Part 22 (2/2)

”I'll try not to take up too much of your time, then,” she said, sitting down. ”Thanks for seeing me.” The pub was loud and she had to lean close to be heard.

”You said this was about Andy. I've been ringing him but he doesn't return my calls. Is he okay?” His worry seemed genuine.

So Nick hadn't heard about the video. ”Yes, he's fine. I just had a few questions about what happened at the White Stag last Friday night.”

Nick was frowning at her, the remainder of his beer untouched. ”You're a plainclothes detective. Why should you care about a little punch-up? That guy didn't press charges, did he?”

She remembered her first interview with Andy and Tam in the studio, and Andy's bruised knuckles. Tam and Andy, as well as Reg, the manager at the Stag, had said Arnott shouted at Andy because Andy had had a row with a punter. ”No one pressed charges. Are you talking about the guy Andy hit? What was that all about, anyway?”

Nick relaxed enough to take a sip of his beer. ”Everyone was short-fused that night. We were p.i.s.sed off with Andy for agreeing to the gig, and he was p.i.s.sed off with us because we were acting like a.s.sholes. After the first set, I figured Andy was going to take us outside and tell us off good and proper. But just as we finished playing, this bloke came up and got right in Andy's face. And Andy just went off. I'd never seen him do anything like that.”

”Do you know what this guy said?”

”I didn't hear. I heard Andy, though. Everyone did. He was calling the guy a b.a.s.t.a.r.d and saying he never wanted to see him again. And then Andy just hauled off and punched him in the nose.” Nick shook his head and flexed his own hand, as if contemplating the idiocy of risking such an injury.

”You've no idea who he was?”

”Never seen him before, and I've known Andy since not long after he left school.”

Melody took out her phone and showed him the photo of Shaun. ”Was it him?”

Nick studied it for a moment, then shook his head. ”No. Definitely not.”

”Can you tell me what he looked like?”

”About our age. Just ordinary. Thin. A bit scruffy.” Nick shrugged. ”He had that look. You learn to recognize it if you play in a band long enough. Drugs. Alcohol. Something just a little off.” He met Melody's eyes. ”I just a.s.sumed he was an obnoxious drunk and that between us and him, Andy had had enough. But now, it does seem a bit weird, the way Andy reacted to him. Like it was personal.”

”Did you talk to Andy about it, afterwards?”

Nick gave a humorless laugh. ”Not b.l.o.o.d.y likely. Andy wasn't talking to us. Wouldn't even ride back to London in the van. And Tam was doing the whole mother-hen thing over Andy's hand, although I can't say I blame him. I hope he's okay.”

”Why don't you try ringing him again now?” Melody suggested carefully. She couldn't repeat anything Andy had told her, and was not even sure she should be playing mediator.

This time Nick smiled more easily. ”n.o.body wants to be the first to apologize. It's like a bad couple's breakup, you know? One where you know it's coming but it still makes you feel like h.e.l.l.”

”I'm not sure I-”

”The band. It's over, but none of us wants to admit it. In a month or two, we'll be able to go out for a pint and have a laugh about it. But now . . . ” He finished his beer and frowned. ”You still haven't said exactly what it was you wanted. Although to be fair, I don't suppose I've given you much chance.” This time, the glance he gave was a.s.sessing, and slightly flirtatious.

Oh, G.o.d, she thought. Nick was an attractive guy, but that was a complication she didn't need. Flus.h.i.+ng, she said, ”It was about the man who shouted at Andy after the row. Did you know him?”

Nick looked blank for a moment. ”The white-haired guy? No, I just thought he was some bad-tempered geezer. I really wasn't paying attention, if you want the truth.”

”Did you see Andy talk to him either before or after that?”

”No, I didn't notice him before. Then after all the commotion during the break, Tam took Andy outside for a talk. Then we played the second set-a little more professionally, I'm glad to say-and after that, Andy and Tam helped George and me load the van and Tam drove Andy home.”

”And the white-haired man-did you see him again that night?”

”I don't think so. I was doing my best to redeem myself, and giving Andy some cover because I could tell his hand was swelling.”

”What about the scruffy bloke?”

”No.” Nick frowned. ”No, I don't think so. But he wasn't exactly the sort you'd notice-although I daresay he had a sore nose,” he added, grinning. ”Our Andy. Imagine that.”

Men, thought Melody. There was nothing that raised them in one another's estimation like the ability to give someone a b.l.o.o.d.y nose. Then the import of what Nick had said hit her. There'd been no room to slip out of her wool coat, and she was suddenly stifling.

”Look, thanks, Nick,” she said, standing. ”You've been a big help.”

He looked surprised. ”I have?”

”Absolutely. But I've got to run. I'll be in touch if I think of anything else.”

Nick stood, b.u.mping the table, then had to make a grab for the toppling stack of books. ”Maybe next time I can buy you a beer,” he called after her as she ducked through the crowd.

Melody pretended not to hear as she slipped out the door. She walked, unmindful of the direction she took, desperate to think.

Andy had told her that the bloke he hit that night was just some drunk punter who'd tried to touch his guitar. If what Nick had said was true, Andy had known him. Andy had lied.

After seeing Andy Monahan in Oxford Street, Gemma spent the remainder of the morning in Brixton, trying to pull the threads from the two separate investigations into some sort of cohesive whole and having very little success.

She pushed away from her computer and rubbed her tired eyes. They needed to go back to the beginning.

Vincent Arnott had gone to the White Stag on Friday nights on a regular basis, occasionally picking up women whom he'd taken to the Belvedere, and then he'd returned home to care for his ill wife. So what had changed last Friday night?

Caleb Hart had decided to book Andy Monahan's band there, she thought.

Was that a catalyst, or something completely unrelated? Why had Hart said he didn't recognize Arnott when it was very likely that he'd seen him at the pub? Had Hart really left the pub to go to an AA meeting on a Friday night?

It was time she found out, and that meant an official interview with Hart.

She considered asking Maura Bell to question him, but if Hart mentioned that Kincaid had called on him yesterday, she would have to explain that rather unorthodox bit of information gathering to Maura, which she'd prefer not to do. Melody had made things difficult enough without adding anything else into the mix.

So, as Ras.h.i.+d was doing the postmortem on Shaun Francis at the Royal London in Whitechapel, she decided she would stop in at Hart's office herself. She took the tube from Brixton to Liverpool Street station, then walked to the address Kincaid had given her in Hanbury Street by way of Spitalfields Market.

She wondered, as she always did now when she came to the East End, if, when Charlotte was grown, she would remember these streets as home, or if her early years would be swallowed up by the sedate greens and grays of a Notting Hill childhood.

There was certainly no warmth or color in Hanbury Street today. Grim, brown Georgian brick gave way to shoddy postmodern blocks, and the cold, damp wind tugged at her hair and the hem of her coat. Gemma found the entrance to Hart's office and went in.

The reception area was ultrachic, as was the receptionist, who simultaneously managed to look up from her desk and down her perfect nose at Gemma. Gemma felt suddenly disheveled, aware of her hair blown loose from its plait and her wind-chapped cheeks. Kincaid might have warned her, she thought, smoothing a strand of hair and a.s.suming her most brisk manner.

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