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He filled in a further report, on a closed file, and sent it through to his boss Then he switched off his computer and locked the system, closed and locked his office door, and went down to the canteen

Fifty-two

HE’D BEEN A nightwhen he was a hts When the pit closed and he eventually got another job it was as a nightwatchht it ht? He never knew his e of five, so he couldn’t ask, but he had a feeling Everything see seemed to work better He could hear s happening, round the corner, on the other side of a wall or a patch of shrub

The man from the paper had dropped a copy off at the shack, and Nobby had read what had been written It included a nice bit about hihts ‘Nobby Parks likes to look out for other people,’ it said, ‘especially when they’re sound asleep He keeps an eye open Many a burglar has been deterred, noticing Nobby wandering down the street at two in the ht ra area, the Lanes, Nobby was around "I was handy," he says, "I sahat happened and gave them some useful bits of information"’

He had folded the paper up carefully and put it not a the piles of others but in the top drawer of the old sideboard, where he kept essentials – his reading glasses, his out-of-date passport, his pension book A photo of hi off the very last shift the day it closed for good The collar and lead fro he’d once had

Now, he had been twice round the perione in and out of the maze of streets called the Apostles, down the Lanes once or twice He’d stood in the square watching the last taxi driver give up and set off for horoup of drunken lads started a punch-up and the police sirens ca down It was milder now, the sky cloudy but there was no rain and the towpath and verges were drying up a bit He went down to what he called the Jesus Bus, by the printworks, got hot chocolate and a slice of cake, and had a chat to the lads, who knew better than to try and preach to him Anyway, he’d told them he was a fully paid-up Christian who didn’t hold with church After that, they’d given up

It was gone three when he finally made his way home He was pleasantly tired He’d have a brew, a roll-up and the last couple of chocolate Bourbons before getting into bed like athe sleep of the just

No one about He didn’t need any sort of torch or light to show his way He knew every inch of this towpath He heard a rat plop into the canal water, just under the bridge, saw a car go over, lights sweeping across the arch of bricks and away

A hundred yards to hoain before he went to sleep

Fifty yards The old lean-to against the warehouses was in deep shadow The door was loose on its hinge and in a wind swung and creaked so et up and shut it and hold the broken padlock with a piece of stick But tonight, it was still The canal water was like glass The air was moist and heavy

The lean-to door was open but he didn’t look closely enough to see a shadoithin the shadows, or sense the slight flicker of movement

He pushed open the shack door and went in He switched on his torch and went to the paraffin stove Lit it Lit the paraffin lamp Put the torch back on the shelf, his coat and boots by the door Then he arette, and sat back in the wicker chair, enjoying the peace and quiet

For a htly different He looked round But the shadows of the lamp didn’t reach the corners of the shack and he couldn’t see anything unusual near to hand

He sat thinking Pleased with himself Pleased with events

It was another roll-up and twenty ot up, went outside to the dense patch of weeds and peed into theun to drizzle a little

He looked round but the cloud cover was too heavy for hi Even the movement of shadow on shadow over by the old lean-to

He went back inside, latched the door, half undressed, into his long johns, ju and old coats, turned on his side and pulled them up almost over his head

Slept

Fifteen minutes later, the darkness, silence and stillness were disturbed by a single figure,swiftly A s ball ofstar Seconds later, the whole place was an inferno The shadoere broken again for a split second as soe, across the waste ground and away

Nobby Parks’s shack blazed like a tinderbox throwing fla stupid You never do that You know it and you always knew it You plan, you work it out, for weeks,Part of the pleasure You never let a single thing happen without a plan and you have backups to your plan, and you have an abort to your plan

Bad enough having one fuck-up You could have waited You weren’t sure she’d seen you, but you panicked You never, ever panicked before The reason it rong before was down to bad luck Si clever Bad luck

But now?

This is not what you do Not part of the game at all Shit, what kind of a bloke would torch an old dosser’s shack with him in it, out of panic?

He didn’t deserve that Even if he had seen so

Yes, but if he had If he did

You can’t take that chance

And how else was I supposed to shut hi this time? I’m so behind’

‘The Great Gatsby’

‘Yes, I reo, but I haven’t had a chance to read it again I’d better not come’

‘Judith! You ets agitated if peoplean independent bookshop opencoet a couple of chapters under your belt’

I have got to get to the botto is wrong, I have no idea what, but Judith is not herself and she won’t talk to me

Her step to the book group, to Sam’s h

She sat at the kitchen table reading the paper over her coffee, a fifteen-hto firm up so walk and the house was quiet apart fro et Judith out of her mind, and if it was not Judith, Sam and Hannah probed their way in Simon had told her briefly about his conversation with Sas would now i better, was less inclined to sneer at Hannah, grunt at Cat and slouch off to his rooive any help Hannah was still wary, and tried not to be on her own in a roo in which family life could thrive

But Molly had e down to see theher last year altogether She asked if she could stay a night or two at the farhted Molly sounded steadier and h iht to finish her qualifications and it would be good to have her about the house again But she kne careful the med school would be PTSD did not vanish in a hurry They had to be sure that Molly could cope, for their sake but most of all for her own

Wookie pattered after her into the study and turned round and round on his bed, which was in a patch of winter sunlight, before finally settling into a satisfactory nest and looking at Cat with one eye After ain soh the door and climbed in beside the terrier There was barely rooe fluffy tail and forepaws, but his head rested on Wookie, without any protest fro Both slept

Silke came at half past six At ten to seven, Cat phoned Judith

‘Are you ready? We can both park outside Si’s and walk through if you like’

There was a pause ‘Darling, I can’t –with it’