Chapter Two

'There's a pay phone just there, behind you,' she replied cheerfully. The cat looked set to follow him over, until the woman caught hold of it. 'Stay here, Stevie.'

Christian thanked her and moved over to it. He checked the number for directory enquiries and then dialled it. Or rather he tapped out the number - the phone had buttons rather than a dial.

After a couple of rings, a young man's voice asked which name he wanted. Christian told him and there was a pause, punctuated by the clacking of a keyboard. The whole system must be computerised by now.

'I'm sorry, sir, I can't find that name.'

'It's double-barrelled. With a hyphen.'

'And you don't know the area?'

'No. There can't be many with that surname.'

'I'll just try again.'

A four-second pause, more clacking. The line was crystal clear.

'I've found it, sir, but it's ex-directory.'

'Ex-directory?'

'A lot of teachers are ex-directory, sir.'

Teachers? Well, it had been twenty years. 'Can't you give it to me? It's an emergency.'

'I'm sorry, we can't.'

'Can you give me the address?'

'We don't give out addresses. Security. You could be an escaped nutter or anything.'

Christian decided not to argue the point.

'Could you at least tell me the county?'

'No, I'm sorry.'

'OK.' He hesitated for a moment, racking his brains. 'Katherine, with a "K", the same surname.'

A different voice, a recorded one, rattled out a number, then repeated it. Christian didn't have a pen, he committed the number to memory. He cut the connection, got a dialling tone, then tapped in the phone number: 0122 69046.