finally going to do something about him?" was the last they heard from her as they shut the door behind them.
Inside the flat, the windows were open, but as there was no cross ventilation, their gaping apertures did nothing to mitigate the temperature. The place itself was, remarkably, not a pigsty, as Isabelle had been expecting. There was a suspicious white layer upon nearly everything, but this turned out to be plaster dust, as they discovered that D. W. Kay was a plasterer by trade, and he'd been setting out to work when they'd rung the buzzer.
Isabelle told him they needed a word with his son, and she asked Marlon how old he was.
Marlon said sixteen, and he winced, as if anticipating that his age was cause for corporal punishment. Isabelle sighed. What his age was cause for was the presence of an adult who was not police, preferably a parent, which meant that they were going to have to question the boy either in the presence of his glowering and explosive father or with a social worker.
She looked at Lynley. Appropriately, his expression said it was her call, as she was his superior. She said to the boy's father, "We're going to have to question Marlon about the cemetery. I take it you know that there's been a murder there, Mr. Kay?"
The man's face became inflamed. His eyes bulged. He was, Isabelle thought, a massive stroke waiting to happen. She went on. "We can question him here or at the local nick. If we do it here, you'll be required not only to keep quiet but also to keep your hands off this boy from now until eternity occurs. If you do not, you'll be arrested at once. One phone call from him, from a neighbour, from anyone, and in you go. A week, a month, a year, ten years. I can't tell you what the judge will throw at you, but I can tell that what I just witnessed below is something that I will testify to. And I expect your neighbours will be happy to do likewise. Am I being clear or do you require further elucidation on this topic?"
He nodded. He shook his head. Isabelle assumed he was answering both questions and said, "Very well. Sit down and keep quiet."
He skulked to a grey sofa, which was part of a sad-looking three-piece suite of a sort Isabelle hadn't seen in years, complete with a tasseled fringe. He sat. Round him, plaster dust rose in a cloud. Lynley deposited Marlon in one of the two chairs and himself went to the window where he remained standing, resting against the sill.
Everything in the room faced a huge flat-screen television, which was featuring a cooking programme at the moment although the sound was muted. A remote lay beneath it, and Isabelle picked this up and switched the set off, which, for some reason, caused Marlon to whimper once again, as if a lifeline had been cut. His father curled a lip at him. Isabelle shot him a look. The man rearranged his features. She nodded sharply and went to sit in the other armchair, dusty like everything else.
She told Marlon the bare facts: He'd been seen emerging from the shelter next to the ruined chapel inside the cemetery. Within that shelter, a young woman's body had been found. A magazine with one person's fingerprints on it had been dropped in the vicinity of that body. An e-fit had been generated by the persons who'd seen him coming out of that shelter, and should an identity parade be needed, there was little doubt that he'd be picked from it, although because of his age, they'd likely use photographs and not require him to stand in a line. Did he want to talk about any of this?
The boy began to blub. His father rolled his eyes but said nothing.
"Marlon?" Isabelle prompted.
He sniveled and said, "It's only cos I hate school. They bully me. It's cos my bum's like ...It's big, innit, an' they make fun and it's allas been tha' way an' I hate it. So I won't go. I got to leave here, though, don't I, so I go there."
"Into the cemetery rather than to school?"
"Tha's it, innit."
"It's summer holidays," Lynley pointed out.
"I'm talkin 'bout school time, innit," Marlon said. "Now I go th' cemetery cos tha's what I do. Nuffink else round here and I don't got friends, do I."