The Killer Next Door(49)

She blinks and forces a smile on to her face. ‘No, don’t worry, it’s not heavy. I’m fine, thanks.’

Hossein tuts. ‘You Englishwomen are so independent it hurts. Come on. Letting me carry a bag for you doesn’t mean I’ll take away your right to vote.’

He holds out a hand and smiles, and suddenly she’s relieved to hand the weight over. She finally stopped into Asda on the way to Sunnyvale and bought some bedclothes, and she’s surprised how heavy they seem. The bag is a big woman’s shopper in pink leatherette, but he swings it unselfconsciously over his shoulder and grins as he sets off towards Beulah Grove. She falls into step beside him.

‘So how are you getting along?’ he asks. ‘You’ve been to visit your mother?’

She nods.

‘And how is she?’

Collette sighs. ‘Fairly much the same.’

‘Does she remember you yet?’

‘No. Most of the time, she doesn’t even remember I came yesterday. She doesn’t mind the chocolates, though. She eats a box a day, but she never seems to put on any weight.’

‘It’s hard,’ he says.

‘Yes,’ she says, and they carry on in silence to the High Street. I need to find a change of subject, she thinks. We can’t just walk all the way home without saying anything. It’s embarrassing.

As they turn the corner, she says: ‘So you’re Iranian, then?’

‘Yep,’ says Hossein.

‘That’s Persia, right?’

‘Sort of.’

‘What’s it like?’

‘Lovely,’ he says. ‘It’s a lovely country. It’s not Syria, you know.’

‘So why did you leave?’

‘Because it’s ruled by arseholes,’ he says, ‘and I kept saying it out loud.’

‘You’re a politician?’ She’s surprised by the distaste she hears in her own voice. She’s never met a politician before. Hadn’t ever thought she would want to.

‘I taught economics. And I did some journalism, wrote a blog. These things don’t go so well with the powers that be when your students start joining in.’

‘Oh,’ she says. ‘I’m sorry. Did you… were you…?’

‘It’s what happens,’ says Hossein. ‘I wasn’t exactly the only one. Anyway, I’m here now. And soon –’ he hams up his accent and curls his spare arm so that a lean, hard muscle pops ‘– I weel be beeg, beeg Englishman, inshallah. So it’s a beautiful day, isn’t it?’

Collette looks around her as if she’s seeing it for the first time. The heat has been heavy for the past few days, but a breeze, she notices, has got up and the air is surprisingly pleasant. ‘Yeah, it is, isn’t it?’

They reach the corner of Bracken Gardens and turn down it. ‘It’s swimming pool weather,’ says Hossein. ‘Have you ever been to the Serpentine?’

‘What? The river?’

‘The Lido.’ He pronounces it Lee-do, like an Italian, not Lie-doh, the way she’s used to, and it takes her a moment. ‘I was thinking maybe I’d go tomorrow. In the afternoon.’

‘Oh, God,’ she says. ‘I can’t think of anything worse. Right in the middle of the city. All that duck shit.’

‘I bet you swim in the sea.’

‘Well, yeah.’

‘You know they have fish and seagulls in the sea, don’t you?’

‘Yeah, that’s… oh, whatever.’

‘So I’m going to go,’ he says. ‘It’s fun; old ladies with no tops on on one side of the river and old ladies in burqas on the other. An ice cream and some clear water to swim in. What could be nicer?’

‘Not dying of salmonella poisoning?’

‘You just don’t want to get your hair wet,’ he teases.

‘Well, fair enough, Hossein. I look like a dandelion without the proper product.’

‘Dandelion?’

‘Never mind. It’s a sort of flower.’

‘I’m sure.’

‘No, it – oh, never mind.’

‘So are you going to come? We could take Cher, maybe.’

‘Do you think Cher can swim?’

‘She can swim like a porpoise, as long as she takes her shoes off.’

She’s embarrassed, faintly uneasy. Is he asking her on a date or just being friendly? ‘I’ll have to see,’ she hedges. ‘Depends when I get back tomorrow.’

Hossein sighs and gives her the big brown eyes. ‘Okay,’ he says. ‘I know what that means.’

‘Oh, no, I —’

He laughs. ‘You’re very easy to embarrass,’ he says.