FORTY-ONE
Jack spoke with Michael and Winders to say he was expecting someone who he would prefer to meet on his own. They said they would go to the pictures and telephoned Mandy when they were away from the house. She reassured them he was okay, and suggested they come back to her flat for dinner; it was time she cooked, and this seemed to satisfy them.
Jack picked up a book he’d been trying to read since May, when the intensity with Mandy and the developing cases started. He loved reading, but was slow. He sat down in the armchair beside the large Georgian paned, sash window, to the front of his house, opened the book to the marked page, read a paragraph and was asleep; he was only half acting. He woke with a start. Len was tapping the window, gently, to wake him. Rubbing his eye, he a
