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.That is what I’m afraid of.’‘And you have to have the case and the computer back?’‘Yes.’Liam was silent again.‘Why? Because of fingerprints?’‘No.I am not known to the police.There were some sheets of paper in the carry case.About the girls downstairs.’‘And your carry case is made by Dell?’‘Yes, it’s made from black leather.Good quality leather.It cost quite a lot.We need the carry case and we also need the laptop.’The way she said it, he knew what she really meant.I need the carry case and the laptop – you must find them for me.He glanced at the second carry case on the table.The girl in the street with the black hair.That had been a waste of time, then.The student called Philip as well.Fucking students.Shouldn’t have been buying dodgy gear in the first place.It was their own fault.When they’d called in on Eamon in his shitty little shop, he said straightaway the laptop he’d taken wasn’t there.That he’d sold it.He stuck to the story, eventually mumbling it through missing teeth and mashed-up lips, hands tied behind him.She’d stared down at him for a long time waiting for his sobbing to stop.Once it had, she asked for details of every person he’d sold a laptop to in the past few days.It was all in the computer by the till, he’d said.She went downstairs.While she was gone, he’d asked Eamon if he had any food in the place.There’d been biscuits in the tiny kitchen.He’d run his hand under the cold tap for a while to make the throb in his knuckles die down.Then he checked the cupboards.Ginger snaps.Eamon hadn’t wanted one.That was fair enough: wouldn’t be easy crunching up those things with a mouth the state of his.He leaned against the wall and ate quite a few while they waited for Nina.Eamon had started sobbing again.At one point, air caught in the blood and snot up his nose.A shiny balloon had emerged from his nostril.Liam had almost choked on his biscuit – it looked so funny! A red nose balloon!When Nina came back up the stairs, she had printed off a list.She was clever; found it, no messing.Asked Eamon if the names were the ones.Emily Dickinson.Philip Young.Teresa Donaghue.Andrew Williams.The four people who had bought a laptop since he’d walked off with Nina’s.Eamon’s head had bobbed up and down.One of them has it, they must have, he’d said.If it wasn’t downstairs.Nina had said it wasn’t.‘Liam?’They’d gone to the top of the stairs.She brought her face close to his.Close enough so he felt the heat coming off her smooth skin.She’d placed a hand on his arm.‘Finish him then burn this place and everything in it.There is a load of equipment downstairs, including a Dell laptop.For a minute, I thought it was mine, but it’s not.Destroy it and everything else down there.I’ll see you back at mine.’Nina stubbed her cigarette out, looking disdainfully down at the two laptops as she did so.Then she unfolded the list she’d printed in Eamon’s shop.It made a cracking sound as she opened it out.There was just one more name on the list.Andrew Williams, 41 Victoria Drive, Brinnington.‘You know where this place is?’‘Brinny? Yeah, I grew up near there.It’s close to Stockport.Not the sort of place you get many students, though.’‘I hope this person has my laptop and its carry case.If not … it is bad.’‘You want me to deal with him, too? Not just break into his house and take the computer and case?’‘He might have seen the profiles.He might have seen what’s on the computer.’‘Eamon said he’d wiped the memory, though.’‘He would have, wouldn’t he? It’s safer this way.’Liam said nothing for a second or two.‘The police don’t know about you.But they do me.I’ve got a record, Nina.’ He watched her as she took another cigarette from her pack and lit it.The ones she smoked were black.They had a funny name.Soberoni or something.‘All I’m saying is, we’re getting out of here after this, aren’t we?’Her pale blue eyes glittered.‘Mmm?’‘This guy in Brinny.That’ll be the fifth I’ve done over this – six if you include the woman living in the ground-floor flat.I can’t be in the country if the police start piecing it together.Neither of us can.’Her shoulders dropped and her features softened.She cupped the side of his face with one hand.‘Yes, we’ll be together soon.The money I’ll get for the two we have downstairs, that will be enough.You will love it so much where I’ll take you.There is a beach and, right behind it, the mountains.The slopes are a carpet of vineyards – you just fill up jugs at the farm.It costs almost nothing.’Her palm and fingers on his face; they seemed to suck away his ability to speak
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