say nothing, until he found one who offered the information that the "crackhead cow and her snivellers" had finally been evicted after a monumental battle with Navina Cryer and her crew, all of whom hailed from Clifton Estate. That was the extent of the information available on the family. But having been given a new name-that of Navina Cryer-Nkata next went to Clifton Estate to seek her and whatever information she could give him of the Salvatores.
Navina turned out to be a sixteen-year-old girl who was hugely pregnant. She lived with her mother and her two younger sisters, along with two toddlers in nappies who, during Nkata's conversation with the girl, were never identified as belonging to anyone. Unlike the denizens of North Peckham Estate, Navina was only too happy to talk to the police. She took a long look at Nkata's warrant card, took a longer look at Nkata himself, and ushered him inside the flat. Her mother was at work, she informed him, and the rest of that lot-by which he reckoned she meant the other children-could look after themselves. She led him to the kitchen. There a table held several loads of unwashed laundry, and the air was ripe with the scent of disposable nappies in need of disposal.
Navina lit a cigarette on one of the grimy stove's gas burners, and she leaned against it rather than taking a seat at the table. Her stomach protruded so far that it was difficult to see how she actually remained upright, and beneath the taut material of her leggings, her veins stood out like worms after rainfall. She said abruptly, "'Bout time, innit. Wha' was it lit the fire under you lot? I'd like to know, so nex' time I got the right approach."
Nkata sorted through these remarks. He concluded from them that she'd been expecting the police. Considering the information he'd gleaned from the one neighbour willing to talk on North Peckam Estate, he assumed she was referring to the outcome-whatever it had been-of her reported altercation with Mrs. Salvatore.
He said, "Woman over North Peckham...? She told me you might know the whereabouts of Jared Salvatore's mum. 'S that right?"
Navina narrowed her eyes. She took a deep hit on her cigarette-deep enough to make Nkata shudder for her unborn child-and as she blew the smoke out, she studied him, then studied the ends of her fingernails, which were painted fuchsia and matched her toenails. She said slowly, "Wha' 'bout Jared? You got word on him?"
"Word for his mum, you can tell me where she is," Nkata replied.
"Like she going t' care, you mean?" Navina sounded scornful. "Like he mean more to her than flake? That cunt di'n't even know he was gone till I tol' her, mister, an' if you find her under wha'ever car she been dossin since they got done wif her on North Peckham, you c'n tell her I said she c'n die an' I spit on her coffin an' be glad to do it." She took another hit on the cigarette. Nkata saw that her fingers were shaking.
He said, "Navina, c'n we reverse things here? I'm in the dark."
"How? Wha' more do I got to tell you lot? He been gone an' gone an' it ain't like him, which is what I been sayin over and over. Only no one's listenin an' I just 'bout ready-"
"Hang on," Nkata said. "C'n I get you to sit over here? I'm sorting this, but you're going too quick." He pulled a chair from beneath the table and indicated she should take it. One of the toddlers trundled into the kitchen at that point, nappy hanging nearly to his knees, and Navina took a moment to change him, which consisted of ripping the nappy off, tossing it into a swing bin-with its load mercifully intact-and strapping him into another without undo ceremony, the remains of his droppings still clinging to his flesh. After that, she rooted out a boxed Ribena for the child and handed it over, leaving him to suss out a manner of detaching its straw and driving it into the small carton. Then she lowered herself into the chair. All along her cigarette had dangled from her lips, but now she stubbed it out in an ashtray that she took from beneath the pile of dirty laundry.
Nkata said to her, "You reported Jared missing? Tha's what you're telling me?"
"I tol' the cops d'rectly he di'n't show up for the antenatal. I knew right then there