Playing With Fire

“Mark,” said Banks, “we must stop meeting like this.”

Mark Siddons grunted and sat down.

“How are you feeling?” Banks asked.

“I’m all right. A bit tired. And my head feels like it’s stuffed full of wet cotton wool.”

“Must be the tranquilizer the doctor gave you last night. Are you ready to talk?” Banks and Bridges had already agreed that Banks would do most of the questioning, as he had interviewed Mark before and knew the terrain.

“If you like. Can I have some water first?”

Banks asked the constable waiting outside the door, who brought in a jug and three glasses. Mark filled his, but Bridges took nothing and Banks stuck with coffee.

“Are you going to charge me?” Mark asked.

“What with?”

“Breaking and entering.”

Banks looked at DI Bridges. “That depends,” Bridges said.

“What on?”

“On how cooperative you are.”

“Look, Mark,” Banks said, “we know it was you who put out the fire and you who rang the police and the fire brigade and waited with Mrs. Aspern until they arrived. All that will work in your favor. You’re not being charged with anything just at the moment, but you’d better tell us exactly what went on. Okay?”

“Can I have a smoke?”

Smoking wasn’t allowed in the police station anymore, but Bridges took out a packet of Silk Cut and offered Mark one. He also lit one himself. Banks felt no craving at all, just a slight wave of nausea when he smelled the smoke. Mostly, he was trying to put what he had just heard from Dirty Dick Burgess out of his mind. And its implications for Annie. For the time being, at any rate. He had got the London address of Keane and his wife, Helen, and checked train times from Leeds. After he’d finished with Mark, he’d head straight down to London on an early- afternoon train and talk to her, get things sorted. But until then, he had Mark Siddons and Frances Aspern to occupy his mind.

“There is one question I’d like answered before we start,” Bridges asked.

“What?” said Mark.

“The burglar alarm. How did you disable it?”

Mark told them about the scheme Tina had come up with, and how he had memorized the code.

“All right,” said Bridges, looking over at Banks. “Your turn.”

“What time did you get to the Asperns’ house?” Banks asked.

“I don’t know. It was late, though. After closing time. I came out of the pub and put it off for a while, just walking around, then I went there.”

“Put what off?”

“I don’t know. All I know is that I was going the wrong way, and it didn’t make sense anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

“Scarborough and all that. That was why all those things happened. The bloke in the car. Those plainclothes cops on the seafront. Because I was going the wrong way. It was Adel I had to go to, not Scarborough. I couldn’t get on with my life until I’d faced them.”

“What happened with the bloke in the car?” Banks asked.

“Nothing,” said Mark. “He… you know, he tried to proposition me. I said, like, no way, and he just stopped the car and made me get out.”

Banks didn’t believe him. There was the matter of the mysterious two hundred pounds, for a start, but he let it go. Either Mark had capitulated and earned the money with his body, or he had stolen it. Either way, no accusations had been made against anyone, as far as he knew, so best let it lie. “What were you going to do in Adel?” he asked.

“I don’t know. I didn’t have a plan.”

“So what did you do?”

“I had a bit too much to drink in that big pub on the main road, to get my bottle up, I suppose. Anyway, like I said, I just got into the house. They were in bed. I walked around a bit, wondering what the hell I was going to do now I was there. I mean, was I supposed to go upstairs and strangle the bastard, or what? I found a bottle of something, brandy, I think, and I took a few swigs of that, just sitting in the kitchen in the dark, thinking. Or trying to. I didn’t even hear him coming.”

“What happened next?”

“I don’t know. I felt this sharp pain on the side of my head and everything went black.”

“And when you came round?”

Mark paused and stubbed out his cigarette. He looked over at DI Bridges, who sighed and pushed the packet toward him. Mark fidgeted with the packet but didn’t open it immediately. “I was in the surgery, wasn’t I? All the lights were on, and he was there, standing over me with that evil fucking smile on his face.”

“Patrick Aspern?”

“Who else?”

“What was he doing?”

“Filling a syringe with morphine. He had me tied to the chair so I couldn’t move my arms, and he’d shoved some sort of cotton-wool gag in my mouth so I couldn’t scream out.”

“How do you know it was morphine?”

“He told me. That was all part of the fun for him. He wanted me to know what was going to happen to me, to be scared thinking about it for as long as he could draw it out.”

“What else did he say?”

“He said he was soon going to inject me with a fatal dose of morphine, that it was more than a piece of scum like me deserved, because it was quick and merciful, and if he had his way he’d make me suffer for much longer.” Mark glanced at Banks. “He was enjoying himself, you know. The power. Enjoying every minute of it.”

“I believe you, Mark.”

“He said the thought of me in bed with his daughter disgusted him, that she was a no-good ungrateful slut who deserved to die for betraying him like that, and now I was going to die, too.”

“He referred to Tina as his daughter?”

“Yes.”

“Did he say anything about being responsible for her death?”

“He didn’t say he killed her, if that’s what you mean.”

“Did he mention his wife?”

“No.”

“All right. Go on.”

“He said nobody would shed any tears about a piece of junkie filth like me being found dead of an overdose in a back alley somewhere, which is exactly where he was going to dump me.”

“What happened next?”

Mark lit his second cigarette and looked away. His voice became quieter. “I could see her standing behind him, in the doorway. Just standing there. Watching. Listening. He didn’t know she was there, but I could see her.”

“Mrs. Aspern?”

“Yes. At least, I guessed that’s who it was.”

“You’d never seen her before?”

“No, never.”

“Not around the boat or anything? She’d never come to visit Tina?”

“No. I’m not even sure she knew where the boat was.”

“Carry on.”

Mark swallowed, took a sip of water and went on. “He said… hestarted talking about the things he did to her, to Tina, you know, and how much she loved it when he touched her and put himself inside her and all the things she did to him. He was making me crazy, but I couldn’t break free. I couldn’t yell out and make him stop. And I could see her behind him all the time, her face just going paler and paler. It was sickening, what he said. I mean, I know