Barbara paid for their purchase and peeled off its wrapper. She brought out the CD and replaced Nobanzi with Buddy Holly. She said, "Feast your ears on this," and when the music started, she led Hadiyyah back out to the street.
As promised, Barbara took her into several of the shops where the here-today-passe-in-thirty-minutes fashions were crammed onto clothing racks and hung from the walls. Scores of teenagers were spending money as if news of Armageddon had just been broadcast, and there was a sameness to them that caused Barbara to look at her companion and pray Hadiyyah always maintained the air of artlessness that made her such a pleasure to be around. Barbara couldn't imagine her transformed into a London teenager in a tearing hurry to arrive at adulthood, mobile phone pressed to her ear, lipstick and eye shadow colouring her face, blue jeans sculpting her little arse, and high-heeled boots destroying her feet. And she certainly couldn't imagine the little girl's father allowing her out in public so arrayed.
For her part, Hadiyyah took everything in like a child on her first trip to a fun fair, with Buddy Holly raining in her heart. It was only when they'd progressed upwards to Chalk Farm Road, where the crowds were if anything thicker, louder, and more decorated than in the shops below, that Hadiyyah removed her earphones and finally spoke.
"I want to come back here every week from now on," she announced. "Will you come with me, Barbara? I could save all my money and we could have lunch and then we could go in all of the shops. We can't today 'cause I ought to be home before Dad gets there. He'll be cross if he knows where we've been."
"Will he? Why?"
"Oh, 'cause I'm forbidden to come here," Hadiyyah said pleasantly. "Dad says if he ever saw me out in Camden High Street, he'd wallop me properly till I couldn't sit down. Your note didn't say we were coming here, did it?"
Barbara gave an inward curse. She hadn't considered the ramifications of what she'd intended as only an innocent jaunt to the music shop. She felt for a moment as if she'd corrupted the innocent, but she allowed herself to experience the relief of having written a note to Taymullah Azhar that had employed three words only-"Kiddo's with me"-along with her signature. Now if she could just depend on Hadiyyah's discretion...although from the little girl's excitement-despite her intention of keeping her father in the dark as to her whereabouts while he was on his errand-Barbara had to admit it was highly unlikely that she'd be able to hide from Azhar the pleasure attendant on their adventure.
"I didn't exactly tell him where we'd be," Barbara admitted.
"Oh, that's brilliant," Hadiyyah said. "'Cause if he knew...I don't much fancy being walloped, Barbara. Do you?"
"D'you think he'd actually-"
"Oh look, look," Hadiyyah cried. "What's this place called, then? And it smells so heavenly. Are they cooking somewhere? C'n we go in?"
"This place" was Camden Lock Market, which they had come up to in their journey homeward. It stood on the edge of the Grand Union Canal, and the fragrance of the food stalls within it had reached them all the way on the pavement. Within, and mixing with the noise of rap music emanating from one of the shops, one could just discern the barking of food vendors hawking everything from stuffed jacket potatoes to chicken tikka masala.
"Barbara, c'n we go inside this place?" Hadiyyah asked again. "Oh, it's so special. And Dad'll never know. We won't be walloped. I promise, Barbara."
Barbara looked down at her shining face and knew she couldn't deny her the simple pleasure of a wander through the market. How much trouble could it cause, indeed, if they were to take half an hour more and poke about among the candles, the incense, the T-shirts, and the scarves? She could distract Hadiyyah from the drug paraphernalia and the body-piercing stalls if they came upon them. As to the rest of what Camden Lock Market offered, it was all fairly innocent.
Barbara smiled at her little companion. "What the hell," she said with a shrug. "Let's go."
They'd taken only two steps in their intended direction when Barbara's mobile phone rang, however. Barbara said, "Hang on," to Hadiyyah and read the incoming number. When she saw who it was, she knew the news was unlikely to be good.
"THE GAME'S AFOOT." It was Acting Superintendent Thomas Lynley's voice, and it bore an