tea and stood at the window gazing across the street. The sun was shining, glinting off the polished windows of the houses opposite. Tiny wrought-iron balconies bore potted plants, and well-tended window boxes abounded. Even the air seemed cleaner here in Primrose Hill. The street was lined with gleaming upmarket vehicles. A glossy fifty-something brunette in sprayed-on jeans jumped down from a black four-by-four, slung an expensive-looking bag over her shoulder, and sashayed off in the direction of the shops. A yummy mummy pushed a state-of-the-art buggy along the pavement. Further along the road, a black and gold chaise longue was being carefully unloaded from a smart bottle-green delivery van.
Ellie mentally compared this with her old street. Yesterday as she’d been in the process of moving out, she’d seen a used condom lying on the ground by the front gate. Instead of being repulsed, her initial response had been relief that someone had at least bothered to use one.
She leaned against the windowsill and admired the clean, litter-free scene. Now another van had drawn up, a tulip-pink one this time, and a vast cellophane-wrapped bouquet of lilies was being delivered to the house next to the one receiving the chaise longue.
Crikey, was she going to fit in here or would she feel awkward and out of place? What if it was too genteel and perfect?
The next moment a taxi drew up, an emerald-green front door swung open, and a blonde raced out of the house directly opposite. For a moment Ellie thought it was a skinny boy in a white T-shirt and low-slung combats, a male hairdresser perhaps, with his hair bleached silver-white and cut in a super-short, choppy crop. But no, it was a female; when the figure turned, she saw the bright red lipstick, dangling earrings, and jewel-encrusted shoulder bag. And OK, maybe that didn’t prove anything conclusively, but if it was a boy he’d have taken the trouble to stuff his bra with socks.
As Ellie watched, the girl suddenly screeched to a halt, signaled to the cab driver to wait, let herself back into the house, and reappeared twenty seconds later triumphantly waving her mobile phone and slamming the door shut behind her. Then she threw herself into the back of the cab and disappeared off up the road.
Leaving something small and glittery swinging from the lock on the front door.
Whoops.
Were the residents of Primrose Hill really as relaxed about security as those in village communities in the nineteen fifties?
Just in case they weren’t, Ellie left her coffee mug on the windowsill, fastened the tie belt on her dressing gown, ran downstairs to the ground floor, and let herself out.
Better safe than sorry.
The edges of the dressing gown flapped around a bit as she hurried across the road. The tarmac was cold beneath her bare feet. A passing teenager in a gray hoodie, having also spotted the key ring dangling from the lock, had abandoned his bike on the pavement and was heading for the emerald-green front door.
Ellie sprinted past him and snatched the keys a millisecond before he could reach them. Looked like Primrose Hill wasn’t sodifferent from Hammersmith after all. Startled, the boy blurted out, ‘I wasn’t going to do anything, honest. I’d’ve taken them to the police station.’
He was pale, spiky haired, radiating guilt.
‘Of course you were. But it’s OK, you don’t need to now.’ Flashing him a cool smile, Ellie dropped the keys into her pocket. She felt like Wonder Woman. Well, Wonder Woman in a dressing gown and with a scary case of bed hair. ‘I’ll take care of my neighbor’s keys. They’ll be safe with me.’
The boy stared at her defensively, an opportunist rather than a hardened criminal. ‘They’d’ve been safe with me too.’
‘Excellent, glad to hear it.’ She patted her pocket and turned triumphantly to cross the road. Ha, get her, less than a day in Nevis Street and already a pillar of the community! If she hadn’t intervened, the girl over the road could have come home to a furniture-free house.
There was a whoosh of tires on tarmac and the would-be burglar sped off. The two men further up the road, who’d now delivered the chaise longue, eyed her state of undress with appreciation. The younger one wolf-whistled and called out, ‘Bin sleepwalking, have you, love? ’Orrible, innit, when you wake up and find yourself out in the street.’
Ellie grinned and waved at them before letting herself back into her own flat. It wouldn’t do to start lowering the