‘His dog? Why?’
‘How the fuck should I know? He’s hardly likely to tell me.’
I still didn’t know what was going on.
But as far as Charlie’s first phone call was concerned, to me it was just a frantic father seeing all sorts of possibilities that didn’t exist, with me trying to explain why they never would.
‘What do you want me to do, Charlie?’
‘Find Picasso.’
‘Find Picasso? Charlie, what the fuck do I know about catching serial killers?’
‘If anybody can catch him, Red, you can. You always do what you put your mind to.’
‘I wouldn’t hold out too much hope on this one. The law’s been after the cunt for the last eight or nine years and look how far they’ve got. Anyway, you’re not even thinking straight, Charlie. It’s the laptop you want. Not Picasso.’
‘Why do you say that?’
‘Because it recorded him killing Gemma. Which means he doesn’t know about the camera. If he did, he wouldn’t’ve killed her on it. And to steal it, he’d first have to know about it. Besides, a guy like that hasn’t evaded the law by going around drawing attention to himself breaking into cars and setting off their alarms. With the amount of rooms in that place, any number of people could’ve seen him.’
‘Gemma Small’s car wasn’t broken into, Red.’
This was getting confusing.
‘Look, Charlie, a girl took it.’
‘How do you know?’
‘You said Ted Lyle heard the receptionist taking a call from a “miss” telling her that Gemma was being killed. How could that miss have known what was going on in Gemma’s top-floor room unless she’d been watching it on screen? She couldn’t have been in the room. She couldn’t have been outside looking up. If she had, she’d’ve run into reception, not phoned. She’ll hand it in. Who the fuck’s gonna sit on that type of evidence? Besides, the family of one of his victims put up a reward. That’ll make her hand it in if nothing else.’
‘What if she doesn’t?’
I was hoping he wouldn’t ask me that. ‘You’re thinking she might play the scam? Blackmail Gemma’s clients?’
‘I would in her shoes.’
‘Small-time thieves aren’t you, Charlie.’
The laptop held at least a couple of dozen of Gemma’s clients. Guys with money. Even a small-timer could squeeze each of them for fifty grand a head. There’s over a million in itself.
It was a pity we hadn’t told Gemma about the scam. She could have threatened Picasso with the camera and made him back off. But we couldn’t have her going around knowing about it in case it got exposed. Not with Charlie’s name behind it. After we’d pulled Gemma from the hotel that night, Charlie would have had her done in. Though he didn’t know I’d planned on her being found dead with that suicide note in her pocket. As far as a small-time thief was concerned, one might hit Gemma’s clients for small-time amounts. But we’d clean the cunts without them even seeing us. One or two usually crack though. Gemma would be hauled in for questioning. Fuck that. That sort of carry-on can get messy. We couldn’t tell her – that’s all there was to it.
‘Ted Lyle’s here with me, Red. He said if a girl has it, it might be a Lucille Kells. He can’t think of anyone else who’d have keys to Gemma’s car. He’s positive it wasn’t broken into.’
The one name I didn’t want to hear. If I’d known Lucille was gonna be brought into it, I’d’ve held back on the analysing. I certainly wouldn’t have mentioned that ‘miss’ part. Not that I’d’ve got away with it for any length of time. Charlie knows me. He knows how quickly I come up with likely possibilities, the way I was doing, thick head or no thick head. He’d have worked it out himself eventually. It would’ve given me a bit of time though to figure a way to keep him from going after her.
‘Listen, Charlie, all we’re doing here is speculating. Gimme Kells’ details,’ I said, as though I’d never heard of her. ‘I’ll check her out and get back to you.’
‘Don’t let me down, Red. If there was ever a time I need you to come through for me, it’s now.’
‘I’ll do what I can, Charlie, you know me.’
Down goes the phone. The quick way to find out whether Lucille had it was to give her a call. I rang her mobile. She answered. I said something to keep her on the line, rang the built-in phone in my laptop, heard it ringing and knew she had it with her.
If Charlie thought to do what I’d just done, he’d know she had it for sure.
There was one way out of this. If I could get the laptop and send Winters a printout of Picasso killing Gemma, Greg would be released. All I’d have to do is find some way of making Charlie believe that Lucille’d had fuck all to do with it. But first I’d have to get that laptop back before Charlie sent a squad of men over to take her flat apart looking for it.
PICASSO
My second error, as I shall explain, had to do with Gemma Small and Lucille Kells.
Because December was to complete my collection, I was not only keen to portray narcissus as perfectly as is humanly possible, I was also very anxious. This, over and above Duet, was to be the culmination of years of work, you understand. Nothing, absolutely nothing, but my best endeavours would suffice. In short, for the first time in my life I was embarking on a project in a high state of agitation. Whereas the weaver of tapestry can unpick and start again
