hair was loose and looked frizzy and she had a long raincoat on over a suit that made her look like a businesswoman. She came up the stairs talking all the time about local gangs and the dangers of being a young man on the streets of London at night. She puffed when she got to the top, out of breath. ‘Rose here as well,’ she said. ‘That’s a stroke of luck. I wanted to see you both and I was passing by so I thought I’d have a word with Joshua and here you are too.
