by Claire McNab
She called Bourke and Anne into her office. “Close the door, Mark. I want you and Anne to listen to a tape of my conversation this morning with Kenneth Raeburn. I’ve already played it to the Commissioner.”
Her voice seemed to convey some of the stress she was feeling. Bourke glanced at her soberly, then sat down without his usual jesting comment. Anne, who had seen Carol’s silent white-faced rage after the meeting at the Park Royal, avoided eye contact altogether.
They listened to the tape without comment. The click when she turned off the recorder sounded loud in the silence. Bourke leaned over and put his hand over hers. “Carol…” After a moment he released her. His expression hardened. “We can get Raeburn for that.”
“The Commissioner suggests threatening him with trying to pervert the course of justice.”
“It’ll be a pleasure.”
“I’m sure Nicole Raeburn left the messages on my answering machine-in conversation with me she used phrases that occurred on the tape.”
Bourke was delighted. “I’ll mention charging her, too. That should wipe the smiles off their faces.”
Anne still hadn’t looked up. Carol said, “Mark knows about my personal life, Anne, so this isn’t a surprise for him.”
Carol realized, as Anne finally met her glance, that it was anger, not embarrassment or disdain, reflected on the young constable’s face. “It isn’t fair. That little bastard shouldn’t be able to use it against you.”
Carol could hear the resignation in her own voice as she said, “It had to happen one day.”
“How do we handle it?” said Bourke.
Carol had thought this through. “People in the Service will know, and that means there’s a good chance the fact I’m a lesbian will go further. And, of course, there’s Raeburn and his daughter, the private detective they used…”
“You could deny everything.”
“I could, Anne, but then I’m just reactive, and at a disadvantage. I want to have some sort of control here. The Commissioner knows, and so will my other superiors after this meeting. Aside from that, I’m not making any statements to anyone, but if I’m asked a direct question, I’ll answer it directly.”
“What do you want us to do?”
She sighed. “Mark, what do I say to you? It’s up to you what you say or don’t say.”
Anne said, “What about the media?”
Carol smiled grimly. “I haven’t quite decided. Frankly, I hope I don’t have to, but I’m inclined to think that ‘yes, so what?’ may be the way to go.”
Bourke stood. “I’m off to intimidate Kenneth Raeburn,” he said cheerfully, rubbing his hands together. “And believe me, I’m looking forward to it.”
Carol called the college where Sybil taught part-time. After an interminable delay, she felt her heart jump as she heard Sybil’s familiar voice. “It’s me.”
“Carol? What’s wrong?”
“Does something have to be wrong?”
“For you to ring me at work-yes.”
As she told her what had happened, Carol was conscious that Sybil might welcome what she, herself, dreaded. What might represent freedom to Sybil meant loss of control to Carol.
Sybil said, “I’ll come back home.”
“No, don’t,” she said involuntarily.
There was a long pause, then, “You don’t want me there?”
“It’s not that-”
“What is it, then, Carol? Worried that my presence will confirm the gossip? That people will come round to see for themselves?”
“I don’t need this!”
Sybil was immediately calm. “No, you don’t. I’ll stay away, Carol, but we need to talk. Do you agree?”
“Yes, of course.”
Sybil’s voice was husky. “I love you. I don’t want you hurt, and I don’t want to cause you any more problems. Call you tonight, okay?”
Carol shut her eyes, confused by guilt, love and misery. “Okay,” she said.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Early on Wednesday morning Bourke bounded into Carol’s office. “We got Berringer. A little worse for wear.”
“He put up a fight?”
“Hardly. What he did do was try to shake Kenneth Raeburn down over Collis’ homosexuality. I’d say Raeburn wanted to flush Berringer out of the woodwork, so he arranged to pay him off. Berringer won’t say how much it was, and he didn’t have it long. He had time to boast a bit about how smart he’d been, then two very large gentlemen gave him a very painful going over and, to add insult to injury, took the money back. That was enough to send Berringer straight into hiding.” He grinned with obvious pleasure as he added, “Our Kenneth didn’t take at all kindly to my visit yesterday, so I imagine he’s going to be even more unhappy today after I mention including him in possible assault charges when we pick up his goons.”
Carol showed her doubt. “What credibility would this Berringer character have in court against someone like Kenneth Raeburn?”
“Very little,” said Bourke agreeably, “but I’m going to have fun suggesting it’s a possibility. This should shut Raeburn up quite effectively.”
“Anne called in a few minutes ago. She’s found a cub reporter on the Sentinel who fielded a telephone inquiry about whether Collis Raeburn was dead, but it was on Sunday, before his body’d been found. The journalist was just a kid, and didn’t realize there might be something worth following up.”
“Don’t suppose the person left a name?”
Without pleasure Carol said, “No, Mark, but it was a woman. Also, I called Pat at work this morning and asked her some questions about the Saturday night reception at the Museum of Modern Art.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Helpful?”
“I think we’re near an arrest. I’d like you and Anne in my office at two.”
“Come in, Inspector. We’ve been waiting for you.” Carol felt like an interloper, guarded on one side by Mark Bourke and by Anne Newsome on the other. She said formally, “Thank you for agreeing to a joint interview.”
Alanna went to stand beside Lloyd Clancy. Behind them, through the open balcony doors, the blue water of Manly Cove shimmered in the afternoon sun. Carol felt a pang of pity and compassion as she saw Alanna take Lloyd Clancy’s hand and hold it tightly.
Lloyd Clancy gestured, the thoughtful host. “Please, make yourselves comfortable.”
Alanna and Clancy sat beside each other on a couch, still holding hands. Carol thought of all the roles these two had taken, where intense, flamboyant emotions were translated into glorious music. She remembered Aïda where, as now, they were doomed lovers. This was an anticlimax, this real drama ending so mundanely in a harborside apartment.
“You know why we’re here,” Carol said with quiet authority.
Alanna looked at her steadily. “Yes, we do.”
“Do you object to us recording this interview?”
Alanna shook her head slowly, and Bourke efficiently set up the tape recorder on the coffee table. He nodded to Carol to indicate he was ready. She took no pleasure in reciting the formal words of the caution, adding to make sure they understood, “You don’t have to say anything now if you don’t wish to.”
“It’s quite all right,” Alanna said. “It’ll be a relief, actually.”
Bourke said, “Collis Raeburn didn’t kill himself. He was murdered in a way that was intended to look like suicide.”
Lloyd Clancy sighed. “I’ll save you the trouble of spelling it out. I can’t imagine how to say this without sounding overly dramatic, but I killed Collis. No one helped-it was just me.”
Carol said with real regret, “That’s not true.”
“Sweetheart, don’t,” Alanna said to Clancy. “I’m sure the Inspector knows.”
Lloyd was haggard, but his look to Alanna was so full of love that Carol almost winced. She said, “You went to a lot of trouble to make people think you hated each other.”
“We thought it would stop any suspicion that we might be working together,�
�� said Alanna. She looked embarrassed. “The idea of threatening to sue Lloyd was my idea, but it was over the top, I see that now.”
“Why did you make the phone calls to check if Raeburn was dead? You knew he was.”
“Lloyd knew,” said Alanna, “but I didn’t. We couldn’t be seen anywhere near each other at the reception, that would have been too dangerous. And we’d agreed not to use the telephone because there might be a record of the calls. I kept on thinking that Collis might be lying there, still alive, and if he were to recover…” She made a face. “It was stupid, but I had no idea when the hotel would open the room, and I was frantic to know if he was dead. I tried the newspaper, but drew a blank. When nothing had been in the news by early Monday morning, I tried the hotel.”
Lloyd Clancy coughed painfully.
Bourke said, “You’re not well, Mr. Clancy. Can I get you some water?”
He smiled faintly. “I think it’s the flu, but of course I keep thinking it’s something worse…”
“When did you realize that Collis Raeburn had infected Ms Brooks, and through her, you?”
Alanna answered. “Collis finally got up the courage to tell me six weeks ago. It took a while to sink in that I was probably going to die from AIDS. And when I found that I’d infected Lloyd… that’s when the rage began… that’s when I knew I wanted to exterminate Collis.”
Anne Newsome said faintly, “There’s treatment for AIDS…”
Alanna nodded wearily. “Yes, Sergeant, of course we’ve both had the latest medical advice, but my immune system is seriously compromised, and Lloyd’s T-cell count is falling.” She laughed bitterly. “You know, even though he’d been infected longer, Collis was doing better than either of us. He’d had pneumonia, but seemed to recover well. AIDS affects everyone differently, but that didn’t seem fair to me.”
Lloyd Clancy said, “Collis didn’t care, Inspector. He never said he was sorry because he couldn’t see he’d done anything wrong. Bad luck, he called it. And he was sure he’d be all right… Thought he had a charmed life.”
“Why did you kill him?”
Alanna answered. “I asked him if he’d told others he’d slept with-Corinne for example-and he said he wasn’t going to, that he’d only told me because of old times and because he knew I couldn’t tell anyone else without ruining my own life.”
“He was an egotistical monster,” said Lloyd. “Collis really believed that, for him, ordinary rules and standards didn’t apply, and other people were there for his use. And now he’d condemned us both. Alanna’s – my life is singing. Opera’s demanding, exhausting. We both realized it would be only a matter of time before one or both of us couldn’t continue. We decided to kill him for what he’d done to us… and would continue to do to others.”
He rubbed his face wearily and Carol suggested they stop for coffee or tea. The recorder was switched off and Lloyd Clancy, Anne and Bourke went to the kitchen. Alanna said to Carol, “Inspector, you understand, don’t you?”
“I think I do, yes.”
“What will happen to us?”
What a pair of amateurs these two are, Carol thought. She was sure Alanna would reject pity, so she said matter-of-factly, “Plead not guilty at the committal hearing and apply for bail. I’ll do everything I can to see that you get it. That way you can spend more time together.”
“With a bit of luck,” said Alanna with mordant humor, “we might die before we ever come to trial.”
When they resumed, Alanna seemed to have new energy. “We used a duplicate checklist. We knew we couldn’t make any mistakes. Lloyd and I went separately to the reception in the Museum of Modern Art and we each made sure we spoke to as many people as possible. I had a large shoulder bag with me-not the sort I usually carry, but I had to hide cotton gloves, a bottle of whiskey and the suicide handbook in it. I knew the sleeping tablets Collis used-we’d been lovers, after all-and I’d managed to get a doctor to prescribe the same brand for me. I crushed more than half of them, dissolving them as much as possible until they made a solution which I put in an old medicine bottle. The other half I kept in tablet form in case Collis hadn’t brought any with him, but he had, so in the end I didn’t need them.”
She grimaced. “It sounds bizarre describing it like this, but at the time it seemed like the script of a movie-not quite real, but logical and right. About eight o’clock I slipped out of the Museum and walked the few minutes to the hotel. I’d spoken to Collis in the afternoon and he’d told me he had his usual room, so I went up the fire stairs to his floor. He was surprised to see me, but he’d just finished a bottle of wine and he was quite relaxed. Actually, Collis was feeling proud of himself because he’d called Corinne and told her I was staying on as his singing partner. I remember he said, ‘See, I’m making it up to you’ and that made me so angry that I really wanted to kill him. He’d infected me with the HIV virus and he thought this would make it up to me! I smiled and showed him the bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label. It was always his favorite drink-and he was quite happy to have me serve him. While I was getting ice from the bar fridge I poured some of the solution into his glass. He said it didn’t taste quite right, but I pointed out he’d just eaten tuna and he was a bit tipsy, so he kept drinking. I just pretended to sip mine…”
Her voice trailed off. To encourage her, Bourke said, “And he didn’t suspect anything was wrong?”
Her mouth twisted. “He’d never think I’d be a threat to him. Do you know what we talked about? The treatment he was having for the virus. The new drugs he’d had sent from overseas. He told me how great it was to be able to discuss it with someone who understood. I was glad he was saying these things because it made it so much easier for me. He started to get sleepy and I persuaded him to lie on the bed. He was still talking, slurring his words, when Lloyd knocked in a code we’d agreed on. I put on the cotton gloves and let him in. Collis was very vague, but he still wanted to know what Lloyd was doing there, though he didn’t seem to mind when we didn’t answer. Lloyd put on his gloves and I gave him the sleeping tablet solution and the copy of The Euthanasia Handbook in its plastic wrap. Then I washed the glass I’d used and checked my list to make sure I’d done everything.”
Carol said, “Did you take his journal?”
Alanna flushed with anger. “It was open on the table because he’d been writing in it. When I left I took it, because I thought it might mention me and Lloyd.”
“Did it?”
“I’ve burnt the journal, Inspector, but I’m glad I read it. It made me sure that we were doing the right thing.”
“You put the Do Not Disturb on the door?”
“Yes. Then I went back to the Museum. I’d been away for a bit over an hour, but there were so many people there I was fairly sure I hadn’t been missed, and I made sure I was seen from then on.”
“Now it’s my narrative,” said Lloyd with a sketchy attempt at a smile. “It was just after nine when I ordered coffee and had all calls to the room stopped. Naturally it was assumed I was Collis. I waited until the coffee was left outside, poured him a cup, added some of Alanna’s solution and held it while he had some. As soon as he was completely unconscious I took out my checklist and put it on the bedside table so I wouldn’t forget anything. I remember thinking how awful it would be if I killed him, shut the door behind me, then remembered the list was still there… Anyway, I wiped the whiskey bottle and his glass, in case Alanna had touched either of them, and put his fingerprints on each of them. I took the handbook out of its plastic and did the same with it. By now he was breathing in great, slow, snoring gasps… it was horrible and I wanted him to stop. I took the plastic bag I had folded in my pocket, found one of his neckties, and put the bag over his head and tied it.”
“You got all these details from the handbook?” He sighed at Bourke’s question. “In the book it sounded so clinical. I hadn’t realized how awful it would be, Collis lying there with his head wrapped in plastic and the heat of his breath steaming
it up inside. He coughed and made a choking noise. He was lying completely still and I waited for him to start breathing again, but he didn’t. I made sure I hadn’t left anything, picked up the list and checked the room about three times. And then I looked at him and it was horrible, him with his head in a bag. I saw he’d vomited, and though I hated him, I couldn’t leave him like that. I took off the tie and stuffed it in my pocket, then eased off the plastic bag-the air in it was hot, so damp and smelly and I thought I’d vomit too. Collis was dead, but I found I just had to wash his face. Dampened one of his handkerchiefs and cleaned him up, put the handkerchief with the plastic bag and the book wrapping in my pocket, tipped over the glass of whiskey and scattered the pills across the carpet. I left his bottle of painkillers in the bathroom cabinet and I took any other medication he had.”
His smile was completely without humor. “Alanna and I thought, you see, that there was no reason for anyone to discover he was HIV-positive, unless they found Collis had drugs to treat it.”
Carol said gently, “It’s standard in a post mortem to do a blood test for it.”
“We didn’t know that. There were a lot of things we didn’t take into account.”
“You dropped the tie,” said Carol, almost regretfully.
“Yes, I was in such a hurry to get out of there-I was panicking because I couldn’t stand to be in the room with him. I turned on the television and the air-conditioning, and I ran. The tie wasn’t in my pocket when I chucked everything else into a litter bin, but of course I couldn’t go back because I had to leave his key inside the room.”
“Tell me,” said Carol with real curiosity, “did you arrange him so his hand was draped artistically?”
Lloyd looked down, obviously embarrassed. “I’m afraid I did. It didn’t look right to me, the way he was lying. I thought it would be more convincing the way I arranged it.”
