by Phil Rickman
‘I see,’ Lol said. ‘You want me to go back and tell Merrily that she can either do your service or you’ll tell this guy everything you know.’
‘He isn’t saying that,’ Nora said quickly.
‘It wouldn’t matter anyway. It’s all official now. She’s filed a report.’
But Mum would still feel she had to do it, Jane thought. She’d do it in memory of Julie, who had the temerity to meddle. She’d do it out of some misplaced sense of guilt at still being alive.
‘And the Man of Leaves?’ Lol said.
Darvill was silent for just a moment.
‘The Man of Leaves is a curious fellow. An outsider who dances according to his own discipline. He arrives when he’s needed. Aidan didn’t take on the role until he was living somewhere else. Ledwardine, as it happened.’
‘Oh no,’ Lol said.
‘The solstice is pretty close, but there’s time for the Man to learn his steps.’
‘Two weeks?’
‘Wrong solstice, Robinson. The calendar changed in the sixteenth century or whenever it was. The medieval solstice – possibly erroneously or for reasons unknown to us – was the thirteenth. Julie was glad about that. Didn’t want it too near Christmas. The thirteenth is a saint’s day, I think.’
‘St Lucy,’ Nora said. ‘Next Monday is St Lucy’s night. John Donne, the Elizabethan poet, called it the year’s midnight.’
Jane stepped away breathing hard. Darvill’s light flared over the south doorway.
51
Anybody but God
THEY BROUGHT DANNI James back into the interview room. Or at least as far as the doorway, where Bliss came out to meet her, with Karen Dowell.
It could look quite sinister down here after dark when the atmosphere of despondency was always denser, when you might catch some felon in cuffs being accommodated for the night, or one of those offensive man-pongs that were so hard to get rid of.
Bit early yet for that, but Danni’s fizz was gone. Bliss surveyed her professionally, head to toe: puffy black jacket and biker’s boots, hair cut shorter, the amethyst stud gone. Sympathy was not the way in. He beamed.
‘Hello, Danni. Welcome back. We’ve not met before, but I think you know Karen, AKA Ms Nice. DC Vaynor – occasionally described, to his sorrow, as Young Mr Nasty – is otherwise engaged. So I’m standing in. I’m his boss, DI Bliss. Known the length the breadth of Gaol Street and beyond as…’ Bliss tilted his head to engage her eyes. ‘… Mr Total Bastard.’
He watched Danni waiting for him to smile. He didn’t. The time for treating her as a bereaved girlfriend had started to ebb away, for Bliss, when he’d first become aware that she was quite enjoying her new status as murder victim’s moll. Scary times, these.
‘The subtext is, Danielle… you’re not being charged with anything yet, but you piss me about at your extreme peril.’
‘You can’t talk to me like that.’
‘Like what?’ Bliss peered at Dowell. ‘You hear me say anything offensive, Karen?’
‘Charm and consideration itself, boss.’
‘Thank you, Karen.’
Around the table – no drinks, no bickies – he told Danni what Lech had said about how he’d never been drunk when he’d turned up at Jag’s. In fact, he’d been sober and polite, except for the time he’d broken down, told Danni how much he loved her and pleaded with her to go away with him on the grounds that Jag was not, on any level, good news.
‘And let’s be honest, he’s a nice lad, young Lech. Never wanted to be a criminal. All he wanted was a good job and to settle down with a nice girl at least a hundred miles away from his brother. Danni, we believe he didn’t threaten Jag, although Jag, probably out of your hearing, certainly threatened Lech.’
Danni slammed her hands over her ears.
‘You ever think it’s time you grew up?’ Karen raised her voice. ‘You found Jag exciting. Hard to imagine you getting off on second-hand cars, mind.’
Danni’s hands dropped.
‘He was good-looking and he was generous.’
‘Was it the other things he was up to that you found exciting?’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
Bliss said, ‘Do you remember when Lech pleaded with you to leave Jag?’
‘He never did that.’
‘He never suggested that if you stayed with Jag you’d wind up one day in a sordid little grey room like this, possibly the first of many?’
‘I don’t know where you’re getting this rubbish from.’
‘Well, from Lech,’ Bliss said. ‘Who else?’
‘My dad’s got his solicitor on standby,’ Danni said.
‘Fine.’ Bliss opening his hands. ‘If you want to move on to the next stage, we’ll be happy to arrest you.’
‘I don’t know what you want.’
‘You ever go out with Jag on any of his extra jobs?’
‘No. That’s—’
‘I’ll ask you again, Danni, and this time I’ll be more specific. On a certain night around the beginning of this month, did you go with Wictor Jaglowski to a village down the border—’
‘No.’
‘Did he ask you to keep an eye open while he was pouring petrol over a man’s body?’
‘What?’
‘Did you watch him set light to the body?’
‘No— No… No way!’
‘Were you gonna say “no comment” then, Danni? That’s what people often start saying at this stage, when they realize we know about things they didn’t think we’d know.’
‘Leave me alone!’
She looked at Karen.
Karen shrugged.
‘Do you know what happened to the body,’ Bliss said, ‘after the two of you set it on fire?’
‘You’ve got it all—’
‘Wrong? I don’t think so, Danni.’
Bliss sat back, running over in his mind what Lech had told them about a prison visit he’d had from Jag. Having a laugh with him about the really crazy, but really lucrative jobs he was doing for this new mate of his. Telling Lech – in Polish, of course – about this particularly weird one he’d been set up for the following week involving a can of petrol and a body. How he’d been asked to do this one on his own but he was thinking of inviting Danni along to watch his back.
Pretty clear to Lech why Jag was telling him.
‘Rubbing it in, Danni,’ Bliss said. ‘You and him an item in the fullest sense. Partners in crime. After all Lech’s attempts to warn you off. Burning a body – that’s not kid stuff, Danni.’
Whose body? And where? Just a village down the border – there were dozens, either side. Would be better if they had the actual body, charred bits, whatever, but how likely was that?
‘This is wrong. You’re twisting everything!’
‘I don’t think so, Danni. I don’t think Lech was either. His brother’s dead, what’s to lose?’
Danni was trying to compose herself and failing. Panting, now, on the verge of hyperventilating, eyes everywhere. Be good video, this.
Bliss was prepared to wait, but she didn’t keep them long.
‘There was no body. All right?’
Bliss didn’t respond.
‘What do you think I am?’ Danni said. ‘It was a joke.’
‘Lech wasn’t laughing.’
‘Jag was like… he was probably just winding him up. It was just a dummy? With old clothes on and a top hat? And bells.’
‘Bells? We talking about the same thing here, Danni? Where was this?’
‘Kilpeck. Near the old castle. We brought it in the van. And the post with a crosspiece nailed on. And a spade.’
‘And it had bells, this dummy?’
‘Round the post that was holding everything together.’
‘He tell you what it was all about?’
‘He said it was a joke. He was like, “You English, you make joke out of everything.”’
‘So it wasn’t his joke.’
; ‘No.’
‘Whose joke was it?’
‘He was doing a favour for a mate.’
‘And what was his name, this mate?’
‘He didn’t say. But it wasn’t— I mean, it was an English mate. Actually, I’m calling him a mate, but he wasn’t.’
‘What was he, then?’
‘I think Jag was scared of him. Or he’d’ve said no.’
‘How’s that?’
‘’Cos he didn’t like doing it.’
‘Why not?’
‘’Cos it was a church. He was a big Catholic. He was supposed to do it near the church, round the back of the church, near the graves. But he got like cold feet? I was like, you know, it’s only a Church of England church, but he said it was a Catholic church at one time, and he read what it said on one of those public information things, about how important it used to be.’
‘And then?’
‘He walked around for a bit and then he stood in front of the church and crossed himself? Then he took down the number for the vicar off the noticeboard and he put it into his mobile. Only he couldn’t get a signal. So we went across the grass and through this gate and up this hill until he got a signal, and he rang the vicar and told him there was a fire at the church.’
Bliss tried not to react. Mother of God. He just hoped Annie was getting this, upstairs.
‘You’re sure it was the vicar he rang?’
‘He got the number off the board.’
‘And it was a man, was it, the vicar? Or what?’
‘I don’t know. He made the call. I didn’t even listen. I thought it was getting stupid. It wasn’t fun any more. I just wanted to get the thing burned and go home.’
‘And then?’
‘Then we dragged the dummy up across the grass towards the castle and he dug a bit of a hole for the post—’
‘With what?’
‘He had a spade. And then he poured the petrol all over it and set fire to it. Up near the castle. He was like, “We’re doing it here. I’m not doing it at the church.” It looked… really weird? You could’ve thought it was alive. But it wasn’t. Honest to God, it was just a dummy. It was a joke.’
‘Wasn’t, though, was it? You said he wouldn’t do it near the church.’
‘That’s the kind of bloke he was. I didn’t understand it.’
‘God-fearing? Rang the vicar thinking he was setting himself up for some kind of absolution?’
‘He wasn’t afraid of anybody but God,’ Danni said, then thought about it. ‘And this bloke.’
Bliss’s pulse went tick-tick.
‘You said you thought he was a bit frightened of him.’
‘Maybe it was more than that. He made me swear never to say anything about this to anybody. Any of it. Especially him phoning the vicar. He didn’t want that getting back.’
‘How would it get back?’
‘Don’t know.’
‘You know who this bloke is, don’t you?’
‘No!’
‘But he was English.’
‘Yeah. He liked that… He said they’d done favours for each other. Business.’
‘Second-hand cars?’
‘Don’t know.’
‘Come on, Danni. You do.’
‘I don’t.’
‘You can’t get him in trouble now, can you? Only yourself. So if you help us…’
‘He… we stopped off at the garage one time, and he was showing me how he was thinking of setting up a little showroom at the back for second-hand farm stuff – chainsaws and things he’d done up.’
‘Quad bikes?’
‘That sort of stuff. He said he had a good friend who’d tell him where items were… available.’
‘Available. That was his word?’
‘He liked that word. It was a new word for him. He laughed.’
‘Did he mean stolen, Danni?’
‘I never asked.’
‘And this was the same man for whom he was returning a favour, setting light to the dummy?’
‘He only talked about one man.’
‘Who he was more than a bit afraid of. He say why that was?’
Dannie shaking her head.
‘What other favours did he do for this feller?’
‘Dunno.’
‘See, we’re probably talking here about the man who shot him. That’s what Lech thinks. And he’s out there. Maybe not far away.’
‘I don’t know anything about that. I swear to God.’
Bliss stood up.
‘Thank you, Danni. You realize we have to check all this. So I’d like you to go through it all again with Karen. Dates, times, exact locations, anything you might’ve forgotten. Every tiny little detail, yeh?’
Danni wet her lips.
‘Am I going to be charged with anything?’
‘There could be quite a few interesting offences in there, Danni. But let’s see how cooperative you can be.’
Annie met him in the doorway of the CID room, dragged him into his office, slammed the door.
‘Did I get that right? Jaglowski rang Julie Duxbury on his mobile?’
‘Let’s not too excited till we’ve checked it. But the thing is, if it’s true then Duxbury also kept quiet about it. Why? Why didn’t she call us or the fire brigade? She didn’t know Jaglowski. She gets this really weird call at night telling her about a fire near the church. Did she go and investigate or what?’
‘Perhaps she also thought it was a joke.’
‘I don’t think so, do you? She’d be up there in a flash, or at least ringing somebody she could trust.’
‘You believe her that it wasn’t a body?’
‘Top hat? Bells? That’s gorra be true. I don’t know what it means – a clown? But only an idiot would make that up. She’s norra genius, but she’s not insane. Can you imagine what state Danni’d be in after burning an actual body, all the fats and the smells?’
‘No, you’re probably right.’
‘You wouldn’t do it in a place like that, anyway. Too messy, too public. Let’s get crime scene organized for tomorrow. First light.’
Bliss found he was smiling in a kind of wonderment. How often did this happen? Well, yeh, more often than you’d think; it was a small county; sometimes crime was almost… what was the word… holistic?
‘Come on, Francis.’ Annie was in Bliss’s chair, looking around for paper; she still liked things inscribed on stationery. ‘Let’s spell this out before we put it into the system. We’re looking at a connection.’
‘We could be looking at one case, Annie. One killer.’
‘Unlikely, but let’s keep that in mind. Cast around for any more links.’
‘There’s another one already,’ Bliss said.
Looking down at her, waiting for the penny to drop. Wondering, not for the eighteenth time, where she’d be today if not for her dad. Most likely not in the police. Maybe she’d’ve continued with her legal studies, be on the way to becoming a High Court judge: Ms Justice Howe, severely straight daughter of a fabled bent copper turned corrupt councillor.
Someone knocked at Bliss’s door.
‘In conference,’ he called out. ‘Give us ten.’
Annie was hunched over the desk, fists tight, the penny in downward motion.
‘Meant to tell you,’ Bliss said. ‘You were right. It was him with Mandy Patel. He was only there, according to Patel, for her cameraman to do some shots of him at a crime scene. Old cowboy still in the saddle.’
‘What is he doing?’
‘He’s up for sheriff.’
‘And who let him inside Hewell?’
‘You want to know what else Charlie was asking Lech?’
‘I don’t want to know any of this, Francis, I don’t want it to be happening.’
‘Well… he was asking about Jag’s delivery business, his courier contracts. Seems Lech filled in sometimes, as a driver, if Jag was gerrin more work than his Lithuanian crew could handle. And talking of Lithuania… Lukas Babekis
?’
‘This is the van driver who…’
‘Who went home to his mam, leaving a farmer called Aidan Lloyd on the slab. I’ve had another chat with Rich Ford about Babekis. Dry road, windy day, hard to calculate his speed with any accuracy, so he got the benefit of the doubt.’
‘You’d better explain the full significance of that. I’ve never actually worked in Traffic.’
‘Let’s say we’re talking about the difference between driving a white van fast enough to accidentally cause serious injury and driving fast enough to guarantee death. Difference between causing death by dangerous driving and manslaughter. Or worse.’
‘Worse? For God’s sake, Francis, this is beyond stupid. If you’re suggesting that Babekis deliberately killed Lloyd with his van… how would he know Lloyd was going to come out of that field at that particular time?’
‘I don’t know. I’m just telling you what Charlie was asking Lech. Jag and Babekis, what their working arrangement was. If Charlie was still a policeman you might think he was trying to emphasize to Lech what a serious offence this might yet turn out to be, so if he had any information relating to it, it would be unwise to hold back.’
‘So the traffic boffins are unsure, there are no witnesses, Babekis has gone to ground, and it’s not even our ground.’
‘And if he was people-smuggled in, his name’s not even Babekis. But if you’re Charlie, and one of the props of your campaign for PCC is that insufficient attention’s being paid to rural crime – lax policing in the sticks – then, might it not be to your advantage to show that the present system lets possible murderers just walk away under its nose?’
‘Murderers? You’re saying it again!’
‘Annie… I don’t know. I’m just trying to see it through Charlie’s slitty eyes. I don’t know where he got it from.’
‘And it would be my nose it’s under.’
‘If he wants it to look that way, yeh.’
‘He’s my dad,’ Annie said.
Bliss said nothing. Still haunting him, that night in Charlie’s home office. You know what it’s like when you learn something that disgusts you. Taking out his file of snatched pictures of Bliss and Annie together. Go on, Brother Bliss, open it… Sheer disbelief when I first saw these, sheer disbelief…
