Page 63
‘I need to talk to you. It’s about my friend, Charlotte.’
Jacob swallowed. His neck had suddenly gone all hot and prickly. ‘Oh, right. Are you going to tell me to leave her alone? Because I don’t think you really need to. She’s not interested in me, and even if she was, I think there are few worse choices she could make—’
‘The lobby. Five minutes.’
‘Right.’
She was a little longer than five minutes, and he was just about to leave when she came jogging out of a side door wearing jeans and a winter jacket.
‘Sorry about that. A nurse’s work is never done. Right, let’s go. You need coffee?’
‘Always.’
‘There’s an all-night garage on the way. Well, it’s not on the way, but with this snow I’ve had to figure out a route free from both hills and ice. The council’s not been ploughing the town centre, either because they think it looks Christmassy or they’re too cheap. Or both.’
‘Or they haven’t realised it’s snowing. Councils aren’t all that aware of what’s going on, in my experience.’
‘You could be right.’ As they crossed the car park, she pointed at a little Honda. ‘This is mine. Get in.’
They had been driving for a couple of minutes before Kelly turned to Jacob. ‘So. What’s the deal with Steamblack?’
‘James?’
‘Yes. Not a common name. I’ve not heard it before.’
‘It’s a stage name. His real surname is Boswell. My mother’s surname is Black, and he liked it, but couldn’t steal it directly. I think one of his early tricks was to make a steam train disappear, so he got it from that.’ He shrugged. ‘Maybe, I don’t know. To be honest, I haven’t followed his career. I just wanted to forget about him. It was easy to just turn off the TV if one of his shows came on.’
‘Well, right now, you can’t. We find ourselves in a bit of a tricky situation.’
‘Do we?’
‘Charlotte’s been my best friend since school. She’s scatty, a bit of an airhead, and tends to spend way too much time in shoe shops, but she’s probably the nicest person I know, and that’s saying something because I work in a hospital, where a lot of nice people tend to work. But Charlotte, she’s something else. If I got too far behind on my rent I would dissect her and literally cut out her heart because I’m certain that it’s made of gold.’
‘Would you really?’
‘Humour me here, Milkman.’
‘I’ll try. My humour reserves are pretty low right now.’
‘Scrape the bottom of the barrel. It might prove necessary.’
‘I’ll try.’
‘Right, here’s our coffee stop.’
She pulled in at a garage. Jacob sat in the car, feeling like a chastised child while Kelly went inside, returning a couple of minutes later with two coffees.
‘If I drink a tall I’m not sure I’ll be able to sleep tonight,’ Jacob said.
‘You can sleep when you’re dead. You have work to do first, though.’
Jacob took a sip of the coffee and winced. Black. ‘No milk?’
‘I need you to focus here. I put yours in mine because I have an early shift tomorrow. Those hearts don’t cut out themselves.’
‘Right.’
She started the engine and they pulled out into an empty road.
