by Jay Gill
Trent shook his head. “For their safety. I deemed it necessary to put Richter in solitary confinement after he killed three fellow inmates within his first week of being here. When asked why he killed them, he told me he was bored. I therefore deemed it necessary to remove him from the rest of the prison population. He’s been in isolation ever since.”
“I was informed that I would be allowed only one interview, and I wondered why that might be. It’s likely I’ll need to come back and ask Richter more questions. Is that going to be a problem?”
The governor’s expression changed. He looked like he had a bad taste in his mouth.
“The powers that be, Detective Inspector Cotton, have decided that Richter should be moved. It would appear the facilities in another prison will more closely suit his particular needs. So, you see, I cannot make any assurances.”
Emma wondered whether Richter’s move was a result of Horn’s death.
“When is he moving?” she asked.
“I don’t have a date for the move yet.”
“Do you know which prison he is being moved to?”
“Emma – I hope you don’t mind me calling you Emma. Security surrounding a prisoner move is critical and not something we broadcast.” The governor rocked back and forth in his chair. “I’m sure you’re keen to get today’s visitation underway. Would you let me accompany you? As I’ve explained, Richter can be rather hostile at times. It might be a good idea if you are accompanied by somebody who understands his state of mind. I’ve spent a lot of time alongside men like him. There are ways that we can approach your questioning that will appeal to him and increase his willingness to cooperate.”
“That is very kind of you,” said Emma. “I think I’ll be fine.”
“Of course you will. Well, you know the drill. Stick to the questions that we have approved. Do not deviate. We will monitor the conversation at all times. If you deviate from the script you’ve provided, the interview ends. If his manner towards you becomes coercive, distasteful, inappropriate or threatening, the interview ends. If there is a prison emergency, the interview ends. If we decide the interview is over, the interview ends.
“Remember, for Richter, this interview is a privilege. He is kept in isolation twenty-three hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred and sixty-five days a year. Richter and prisoners like him are unpredictable. We don’t know how he will behave towards you. Do you still wish to proceed?”
Emma nodded. “Yes.” She cleared her throat and said more loudly, “Yes, I do. And I understand.”
“Very well. Off you trot.” He picked up his desk phone and began punching in a number. Then he decided he hadn’t finished with her and added, “Inspector, I’m sorry about your fiancé. What happened must be quite painful for you.”
“Thank you,” said Emma.
“I would remind you, Inspector, never to give any of these prisoners, Richter in particular, personal information. Do not think for one second that you can appeal to his humanity. He can be quite charming, and that can be disarming. Never for one moment forget what he is.”
“And what is that?”
“Why, a predatory animal, of course. He lacks compassion and will not think twice about using your female nature to his advantage. Under this roof, the feminine allure a woman might wield on the outside to advance her position will be twisted and used against her. Richter will smell your manipulation before you open your sweet little mouth. Tread carefully, Inspector.”
The governor didn’t wait for a response. He turned his back and continued with his phone call.
Emma stared at Trent for a moment before deciding she had nothing to say.
Chapter Sixty-Two
Richter sat on the edge of his bunk as Emma and Prison Officer Farley approached. By the time Emma was standing behind the red line, one metre from the cell door, Richter was on his feet and looking out at her in anticipation.
She looked down at her toes, which were just behind the line. She looked up to find Richter smiling broadly. The muscles in his tattooed arms flexed as he leaned against the bars of his cell.
Once introductions were over, he whistled and said, “Well, aren’t you a sight for sore eyes. I’ll be dreaming about you for nights on end, mm-hmm.”
Over a speaker came the voice of a prison guard. “Any more of that, Richter, and the interview is over. You hear me?”
Richter shouted back, “Oh, come on, Officer Pearson, I’m just playing. Don’t be such an old grump. Don’t you know nothing about manners? I’m just paying the lady a compliment. You know what one of them is?”
Richter nodded his head towards the chair against the wall behind Emma. “Why don’t you take the weight off those pretty little legs of yours?”
Having considered how it would feel to have Richter standing over her, she said, “I’ll stand, thank you.”
“I would offer you tea and biscuits, but I’m all out at the moment,” he quipped. He smiled and showed his nicotine-stained teeth. “Now, what brings a little darling like you to these palatial surroundings?”
“I’ve been told I’m wasting my time speaking to you, Mr Richter.”
“Mr Richter? My bank manager used to call me Mr Richter, and I buried him in several shallow graves in a wood near Watford. If you don’t call me Edward, or better still, Eddie, then we can’t be friends, and I only have conversations with friends.” He winked at her.
“Eddie, do you know a prisoner by the name of Tony Horn?”
“Straight to the point; I’m liking you.” He shouted up the corridor, “I like her, Officer Pearson. She can move in.” Turning back to Emma, he spoke in a hushed tone. “You know Officer Pearson’s wife just left him. He’s very sad. I do my best to cheer him up. I heard she had an affair with her Italian dentist. Do dentists have to abide by a code of ethics, like doctors? If they do, I reckon Officer Pearson could get that playboy dentist struck off. I mean, there’s drilling your patients, and then there’s drilling your patients.”
Richter made a clicking sound out of the side of his mouth. “It won’t bring his wife back. I mean, he’s a dentist; he’s going to be loaded. Nice house, nice car, nice holidays. She’d be stupid to walk away from all that.
“But getting one over on il dentista di Casanova would have to make Officer Pearson feel better. I reckon he’d appreciate me bringing my thoughts to his attention later. What do you think? I’m sorry, what were you saying?”
“Tony Horn. Do you know a prisoner by that name?”
“I heard what happened to Tony. God rest his soul. In a place like this, a death like his is an all-too-common occurrence. Tony had a big stupid mouth, you see. A big stupid mouth gets you trouble quicker than you can say ‘I ain’t said nothing.’ So, someone shut him up. It happens. It had nothing to do with me. Look around. I’m not getting close to no one.”
Emma paid close attention to Richter as she quickly moved on to the next question. “Do you know Kelly Lyle?”
Richter’s expression didn’t change. He pressed his face to the bars and said, “Should I?”
“It seems as though she knows you. I imagine your paths have crossed at some point.” Emma was taking a gamble here. She had no idea whether Richter knew Lyle. All she knew was that Lyle had directed her towards Horn and Horn had steered her towards Richter.
Richter narrowed his eyes, clearly re-evaluating her. At length, he straightened his back and stepped away from the bars. She noted a curious and more respectful attitude as he said, “Is that right? And what makes you think that?”
She decided to use Horn’s death to her advantage. “Tony Horn told me.”
“Is that right? You’re a smart woman. I can see that. Let me ask you a question: What made you want to become a detective? I’m sure you could have been anything you wanted – an accountant, doctor, dentist, teacher, or even a bloody lawyer. What made you want to be a detective? It’s not the pay, and it’s not the hours.”
“Let’s stick to the questions. Do you know Kelly Lyl
e?”
Richter paced back and forth like a caged tiger. “Was Daddy a policeman? Did you want to be like your brothers? What were you hoping being a detective would give you? Respect? Power? Were you powerless in some way as a child? Is that it, Detective Inspector Cotton? Why are you really here? Is there someone you’re hoping to impress? Whose respect are you looking for now?”
“You’re avoiding my question. Do you know Kelly Lyle?”
Richter looked down the corridor. “I’m calling Pearson. This meeting is over. If you’re not willing to converse, Inspector, then you should leave. I’m finding you dull. You want to know about Lyle and me, then tell me about you. That’s my price.”
Richter turned his back and walked to end of his cell.
Emma picked up the chair, brought it closer to the bars and sat facing the cell. “When I was twelve years old, a classmate disappeared. She vanished while walking home from school. She used to cut across fields to get home. She did it every day, until one day she never arrived.
“There was a big search, with police and dogs and volunteers checking every inch of the area. I can still remember seeing the pictures on the news and wanting to be part of the search team.
“For a long time, it felt like everyone was holding their breath. As the days passed, I think there was an unspoken understanding she was dead.
“Eventually a body was found in a river just outside of town. My classmate had been tied up, raped and beaten to death.
“While other girls in my class were scared and crying, I was angry and full of questions and desperate to know who did it.
“A detective came to our school to talk to us all. He was accompanied by a woman, a female detective. She was smart and kind and was part of the team looking for the killer. I desperately wanted to be like her.
“I asked them how I could help. I asked questions, and I told them I wanted to do something to help them catch the person who did it. They didn’t laugh at me; they understood me. I answered all their questions about my classmate. They took the time to explain to me the kind of man that would commit the type of crime perpetrated against her. They told me the police force needed good detectives, and I should work hard and study hard.”
Richter had returned to leaning on the bars of his cell. He listened intently, digesting every word. When Emma finished speaking, he asked, “Did they catch the man who murdered the girl?”
“It was so long ago I don’t remember.”
“You’re lying. You were doing so well,” said Richter.
“No. I don’t think they ever did.”
“You’re lying. Why would you lie?” He turned his back on her. He walked the length of his cell then returned to face her. “You knew the man who did it.”
Chapter Sixty-Three
Emma could feel her face burning. She felt the intensity of Richter’s eyes scrutinising her. He was studying her like an entomologist studies a bug.
“It must have been someone you trusted. You felt betrayed. You realised it could quite easily have been you who he’d taken. It could have been your lifeless, ice-cold, naked body they pulled from the river.
“A teacher, father, brother, cousin, uncle, friend, neighbour.”
Emma felt a tear swell in the corner of her eye. She brushed it away as she said, “You’re very astute. It was a neighbour. A young man I had known my whole life. We had occasionally played games together when he was a boy. He lived just a few doors down from my house. He was eighteen years old, and because he had a slight facial disfigurement the local children teased him. It seems he decided he would make someone pay.
“There. You got your answer. That incident set me on the path that has led me here. Now it’s your turn.”
Richter took off his shirt. He was lean and muscular, and tattoos covered his arms and most of his torso. He stood close to the bars. “You see this here?” He pointed to a burning heart in the centre of his chest. “I see this every day. I put it there as a constant reminder of Lyle’s hatred for me. She and I go way back.”
“Does she hate you enough to want you dead?”
Richter laughed uncontrollably. After a few moments, he regained his composure and said, “Only if I die a slow and painful death.
“Lyle is super rich. More money than she’ll ever need. I had this bright idea of breaking into her home and taking a share for myself. My first mistake was not doing my homework and finding out who she really was.
“Anyway, I recruited a couple of lads. They weren’t too sharp, but I trusted them, and I knew they’d do as they were told.
“My idea was we’d break in, tie her up, threaten her a bit and see what we could get out of her. She was bound to have a safe full of cash and jewels. Simple.
“Trouble was, and mistake number two, I hadn’t really planned it much beyond that.
“We broke in at night and made our way upstairs. We found her alone in bed and fast asleep. We grabbed her, tied her to a chair and threatened her. We did all we could to scare the life out of her. All the while we demanded she tell us where the money, jewels and other valuables were. She didn’t tell us a thing. No matter how much we beat her or threatened her. One of the lads beat her half to death, and she gave us nothing.
“Mistake number three was when one of the punches snapped her neck. All we could do was ransack the house and take what we thought might be valuable. It didn’t amount to much once it was split three ways.
“What we didn’t know was the woman we killed didn’t know anything about the safe, money, jewels or the art on the walls. The woman we beat to death wasn’t Kelly Lyle. It seems our Kelly likes the ladies as well as the men, if you know what I mean. Worse than that, Kelly was in love with the woman we’d killed. I mean properly in love. We couldn’t have fucked up worse if we’d tried.”
“What happened?” asked Emma.
“She came after us with all the vengeance of the devil herself. She killed the two lads easily enough; took them apart piece by piece. Somehow, I managed to stay one step ahead. That is, until I wound up here. I’m thinking it’s only a matter of time until she pays someone enough to cut my throat in the middle of the night.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “That’s the real reason I got myself out of the general population. I’m safer in isolation.”
“Why do you think Lyle hasn’t got to you yet?”
“That’s a good question. I suppose she knows I can’t go anywhere, and she’s a patient woman. She put me here. You know that, don’t you?”
“Detective Chief Inspector James Hardy put you here.”
Richter pressed his face to the bars and hissed, “He might have put the cuffs on me, but Lyle served me up to him. She couldn’t get close to me because of his investigation. The next best thing was to have me arrested and put away until she was ready for me.”
Unconvinced, Emma said, “You make it sound so simple.”
“Well, it’s worked out for the best. It’s not bad in here. It’s warm. I get fed. I have a routine. And to be honest, I got sick of constantly moving around, so it’s nice to be settled. That probably sounds crazy to you. But, if you learn to accept your circumstances, your mind and body can adjust.”
He pressed a finger to his temple. “What’s in here can transport you anywhere. It sets you free. Close my eyes and I can recall the taste of beer. I can transport myself to a time when I would sit in my car, across the street so she didn’t see me, and watch my daughter walk to school. And if I try really hard, I can picture the little things, the everyday things you take for granted. The sound of a cutlery drawer, the ping of a microwave, a pizza delivery, the smell of cut grass, the sound of a motorbike or roadworks or a bus or a train or a supermarket announcement calling for assistance in aisle three. Switching on the telly. The smell of a woman and the feel of her soft body beneath me.”
Emma looked around as the guard approached. A voice from behind her announced, “That’s it, Richter. Time’s up. Time to go, Inspector.”
Richter b
egan speaking rapidly, and Emma stepped close to the bars to hear what he was saying. She could smell him now. His breath, his body odour.
The guard’s voice came over the speaker. “Step away from the bars, Inspector. For your own safety, step away.”
“How is Detective James Hardy? You know Lyle is obsessed with him. You know that, don’t you? That isn’t a healthy position for anyone. He needs to watch out. How are his children? Two girls, right? Alison and Faith? Are they growing fast?”
“You know I can’t answer that,” said Emma. Where was Richter going with this?
Two prison officers came running. She could see Richter had more to say.
He spoke rapidly. “Hardy thinks he got a lucky break stopping me. He’s wrong. Lyle planned all of this. Be quick. Ask the right question.”
“How do we catch Kelly Lyle?”
“Wrong question. A better question is, ‘What will Lyle do next?’”
A prison officer motioned with his baton for Emma to step away from the bars. She moved back, and the prison officer stepped between her and Richter.
Richter began shouting as Emma was led away. She turned, sidestepped the officer and ran back to stand in front of the bars.
He reached out and grabbed her. Pulling her to the bars, he whispered in her ear, “Lyle will want his progeny.”
“Progeny?”
“If I really wanted to hurt him, I mean really hurt him, it’s what I would do. It’s what Lyle will do. Lyle thinks in terms of power and leverage. If she wants leverage over Hardy, then there is nothing he cares more about than his children. She will go after his daughters.”
He let go of Emma and moved to the middle of his cell with his arms up in the air.
Fear surged through her body. She turned to the prison officer. “I need to get to a phone. I need to make a call, now. Get me out of here.”
Richter was yelling from his cell as Emma ran.
No one was moving fast enough. She needed to get out. She needed to speak to Hardy.
