already been on to her, and maybe loose-cannon Caffery had discovered she was about to be done and used the opportunity to get in a little ahead of the pack. Maybe he really did want Steven. She started to feel better. You might still be in for that three K, Trace. She decided to call him tomorrow straight after the Narey hearing and try to suss him out again. She chucked the cigarette in the sink. Whatever Caffery's true nature, she knew that the person on his hands and knees in front of her was far more important to him than that pervert in Brixton, with his insane photographs and hygiene obsessions.
The barracudas. Named after fish, but not real fish: real fish would die in the chlorinated water. 'The water tastes funny because of the chlorine,' Gummer would tell the new children. 'And chlorine is there for a purpose see? And what does it do? It protects us. It protects us against germs and other nasty things that get into the water. Very important.'
But the barracudas didn't need to be told about chlorine the barracudas knew far too much already. They were at that dangerous age. All the instructors were trained, not only in their own responsibilities towards the children but also to be on the look-out for any signs of abuse and Gummer knew that children in their swimsuits attracted more than their fair share of inappropriate interest. Once, a man had paid the spectator's fee to get into the building, gone into the gallery and had stood there blatantly taking photographs of the barracudas swimming around. Gummer didn't raise the alarm, instead he stood on the pool edge and waved his hands warningly until he'd scampered away. Gummer was relieved he didn't want the police coming and questioning him about the incident and making him start thinking about the wrong things. They'd see it in his face. Safer not to be questioned at all. So the mysterious cameraman had gone off with his cache of photographs scot free.
Photographs
Gummer, standing now on the pool edge in his T-shirt and bathing cap, was thinking about the photos he had in his flat a nine-year-old boy, beautiful, so beautiful. He had them displayed in a back bedroom, pasted on the walls. No one would ask questions about them there was no one to see them, no one ever came into his flat, nor would they ever. He let his mind wander off and tinker with the subject, and the first image he got was of Rory Peach. A boy, naked, arms crossed over his chest. Tied to a radiator. That bit, the bit about the radiator, hadn't actually been in the newspapers, but he knew it was reality. Then Gummer thought about another set of photos. Where were they? In someone's house? Maybe displayed somewhere? He wondered for the hundredth time if the police would find them…
'Look at me I'm a mermaid!'
Gummer stiffened. The barracudas, especially the girls, were always getting too close for comfort. If one of them brushed against him it made his flesh crawl.
'Can we do that thing now?' They were jumping up and down in the shallows, one or two climbing out of the water, pushing themselves on to their bellies on the pool edge and kicking their legs out. 'Want to do that trick now.'
'No, I don't think so.'
'Yes!' In the pool a little girl spiked out her arms and legs into a star. 'I stand like this and then you have to swim through my legs.'
'No, we don't do that in this class.' The children coming out of the pool were making him nervous, too many of them and too fast, like penguins flinging themselves at a rock. And when he got nervous his head got red all the way across the top to the bony bit at the base of his skull, and down his neck and into the tops of his arms. 'I think we should all get back into the pool.'
'And we swim through your legs.' They knew his weak spot and were prodding at it now standing on the pool side, squirming around his legs like fat tadpoles, tugging at his hands, trying to get him into the water, teasing him, brushing him. 'And after that you swim through ours.'
'No definitely not '
'We're all mermaids. Look '
'Let go!' Gummer was starting to shake. He'd taken his pills that morning, but there was still that bloating tension in him, waiting to burst out. He wanted to cry. The girls were swarming around him now, stirring the hairs on his skin. He couldn't bear them to touch him it was so important that they didn't touch him. It was no good it was no good he was going to
'STOP!'
His voice echoed around the pool. The lifeguards and the spectators in the gallery all looked up. 'Just stop it now!' A blast on his whistle and one or two heads, slick heads like young seals, popped up in the water, shocked and sobered. 'When I say no I mean no.' The children next to him backed away, surprised. He was trembling, bright red, his whole face the colour of his rubber bathing cap. This time none of the children laughed. 'Right.' He gestured to the changing rooms. 'Lesson's cancelled for today. You've proved you can't follow the rules so the lesson's cancelled.'
It was getting late but there was nowhere to park in King's car park, and Caffery had to take the Jaguar almost half-way to Brixton before he found a side-road to leave it in. Souness still hadn't paged him. Walking to the hospital, twice he broke into a jog as if he might silence his mind. Hyper hyper hyper a hothouse of images and voices, making connections where none should be. Peach, Alek Peach, it wasn't you ten years ago, but it was you with Rory. What's happening? Are you copying someone? It didn't make sense. He felt like striking his forehead. Exasperated and tired, he stopped in the main corridor to get a cup of vending-machine coffee.
'Mr. Caffery.'
He looked up. Ndizeye stood a few yards along the hallway, body turned slightly away as if he had been crossing the corridor and stopped when he'd noticed Caffery. He was holding a stack of X-rays under his arm and his glasses had slipped down his sweaty nose.
'Mr. Ndizeye.' Shit I haven't returned his calls. He straightened up. 'I'm sorry I've been meaning to uh I just…' He tailed off, looking down at the empty styrofoam cup in his hand, embarrassed. 'How's the family?'
'Yes. Very well. My family's my blessing.' He pushed the glasses up his nose and crossed the corridor to watch Caffery adjust the plastic cup under the nozzle.
When he didn't say anything and didn't move, and when Caffery could feel the clown face smiling at him, he let go of the cup and straightened. 'Did you want me to did you want to talk about the case? You can just submit your expenses to our office manager.'
'That's OK, I've done it.'
'Good, good.'
'Well,' Ndizeye leaned back slightly, clutching the X-rays to his round stomach, 'it's not going too well for you I suppose.'
'You can say that again.'
'Is there anyone else you're interested in? Anyone else you'd like me to have a look at.'
'Maybe if something comes up on another case, then yes, but we've got the corroborative evidence with the DNA. I mean, I'm sure prosecution will be wanting to see you in court, of course, but that won't be for some time.'
Ndizeye frowned and leaned up against the coffee machine. 'Corroborative evidence?'
'DNA. We got DNA proving that Peach was the motherfucker who did his own son sorry if that's offensive.'
'Mr. PeachV Ndizeye blinked behind his thick spectacles. 'Then who on earth bit him?'
'I'm sorry?'
'I said who on earth bit Rory? It was the same person who bit that young lad in the park, but it wasn't Alek Peach.'
'What?'
'I'm sorry, I thought that's what you meant. His cast. Doesn't match the bite.'
'His cast? But I thought
'Oh it's not perfect, he moved too soon. But I got enough. Oh yes. Whoever it was bit Rory it certainly wasn't Alek Peach.'
It was an odd sunset as if the earth was tilting sideways, or the solar wind had lost track and was mixing pink light from another galaxy. Caffery cruised slowly round Brixton, as conscientious as a kerb-crawler, looking at the lights in the houses, wondering, just wondering. He parked on Dulwich Road and walked across the park, listening to the wind howl and chase things through the trees.
