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meant nothing to him, and that it was all ugly rumormongering. If Con did not make the connection with Father Pardoe’s case, then he was stupider than she had taken him for.
    Of course the connection was only a partial one, because she had never in her heart of hearts believed in Conal’s innocence.

CHAPTER 4
Happy Families
    When Cosmo Horrocks had got all he thought he journalistically could out of Julie Norris and out of the contemplation of her grotty flat, he legged it as fast as he could out of the Kingsmill estate. Once on the outside, however, he cast his eye around for the nearest pub, conscious that, since there were seldom any pubs on Council estates, the residents who liked a tipple would make for the closest watering hole outside. There it was—the Lord Gray. And there, heading toward it, was one of the women from the estate he had asked about Julie’s whereabouts. He nipped across the road, pushed open the door that led straight into a dismal and dirty bar, and went over and stood beside the woman.
    â€œI found Julie Norris,” he said. She turned and contemplated him with a dyspeptic eye.
    â€œDid you, now?”
    â€œCare for a drink?”
    She considered—a painful process.
    â€œNot a rent collector or a debt collector, are you?”
    â€œNo, I’m not. Is that why you wouldn’t tell me where she lived?”
    â€œCourse it was. Come on, you can buy me a sweet sherry.”
    â€œPint of Webster’s, a sweet sherry, and a tuna sandwich, please. No, I’m not here to do her any harm. I thought she was a lovely girl. I’m here to do her a favor.”
    The woman nodded unsuspectingly.
    â€œWell, I’m glad to hear it, because she could do wi’ one. Such a nice girl—pretty too, if she’d take the trouble.”
    â€œShe would be a real stunner,” said Cosmo, with all the enthusiasm of a child whose greatest pleasure was tearing the wings off a particularly beautiful butterfly. She took his words at their face value, just glad to have someone to talk to.
    â€œMind you, I blame the parents. You can’t justify throwing out a girl of that age, baby or no baby. Typical, though.”
    â€œYou know them?”
    â€œOh, I know them, or knew them. Used to live on the estate, didn’t they?”
    She had the odd north-country habit of imparting information in question form.
    â€œ Really? I didn’t know that.”
    â€œThe posh end, o’ course.”
    â€œPosh end?”
    â€œThat was when there was a posh end—over toward the Cottingley Road. Nowadays it’s all pretty much of a muchness. The Cape of No Hope, they call us. Too bloody right. We never had much, and now we’ve got none.”
    â€œHow long ago was it when they lived here?”
    â€œOh, matter of about twenty years, I suppose. They moved here when she was pregnant wi’ Julie. I mind seeing her as a baby screaming her heart out in her pram in the front garden. O’ course they moved out like a flash soon as they could. Anyonewould. Said they wouldn’t want a child o’ theirs growing up on the Kingsmill. Snobby pair. Still, you could see their point, even then. It’s just that they’re so . . .”
    Cosmo didn’t supply her with a word. He intended to make his own judgment of Julie’s parents, and he didn’t expect it to be any more favorable than this woman’s.
    â€œSo they moved away, did they?”
    â€œOh, yes. He’d got a promotion, managing a menswear shop, so they took out a mortgage on a house in Beckham Road. They’d have got it for seven or eight thousand then. Be worth six or seven times that now. But then, some people have all the luck, don’t they. What I always say is—”
    But Cosmo, who had been shifting from leg to leg for some time, now made his thanks and beat a retreat to a table by the window. He didn’t enjoy talking to people, only