"Young kids are vulnerable. They find a friendly ear to pour things into which, a couple of years later as they grow up, they wish maybe they hadn't. So then they look for a reason to split."

"Thought you and Zak parted by mutual consent 'cos she wanted to go stateside and you wanted to take this job at the Plezz?"

"I was talking in general, Joe, not about me and Zak," said Hardiman coldly. "Listen, Joe, you tread carefully here, right? Last thing I want is some family row blowing up in the Plezz, so save your dramatic revelations till Zak's on her way back to the States."

"Should've thought the last thing you wanted was Zak coming last," said Joe.

Hardiman shook his head and sighed deeply.

"Joe," he said. "The Grand Opening isn't about Zak, it's about the Plezz. After it's over, then the real work begins, and it doesn't matter if during the course of the ceremonies the mayor gets fighting drunk, the visiting dignitaries all fall into the pool, or Zak Oto gets run into the track by a no-name from nowhere. In fact if one or all of those happen, we'd probably get much more publicity than if everything goes to plan. This time next week, the mayor will be sober, the dignitaries dry, and Zak long gone to sunny Virginia. And all of us back here will be settling down to the long hard struggle to make this place pay."

He paused and Joe digested the speech.

"So you're not bothered about Zak?" he said finally.

"Of course I'm bothered about Zak!" said Hardiman indignantly. "I put years into that girl, the important years. I'm looking forward to a good decade of watching her tear up the record books, and all the while I'll be thinking, it was me who got you started, girl! And I'll tell you one thing, Joe. Doesn't matter what some nutter might be saying, once Zak gets out on that track, she'll run to win. She doesn't know any other way. I guarantee that, 'cos it was me that put it there!"

Good speech, thought Joe. But when you're watching her winning Olympic Gold, won't you be thinking, it should be me there at trackside, me she's running up to with the big thank-you hug for all to see on worldwide telly?

He recalled vaguely that last summer when Zak had announced she was definitely heading west, some of the tabloids had tried to whip rumours of an acrimonious parting into a full-blown row. Both of the notional partic.i.p.ants, however, had been at pains to play things down. Zak, looking so lovely you'd have believed it if she'd told you she could fly, had talked about her grat.i.tude to Jim and his total support for her decision that the American option was best for her, both personally and athletically. And Hardiman had completed the smother job by announcing that he was taking up the post of sports director at the Plezz. "With Zak's talent, coaching her was a full-time commitment and I was never going to be able to combine it with getting things off the ground at the Pleasure Dome," he'd said, cleverly suggesting that if any dumping had been done, he was the dumpster.

"Now let's see if I can find Zak for you. I think she'll be in the cafe with the others."

"Others?"

"Didn't she say? Her agent, her Yank trainer, and of course big sister are all here."

He made them all sound like a gang of freeloading hangers-on.

"So what exactly happens on New Year's Day?" asked Joe as they set off walking once more.

"Well, there's an official opening of the stadium, flashing lights, boys and girls dancing, that sort of thing, followed by the compet.i.tion, with Zak's race as the highlight, of course. Then in the evening there's a civic reception in the art gallery to inaugurate the other facilities. Zak will be asked to unveil a plaque, everyone will get noisily p.i.s.sed, and the rate payers will foot the bill. The luminaries of Luton are fighting for invites. If you don't have a ticket, you're dead."

"I'm dead," said Joe.

Hardiman laughed and pushed open a door which led into a self-serve cafe, gaily decorated in the bistro style and tiered down to a plate-gla.s.s wall which let every table have a view of the track below. There was no food on offer yet, but on the serving counter a coffee machine bubbled away.

"Won't this be the place to eat though?" said Hardiman proudly. "Gobbling up your grub, while down there they're gobbling up world records."

"Pretty optimistic, aren't you?" said Joe.

"We've got the fastest boards and the most generous indoor bends in Europe," boasted Hardiman. They'll soon catch on, anyone after a world record, Luton's the only place to be. There's Zak down there."

Joe had already spotted the girl sitting at a table on the lowest tier with three people, two men and a woman. These three were drinking coffee. Zak was sucking on a bottle of her beloved Bloo-Joo which she removed from her mouth and waved as they approached.

"Hi, Joe," she said. "Glad you could make it. You guys, this is Joe I was telling you about. Joe, meet my sister Mary, my agent Doug Endor, and my coach, Abe Schoenfeld."

Schoenfeld was late twenties, athletic of build and glistening with what looked like spray-on health. He said, "Hi, Joe," in a Clint Eastwood accent. Endor, who was about thirty, tall, craggily handsome, and wearing an eat-your-heart-out-paupers mohair suit, offered his hand and said, "Glad to know you, Joe." Sister Mary didn't even look at him. She was shorter than Joe and muscularly built. He tried to see a resemblance to Zak and couldn't.

"Grab a seat, Joe," said Zak.

He sat. Hardiman said, "Catch you later, Joe," and walked away.

Sulking because he hadn't been asked to stay? Or maybe you didn't invite directors to sit in their own sports centres.

"So tell me, Joe, what's your line?" said Abe Schoenfeld.

Joe glanced uneasily at Zak. She'd intro'd him as Joe I was telling you about. Presumably she'd given the agreed story about taking pity on the out-of-work uncle of an old friend. But what work was he out of?

Zak said, "Abe means, what's your physical thing, Joe. He reckons everyone is some sort of athlete, even if it's only second-hand."

"Like watching, you mean?" said Joe. "I've got a season ticket for the Town."

"That's soccer, right? You play?"

"Used to kick a ball around when I was at school."

"But not now? Nothing else? Tennis? Maybe not. Rock climbing? Swimming?"

"Go to a judo cla.s.s," he said.

"Knew there was something," said Schoenfeld. "You can always fell the guys who haven't dropped right through. You should do weights. Right body shape, good shoulders, heavy legs."

"You're right about the legs," said Joe. "Feel heavier every time I go upstairs."

"Abe is always looking for new talent," laughed Zak. "OK, you guys, I'm going to show Joe around, let him know what he's going to be doing."

She stood up. Joe followed suit. So did Mary.

Endor said, "Mary, doll, spare a mo? Couple of tings I need to talk over."

Professional c.o.c.kney, Hardiman had said. Sounded real enough to Joe.

"I'll be back in the office next week," said Mary coldly. "Just now I'm on vacation, remember?"

She walked away with the faintest hint of a limp.

"Mary works for your agent, does she?" asked Joe as he followed Zak out of the restaurant area.

"That's right. Why do you ask?"

"No reason," said Joe, surprised by the sharpness of her tone. "She don't look very happy."

"Well, that's her business, wouldn't you say?" said Zak coldly.

Joe took a deep breath. One of the early maxims in the so far very slim Joe Sixsmith Book of Advice to Would-be Detectives was, if you're going to quarrel with your client, get it over with before the bill mounts up.

"No," he said. "It's my business if I'm going to work for you. I need to be able to ask you anything I like and get a straight answer."

There it was. She was frowning. She was a nice kid but seeing her with her entourage had underlined that she was also, if not yet a queen, certainly a princess getting used to the deference of her own court.

Could be it was off-with-his-head time.

Instead she suddenly smiled and said, "OK. You do the press-ups or you change your coach. Right?"

"Sounds reasonable," said Joe. Talking of which, you did change your coach last summer. Or rather by going to America you cut off your connection with Hardiman. Any hard feelings?"

Always best to get all versions of a story.

"You've been reading the wrong papers, Joe," she said. "No, it was pretty painless, the right move for both of us at the right time."

"Well, that was handy," said Joe.

Things sometimes work like that," said Zak, with all the confidence of one who hadn't yet received too many half bricks in the neck from life. If we hadn't stayed good friends, you don't think I'd be here now? When Jim heard I was coming home for Christmas, it was him got the idea of boosting the official opening of the Plezz by having an athletics meeting with me running an exhibition. I wouldn't have done it for anybody else."

"How did Abe react?"

"No problem. He reckoned I'd be ready for a real tester about now."

"So this is a real race? Not just an exhibition run?" Thinking, it would be a lot easier for you to 'lose' in a real race.

"It's a real race. Lots of top trackers who wouldn't mind showing me their b.u.ms. Abe wouldn't have come across if he didn't think he was needed."

"He's staying with you?"

"No way," she laughed. "We're all full up at home, and I try not to track my business into the house anyway. No, Abe's very comfortable at the Kimberley."

Joe whistled. "With their prices, I should hope he is."

The Kimberley was one of Luton's top hotels.

"He says it's OK," said Zak, coming to a halt and opening a door marked Women's Locker Room. "Come on in. I've got the place to myself at the moment. This here's my locker."

"Oh yes. Great. Nice locker."

"Where I found the second note," she said gently.

He examined it carefully because that's what she seemed to expect him to do.

"No sign of forcing," he said professionally.

"No. I checked. What about fingerprints."

"Left the powder in the office," he said. Then, recalling another of his maxims, don't get smart with the clients, he added, "What I mean is, no point. Key in, turn, pull open with the key, drop the note inside, push, turn, remove key, and you're away without laying a finger on the door. Anyone else using the Dome before it officially opens?"

"I know the Spartans, that's my old club, have been using the track evenings for training to help it settle. Plus there's the workmen putting finishing touches. Plus people using other bits of the Plezz could easily stroll in here. Shouldn't you concentrate on who's got access to the spare keys? Can't be too many of them."

Oh dear, thought Joe. Like a good princess, she wasn't going to be shy about telling the help what they ought to be working at.

He said, "Got your key handy?"

She pa.s.sed it over. Joe moved along the wall of metal lockers. They came in blocks of eight. Zak's was second from the left. He counted two in the next block and inserted the key. The door opened. He did the same with the next block.

This way the manufacturers only need eight variations on locks and keys instead of an infinity," he explained.

"But it's lousy security!" she protested angrily.

"Saves rate payers money," said Joe with civic sternness. "As for security, your crook's got to work it out first."

"You worked it out," she said not un admiringly That's my job," he said modestly, not thinking it worthwhile to reveal that the lockers at Robco Engineering where he'd worked nearly twenty years had suffered from the same deficiency which he'd worked out after ten.

"So that means there's my key, and the duplicate key and the master key plus the keys for every second locker in every block in every changing room in the complex?"

That's right," said Joe. The note that landed on your pillow is a better bet."

"Why do you say that?" she asked.

"Because," he said patiently, 'getting into a house is a lot harder than getting into a changing room. Who else was in the house that night?"

She said, "Mum, dad, Eddie, my kid brother, and Mary."

"Oh yes. You were telling me about your sister but we got diverted."

Polite way of putting it.

She looked ready to renew her objections to answering questions about her family, then she took a deep breath and said, "Mary's four years older than me. When I was a kid, I hung around her all the time. Must have driven her mad but she never showed it. When I got into junior athletics she was really supportive, took me along to her gym to work out, came and shouted for me when I was running."

"She was into sport too?" asked Joe.

"Oh yes. She's got a great eye. Squash was her thing. She won lots of junior trophies and her first season when she moved up to senior level, she got to the national semis. She was going places."

"But?"

"But two years ago she was in a car accident. Her knee got busted pretty bad. They put it together again fine, but not so they felt it would stand up to the strain of training for and playing top-level squash. Otherwise though it's completely normal."

"I thought she had a bit of a limp."

"Oh yes. No physical reason according to the doctors, but it comes on from time to time."

Especially when you're around? wondered Joe. But he thought it better to leave it for now.

"She start working for Endor before he became your agent or after?" he asked.

"Oh, after, I think," she said vaguely. "She's doing really well."

"Yeah? Take you over on her own account eventually?"

"Could be. Main thing is she's off work now till the New Year so it's great we can spend time together."