Nkata said, tapping his skull with his index finger.
Hillier started to say more, but then he dismissed them. Lynley made no comment till they were out of the office, beyond Hillier's secretary, and crossing to Victoria Block. Then it was only, "Winston. Listen," as his footsteps slowed. "Don't do that again."
There was the pride, Nkata thought. He'd expected as much.
But then Lynley surprised him. "There's too much risk for you in taking Hillier on, even obliquely. I appreciate the loyalty, but it's more important for you to watch your back than to watch mine. He's a dangerous enemy. Don't make him into one."
"He wanted to make you look bad in front of me," Nkata said. "I don't like that. Just thought I'd return the favour and let him see how it feels."
"That presupposes the AC might think he could ever look bad in front of anyone," Lynley said wryly. They went to the lift. Lynley pushed the down button. He examined it for a moment before he went on. "On the other hand," he said, "it's a suitable irony."
"What's that, guv?"
"That in giving the rank of sergeant to you and denying it to Barbara, Hillier got more than he bargained for."
Nkata thought about this. The lift doors slid open. They entered and punched for the floors they needed. "D'you s'pose he reckoned I'd yes-guv him right to the grave?" he asked curiously.
"Yes. I think that's what he assumed."
"Why?"
"Because he has no idea who you are," Lynley replied. "But I expect that's something you've already realised."
They descended to the floor for the incident room, where Lynley got off, leaving Nkata to ride to the underground carpark. Before the doors closed upon him, however, the acting superintendent stopped them, his hand holding one of them back.
"Winston-" He didn't say anything else for a moment and Nkata waited for him to go on. When he finally did, it was to say, "Thank you all the same." He released the lift door and let it slide closed. His dark eyes met Nkata's for an instant, then were gone.
It was raining when Nkata emerged from the underground carpark. Daylight was fast fading, and the rain exacerbated the gloom. Traffic lights gleamed against the wet streets; taillights of vehicles winked in the prisms of the raindrops hitting his windscreen. Nkata worked his way over to Parliament Square and inched towards Westminster Bridge in a queue of taxis, buses, and government cars. As he crossed, the river heaved in a grey mass below him, puckered with rain and rippled by the incoming tide. There a single barge chugged its way in the direction of Lambeth, and in its wheelhouse a solitary figure kept the craft on its course.
Nkata parked illegally at the south end of Gabriel's Wharf and put a police placard in the window. Turning up the collar of his coat against the rain, he strode into the wharf area, where the overhead lights made a cheerful crisscrossing pattern above him and the owner of the bicycle rental shop was wisely wheeling his wares indoors.
At Crystal Moon, it was Gigi this time and not her grandmother who was perched on a stool, reading behind the till. Nkata approached her and showed his police identification. She didn't look at it, however. Instead, she said, "Gran told me you'd probably be back. She's good that way. A real intuitive. In another time, she'd've been done for a witch. Did the agrimony work?"
"Not sure what I'm meant to do with it."
"Is that why you're back, then?"
He shook his head. "Wanted to have a word about a bloke called Kilfoyle."
She said, "Rob?," and closed her book. It was, he saw, one of the Harry Potters. "What about Rob?"
"You know him, then?"
"Yeah." She said the word on two notes, a combination of confirmation and question. She looked wary.
"How well?"
"I'm not sure how I'm meant to take this," she said. "Has Rob done something?"
"He buy stuff here?"
"Occasionally. But so do lots of other people. What's this about?"
"What's he buy off you, then?"
"I don't know. He hasn't been in in a while. And I don't write down what people buy."
"But you know he bought something."
"Because I know him. I also know that two of the waitresses from Riviera Restaurant have made purchases as well. So have the head cook at Pizza Express and a collection of shop assistants from the wharf. But it's the same as for Rob: I don't recall what they bought. Except for the bloke at Pizza Express. He wanted