time, what he was talking about, but now I think he meant about selling the coke-there was a lot of it-and getting a phony passport and all that. He said it would take time, and he needed to lie low. He was on his mobile a lot.”
“But you didn’t know why was he running?”
“Not at that time. Not when we stopped at Victor’s, no.”
“Did you go inside Victor Mallory’s house with him?”
“No. Jaff told me to wait in the car.”
“Were you restrained in any way?”
“No.”
“So you could have simply got out and walked away at this point?”
“I suppose so. I wish I had, now. But I was confused. He told me to wait. He needed me to direct him to your cottage. He didn’t know the countryside. He’d never even heard of Gratly. But if I’d known what…I’d have got out and run as fast as I could.”
“It’s okay,” said Banks. “I’m not saying you did anything wrong. I’m just trying to get things clear, that’s all. How long was he in there?”
“I don’t know. Five or ten minutes. Fifteen at the most.”
“Do you know Victor?”
Tracy shrugged. “I’d met him a couple of times at the clubs. He seemed okay.”
“What happened next?”
“We switched cars and drove to Gratly. I’m sorry, Dad, sorry for leading him to the cottage. I really didn’t know what he was like, what he would do.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your CD collection. You mean you don’t know?”
“I haven’t been allowed home yet. The SOCOs have just about finished, and Superintendent Gervaise says she’ll arrange to send in a clean up team after them, then I can go back. Maybe tomorrow or the day after.”
“He made a bit of a mess, that’s all, chucking CDs around, breaking some of the jewel cases, spilling drinks.”
“Don’t worry. That’s not your fault. How did you find out about the gun Erin took?”
“We saw the news. They didn’t mention it specifically, but someone said they’d seen the police bring out a gun-shaped object wrapped in a tea cloth. He knew that’s what it was, that it had been missing from his bedroom and Erin must have taken it to get at him. That’s when he first told me what was going on.”
“Did he tell you why he was so upset about the police having it?”
“No.”
“What did you say?”
“I didn’t say anything. I just asked him why he needed a gun, and why Erin had taken it. He said that now I knew about it, I should see that he couldn’t let me go, that I had to stay with him to the bitter end.”
“He said that?”
“Yes. Please, Dad. You’re interrogating me again. Don’t you believe me?”
“Of course I do,” said Banks, though he was starting to have some misgivings about Tracy’s version of events. “And I’m sorry if I’m making you uncomfortable. I just want to get it all clear in my mind.”
“It’s not even clear in my mind.”
Banks sipped some Black Sheep. “I understand that. That’s the reason for the questions. They’re supposed to focus you, not make you feel as if you’re being interrogated.”
“I’m sorry.” Tracy twirled her glass. “He opened your wine. Drank some of the really good stuff. And your whiskey.”
“That’s all right,” Banks said, wondering just what sort of a mess McCready had made, and what he would find missing when he got home. “Telstar” started playing. It took Banks right back to when he was about twelve and used to listen to Alan Freeman’s Pick of the Pops every Sunday afternoon on a transistor in the park with his friends, looking at the girls who walked by, so pretty in their Sunday summer dresses, blushing and flirting. Graham Marshall always used to be with them, until he disappeared one Sunday morning during his paper round. Years later, Banks had helped to uncover what had happened to him. Graham’s face flashed before his mind’s eye as the music played. They had all liked that weird organ sound on “Telstar.”
Tracy lowered her voice and leaned forward. “And he had drugs. Some pot. Cocaine. A lot of it, in big plastic bags. Kilos. But he filled a little plastic bag for his own use. He was taking it all the time. He was crazy.”
“Yes. Our men found it in his hold-all along with about fifty thousand pounds. Know where that came from?”
“No. He had it from the start, I think, from his flat. At least he had the hold-all, and it seemed heavy. I didn’t take any of the coke. Honest, I didn’t, Dad.”
“It’s all right. I believe you. So he drank some wine, drank some whiskey, smoked some marijuana, snorted some coke. A right old knees-up, by the sound of it. Where were you while all this was going on?”
“Just sitting there watching. There was nothing I could do to stop him. He was much bigger and stronger than me.”
“I understand that. Did he…?”
“Rape me?” Tracy looked directly into Banks’s eyes and nodded. “Yes. He did. Later. When he found out who I was. He took me upstairs, to your room. I tried to fight, tried to resist him, but it was no good. He was so much stronger. He threw me down on the bed and-”
Banks felt his throat constrict and his heart beat fast. “It’s all right, Tracy. I don’t need to know the details. You say all this happened after he found out who you were, that you were a policeman’s daughter?”
“Yes. He found a letter or something with your name and rank on it. He found out you were a police detective, a DCI.”
“And how did he react?”
“It made him really angry at first, then he said it meant I might come in even more useful than he’d imagined. He was still furious at me for not telling him before. And he didn’t like the police. He became more aggressive. That’s when he raped me. He thought it was really cool, something special to do it to me in your room, on your bed, like he was getting at you personally, or violating you in some way.”
Banks certainly felt violated, and if McCready were still alive at that moment he would cheerfully have strangled him with his bare hands. “What happened when Annie came?” he asked.
“He was hiding behind the entertainment room door. The gun was in his hold-all in the breakfast nook. He told me to get rid of her as quickly as possible or he’d shoot her. I tried, Dad, I really tried. But you know Annie. She just wouldn’t stop, she wouldn’t give up, wouldn’t go…”
“She didn’t know the danger she was in,” Banks said. “She thought she was helping you. And she’s nothing if she’s not persistent.”
“She knew something was wrong, that I was there under duress. I know she was trying to help me, but she just wouldn’t take no for an answer, and then Jaff appeared and…”
“Tracy, you know you probably saved Annie’s life, don’t you? That mobile phone call you made.”
“She was bleeding. I thought she was going to die. What else could I do? He was so angry when he heard me phoning for an ambulance. I thought he was going to kill me, too, then, but I guess I was still too valuable to him. So he crushed my mobile.”
“And after that?”
“The car broke down on the moors. We were on foot, on the run. It was one misfortune after another. I have to say, if he was a master criminal, he wasn’t very good at it.” Tracy managed a grim smile.
“Lucky for us,” Banks said. He glanced at his watch, then over at the door. “Want another?”
“I shouldn’t,” Tracy said. “I’m already feeling a bit tipsy.”
“Coffee, then?”
“That’d be good.” Banks was just about to go and get Tracy a coffee and himself another pint when the door opened and Erin and Juliet Doyle walked in. Tracy gaped at Erin, then at Banks. “Did you arrange this, Dad?” she said.
“I told them we might be here until about half one, that’s all.”
The two girls just stared at each other for what seemed like an age, then Tracy got up from the table, walked over to Erin and threw her arms around her. Erin hugged her back. The tourists gawked. Banks caught Juliet Doyle’s
