The Vanishing Point by Val McDermid

Author:Val McDermid
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Thrillers, Azizex666, Fiction
ISBN: 9780802193971
Publisher: Grove Press
Published: 2012-10-02T04:00:00+00:00

29

Nick had learned early on in his police career that nobody appreciated a copper on the doorstep late at night unless it really was a matter of life or death. He suspected that as far as Joshu’s parents were concerned, he’d be unwelcome at any time. They were under no obligation to talk to him, and he reckoned they would exercise their freedom of choice, not least because his was the face they would associate with the investigation into their only son’s death.

But there were other sources for information about the Patel family’s circumstances. During the inquiry into Joshu’s death, Nick had also spoken to both of the dead man’s sisters. Unlike their brother, Asmita and Ambar had fulfilled their parents’ ambitions. Asmita was an accountant with an international consultancy; Ambar had been on the point of qualifying as a barrister specialising in tax affairs. Dismayed but not surprised by her brother’s death, Ambar spoke about him with a world-weariness depressing in one so young and privileged, suggesting he had been a tragedy waiting to happen. ‘We washed our hands of him years ago,’ she’d said. ‘He made it clear he despised all of us, and frankly, I’d had enough of it. When he took up with that vile woman, that was the last straw. I never even told my friends we were related.’ It was a depressing epitaph for a young man who had been, in Nick’s view, essentially harmless. A waste of space, perhaps. But not a bad man. Not by the standards Nick was familiar with.

Asmita had been more upset. ‘I keep remembering what a funny little boy he was,’ she said. ‘My sweet little brother. I wish my parents hadn’t cut him out of our lives. We should have been there for him.’ Her regret was eating her up, that much had been clear. What depressed Nick more than her sister’s cynicism was that this grown woman hadn’t been able to find the courage to defy her parents and maintain contact with the brother she’d clearly still cared about. He wasn’t sentimental; he didn’t think Asmita could have saved Joshu from his burning drive towards self-destruction. But he didn’t think Joshu had deserved such an almighty fall from grace and he thought he’d let Asmita see that. If anyone in the Patel family was going to talk to him, it would be her.

This time of night wasn’t ideal, but child abduction changed all the rules. He hoped Asmita would appreciate that. She was still living at the same address, according to the council tax roll. As he drew near to her address, Adrian Legg’s polyphonic guitar blasting from his speakers, Nick’s memories of Asmita’s flat took shape. The building where she lived had been a primary school, built in the year of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, which probably explained the extravagance of the architecture. It looked more like a church with cathedral aspirations than an education factory for the children of the London poor. Nick pulled

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