see him again.’
Delaney crumpled the plastic beaker in his hand. ‘I always knew he was a little shit.’
Hamilton slapped him on the arm again. ‘Well, his shit just got canned, Jack.’
Delaney looked at him and shook his head, a slow smile forming, and pointed at his leg. ‘So you really did that playing rugby?’
‘Nah. I fell off a pushbike.’
And Delaney laughed.
TUESDAY
Diane Campbell stood next to Delaney’s desk by the open window. Outside dawn was breaking. The sky was clear again with only the faintest of red streaks far away in the distance. She blew out a stream of smoke into the cold air, her breath frosting with it, half-listening as Kate Walker talked and watching as a small dark-haired woman barked some orders she couldn’t hear at Bennett or Hamilton or whatever his name was supposed to be, and hurried in towards the HQ entrance. Hamilton followed behind carrying a cardboard tray and a guilty grin on his face like an admonished schoolboy. Diane smiled dryly herself, it looked like Hamilton’s boss had just as much trouble with him as she did with Jack Delaney. She realised she had missed what Kate was saying. ‘Sorry, what was that?’ she asked.
‘Multiple-personality disorder or MPD is not as rare as some people think,’ said Kate.
‘And it’s usually women?’ asked Delaney.
Kate nodded. ‘About eight times more frequent in women than in men. Although the figures may be skewed as men with MPD tend to be violent and may never be diagnosed because they are put into prison rather than hospital.’
‘And it’s linked into the abuse?’
‘Absolutely. Alice Peters is a textbook case. Gloria was able to block out the memory of what had happened to her. But Alice clearly couldn’t – it was happening on a daily basis. The level of abuse she suffered, and over such a period of time, shattered her. Literally shattered her personality, creating what are called alters to deal with the different emotions. These alters can take on different genders, ages, even nationalities and can speak in foreign languages.’
‘Really?’
‘Oh yeah. Not only that: their body characteristics can change, different alters can have different heart rates, skin temperatures, different allergies, even asthma, and most pertinently they can have different pain thresholds.’
‘Was that why the taser didn’t take her down, then? Like someone on PCP?’
‘It’s possible.’ Kate nodded. ‘Sometimes the alters aren’t even human. They can be animals or creatures from myth and legend. It’s to do with disassociation. The emotions like fear or anger or sadness become personalities in their own right. What you saw as George was Alice’s anger formed into a completely different personality. A very real person, nonetheless. A very
‘And that gave George a chance to escape?’
‘Yes, and the other personalities. But George is the strong one. The one who took revenge for Alice.’
‘And how many of them are in her, then?’
Kate shrugged. ‘Could be up to a hundred, could be as few as the three you met. Again, women have on average more personalities with the condition than men. The average for women is fifteen but, like I say, given the nature of the abuse and its duration, the drugging, the torture, the degradation …’ She shook her head sadly. ‘God only knows what she went through. But I can understand why she, or George, did what they did.’ Kate took a sip of water. It had been a long night but she didn’t feel at all tired. ‘Ellie Peters sold her own daughter to Peter Garnier. According to Alice she had told her that she was going to be adopted by somebody who didn’t have a baby of their own. Someone who could look after her better.’
‘Right.’ Delaney shook his head, disgusted.
‘But I think Ellie Peters always knew what had really happened to her daughter. That’s why when she finally sobered up – she couldn’t live with the guilt.’
‘The scarring on her back?’
‘Self-inflicted.’
‘Opus Dei?’ asked Diane.
Kate shrugged. ‘Something like it. I think she was glad to die in the end.’
‘Certainly deserved to,’ said Jack.
‘The thing of it is,’ said Kate, ‘we make people like Garnier and Thompson into grotesques, into some kind of rare monster. But the truth is that the kind of thing that happened to Alice is happening to kids every day in this country. The Russian outfit that Bennett was involved in closing down, they traffic in people, not just grown women but young boys and girls. Babies even. Babies, born of prostitutes forced into the sex trade as slaves. Their children taken away and used as commodities. It’s happening every day in every city all around the world. And what do we do about it?’
‘We do what we can,’ said Delaney.
‘Well, it’s not enough!’
Detective Inspector Tony Hamilton chose that moment to walk into the CID room carrying the cardboard tray which Diane could now see had coffees on it, and a paper bag under his arm.
‘I bring caffeine and doughnuts,’ he said, grinning.
‘I didn’t think we’d see you here again,’ said Kate, smiling back at him.
