Elsa was having lunch with Old Harry; today it was butternut squash soup. Rowenna would go down the weekly market in Summertown and badger the veg stall holders into giving her the unsaleable stuff for free. Today she’d come away with a dozen squash, a sack of potatoes, carrots and celery.
Elsa was unsure about it. ‘It’s very orange, Harry.’
‘It’s supposed to be that way, Elsa. How’ve you been keeping anyway? I haven’t seen you for a couple of days.’
She ate some of her soup thoughtfully. It was lovely and warm.
‘I’ve been out of town, Harry,’ she said grandly. He nodded. He knew that she had a place in the woods on the outskirts near the ring road where she slept. It was quieter out there and she had a tarpaulin and a couple of sleeping bags that she kept hidden under a spreading holly bush, so she could wrap up warmly and not get hassled by passers-by. ‘I’m looking after something, it’s from a computer,
I think, that the nice young man who lives in Pretoria Road in Summertown gave me.’
Harry frowned. ‘That street was on the news, someone got killed there.’
‘That’s right,’ said Elsa. ‘In fact in, oh, my Lord, what’s his name…’ Harry watched with amusement as she banged her head angrily with her fist, he often had the same problem. Names refusing, obstinately, to come.
‘Marcus, that’s it, Marcus Hinds.’
‘Shouldn’t you speak to the police about it?’ asked Harry. ‘Maybe I will, or maybe I won’t,’ said Elsa mysteriously. ‘Have you finished, Elsa?’ asked Rowenna. She was going round the tables clearing the bowls and plates away. She had learned that it was best to get them back as quickly as possible in case of breakage or spillage.
‘Yes, thank you, dear, anyway.’ She turned her back on Rowenna who was stacking the bowls and plates on a trolley and looked at Harry. ‘Marcus Hinds said he’d be back for it at some stage, so I’ll speak to him then. He’ll probably want it back. Those computer drive things are probably important.’
‘Are you finished too, Harry?’
He nodded and Rowenna moved their bowls on to her trolley.
She pushed it back to the kitchen. So, she thought, Elsa knows Marcus. What a small world.