‘If he thinks he’s off the hook, then he’s got another think coming.’ Lil scowled across the road at the windows of 154c Wilderness Lane from between the railings of a cellar stairwell. Only her eyes and the hood of her yellow mac were visible at the edge of the pavement.
Nedly was standing at street level in front of the railings. He looked down at her sadly. ‘You’re disappointed.’
A man in a crumpled suit hurried past, splashing Lil in the face with dirty puddle water. ‘Bleurgh!’ Lil spluttered. ‘Aren’t you?’
‘So why are we still here?’
‘Because,’ said Lil, rubbing the grime off her cheeks with her sleeve, ‘Mandrel took your case and he’s got no right to close it until it’s solved.’
‘He kicked us out, Lil.’ The street lamp overhead flickered and dimmed. ‘Well, he kicked you out. He’s not interested in finding out what happened to me.’
‘Well, he better get interested,’ said Lil. ‘Because I’m not going away.’
Lil had seen, and tasted, more than her fill of Wilderness Lane by 4 p.m., when the lights finally went out in the office of Absolom Mandrel P.I. After a few minutes the front door opened and the detective stepped out. They watched him turn down a side street and out of view.
‘Right, let’s follow him!’ Lil hurried up the steps and across the road, flattening herself against a wall at the mouth of the lane. She stuck her head round the corner to see Mandrel’s hulking silhouette blend into the shadows at the far end, waited until the sound of footsteps stomping through puddles had faded, and then gave Nedly the nod and they set off in pursuit.
They emerged onto a narrow lane bordered with thin rickety buildings that leant inwards, almost blocking out the sky. Mandrel walked doggedly, collar up, hat pulled down low, shouldering aside the rain, and anyone else who got in his way. It must have been some instinct, or maybe a gumshoe’s old habits, that made him keep glancing over his shoulder as he moved through the huddles of people.
Lil dodged and weaved along behind him, cutting through the steam that rose up from the drains and took on the pink and blue neon glow of the shop signs. They were heading east, into the labyrinth of pawnshops and laundrettes, late-night grocery shops and takeaways.
Lil struggled to keep Mandrel in sight while Nedly ran in her wake, trying and failing to avoid the passers-by who bustled Lil but pushed straight through him. The odd person shivered, but most were too wrapped up in their own business to mind the chilling sensation that followed.
They reached a crossroads and Lil shrank into the doorway of a boarded-up old hairdresser’s, watching as the detective paused at a newsstand to buy a paper. Despite the rain he opened it up fully and seemed to be scanning the centre pages.
‘He’s not reading it,’ whispered Nedly. ‘He’s looking over here.’
Lil waited in the shadows for him to make his move. ‘Is he still looking?’
‘Yes.’
‘How about now?’
‘Yes. I’ll tell you when he does something else.’
A rough-sleeper who was propped up against the door in a muddle of bags and cardboard boxes coughed impatiently. He didn’t worry Lil. Sure, she was hiding in a doorway, whispering to an invisible associate, but in Peligan City plenty of people talked to themselves and no one paid them any attention. They kept to their own business and turned a blind eye to everything else.
‘OK,’ said Nedly. ‘He’s folding the paper, and tucking it under his arm. Now he’s turning and walking towards …’
Lil poked her head out to watch Mandrel disappear into a doorway. The sign across the front window read ‘Kam Moon Special Noodle Bar’ in gold lettering and below it stretched a red and green Chinese dragon. The window was steamed up and all Lil could make out was the blue glow of an electric fly trap and the shadows of some plastic ferns.
‘Shall we go in after him?’ suggested Nedly.
‘He’ll see us.’
‘He might see you,’ Nedly pointed out with a grin.
‘Good point. OK, you do it.’
He crossed the road and then, as soon as someone opened the door to leave, he slipped inside.
Lil waited anxiously as the minutes passed. Neither Nedly nor Detective Mandrel emerged. No one did. She began to worry. What if it wasn’t a noodle bar at all – what if it was a trap and Nedly had just walked right into it?
She was going to have to go after him. Lil took a deep breath, nipped through the traffic and opened the door.
‘Phew!’ said Nedly. ‘I thought no one was ever going to open the door again.’
‘You’ve just been standing on the other side of the door waiting for someone to open it?’ Nedly blinked back at her. ‘While I’ve been waiting out here in the rain for you to come out?’
Nedly frowned. ‘You don’t know what it’s like passing through solid objects – it’s not a good feeling.’
‘Right,’ said Lil irritably. ‘Fine. Whatever. Where is the detective?’
‘He’s gone.’
‘What! Impossible! Did you check the back way?’
‘There wasn’t one.’
‘Nedly,’ she said wearily. ‘There’s always a back way. He’s given us the slip.’
Lil went up to the counter of the noodle bar and, fixing her face with an earnest smile, she asked the chef if he knew the detective that had just been in.
‘Number twenty-four,’ said the chef. ‘Singapore-style noodles with spring roll.’
‘I mean, do you know where he lives?’
The chef pointed his index finger up in the air and Lil followed it up to the ceiling. ‘Right. Thanks.’
She went back outside and looked up. There, above the Kam Moon Special Noodle Bar, was the shabbiest-looking hotel she had ever seen.