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’

Pen nodded as though she was coming to the same conclusion at the same moment.

‘Then csizat you should talk to an expert,’ she said.

10

As it happens there are two demons within my immediate circle of acquaintances. Pen had Rafi in mind, for many reasons besides the strictly pragmatic, but of the two of them Juliet is the easier to deal with by a factor of a million: and Juliet was already on the case, in a way, so I dropped in on her first.

I tracked her down at the library in Willesden where her partner, Sue Book, now works.

Juliet was waiting for Sue to finish her shift, after which they were going to some kind of a book launch and public reading together. The two of us sat in the children’s section, because children at least were immune to Juliet’s lethally intense sexual aura. But there were a few mothers and fathers dotted around the room, too: Juliet ignored their uneasy, covetous stares and heard me out while I described my latest adventures at the Salisbury.

But she didn’t offer any insights of her own, and in the end I had to put the question directly.

‘So did you make it down there? If you didn’t, no pressure - I know you didn’t make me any promises and you don’t owe me anything. But this has got me scratching my head, Juliet. Anything you could throw me would be good.’

‘I was there,’ Juliet said.

I waited for more, but more didn’t come. Juliet looked down at the book she was reading: The Very Hungry Caterpillar. It was a subversive enough juxtaposition to throw me a little off my stride.

‘So what did you find?’ I asked, when it was clear that she wasn’t going to volunteer anything further.

She looked up at me again. A human woman - or man, for that matter - would have looked at the book in order to avoid eye contact, but Juliet was incapable of feeling embarrassment or social awkwardness. She was a stone-cold fact, exquisite and unapologetic, in a world of nuances. So she was looking at the book because something I’d said or something she was thinking had made a connection.

To hunger? To caterpillars? To metamorphosis?

‘I can’t discuss this,’ she said."

"I took a look at the other people in the room. It was true that there were a lot of eyes on us - or rather, on her. ‘Okay,’ I said, reluctantly. ‘But if I hang around until after the reading, could we—’

‘I don’t mean here and now, Castor. I mean ever. This isn’t a subject that can be raised between us.