charge at each other with lowered heads.
‘You had one officer guarding her. What sort of three ring bloody circus are you running?’
Cray launches into a spluttering, head-shaking tirade. ‘This is my incident room and my investigation. I will NOT have my authority questioned.’ She barks to Monk. ‘Get him out of here.’
The big man moves towards Ruiz. I step between them.
‘Everyone should calm down.’
Cray and Ruiz glower at each other in sullen defiance and in some unspoken way agree to back down. The tension is suddenly released and the detectives dutifully turn away, returning to their desks and making their way downstairs to waiting cars.
I follow the DI back to her office. She clicks her tongue in annoyance.
‘I know he’s a friend of yours, Professor, but that man is a prize-winning pain in the arse.’
‘He’s a passionate pain in the arse.’
She stares fixedly out the window, her face fleshy and pale. Tears suddenly sparkle in the rims of her eyes. ‘I should have done better,’ she whispers. ‘Your wife should have been safe. She was my responsibility. I’m sorry.’
Embarrassment. Shame. Anger. Disappointment. Each is like a mask but she’s not seeking to hide. Nothing I can say will make her feel any better or alter the violent, rapacious longing that has infused this case from the beginning.
Ruiz knocks lightly on the office door.
‘I want to apologise for my outburst,’ he says. ‘It was out of order.’
‘Apology accepted.’
He turns to leave.
‘Stay,’ I tell him. ‘I want you to hear this. I think I can make Gideon Tyler stop moving.’
‘How?’ asks the DI.
‘We offer him his daughter.’
‘But we don’t have her. The family won’t co-operate, you said so yourself.’
‘We bluff him just like he bluffed Christine Wheeler and Sylvia Furness and Maureen Bracken. We convince him that we have Chloe and Helen.’
Veronica Cray looks at me incredulously. ‘You want to lie to him.’
‘I want to bluff him. Tyler knows his wife and daughter are alive. And he knows we have the resources to get them here. If he wants to talk to them or see them, he has to give up Charlie and Julianne first.’
‘He won’t believe you. He’ll want proof,’ says the DI.
‘I just have to keep him on the line and make him stay in one place. I’ve read Chloe’s journal. I know where she’s been. I can bluff him.’
‘What if he wants to talk to her?’
‘I’ll tell him that she’s on her way or that she doesn’t want to talk. I’ll make excuses.’
DI Cray sucks air through nostrils that pinch and then flare as she exhales. Her jaw muscles are working under her flesh.
‘What makes you think he’ll buy this?’
‘It’s what he wants to believe.’
Ruiz suddenly pipes up. ‘I think it’s a good idea. So far Tyler has had us running around like our butts are on fire. Maybe the Professor’s right and we can light a fire under him. It’s worth a try.’
The DI pulls a packet of cigarettes from her drawer and glances dismissively at the NO SMOKING sign.
‘On one condition,’ she says pointing an unlit cigarette at Ruiz. ‘You go back out to see Helen Chambers. Tell her what we’re doing. It’s about time someone in that bloody family stood up to be counted.’
Ruiz steps back and lets me leave the office first.
‘You’re crazy,’ he mutters, once we’re out of earshot. ‘You can’t really think you can bluff this guy.’
‘Why did you agree with me?’
He shrugs and gives me a rueful sigh. ‘Ever heard the joke about the nursery school teacher who stands up in front of the class and says, “If anyone feels stupid, I want you to stand up.” Well this little boy, Jimmy, gets to his feet and the teacher says, “Do you really feel stupid, Jimmy?”
‘And Jimmy says, “No, miss, I just didn’t want you standing up there all alone.” ’
65
Lying on a thin mattress on the far side of the room I watch the girl sleeping. She whimpers in her dreams, rocking her head from side to side. My Chloe used to do that when she had a nightmare.
I get up and cross the floor. The dream has taken hold. Her body heaves beneath the quilt as she fights to get away. My hand reaches out and I touch her arm. She stops whimpering. I go back to my mattress.
Later, she wakes properly and sits up, peering into the darkness. She’s looking for me.
‘Are you there?’
I don’t answer.
‘Talk to me, please.’
‘What do you want?’
‘I want to go home.’
‘Go back to sleep.’
‘I can’t.’
‘What was your nightmare about?’
‘I didn’t have a nightmare.’
‘Yes, you did. You were moaning.’
‘I don’t remember.’
She turns her face to the closed curtains. Light is leaking around the edges. I can make out more of her features. I have ruined her hair but it will grow back again.
‘Am I a long way from home?’ she asks.
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean in miles. Is it a long way?’
‘No.’
‘Could I make it if I walked all day?’
‘Perhaps.’
‘You could let me go and I could walk home. I wouldn’t tell anyone where you live. I wouldn’t know how to find it again.’
I move across the room and turn on a bedside lamp. Shadows run away. I hear a sound from outside. I hold a finger to my lips.
‘I didn’t hear anything,’ she says.
In the distance I hear a dog bark.
‘Maybe it was the dog.’
‘Yes.’
‘I have to go to the toilet. Please don’t watch me.’
‘I’ll turn my back.’
‘You could go outside.’
‘Is that what you want?’
‘Yes.’
I leave the bedroom and stand on the landing. I can hear her shuffling across the floor and the tinkle of her urine in the bowl.
She’s finished. I knock on the door.
‘Can I come back in?’
‘No.’
