he'd noticed: the tips of her breasts peaking against the flannel of the pyjama top, her exposed skin the colour of walnut goose-fleshing where the top formed a V. As best he could, Nkata avoided looking at the vulnerable parts of her that were open to the winter air, but still he could see the smooth and stately curve of her neck, the mole he'd never noticed before, beneath her right ear.
She shot him a look of contempt and reached behind the door where, he knew, she kept a line of hooks for coats. She brought from it a heavy cardigan, which she took her time about donning and buttoning to the throat. When she was garbed to her liking, she gave him her attention again. "Better?" she asked.
"Whatever's best for you."
"Mum?" It was her son's voice, coming from his bedroom doorway, which, Nkata knew, was to the left of the front door. "Wha's going on? Who's-" Daniel Edwards stepped into view just beyond Yasmin's shoulders. His eyes widened when he saw who was calling on them, and his grin was contagious, exposing those perfect white teeth of his, so adult in his twelve-year-old face.
Nkata said, "'Lo, Dan. Wha's happening?"
"Hey!" Daniel said. "You 'member my name."
"He's got it in his records," Yasmin Edwards said to her son. "Tha's what cops do. Are you ready for the cocoa yet? It's in the kitchen if you want it. Homework finished?"
"You coming in?" Daniel said to Nkata. "We got cocoa. Mum makes it fresh. I have enough to share 'f you like."
"Dan! Is your hearing-"
"Sorry, Mum," Daniel said. That grin again, though. Daniel disappeared through the kitchen doorway. The opening and closing of cupboards ensued from that direction.
"In?" Nkata said to the boy's mother, with a nod at the interior of the flat. "This'll take five minutes. I c'n promise that, cos I got to get home."
"I don't want you trying to get Dan-"
Nkata raised his hands in a sign of surrender. "Missus Edwards, I bother you since what happened happened? No, right? I think you c'n trust me."
She seemed to think this over while, behind her, the cheerful clatter continued in the kitchen. Finally, she swung the door open. Nkata stepped inside and shut it behind him before she had a chance to change her mind.
He gave a quick look round. He'd determined not to care about what he might find inside, but he couldn't help his curiosity. When he'd met Yasmin Edwards, she'd been living as lovers with a German woman, a lag like herself who'd done time for murder, also like herself. So he wondered if the German had been replaced.
There was no sign of this being the case. Everything was much as it had been before. He turned to Yasmin and found her watching him. She held her arms crossed beneath her breasts and her face read, Satisfied?
He hated being off balance with her. He wasn't used to that with women. He said, "There's a boy been murdered. Body was put up in St. George's Gardens, near Russell Square, Missus Edwards."
She said with a shrug, "North of the river," as if she meant, How can that affect this part of town?
He said, "No. It's more than that. This's one of a string of boys been found all over town. Gunnersbury Park, Tower Hamlets, carpark in Bayswater, and now the garden. One in the garden's white, but the rest of them, looks like all been mixed race. And young, Missus Edwards. Kids."
She shot a look towards the kitchen. He knew what she was thinking: Her Daniel fitted the profile he'd just described. He was young; he was mixed race. Still, she shifted her weight to one hip and said to Nkata, "All north of the river. Don't affect us over here. And why're you really here, 'f you don't mind my asking?," as if everything she said and the abrupt way she said it could protect her from fearing for her boy's safety.
Before Nkata could answer, Daniel returned to them, a cup of steaming cocoa in his hand. He appeared to avoid his mother's look as he said to Nkata, "I brought you this anyway. It's made from scratch. You c'n have more sugar in it if you want."
"Cheers, Dan." Nkata took the mug from the boy and clasped him on the shoulder. Daniel grinned and shifted from one bare foot to the other. "Look like you grown since I saw you," Nkata added.
"Did," Daniel said. "We measured. We got