with the sharp end, she dug at the handcuff screws. But the wire buckled and mashed the screw heads. 'Shit, shit, shit. Don't give up.' She turned her attention to the radiator, pulled off the plastic knob and was exploring the copper pipe when Smurf, although she had been deaf for months, sat up abruptly and growled softly at the door. A low, shaky growl.
Benedicte froze crunched where she was in a runner's crouch, veins protruding on her hands. What the? Fear took a long, calm lick at her spine, and all her fine plans dissolved. Something was sniffing along the bottom of the door.
Eighteen.
'Where do we start?'
'OK let's go through it.' Caffery put his briefcase on the kitchen counter, pulled out his glasses and the crime- scene photographs. The room had been stripped by Quinn's team: large chunks of the lino had been excised, rectangular sections of the curtains had been removed and the skirting-board where Rory's blood had been found was still covered in amido black and stick-on number tags. Glasses on the draining-board had been dusted and a toasted-sandwich-maker that had been taken away to the lab had been returned, the cord coiled and taped to the lid.
They thought that it was here, in this room, that the bite had been inflicted on Rory Peach the damage had been enough for the eight-year-old to drop blood on the floor. The paper towel had soaked up the rest. Caffery put on his glasses, looked briefly at the photos of the kitchen and handed them to Souness. He tried to imagine the scene Rory struggling, Alek Peach, chained and exhausted, unable to move, or simply unconscious. Alek was not in the photographs but the impression and the stain he had left on the floor was.
'So he was lying like this.' He stood at the intersection of the rooms, on the floor divider, and swung his hand along the mark. 'Across the floor between the kitchen and the living room chained here,' he indicated the living- room radiator, 'and here to this radiator.'
Souness wrinkled her nose. 'Is there food left in the fridge?'
'Eh?' He looked round and sniffed. 'Oh, that, no -I think it's just…' Carmel, Rory and Alek Peach had all defecated on themselves at some point in the three days. They hadn't had a choice. DS Quinn had been surprised by the amount of urine Carmel produced -it had seeped out on to the landing carpet. 'I think that's just them.'
Souness made a face and opened the fridge to check. Inside were a few flowers of mould, fingerprint dust on a plastic carton of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter and a jar of pickle in the door compartment. Otherwise it was empty. She closed the fridge and looked around the room, her mouth pulled down at the sides. 'Is that really what the smell is? Those poor wee fuckers.'
'Come here.' Caffery went into the hallway and stood at the bottom of the stairs. Rory Peach's water-gun, covered in fingerprint dust, lay on the first step. 'Right. This is where Alek Peach says he was attacked so what do we think?' They both looked back down the hallway at the kitchen, then Souness turned to the living room.
'Here. Probably came from in here.' '
'I think so too so let's say he's come from in there, from the living room, and attacked Peach from behind. No blood, but that might not be important -he might not have started bleeding straight off.'
'What're ye getting at?'
'I don't know just bear with me.' He stood with his arms out at ninety degrees, one hand pointing down the hall to the kitchen, one pointing into the living room. 'Now, before he attacked Alek, he had broken in through the back door and then he must have overpowered Carmel must have done that first, and taken her all the way up here.' He took the stairs two at a time, coins jangling in his pocket. Outside the airing cupboard he stopped. 'Hospital says she was dragged up the stairs so he did that and somehow or other got her tied up in here '
'Christ smells even worse up here.'
' and then he went back downstairs like this.' They both went back down, Souness with her fingers under her nose. 'And waited we're guessing here.' He stood in the doorway of the living room and raised his eyebrows at Souness. 'Right?'
'Aye, I'll go along with that.'
Caffery raised his eyebrows. 'Well?'
'Well what?'
'He did all of this in total silence?'
'Uh.' Souness shook her head. 'I'm not with you.'
'OK, listen. Carmel 's no help, right? She has no idea where she was attacked; the last thing she remembers is making supper. But as for Alek…' He went to the closed door next to the kitchen and rested his hand on it. The basement. 'Now Alek remembers.' He opened the door and went down two or three steps. 'Alek was here with Rory. They were playing on the Play Station that's when he wondered where Carmel was.' Souness followed him down the stairs, peering at the room. The walls were decorated with Deep South memorabilia, crossed pistols, longhorn belt buckles, a framed picture of Elvis. The carpet was deep pile, white, and in one corner was a mirrored bar, a photograph of a young Alek Peach next to a Las Vegas-style fruit machine, wearing a cowboy hat, smiling at the camera. Caffery went down the last few stairs and beckoned to Souness. 'Come down I want to try something. Here.' He switched on the TV and the Play Station and handed Souness the controls. 'Quake any good to you?'
'You'd be surprised. I'm an expert.'
'I'm not surprised. Put it on loud as you want turn up the volume.'
She sat down with the controller, shuffling to get comfortable in the velour chair. 'And where are you away to, then?'
'Just keep at it.'
He went upstairs, into the kitchen, the rumbling sound of the Play Station with him all the way. He stood outside on the doorstep and did what he'd been planning to do all afternoon. Within seconds Souness appeared at the top of the stairs. 'Ye all right?'
'Yeah.'
'What happened?'
'Broke a bottle. Out here on the patio. The door was closed.'
'I heard it.'
'Exactly.' He could feel a little pulse of excitement flicking at the side of his mouth. 'So why didn't Peach hear this back door being broken into?'
'You're saying he's lying}'
'No I believe him. I believe him one hundred per cent when he says he didn't hear that glass breaking on Friday night. Because…' He laid the crime-scene photos out on the work top '… because I think the glass broke on Monday.'
'Duh sorry, Jack, I'm not with ye.'
'OK, OK.' He handed her the photos and went to the back door. 'Now the glass fell inwards onto the floor when the door was closed see on the photos?'
'Aye.'
'Which is why we all even Quinny assumed the offender did it breaking in. He smashed the glass, put his hand through and unlocked it. The door opens…' He pushed it open to demonstrate. 'It opens outwards '
'So the glass on the ground wouldn't have been disturbed.'
'Exactly.'
'But?'
He nodded. 'But if that's what happened then Alek would have heard it even from downstairs.'
'So you think '
'So I think it happened on Monday when the offender was leaving. Maybe it fell out when he slammed the door, or maybe Rory kicked it out in the struggle. It's the sound the shopkeeper's dog heard. Look,' he tapped the first photo, 'this is how the kitchen looked when we got here. Glass on the floor.'
'Aye.'
