"Look at her," Katriona taunted, watching as the baby nuzzled close to Claudia's breast in the same seeking way she had earlier to Katriona's own.

"You won't find anything there," she told the baby derisively.

Her expression turning sulky again, she reached out and snatched the child back from Claudia.

"She's mine," she declared fiercely.

"Mine--and she's going to stay mine, even if... Good job you're a girl," she addressed the baby grimly as her body started to give in to the pull of the drug she had injected before Claudia's arrival.

"Let's hope you grow up pretty. That way we can get you earning your own living. There's plenty of men around who like 'em young," she added unemotionally to Claudia, ignoring her sudden indrawn breath of shock.

"The younger the better it turns 'em on."

Claudia knew better than to protest or to plead with Katriona that for her daughter's sake, if not for her own, she ought to at least try to change her current way of life.

Common sense told Claudia that it was already too late. The Katriona who had returned from the months spent 'travelling' looked almost a decade older than the girl Claudia had last seen. She was thinner, frailer, harder, her ultimate fate already showing in her eyes, and knowing Katriona as she did, Claudia suspected that the girl herself knew it. Even so. she had to try.

"Katriona," she began quietly, 'you--' "I'm what?" Katriona provoked her grimly, her body taut with defiance as she silently dared Claudia to say what she was thinking.

"You know where I am if you need me," Claudia said simply, resisting the urge to take up the dare, then getting up to go.

She had reached the door when Katriona stopped her, calling out to her. Slowly, Claudia turned round.

"Give me your telephone number," Katriona demanded tersely.

Claudia frowned. Tou already have it. The office--' "No, not the office, at home. Give it to me." It was strictly against all the rules, but instead of refusing, Claudia found herself hesitating, then urged by some instinct she could neither define nor ignore, she quickly scribbled her number down on a piece of paper she tore from her diary and gave it to Katriona.

Back at her desk later, she broke another rule. When she was writing up her case notes, she made no mention of the fact that Katriona had asked for her telephone number and no mention of the fact that she had given it to her.

Look, are you sure you'll be all right? "

"Garth, I'll be fine," Claudia assured him, trying to force the irritation out of her voice and put a smile on her face as he stood watching her, overnight bag at his feet, one hand already poised to open the door onto a new life for both of them, or onto freedom for him. From her?

Tensely, Claudia swallowed. Garth had sworn over and over again that he loved her. But there were still images like now, when she could only see--what? who? --a stranger, a man dressed in his business suit, his mind already on the meetings that lay ahead of him, looking frighteningly unfamiliar, not her Garth at all.

"I can cancel these meetings, stay here with you, if you--' " I want you to go," Claudia insisted even though both of them knew it wasn't the truth. She had been having one of her periods of feeling extremely depressed and the knowledge that Garth's business meetings were going to keep him away for two nights--normally something she would have taken in her stride--had caused her to feel even worse.

Why, oh why didn't Garth simply go? Didn't he know how tempted she was to beg him to stay? Every second he delayed, that temptation grew worse.

"Just go. Garth," she finally snapped at him.

"I'll be fine."

With Garth gone, she wandered around the flat, picking things up and putting them down. She supposed she ought to make herself something to eat but the idea simply didn't appeal.

Although she had tried to hide it from him in bed, she could feel Garth carefully measuring the shrinking width of her waist with the span of his hands. He was constantly urging her to eat more, bringing home tempting boxes of chocolates, which she took to work and gave to the others.

It wasn't food her body, her emotions, her whole being, craved; it was a baby. Confirmation of her womanhood, fulfilment of the very reason that nature had made her.

A baby. Claudia was asleep when the phone rang. As she stretched out her hand for the receiver, she saw the time on the alarm clock and frowned, tensing her body as sleep receded, driven away by the surge of adrenalin-fuelled anxiety that filled her as she registered the fact that it was gone one o'clock in the morning.

Her first thought was that something had happened to Garth. Either that or one or other of their parents. Telephone calls at one a. m.

could only herald bad news, and at first she found it hard to make any sense of the unfamiliar and very slurred female voice at the other end of the line.

"I'm sorry, I don't--' she began.

But the girl cut her off, swearing volubly, then telling her frantically, "It's Kat.-she said to ring. She's bad... she wants you to come."

"Cat...?" But it was too late. The girl had hung up, leaving Claudia grasping for answers.

Cat . Kat . Katriona. It had to be her. Suddenly, Claudia was upand out of bed, pulling on her clothes, mentally running through allthe possible things the phone call might mean. Grabbing her bag andcar keys, she headed for the door.

For some people, one a. m. was not particularly late, and this was,after all, London, whose streets were far from empty. Yet somehow,despite their busyness, Claudia was filled with a sense of alienationand deep foreboding. The fact that the squat was in an area that noone would think of visiting at night never even crossed her mind as sheparked her car and got out, throwing a darkly challenging glare at thegang of youths watching. A little to her own surprise, they shuffledoff, leaving her free to hurry towards the block of flats.

Someone, somewhere, was having a party, the music so loud the building almost shook with the violent force of it, and as she passed one flat, Claudia could hear the sounds of arguing coming from inside it, followed by a crash of shattering china.

Grimly, she hurried on. Without being fanciful, she suddenly had the feeling that she wasn't making her swift journey to Katriona's side on her own; she could almost hear the threatening beat of his wings as she sensed the ominous presence of death's winged messenger at her heels.

The squat unexpectedly was in complete darkness, causing her to come to an abrupt halt. For some reason, she had expected it to be ablaze with light, filled with noise and people, but instead it was totally silent.

As she raised her hand to bang on the door, someone opened it and a girl she vaguely remembered from a previous visit stretched out a skinny, clawlike hand to drag her in.

"She's upstairs... waiting," she whispered to Claudia, who recognised from her voice that she was the girl who had rung her.

Claudia demanded, "What's wrong ... is she--' " She's a goner," the girl replied brutally.

"She's been into a bad scene. Took some spooked heroin." She

shrugged.

"Have you called a doctor... an ambulance?" Claudia asked her, hurrying towards the stairs.

"No use," the girl said.

"Wouldn't rush to come anyway, not to the likes of us, and besides, that wasn't what she wanted."

"Go and ring for an ambulance now," Claudia instructed her.

"Tell them it's an emergency. Do it," she commanded.

"Now!"

Shrugging, the girl headed for the door, telling her, "It won't do any

good. It's too late!" But Claudia wasn't listening; she was heading

for the stairs instead.

Like the rest of the flat, Katriona's room was virtually in darkness but the illumination provided by the single flickering candle propped up in a corner and supported by its own wax was more than enough to show Claudia that the girl had spoken the truth. Katriona was indeed dying.

Unbelievably, though, she was still conscious. Not only conscious but calmly aware of what was happening, Claudia recognised as she saw the girl's eyes flicker in mocking acknowledgement of the shock Claudia knew was visible in her own face.

"You came. I knew you would...."

The voice was a whisper, barely as loud as the whistling sound she made trying to draw air into her lungs. "Don't talk," Claudia urged, kneeling on the floor beside her and reaching out to take hold of her cold hand."The doctor will be here soon."Katriona gave the ghost of a laugh."Not soon enough. Oh, don't look so shocked," she mocked Claudia."After all, isn't this what you've been warning me would happen? You should be pleased. At last you're being proved right.""Katriona... don't try to talk. The doctor--' " Can't do a damn thing.I'm not stupid. It's too late. I owed the dealer. I couldn't pay. "

She gave a small shrug.

"I begged him for one last fix. He took me literally, gave me a bad mix." She smiled, a mere shadow of a smile, her eyes shockingly alive in the drawn, already waxen pallor of her face.

Suddenly, from a dark corner of the room, Claudia heard a thin protesting cry.

The baby. Instinctively, she started to reach for her, but Katriona immediately stopped her, demanding, "Give her to me."

Automatically, Claudia did so, but if she was looking for some indication that in the last moments of her life Katriona was going to show some sign of mother love for her child, she was wrong.

"God but she stinks," Katriona protested, her voice suddenly stronger and harsher, more familiar. "Here, you take her," she commanded, then thrust the baby towards Claudia.

The baby's cry that had grown stronger as Katriona held her suddenly, miraculously, magically almost, stilled as Claudia cradled her. Was it possible that that actually was a smile of recognition the baby was giving her? Was she imagining it or was she really reaching out with her tiny hands to clutch her? Claudia wondered.

Katriona was momentarily forgotten as the intensity of emotion she had experienced the first time she had held her came rushing back, if anything even more strongly.

"Still not pregnant, are you?" Katriona demanded.

Unable to take her eyes off the baby, Claudia shook her head.

"Something's wrong, isn't it?" she heard Katriona insisting.

"It must be, otherwise you'd be carrying another by now. You can't have any more, can you?" Claudia was too caught off guard for pretence, her shocked gaze focused on Katriona's triumphant expression, the skin of her face drawn tightly back against her skull--a death-mask.

"Poor Claudia, so desperate to become a mother. Aren't you afraid you might lose him if you can't give him a child, your wonderful Garth?"

As though sensing Claudia's distress, the baby started to cry again, a nervous, frightened sound. Then, automatically seeking the warmth and protection of Claudia's body, she squirmed closer to her. Claudia held her tight, soothing her as she shook her head at Katriona.

"Don't be frightened of her," she pleaded.

"Katriona... take her."

"No, I don't want her," Katriona rasped weakly as Claudia tried to hand her daughter to her. Turning her head away, she told Claudia in a petulant, hoarse whisper, "I never wanted her... I never meant to have her, but I left it too late. She'd have been better off with you as her mother, not me...."

Closing her eyes, she stopped speaking, her strength fading so quickly that Claudia felt she could almost see it draining out of her. Where was the doctor. that girl.

"I want you to take her... to keep her... to be her mother. I want you to be her parents... you and your Garth. It's only right that she..."

Katriona closed her eyes again, her breathing ragged and painful.

Take her! Take Katriona's baby. bring her up as her own. She couldn't. It was impossible, illegal . it was. The baby had stopped crying. Claudia looked down at her.

"Do it she heard Katriona commanding her fiercely.

"You know you want to. She could be yours after all. She needs a proper mother... a real father. What will happen to her if you don't? A foster home, passed from pillar to post, rejected and unwanted. But you want her, don't you, Claudia? You want her so badly, it hurts. I can feel how much it hurts. Take her, take her now... now while there's no one here...."

Helplessly, Claudia closed her eyes, wishing she could get away from the insidious and dangerous whisper of Katriona's voice but knowing that she had to stay; that she couldn't leave the girl, not while. Outside, she could hear the sharp, fearsome clamour of an ambulance siren and her knotted stomach muscles started to relax. She replaced the baby in the grubby nest of blankets that was her bed and returned to Katriona's side.

"You'll be feeling much better soon," she told her, trying to project an air of professionalism.

"The doctor--' " The doctor. " Katriona laughed weakly.

"Oh, my God, no doctor on earth can stop what's happening to me now," she whispered to Claudia in a voice that sounded like the rustle of dead leaves.

"I'm dying, Claudia ... dying. Do you want me to tell you who her father is?" she demanded abruptly.

"Are you afraid of taking her because your Garth might not approve... because her father might be some drop-out druggie like her mother? He wasn't, Claudia. You'd be surprised if I told you who he actually was...." She started to laugh again.

The siren had stopped now and Claudia held her breath, praying that the ambulance crew would arrive in time. Not in time to save Katriona--that was impossible. Each breath she drew was forecasting her last and Claudia could almost see her heart straining beneath the thin wall of her chest. No. In time to save her from committing the crime of giving in to Katriona's tempting whispers. It would be easy enough. Katriona hadn't yet registered her baby's birth, and in the kind of environment that Katriona lived in, it was the easiest thing in the world for a baby to disappear. Any one of the peripatetic individuals who shared the squat might take it into their heads to take the child with them. No one would know; no one would ask any-"Take her," Katriona mouthed.

"Take her. Take her, Claudia."