A Place of Hiding

“Simon has brothers and sisters, then,” Cherokee remarked.

“Two brothers in Southampton...where the family business is...shipping...His sister’s in London, though. She used to be a model but now she’s campaigning to be an interviewer of obscure celebrities on an even more obscure cable channel that no one watches.” Deborah grinned.

“Quite the character, is Sidney. That’s Simon’s sister. She drives her mum mad because she won’t settle down. She’s had dozens of lovers. We’ve met one after another at holidays and each one is always the man of her dreams at last at last.”

“Lucky,” Cherokee said, “to have family like that.”

A wistfulness in his voice prompted Deborah to turn from the cooker.

“Would you like to ring yours?” she asked. “Your mum, I mean. You can use the phone on the dresser there. Or the one in the study if you’d like privacy. It’s...” She looked at the wall clock and did the maths. “It’s only ten-fifteen last night in California.”

“I can’t do that.” Cherokee returned to the table and dropped into a chair. “I promised China.”

“But she does have the right—”

“China and Mom?” Cherokee cut in. “They don’t...Well, Mom was never much of a mom, not like other moms, and China doesn’t want her to know about this. I think it’s because...you know...other moms would catch the next plane out, but our mom? No way. There might be an endangered species to save. So why tell her in the first place? At least, that’s what China’s thinking.”

“What about her father? Is he...?” Deborah hesitated. The subject of China’s father had always been a delicate one.

Cherokee raised an eyebrow. “Locked up? Oh yeah. He’s inside again. So there’s no one to call.”

A step sounded on the kitchen stairs. Deborah put plates on the table and heard the uneven nature of someone’s cautious descent. She said,

“That’ll be Simon.” He was up earlier than usual, far before her father, which Joseph Cotter wouldn’t like. He’d cared for Simon throughout his long-ago convalescence from the drunken road crash that had crippled him, and he didn’t like it if Simon denied him the chance to hover protectively over him.

“Fortunately, I’m making enough for three,” Deborah said as her husband joined them. Simon looked from the cooker to the table where she had laid crockery. “I hope your father’s heart is strong enough to sustain this shock,” he said.

“Most amusing.”

Simon kissed her and then nodded at Cherokee. “You look much better this morning. How’s the head?”

Cherokee fingered the plaster near his hairline. “Better. I had a pretty good nurse.”

“She knows what she’s doing,” Simon said.

Deborah poured the eggs into the pan and set about scrambling them efficiently. “He’s definitely drier,” she pointed out. “After we eat, I’ve said I’ll pop him over to the American embassy.”

“Ah. I see.” Simon glanced at Cherokee. “Guernsey police haven’t notified the embassy already? That’s unusual.”

“No. They have,” Cherokee said. “But the embassy didn’t send anyone. They just phoned to make sure she had a lawyer to speak for her in court. And then it was Good, that’s fine, she’s being represented then, phone us if you need anything else. I said I do need you. I need you here. I told them we weren’t even on the island when it happened. But they said the police would have their evidence and there was really nothing else they could do till things got played out. That’s what they said. Till things got played out. Like this was a basketball game or something.” He moved away from the table abruptly. “I need someone from the embassy over there. This whole thing’s a set-up, and if I don’t do something to stop it from happening, there’s going to be a trial and a sentence before the month’s up.”

“Can the embassy do anything?” Deborah put their breakfast on the table. “Simon, do you know?”

Her husband considered the question. He didn’t work often for embassies, more often instead for the CPS or for barristers who were mounting a criminal defence in court and required an outside expert witness to offset the testimony of someone from one police laboratory or another. But he knew enough to be able to explain what the American embassy would doubtless offer Cherokee when he put in his appearance in Grosvenor Square.

“Due process,” he said. “That’s what the embassy works to ensure. They’ll make certain that the laws of the land are applied to China’s situation.”