'OK.' There are at least four more videos of you in the stuff Penderecki was holding and a whole pack of Carl's internet stuff. Caffery would have surrendered all of that if he'd been connected. Lamb rubbed her hands over her face and looked over her shoulders at the kangas' station. 'Right.' She turned back, leaning forward, her voice lower. 'I asked you about DI Caffery.'
'Yes,' Alvarez seemed happy to change the subject, 'I was interested in that I asked Prosecution and he hadn't heard of him.'
'You sure?
'Certain. I did a bit of asking around and he's with a totally different unit, absolutely nothing to do with the paedophile unit and certainly nothing to do with the investigation. Why? What're you thinking?'
'Nothing.' But she was. Her thoughts were pounding along. Something in her kept stretching, stretching as hard as it could towards that money every sinew, every cell. 'You reckon I'll get bail next week, then?'
'Oh, yes. I can guarantee you will.'
Thirty.
It didn't take long for Caffery to recognize that Carmel Peach was on medication. During the night, Alek had been moved to an annexe room in a new ward, and Carmel sat at the end of his bed painstakingly picking the onions out of a bowl of minestrone soup and placing them in a napkin. She looked as if the pigment had been sucked out of her, as if what was left standing was just the dried-out hide. She had chipped her nail polish into flakes that lay across her T-shirt and jeans, and when Caffery and Souness came into the ward she looked up but didn't recognize their faces. Her mind flicked past them easily and she went back to the soup.
'Alek.' Souness sat down next to him on the bed. Caffery closed the door and pulled down the blind. 'Alek,' Souness said gently, 'do ye know why we're here, son?'
'To give me more grief?' He was wearing a black and silver Elvis T-shirt and two or three pillows supported his back. His sideburns had been trimmed, right up to the grey, and next to him, on the side of the bedside cabinet, a child's crayon drawing had been taped. Kenny from South Park, 'Rory' written in brown felt tip at the bottom. 'You can't hurt me now.' He stared at his big hands, his head drooping. 'Not any more. Just do what you have to do.'
'We're sorry.' Caffery mirrored Souness and sat down on the bed, conscious of the intimacy of sitting so close to Peach. 'We're here to say that we're sorry 7'm sorry, but there's still something you're not telling us, Alek. Something happened in your house…' He cleared his throat. 'Something happened before Rory was kidnapped. We've got an idea what but we'd like to hear it from you because '
He stopped. Carmel had suddenly sat bolt upright. Without a word she slammed down the napkin, got to her feet, stuffed her feet into a ragged pair of trainers, the backs pressed down under her heels, and walked jerkily around the room, humming loudly to herself, a snatch of music from a car advert, picking things up and putting them down, opening the bedside cupboard and pulling objects out, noisily rearranging them. Seeing her expression Alek put his face in his hands and shook his head despairingly. Caffery leaned forward and spoke in a low voice, above the noise, 'I'm sorry, Alek, if this seems insensitive, but it has to be done.'
'Da da da daV Carmel sang the tune out loud. Caffery looked up to find her glaring angrily at him. 'Da-da da- daV
'Carmel, love,' Peach said, 'go and wait outside.'
Furiously, silently, she grappled in her handbag for cigarettes and a lighter, not taking her eyes off Caffery, and stalked out of the room, slamming the door behind her. It took him a moment or two, staring at the closed door, to get rid of that angry, war-mask image. He shifted a little, and glanced over at Souness, who shrugged.
'Mr. Peach…' He tried again, straightening up his voice. 'Alek.'
Peach's jaw moved, as if his tongue was a piece of obstinate gristle that he'd like to swallow or spit out. He pushed away the bowl of soup and didn't answer.
'We do understand how you feel. We've got a specially trained officer he's done a course, a special course for, uh, this sort of thing.'
Peach pointedly turned his head to Souness. 'Is that all he's come here for? To tell me about your training schemes?'
Caffery sighed. 'I understand why it's difficult, Alek.'
'Oh, yeah?' He turned cold eyes back to Caffery. 'You really think you understand, do you?'
'Yeah, I think I '
'You really think you understand.' He bunched up his fists. 'Fucking filth come here and tell me they can understand what happened to me. You haven't got a clue what we went through…'
'What I mean is '
'No!' He pointed a finger in Caffery's face. 'No, let me tell you about understanding.' His head was twitching, the sinews on his neck stood out. 'Because I'll tell you this for nothing, I hope one day you do understand. I hope one day the same thing happens to you. I hope you feel this way so someone can come mincing in and preaching to you about under-fucking-standing. You've never had a choice like I had -never.' He dropped back against the pillow, breathing hard. 'You haven't got children I can see it in your eyes.'
Caffery stared at Rory's drawing of Kenny. He knew he was supposed to be feeling sympathy for Alek Peach, knew he was supposed to be terribly, terribly sorry for what had happened to him, but there it was again, that maddening, bright anger moving down his limbs as if it had been injected like adrenaline from a gland into his heart. All he'd expected from his extended hand of sympathy was a straightforward, honest acceptance. He tried again. 'Mr. Peach, all I '
'Don't tell me.'
'I just want to '
'I don't want your understanding.'
Shit. Caffery jumped to his feet, furious, pacing around the bed, opening his hands to appeal to Souness. 'I'm only trying to help,' he mouthed at her.
She turned her face away from Peach and reached over to touch Caffery on the wrist: 'Let me deal with this, OK?'
'Go on, then.' Caffery dropped into a chair in the corner. He'd given up with Alek Peach. He sat, his legs pushed out in front of him, his head dropped on one hand, and watched.
'Right…' Souness rubbed her forehead, trying to think how to put it. 'Alek, we think the intruder made ye do something to Rory…' She paused. Peach was breathing hard, staring angrily at his hands. 'Now, we've never come up against something like this, so we need you to work with us, and what I think we need to start with is an allegation.'
Silence. Caffery watched sullenly from the edge of the room. She won't get through to him he's a dickhead.
'We're sorry, young man.' She put her hand on his and squeezed it. 'But we need to hear it in your own words.'
Peach suddenly put his head back and tears lit up in the corners of his eyes, running down his face. He heaved in a breath. 'It doesn't matter anyway. I've died now,' he muttered. 'I've died now, so it doesn't matter what I tell you. I'm dead. I know you can see me.' He lifted one bruised hand and touched the fingertips to his chest. 'You can see me, sitting here, inside my skin, but really I'm not here, see? I'm not really here.' He used the heel of his hand to press the tears back into his eyes. 'Oh, God, oh, God '
When it was over Caffery and Souness paused outside the ward to check their watches. They were both pale. When Peach had finally begun to talk he had given them the whole ugly thing at once: dragged it out by its tail and slapped it down in front of them, teeth, blood and claws. He'd admitted it all admitted that somewhere there were photographs of what had happened, that he'd lied about not hearing or seeing Rory, said that he hadn't been dehydrated because he and Rory had both been given a little water in those three days, because the intruder had a reason to keep them strong. And finally, his head drooping, tears falling on to his pyjamas, like a child, he admitted he'd been forced to do the worst, most unspeakable thing. The troll had told Alek he'd throw Rory out of
