Osmond looked puzzled by the question, and when he finally answered no, it didn’t ring true. Or maybe he was just thrown off balance. Burgess didn’t seem to notice anything, but Banks made a mental note to check into the possibility that Osmond and Gill had somehow come into contact.
The bedroom door opened and Jenny walked out. She’d brushed her hair and put on a pair of jeans and an oversized plaid shirt. Banks bet it belonged to Osmond and tried not to think about what had been going on earlier in the bedroom.
“Hello, love,” Burgess said, patting an empty chair beside him. “Come to join us? What’s your name?”
“In the first place,” Jenny said stiffly, “I’m not ‘love,’ and in the second, I don’t see as my name’s any of your damn business. I wasn’t even there on Friday.”
“As you like,” Burgess said. “Just trying to be friendly.”
Jenny glanced at Banks as if to ask, “Who is this bastard?” and Burgess caught the exchange.
“Do you two know each other?” he asked.
69
Banks cursed inwardly and felt himself turning red. There was no way out. “This is Dr Fuller,” he said. “She helped us on a case here a year or so back.”
Burgess beamed at Jenny. “I see. Well, maybe you can help us again, Dr Fuller.
Your boyfriend here doesn’t want to talk to us, but if you’ve helped the police before-“
“Leave her alone,” Osmond said. “She had nothing to do with it.” Banks had felt the same thing-he didn’t want Burgess getting his claws into Jenny-and he resented Osmond for being able to defend her.
“Very prickly today, aren’t we?” Burgess said. “All right, sonny, we’ll get back to you, if that’s the way you want it.” But he kept looking at Jenny, and Banks knew he was filing her away for future use. Banks now found it hard to look her in the eye himself. He was only a chief inspector and Burgess was a superintendent. When things were going his way, Burgess wouldn’t pull rank, but if Banks let any of his special feeling for Jenny show, or tried in any way to protect her, then Burgess would certainly want to humiliate him. Besides, she had her knight in shining armour in the form of Osmond. Let him take the flack.
“What were you charged with on Friday?” Burgess asked.
“You know damn well what I was charged with. It was a trumped-up charge.”
“But what was it? Tell me. Say it. Just to humour me.” Burgess reached into his pocket and took out his tin of Tom Thumbs. Holding Osmond’s eyes with his own all the time, he slowly took out a cigar and lit it.
“I said I don’t want you smoking in here,” Osmond protested on cue. “It’s my home and-“
“Shut up,” Burgess said, just loudly enough to stop him in his tracks. “What was the charge?”
“Breach of the peace,” Osmond mumbled. “But I told you, it was trumped up. If anyone broke the peace, it was the police.”
“Ever heard of a lad by the name of Paul Boyd?” Banks asked.
“No.” It was a foolish lie. Osmond had answered before 70
he’d had time to register the question. Banks would have known he was lying even if he hadn’t already learned, via Jenny, that Osmond was acquainted with the people at Maggie’s Farm.
“Look,” Osmond went on, “I’m starting an inquiry of my own into what happened on Friday. I’ll be taking statements, and believe me, I’ll make sure your behaviour here today goes into the final report.”
“Bully for you,” said Burgess. Then he shook his head slowly. “You don’t get it, do you, sonny? You might be able to pull those outraged-citizen tactics with the locals, but they won’t wash with me. Do you know why not?”
Osmond scowled and kept silent.
“I said, do you know why not?”
“All right, no, I don’t bloody well know why not!”
“Because I don’t give a flying fuck for you or for others like you,” Burgess said, stabbing the air with his cigar. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re shit, and we’d all be a hell of a lot better off without you. And the people I work with, they feel the same way. It doesn’t matter if Chief Inspector Banks here has the hots for your Dr Fuller and wants to go easy on her. It doesn’t matter that he’s got a social conscience and respects people’s rights, either. I don’t, and my bosses don’t. We don’t piss around, we get things done, and you’d do well to remember that, both of you.”
Jenny was flushed and speechless with rage; Banks himself felt pale and impotent. He should have known that nothing would slip by Burgess.
“I can’t tell you anything,” Osmond repeated wearily. “Why can’t you believe me?
I don’t know who killed that policeman. I didn’t see it, I didn’t do it, and I don’t know who did.”
A long silence followed. At least it seemed long to Banks, who was aware only of the pounding of his heart. Finally Burgess stood up and walked over to the window, where he stubbed out his cigar on the white sill. Then he turned and smiled. Osmond gripped the tubular arms of his chair tightly.
71
“Okay,” Burgess said, turning to Banks. “We’ll be off, then, for the moment.
Sorry to spoil your afternoon in bed. You can get back to it now, if you like.”
He looked at Jenny and licked his lips. “That’s a fetching shirt you’ve got on, love,” he said to her. “But you didn’t need to leave it half-unbuttoned just for me. I’ve got plenty of imagination.”
