Private London (Private 4)

‘Exactly.’

‘And you know who she is now?’

‘A tip-off from a collar. Information to barter. Vice Squad alerted us. Her name is Adriana Kisslinger. Romanian. Busted back home for prostitution.’

‘And here?’

‘Working as a contract nurse. Dropped off the radar some months back. She was working at Stoke Mandeville.’

‘So Serious Crimes aren’t going away any time soon.’

‘They won’t when they find this out, no.’

‘You haven’t told them?’

‘I didn’t know, did I? Anonymous tips have to be checked out. I was just following up an old address on a possible ident. You know how it works. So what happened here, exactly?’

‘Peter Chappel had a barbecue planned for this afternoon. Came home from his shop after sorting out some paperwork. Put the wine to chill in the fridge and came out here to get the grill going.’

‘It was a gas barbecue?’

‘Range-style, three-burner. Propane gas cylinder in the metal oven. He turned the dial, pushed the ignite button. And … Boom!’

‘There was a leak?’

‘Looks that way. Like I said, we thought it was accidental.’

‘Think again,’ said Kirsty Webb.

Chapter 79

CHLOE, LAURA AND Hannah all shared a three-bed apartment in a student-accommodation block.

I nodded at the security guard we’d had placed at the entrance to the building. She wasn’t in uniform and I was discreet about it. The authorities still didn’t know that we had Hannah back safe and we wanted to keep it that way. Time enough for explanations and recriminations later.

Priority one was getting Harlan Shapiro back. His daughter’s rooms were on the ground floor. I keyed in the entrance code at the door and walked into a brightly lit warm corridor with rugs on the floor, flowers on a side table and modern artwork on either wall between the doors to the student apartments. To the right as I walked in was the students’ kitchen. Far fancier than the one I remembered from my student days.

Sitting at the table was Suzy, drinking a cup of tea, and Sam Riddel doing likewise. Herbal for him, no doubt.

I threw Suzy a slightly critical look. ‘I thought I said to stay with Hannah?’

‘She had a visitor.’

‘Laura?’

‘No.’

I knew they hadn’t let Chloe out. I had the hospital on speed-dial. With Chloe things were going well. They were talking of moving her out of intensive care. Which was good. But no way were they letting her home yet. Which was bad.

I snapped back to the present. ‘So who?’

‘Her tutor. Professor Kidman.’

I smiled, briefly. Not like Suzy to be jealous. But then I realised she wasn’t being jealous. It was a good call – the professor did look like the actress.

‘Annabelle,’ I said.

‘Annabelle?’