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I blinked and realized that there was a young woman waiting behind the counter. She was tiny and dressed in orange capri pants and a purple T-shirt with a scorpion printed on the front. I couldn’t tell if she was mixed race or Portuguese or something like that, but she had a straight nose and hair and light brown skin. And black eyes, and a disturbingly unwavering gaze. “What’ll it be?” she said in an old-fashioned cockney accent. I introduced myself as Detective Constable Peter Grant—because I’m allowed to do that now. “Yeah, you’re the Starling, ain’t you?” she said, and managed to work an improbable glottal stop into the word “starling.” I figured, if we were going to play it that way . . . “That’s me,” I said. “So who are you, then, when you’re at home?” “Where do you think you’re standing?” she said. “From a topographical point of view?” The answer was, well, in the shallow valley carved by the second most important river in London. “So, you’re the Walbrook?” “You can call me Lulu,” she said. “I know your mum. And a couple of your sisters.” A hush fell all around me and there was a sound like wind chimes—the bottles along the back of the bar tinkling into each other. “If you want to stay on my good side,” said Lulu, “you might not want to be name-dropping in this pub—especially not those names.
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