Private London (Private 4)

I hauled him upright. ‘Lead on, MacDuff.’

At the end of the corridor we entered a living room much like the one where we had just been. Only this one was littered with the kind of detritus you would expect from a bunch of male students.

Tim Graham was making a show of looking for the key to his bedroom door. Patting his pockets. I raised my right leg and kicked the door off its hinges.

‘Jesus,’ he said. ‘Who are you people?’

I pushed him inside.

Suzy followed us in, wrinkling her nose. ‘For Christ’s sake, Tim, you ever think of opening a window sometimes?’ she said and crossed to do just that.

I was glad she did. If the outer room was a mess, this was a midden. I pushed the student onto his unmade bed and started going through his chest of drawers. Third drawer down I found what I was looking for.

Chapter 91

‘STUDYING TO BE a pharmacist?’ I asked.

‘Media studies, actually,’ Tim Graham replied petulantly and Suzy slapped him around the head.

‘What was that for?’

‘If there’s one thing I hate more than students,’ she said, ‘it’s bloody media-studies students.’

I tipped the contents of the drawer over him. Folded packets of paper. Bags of dope. Lumps of resin. Bottles of pills. I guess Tim Graham was your go-to guy on campus for recreational chemicals.

‘You don’t know who you’re dealing with,’ he said angrily.

‘Are you threatening me again, Tim?’

‘It’s not me you have to worry about.’

I knew who he was talking about. I’d get to him later. I picked up a DVD that had landed on the floor and put it in my pocket.

‘You got no right to take anything.’

‘You want to wait here with him, Suzy, while I phone this through to the police?’ I said.

‘No. Don’t do this, man. We can work something out.’

Man? Was he living in the 1960s?

‘Start talking.’

‘It was all supposed to be a joke.’

‘Some joke.’

‘Well, not a joke. Payback for Hannah’s old man. She was always ragging on about him. We were just going to wind him up. You know?’

‘I haven’t got the faintest idea.’

‘Laura asked me to get some of the guys to help.’

‘And you just went along with it.’

‘Laura said she’d make it worth my while, you know what I mean.’

He gave me a conspiratorial nod. I felt like smashing my fist into his face.