RAFFERTY’S JOURNEY up to York with Smales was uneventful. It was fortunate that he’d been able to ‘borrow’ Smales from uniform. A more experienced officer would certainly question Rafferty’s determination to speak to the women alone. But Smales, being still apprentice-green, could, without argument, be despatched on tea-seeking duties or some such. He hadn’t even expressed astonishment when told he could drive, but had simply taken the car keys with alacrity, as if scared Rafferty might change his mind. But as Rafferty told himself as he eased into the passenger seat, even Smales’s driving had to be safer than his spectacled efforts. And it was less likely to wrap the car round a lamp post.
And when, some hours later, as they pulled up in the hotel forecourt of the modern concrete and gla
