Necessary as Blood

why Naz suddenly decided he wanted to drop Azad‘s case. And then you can tell me if you think Azad is capable of having got rid of Naz, if Naz had learned he was responsible for disposing of said nephew. A bit convoluted, but you follow. And you notice I‘m not asking if Azad is guilty as charged.‘
    ‘I thought you said we weren‘t going to talk about Azad,‘ Phillips countered, but with the faintest suggestion of a smile. Although I do appreciate the thread of your argument.‘
    ‘Merely following your lead. And we are talking about Naz.‘
    ‘Quite. But I‘m afraid, Superintendent, that I can‘t tell you what Naz thought, because I don‘t know.‘ She drank more of her coffee. Already the caffeine seemed to have given her more energy. ‘If you want my opinion, however — completely off the record — I don‘t believe Azad harmed his nephew. I do think the old sod‘s quite capable of slipping the boy out of the country in the back of a truck and sending him back to his mum in Sylhet for a good bollocking.‘ She reached for her bag, an automatic gesture, then drew back her hand. ‘I do not think that Azad would have had any part in harming Naz. Azad has his own code of loyalty. I don‘t know if I fit into it, but I think Naz did. And I think Sandra did, too.‘
    ‘So who does benefit from Naz‘s death, then, if not Azad? Did Naz have a will?‘
    Phillips rolled her eyes. ‘Naz was a lawyer. Of course he had a will. I‘m the executor. Naz and Sandra both left everything in trust for Charlotte.‘
    ‘But they didn‘t name a guardian?‘
    ‘No. That was the thing, you see. 1 She rubbed at one of her ragged cuticles. ‘It was... awkward. They couldn‘t make a decision. There was no one they trusted.‘
    ‘With Charlotte, or with their money?‘ Kincaid asked.
    ‘Charlotte. I don‘t think either of them cared that much about the money, except in so far as it provided for their child.‘
    ‘Will there be much?‘ Kincaid thought of the house in Fournier Street, and of prices he‘d seen in the area estate agents‘ windows.
    ‘Yes, a good bit, I think. The value of the house may have dropped a little in this economy, but it will still be worth a small fortune. They didn‘t owe much on it. And Naz was always careful. They didn‘t spend much on themselves, other than what they put into fixing up the house, and he invested the rest.‘
    Kincaid thought for a moment. All this is assuming, of course, that Sandra Gilles doesn‘t walk back into the picture tomorrow.‘
    ‘Unfortunately, yes,‘ said Lou Phillips. ‘And as long as Sandra is missing, things are going to be very complicated indeed.‘

    ‘I‘m going out for a bit. I‘ve got to run an errand.‘ It was the mid-afternoon lull, and Gemma had caught Melody in the corridor outside the CID room. ‘All the case assignments are up to date. Ring me if anything urgent comes up.‘
    ‘What are you up to?‘ Melody said quietly. ‘You‘re not going to see Charlotte‘s grandmother, are you?‘
    Gemma wasn‘t in the mood to confide in anyone. ‘I just need a bit of fresh air.‘ It was true enough, she told herself. Although the weekend‘s brutal heat had relented, it was still warm, and her office was miserably stuffy. Her head was splitting from staring at the computer screen, and she was beginning to wonder why she had ever wanted a promotion to a desk job.
    ‘I won‘t be long,‘ she added and, with that, she ran down the stairs and out the front door of the station. On the steps she bumped into a uniformed male constable, who grinned and said, ‘Where‘s the fire, guv?‘
    ‘Corner shop,‘ she said, smiling back.
    ‘Coffee and ciggies for me, then,‘ he called after her, and she waved back.
    She turned into Ladbroke Grove. Having decided not to take the car, as she didn‘t want to get caught in the rush-hour traffic coming back, she walked up to Notting Hill Gate and took the District and Circle Line to King‘s Cross. There, she changed for Old Street, and as she stood on the platform, closing her eyes against the warm wind from a train going in the opposite direction, she mulled over what she was doing. It might be rash, but she felt compelled by the bond she had formed with Charlotte. Who would act if she did not?
    What she hadn‘t told Melody was that she‘d rung Doug Cullen and asked him to look up an address in Sandra Gilles‘s file.
    ‘Roy Blakely?‘ Cullen had asked. ‘Who‘s he?‘
    ‘According to