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"bleak".'
    'Is that the normal progression?'
    'I think so. Sometimes there's a short period of "pitiful" but not always.'

    'Oh, wel , I'l look forward to that.'
    Thorne watched as she reached into her bag for a cigarette. She held up the packet. 'Do you mind?'
    Thorne said no, and she lit up. He stared as she blew the smoke out of the side of her mouth, way from him. It had been a long time since his last cigarette.
    'More doctors smoke than you'd imagine. And a surprising number of oncologists. I'm amazed that more of us aren't smackheads to be honest. Do you not, then?' Thorne shook his head. 'A policeman who doesn't smoke. You must like a drink, then?'
    He smiled. 'I thoughtyou worked too many hours to watch television.'
    She groaned with pleasure as she took a long drag.
    Thorne spoke slowly but was stil smiling when he
    answered the question. 'I like more thar one...'
    'Glad to hear it.'
    'But that's pretty much it, as far as the clich6s go. I'm not religious, I hate opera, and I can't fiaish a crossword to save my life.'
    40 MARK BILLINGHAM
    'You must be driven, then? Or haunted? Is that the word?'
    Thorne tried to hold the smile in place and even managed to produce a chuckle of sorts as he turned away and looked towards the counter. When he'd caught the eye of the woman at the til he held up his coffee cup, signal ing for another. He turned back as Anne was stubbing out her cigarette. She exhaled, enjoying it, running elegant fingers through her silver hair.
    When he'd caught the eye of the woman at the til he held up his coffee cup, signal ing for another.
    'So, does "desperate" and "bleak" involve children?' Thorne turned back round. 'No. You?'
    Her smile was huge and as contagious as smal pox. 'One. Rachel. Sixteen and big trouble.'
    Sixteen? Thorne raised his eyebrows. 'Do women stil
    get upset if you ask how old they are?'
    She plonked an elbow on the table and leaned her chin
    on the palm of her hand, trying her best to look severe. 'This one does.'
    'Sorry.' Thorne tried his best to look contrite. 'How much do you weigh?'
    She laughed loudly. Not filthy, positively salacious. Thorne laughed too, and grinned at the waitress as his second cup of coffee arrived. It had barely touched the table when Coburn's bleeper went off. She looked at it, stubbed out her cigarette and grabbed her bag from the floor. 'I might not be a smackhead, but I do an awful lot of indigestion tablets.'
    Thorne lifted his jacket from the back of his chair. 'I'l walk you back.'
    On the way towards Queen Square things became oddly
    SLEEPYHEAD 41
    formal again. Smal -talk about Indian summers gave way to an awkward silence before they were half-way there. When they reached her office, Thorne hovered in the doorway. He felt like he should go, but she held up her hand to stop him as. she made a quick cal . The bleep had not been urgent.
    'So how is the investigation going?'
    Thorne stepped into the office and closed the door. He had thought this was coming over lunch. His capacity to bul shit members of the public had once been endless, but he spent so much of his time exercising that particular skil on superior officers that he couldn't be bothered trying it on with those who had no axe to grind. 'It's a... bleak prognosis.' She smiled.
    'Every day there's some stupid story in the paper about armed robbers tunnel ing into the shop next door to the building society or burglars fal ing asleep in houses they've broken into, but the simple fact is that most people who break the law give serious thought to not getting done for it. With murderers, you've got a chance if it's domestic, or when there's sex involved.'
    She leaned back in her chair and took a sip from a glass of water.
    Thorne watched her. 'Sorry, I didn't mean to make a speech.'
    'No, I'm interested, real y.'
    'Any sort of sexual compulsion can make people sloppy. They take chances and eventual y they slip up. I just can't see this bloke slipping up. Whatever's been driving him isn't