Deity

how do you suppose he’ll react to that a few hours after seeing his daughter say goodbye to the world?’ Brook didn’t reply. ‘You’re right, Damen. It’s a cheap shot and I wouldn’t normally bother with people that age — their failure is endemic. And for a grieving father of a beautiful daughter into the bargain, well, self-destruction is almost inevitable.’

‘Then why send it?’

Ray pushed the gun across to Brook. ‘To show you how easy it is to put people out of their misery. Pick it up.’

Brook looked at the gun. ‘You’re going to kill Terri, aren’t you?’

Ray laughed. ‘Again with the drama. How many times? I don’t kill people.’

‘Then why all this?’ asked Brook, gesturing at the laptop.

‘To get control,’ insisted Ray. ‘So we can talk like civilised men. I’m the director. I have to have control. I wouldn’t kill Terri unless I had to — a great girl like that. Besides, she’s too old. She had her chance to make a statement but she blew it and now she’s got a lifetime of despair and decay ahead.’

‘Just like me,’ said Brook.

‘On the contrary,’ said Ray, looking first at the gun and then at Brook. ‘We haven’t. . you know, if that’s what you’re wondering. Not that I couldn’t have. I could tell she wanted to but it didn’t seem right. Fucking the grieving daughter is a bit grubby.’

‘She stopped grieving for Tony a long time ago.’

Ray laughed. ‘She’s not grieving for Tony, she’s grieving for you — or will be. You’re the big prize. Why do you think I’m here?’ Ray stretched his arms wide, reading the imaginary headline. ‘suicide detective takes own life. What better advert for all those lost souls out there? What bigger boost for Deity? Forget Tony, Damen. I’ve come for you.’

Twenty-Seven

DS Gadd flicked the torch up and down the metal barrier that separated the derelict hospital site from the road.

‘How do we get in?’ asked Smee. ‘There’s no gap.’

‘We climb,’ replied Gadd.

A minute later the two detectives dropped down on to the weed-encrusted drive on the other side and began walking slowly towards the dark buildings which were surprisingly modern and spaced out across the site in small units. Inspecting the buildings in turn, they observed that most of the damage was superficial — windows and doors smashed, weeds and shrubs running amok — but two of the units had been severely damaged by fire. At one of them, the sign beside the overgrown parking bay informed them that this was the administration block.

Gadd shone her torch across piles of blackened wood and the twinkling display of shattered glass on the floor. On they walked, occasionally kicking through the detritus of old cans, sometimes spooked by darting animals and the urgent diving of bats.

At the far end of the site a final building loomed, which didn’t seem to have come under the same level of attack as the rest. All its windows were securely boarded or bricked up, and doors seemed to be securely fastened. Gadd turned the handle of one entrance. Although the door seemed to be unlocked, it wouldn’t open even under the shoulder of the burly Smee. The same was true of the other doors they could see. One had the sign, Hydrotherapy Pool, hanging off but it was just as uncooperative as the others.

‘The whole building seems to be sealed off.’

‘Land of the Pharaohs,’ said Gadd.

‘Hear that humming?’

Gadd cocked an ear. ‘I hear it.’

‘Sounds like a generator.’

On the other side of the building they came upon a low outhouse that might once have been a multi-bay garage. All the doors were gone and large holes had been sledgehammered into the walls. Gadd stepped into one of the bays. It smelled of human waste. The scurry of a rat turned her head and she resisted squealing with a male officer present. She was about to leave when she spotted another hole in the wall where an entire breeze block had been hammered out. There was something on the other side of the wall. She stepped closer to be sure she was right.

‘So you want my life in exchange for my daughter’s,’ said Brook. He spotted Terri’s handbag on the next chair and picked out her cigarettes and lighter. He lit up with a sigh. ‘I accept.’

‘Come on, Damen — that would be too easy. What parent wouldn’t die to save their child?’

‘I’ve met plenty in my line of work.’

Ray smiled. ‘You’re just like Adele. You think about things.’

Brook glanced at the monitor and took another pull on his cigarette. ‘Tell me about Adele.’

‘I dreamed up Deity for her. The others were just to make up the numbers. She was such a strong character, such a challenge. But gradually I was able to get under her skin. She was already disillusioned with life and the world around her. That’s when she showed me her poems. Can you believe it? She actually handed me her innermost thoughts for me to use against her. How naive, I thought at first.’ He shook his head.

‘And yet I was the naive one. She knew. She was nice to me but she wasn’t dumb. She knew I wasn’t what I appeared.’

‘The fox in the henhouse,’ said Brook.

‘The fox in the henhouse — I’m so liking that. Yes, that’s what I was — and Adele was the prize chicken. Once I had her, the others would be easy. So I made her a promise — to make her famous, to make her thoughts immortal. I told her she would make more of a mark with a single gesture than a lifetime of toil and protest.’

‘Is that when she gave you her boyfriend’s credit card to set up the website?’

‘What better way to put that sleazebag in the firing line? We knew it wouldn’t hold up but it would be fun watching Rifkind squirm. Her dad too. That’s when we put it to Kyle. We knew he was unhappy but he refused. He was in love with Jake. Can you imagine those two together? Forget it. Adele and me, we knew it was doomed so we waited.’

‘Waited for what?’

‘For the Kyle Kennedy train-wreck. And it worked out beautifully. Wilson saved us at least two weeks. The party was the next day so it was all systems go. Kyle wasn’t sure at first but after he’d seen Picnic at Hanging Rock, Adele was even more convinced we had him. Jake’s rejection just pushed him over the edge.’

‘Kyle didn’t apply for a passport, did he?’

‘Course not. I nicked a passport photo of him from his wallet and Adele got Rifkind to endorse it. She’d already borrowed both birth certificates on a previous visit and put them back on the night of the party.’

‘And Adele and Becky already had theirs.’

‘Exactly. It would seem like we’d left the country.’

‘And Becky?’

‘You saw the film in her bedroom,’ answered Ray. ‘What self-loathing. She was so desperate for fame she would have done anything.’

‘But suicide — that must have taken some persuasion?’

‘Not really. Fern let slip to Adele that Becky’s modelling career was in jeopardy and we knew we had our hook. The rest was just organisation. Adele made the leaflets. I wiped their computers so there could be no clues and made sure they brought their SIM cards, house keys and passports to the party. It had to be like we’d disappeared off the face of the earth.’

‘Why didn’t Jake see you at the Kennedy house?’

‘I hid upstairs. I knew Jake was invited but I was pretty sure after Wilson’s slapping that he wouldn’t show.’ Ray’s brow furrowed. ‘Guess I underestimated the power of love. Did Jake see them filming?’ Brook nodded. ‘Yeah, shame that. Those death masks would have had quite an impact if you thought they were real. I could tell you