Blue Genes - By Val McDermid Page 0,54

to think they're weak, you know? But the word on the street is that I'm not the only one suffering."

"But none of the other bands are getting the kind of shit we're getting," Dan interjected. God knows how he managed to follow the conversation. He must have trained as a lip-reader. "I've been asking around. Plenty other people have had some of their posters covered up, but nobody's had the aggravation we've had."

"Yeah, well, it's nothing to do with me, okay?" Costigan retorted aggressively.

There didn't seem to be anything else to say. I told Dan and Lice I'd be in touch, drained my drink, and walked home staring at every poster I passed, wondering what the hell was going on.

I dragged my feet up the stairs to the office just after quarter past nine the next morning. I felt as if I were four¬teen again, Monday morning before double Latin. I'd lain staring at the ceiling, trying to think of good excuses for not going in, but none of the ones that presented them¬selves convinced either me or Richard, which gave them no chance against Shelley or Bill.

I needn't have worried. There was news waiting that took Bill off the front page for a while. I walked in to find Josh Gilbert perched on the edge of Shelley's desk, one elegantly trousered leg crossed casually over the other. I could have paid my mortgage for a couple of months eas¬ily with what the suit had cost. Throw in the shirt, tie, and shoes and we'd be looking at the utility bills too. Josh is a financial consultant who has managed to surf every wave and trough of the volatile economy and somehow come out so far ahead of the field that I keep expecting the Serious Fraud Office to feel his collar. Josh and I have a deal; he gives me information, I buy him expensive din¬ners. In these days of computerization, it would be cheaper to pay Gizmo for the same stuff, but a lot less entertaining. Computers don't gossip. Yet.

Shelley was looking up at Josh with that mixture of wariness and amusement she reserves for born womaniz¬ers. When he saw me, he broke off the tale he was in the middle of and jumped to his feet. "Kate!" he exclaimed, stepping forward and sweeping me into a chaste embrace.

I air-kissed each cheek and stepped clear. The older he got, the more his resemblance to Robert Redford seemed to grow. It was disconcerting, as if Hollywood had invaded reality. Even his eyes seemed bluer. You didn't have to be a private eye to suspect tinted contacts. "I don't mean to sound rude," I said, "but what are you doing here at this time of the morning? Shouldn't you be blinding some poor innocent with science about the latest fluctua¬tions of the Nikkei? Or persuading some lucky lottery winner that their money is safe in your hands?"

"Those days are behind me," he said.

"Meaning?"

"I am thirty-nine years and fifty weeks old today."

I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. Ever since I've known him Josh has boasted of his intention to retire to some tax haven when he was forty. Part of me had always taken this with a pinch of salt. I don't move in the sorts of circles where people amass the kinds of readies to make that a realistic possibility. I should have realized he meant it; Josh will bullshit till the end of time about women, but he's never less than one hundred percent serious about money. "Ah," I said.

"Josh has come to invite us to his fortieth birthday and retirement party." Shelley confirmed my bleak fear with a sympathetic look.

"Selling up and selling out, eh?" I said.

"Not as such," Josh said languidly, returning to his perch on Shelley's desk. "I'm not actually selling the con¬sultancy. Julia's learned enough from me to run the busi¬ness, and I'm not abandoning her entirely. I might be going to live on Grand Cayman, but with fax machines and e-mail, she'll feel as though I've only moved a few miles away."

"Only if you don't have conversations about the weather," I said. "You'll get bored, Josh. Nothing to do all day but play."

The smile crinkled the skin around his eyes, and he gave me the look Redford reserves for Debra Winger in Legal Eagles. "How could I be bored when there are still beautiful women on the planet I haven't met?"

I heard the door open behind me and Bill's voice said, "Are