Chilling Out

by Andrew Puckett

  'Yes.' Tom took a pace backwards and slipped his hand into his pocket. 'Thanks to your results, I've just caught him out in a direct lie. He was planning to rig that research job – '

  'Oh, stop trying to bullshit me, Jones. You know, don't you?'

  An electric tremor ran from Tom's temples down the back of his neck as he thought: That's what you must have said to Verity…

  'Oh, don't worry, I'm not going to do anything,' Dominic said wearily as he put the book back on the desk. 'That is a gun in your pocket, I presume?'

  Well, I'm as sure as hell not pleased to see you, Tom thought, but didn't say anything.

  Dominic continued: 'It's a fair cop, guv, force majeure and all that, but I would quite like to know how you found out. Morbid curiosity. Wouldn't you like to tell me how clever you've been, where I went wrong?'

  'Not particularly, no. I think it's probably best if we – '

  'Indulge me – please?' He stepped back out of the office.

  Tom thought for a moment, then shrugged. He had the gun, didn't he?

  'All right. It was you who left me the note about your selling Jessie out to Goring, wasn't it?'

  A single nod.

  'That was a mistake.'

  'Why?'

  'Well, at first it had the intended effect, made it seem as though you had no motive for killing Goring, that he was of more use to you alive because he was going to find you another job where you could continue your research. But as soon as I found out that he'd apparently sold out on you, then you did have a motive, and a strong one.'

  'How did you find out?'

  'The manager at Poole told me yesterday, purely by chance. Which is, I presume, why you tried to stop me getting there?'

  Another nod.

  'But that wasn't all your note did. By telling me you were Goring's snout, it also told me who was in the best position to persuade him to come into the centre that night and into the freezer – yourself.' He paused. 'How did you persuade him?'

  Dominic pursed his lips, then shrugged his shoulders himself. 'I told him I'd found some evidence he could use against Jessie, but that he should come and see it for himself.'

  'So it was premeditated.'

  'No, I had actually found something, some high risk CJD material in the freezer that shouldn't have been there. But I'd also heard from a company rep who'd taken me out to lunch that East Dorset were doing the same work as me and I wanted to have it out with him.' He gave a half-chuckle.

  'You know, I couldn't believe that he'd actually do that to me…' For the first time, his face fleetingly showed some emotion. 'I challenged him with it after I'd shown him the CJD stuff. He didn't deny it, he gave me some horseshit about finding me a job at East Dorset, that the more studies there were the better, but I knew from his expression he was shafting me, that he'd make sure that he got the credit for my research…'

  His eyes became faraway for a moment and he said slowly, 'And there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. I didn't think. I just pushed him over and slammed the door. I knew he couldn't open it from inside, so I switched the light off and pulled the fuse out of the alarm. No one heard us. No one knew we were there.'

  After a short silence, Tom said, 'And then you dashed over to the library, pulled some books from the Returned shelf and had them stamped before going to meet Ashley?'

  'How did you know that?'

  'I went to the library and had them check their computer. Those books had all been returned five minutes before you took them out.' He paused, then said, 'As a matter of fact, I'm as certain as I can be that he was going to find you a job – at East Dorset.'

  'Working for his precious son-in-law, I suppose,' Dominic spat. 'It was my idea, my research, I should have been…' He tailed off as though aware of how he sounded.

  My God, Tom thought. 'I believe you when you say you did it spontaneously, but you could have gone back at that stage and let him out. He couldn't have proved anything, it'd have been your word against his.'

  'Oh, come on! Who d'you think would have been believed?' He sighed. 'You don't understand what he was like. Anyone who crossed him, anyone, got squashed sooner or later. He'd have destroyed me – that's why I didn't let him out.'

  There was plenty more Tom could have said about that, but there was no point at this stage. He said, 'You must have been surprised when the body wasn't discovered.'

  Dominic smiled, moved over to the bench. 'I was at first, but I resisted the mistake of going to the freezer and making the “discovery” myself.' Even now, Tom thought he could hear a self-congratulatory note in his voice. 'I worked out that Maria was the most likely person to have moved him, then realised she must have thought Medlar had done it.'

  'You knew about them, then?'

  'Of course I did, we all did. It was obvious whenever they were together.'

  'Were you going to let him take the rap for it?'

  Dominic said, 'Oh, he'd have got off in the end, I expect. As far as I was concerned, the more confused things were, the better.'

  'Which is why you planted my ID on Verity, I suppose?'

  'Yes, but looking back, I think that might have been a mistake as well.'

  'It was, it narrowed the probability down to Medlar, Ashley or you.' He didn't tell him that he'd wondered earlier whether it was Jessie. 'Why did you kill her? Had she found out?'

  Something that might have been remorse touched his face. 'I realised she knew something because she kept dropping little hints, but I didn't know whether it was the fact that I'd been Goring's snout, as you so picaresquely describe it, or that I'd actually killed him. When the police came for her on Monday, I thought she was going to tell them, that they'd be coming for me at any moment…'

  He seemed to shudder at the thought, then moistened his lips and continued: 'I had to find out what her game was, what she knew. I found your ID card on the floor when I left the note for you and took the rubber willie as an afterthought.' He smiled without humour. 'Then I called at her house on the way home.' The faraway look came over him again. 'She didn't want to let me in, but I crowded her, said I had something important to tell her. I could see she was uneasy, so I said, “You know, don't you?” to see what she did know. If it was only that I'd sold out Jessie, she'd have come out with it, sneered at me, but she didn't do that… she just stared at me and said, “You killed him…” After that, I had to kill her as well.'

  'So in fact she hadn't known, you killed her for nothing.'

  'She'd have worked it out. She was jealous of me, she hated me…'

  He blinked as though coming out of a trance, peered at Tom. 'You don't seem very shocked.'

  'I'd already worked most of it out myself.'

  'I mean, shocked by me, by the fact that I was able to do it so easily, by my very awfulness.'

  'It's easier the second time, so I'm told.' What had really shocked Tom was that Dominic had been able to sit in a pub, chatting with Ashley while knowing that Goring was battering at the freezer door…

  It was time to go. 'I see you as pathetic as much as anything. Did you really think Goring was going to put you in charge – '

  He didn't get any further because Dominic had snatched up the rack of tubes from the bench and thrown them at him, keeping hold of the rack so that the tubes struck him in a shower. The blood spurted out as they hit him, covering him in globs of it…

  He screamed, forgetting all about his gun as he jerked his hand from his pocket to try and brush the blood away from his face and hair… Then Dominic was on him. He tried to throw a punch at him, but it was too little, too late. Dominic's fist sank into his belly, he doubled over, then a knee crunched into his face and he collapsed on to the floor.

  Dominic hauled him over, took the gun and key from his pocket and stood, looking down at him.

  Tom's eyes opened…

  'Pathetic, am I?' Dominic sneered. He pointed the gun at Tom's head, his finger tightening on the trigger, then he changed his mind and kicked him in the
face instead.

  Tom groaned and lay still.

  Dominic ran quickly over to the fridge, took out more racks and upended them over Tom's head. Tom gave another scream, held his hands over his face as glass shattered and tinkled and the blood splattered around him.

  Dominic said, 'That's blood from over two hundred people, untested blood. Think about it – you might be in the AIDS club already.'

  He kicked him again, then went quickly into the office and yanked out the phone lead. Then he went out, pulling the door shut and locking it behind him.

  He checked himself over, then walked up the corridor to Blood Issue.

  'Thanks, Arthur,' he said, going over to the orderly. 'I've sent him on his way with a flea in his ear.'

  'Any time, Dom,' the orderly said.

  "Night, Arthur,' Dominic said, and left the centre for the last time.

  Tom lay shaking, whimpering, unable to move… Is this really me? a voice deep inside his head asked. He could taste the blood in his mouth but didn't know whether it was his own or from one of the tubes. Does it matter? the voice asked. Yes, yes!

  He said aloud, 'I will not get AIDS, I will not get AIDS…' But why shouldn't he get AIDS? Frank had, and Tom had watched him die.

  'But Frank was a haemophiliac,' he said aloud.

  But he'd just had blood from over two hundred people poured over him, hadn't he? And some of it would have worked into his system by now.

  Immunoglobulin – they do it for hepatitis, don't they, maybe they do one for AIDS…?

  He pushed himself up, yelped as a broken tube cut into his palm, then staggered over to the door and pulled at it for a few moments before he realised it was locked.

  He battered at it, yelled 'Help!' over and over before remembering how far he was from the issue office and that Arthur was deaf.

  He ran over to Dominic's office and snatched up the phone, then saw the ripped-out cable at the same time he heard the silence in the earpiece.

  Then he remembered something Holly had told him… The sooner you can wash off contaminated blood, the less chance there is it will infect you. He half ran, half scuttled over to the shower, tore off his clothes and stood under it, not caring that the water was cold, stayed there until the water stopped running red before turning it off. He stepped out of the cubicle, shivering violently in the airstream… couldn't see a towel, couldn't put his clothes back on, couldn't get out, couldn't even walk over the glass-strewn floor… he'd die of cold before anything else…

  Then the door opened and Jessie came in.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  She had pulled up next to Dominic's car wondering what he was doing there. She didn't recognise the Vectra next to it.

  As she got out of her own car, Dominic himself emerged from the centre, then stopped dead when he saw her.

  'Hi, Dommo, what's on?'

  'Hello, Jessie,' he said. 'I just came to pick up something…'

  'Same here,' she said, thinking that his voice sounded strange.

  He stared at her as though unsure what to say or do next, then said, 'Well, see you tomorrow, then,' and went over to his car.

  She watched as he drove off, then used her card key to get in. She hadn't left anything behind, she'd been trying to contact Tom all day and had come to the centre on the off-chance he was here.

  She walked into Blood Issue and Arthur nearly levitated.

  'What's going on, Arthur?'

  'Nothin'… nothin's goin' on.'

  'Dominic looks at me like a ghost and you jump like a scalded kangaroo… What was he doing here, anyway?'

  Arthur didn't reply and she said, 'Well, Arthur?'

  'I called 'im in,' he said at last.

  'Why?'

  "Cos that government bloke was sniffin' round 'is lab.'

  'What government bloke – d'you mean Mr Jones?'

  'Yeah…'

  'Is he here now?'

  'Dominic said 'e sent 'im away with a flea in his ear.'

  That didn't sound much like the Jones Jessie knew and loved… She went quickly to her office to get the key to the Micro Lab – it wasn't in the key box, nor the master key she normally kept there.

  She ran down to Medlar's office, found his, then ran to Microbiology…

  Her eyes widened as she opened the door and took in the scene. The floor was covered in blood and glass, behind which stood Tom Jones, naked, dripping, his hair plastered to his scalp.

  'What on earth are you doing?' she heard herself say.

  Tom tried to cover himself with his hands. 'For G-God's sake f-find me a t-towel,' he chattered, and she realised he was shivering uncontrollably.

  She stepped round the mess on the floor, opened a cupboard next to the cubicle and pulled several out. He snatched one and wrapped it round his midriff while she draped another over his shoulders.

  'What's going on?' she tried again. She looked round. 'What's this mess, was it Dominic… ?'

  'He-he-he chucked b-blood over me… '

  'Why?'

  'Cos I'm scared of it…' His eyes rolled round at her and she realised that he wasn't joking, that he was terrified.

  'But why? I mean why did he do it?' she added, seeing the ambiguity of the question.

  'P-please, c-can I have some immunoglobulin for AIDS?'

  'You're not going to get AIDS from this.'

  'M-my brother did…

  She stared at him.

  'He-he was haemophiliac and he died of AIDS.'

  She said, 'If he was haemophiliac, he'd have had blood from thousands of different people…' He was looking so utterly wretched that, without thinking, she put her arm round him. 'There're only a hundred or so here. We'll test them all, but I promise you won't get AIDS.'

  He didn't say anything and she said, 'Why did Dominic do this to you?'

  'He-he killed Goring, and Verity… I must tell Bennett.'

  Jessie's mouth hung open and she shook her head from side to side. 'Dominic? I don't believe you. Why…?'

  'T-take too long now… Please, f-find me some clothes.'

  She saw that his own were covered in blood. 'I think there're some in the drivers' room.' She found another towel and draped it over him. 'You get yourself dry while I look.' Was this really the same Jones that had terrorised her in her house?

  After she'd gone, Tom stared at his clothes – his underpants wouldn't have blood on them, would they?

  He finished drying himself and pulled them on. He couldn't stop shaking.

  She came back in with a dark jacket and trousers and a pullover. 'Are you dry yet?'

  'Think so. Ha-has my shirt got blood on it?'

  She turned it over. 'Yes.'

  He pulled on the clothes she'd brought, which were all a size too large, then his own socks and shoes. She helped him up. They skirted the mess on floor, then Jessie locked the door and they started back up the corridor.

  'But why?' Jessie burst out, unable to restrain herself. 'Why did Dominic kill them7'

  Tom tried to drag his thoughts together. 'He-he was the one who shat on you, he-he was Goring's spy.'

  They reached her office and he slumped on to her chair. 'He thought Goring was pinching his research, so he got him in here and shut him in the freezer.'

  Her mouth moved as she tried to work it all out. 'But why Verity?'

  'He thought she knew and he killed her to keep her quiet.' He picked up the phone and keyed in Bennett's number.

  'It seems like your instincts were right,' he told him when he answered. 'It was Tudor all along.' He explained briefly what had happened. 'And I'm afraid he's got my gun,' he added.

  Jessie could hear the explosion at the other end.

  'I'm sorry…' Tom said humbly. He listened some more, then turned to Jessie. 'D'you know the make and number of his car?'

  She found it and he relayed it back.

  'Any idea of where he might go?'

  'France,' she said without hesitation.

  'Why?'

  'He'
s part French. He's bilingual and got family over there.'

  Tom passed the information over and Bennett swore again. 'So that's a dozen different ports he could be making for – not to mention the Tunnel. How long's he been gone?'

  Tom looked at his watch. 'Half an hour, maybe three-quarters.'

  'So if there's a ferry going from here, he could already be on it.' He paused. 'I'll get on to them now. You and Miss Pengellis had better come down to the station.'

  'He's mad at you,' Jessie said as he put down the phone.

  'You could say that.' He told her what they were supposed to do. 'But I'm not going anywhere till I've had a coffee and a smoke.'

  She took him to the drivers' room and put on the kettle.

  'Not that I'm ungrateful,' Tom said, 'but is there a shirt here? This jersey's itching me like hell.'

  She rummaged around till she'd found him one, then made coffee.

  'Milk and no sugar, isn't it?'

  'You've got a good memory.'

  'There are some things you don't forget,' she said drily.

  Tom smiled sheepishly, then said, 'Do me another favour? Get me my cheroots…'

  He put the shirt on while she was gone, then cupped his hands round the hot coffee mug until she came back.

  'Recovered?' She handed him his cheroots.

  He nodded as he lit one.

  'How did you find out it was Dominic?'

  He told her about his trip to Poole, but again leaving out that he'd suspected her. Instead he said, 'I'm sorry I was a bit rough when we met.'

  She stubbed out the cigarette she'd been smoking. 'D'you want another coffee?'

  'Please.'

  She got up to make it. 'That night,' she began with her back to him, 'that Friday…' she told him about the state she'd been in and the hashish Verity had given her. 'When it wore off and I realised what had happened, I just had to get out… but then, after she told the police I'd been with her all night, I had to pretend to go along with her.'

  'Which is what she intended.'

  She turned, put the coffee down in front of him and took another cigarette. 'You say that, but I still feel guilty – as though I'm part responsible for her death.'

  'Well, don't,' said Tom. 'She didn't deserve to be killed the way she was, but she did take advantage of you when you were vulnerable.'