Chameleon's Shadow

Twenty-five

IT WASN’T UNTIL JACKSON had finished her second house call after leaving the Crown that she opted to save time and cut security corners by putting her case into the back of the BMW rather than into the boot. As soon as she opened the door, she saw the duffel bag on the floor. Whatever was in it wasn’t big enough to fill it and the bag was collapsed in on itself, lying on its side, half-wedged under the driver’s seat. Jackson’s understanding of what it was, and how it had arrived there, was immediate. She recalled Acland’s effete pose with his jacket and a knot of alarm tightened in her gut as she made the inevitable link with the body in the Thames.

Her first instinct was a craven desire to slam the door and pretend she hadn’t seen it. There was no reason why she should have done, except that she’d chosen to stow her case on the back seat. If she continued with her shift, only she would know that she didn’t spot the bag until the early hours and the imperative to do her job was a great deal stronger than the less attractive imperative of making another trip to Southwark East police station.

Her second instinct – governed as much by curiosity as by common sense – was to check the contents. The shape inside the canvas folds suggested a conical object and she had no intention of spending an hour explaining to a bored policeman why the bag might be important...

. . . only to be told she’d handed in an empty wine bottle.

*

Acland repositioned himself against the wall, retreating as far as he could into the corner. ‘What does my relationship with Jen have to do with your taxi driver?’ he asked Jones.

‘Who says I’m talking about the taxi driver? A civil servant called Martin Britton was killed the weekend of 23 September.’ He could see from the lieutenant’s expression that he wasn’t telling him anything he didn’t already know. ‘He worked for the MOD. Perhaps you ran into him at the Imperial War Museum.’

‘I didn’t.’

The superintendent shrugged. ‘You were angry that weekend. You might have lost your temper with anyone.’

Acland shook his head.

‘You lost it with Jen.’

‘The anger was all on her side.’

‘Why?’

‘She was happy to take my money but she didn’t enjoy what I did to her.’

Jones frowned. ‘You paid her for sex?’

Acland nodded.

‘Why would you treat her like a prostitute, Charles?’

‘Because that’s what she is.’

Jones didn’t argue the point. ‘And you thought payment constituted consent?’

‘That was the agreement.’ His mouth twisted. ‘She made the deal and told me to do my worst. She was laughing at the beginning . . . wasn’t so keen afterwards.’

‘When did you find out she was on the game?’

‘The day I ditched her.’

‘Which was when?’

‘Three days after I returned from Oman.’

Jones eyed him curiously. ‘The weekend of the 9th?’

‘Yes.’

‘You must have been angry that day as well, Charles. It doesn’t do anything for a man’s confidence to find out he’s been sharing his fiance´e with every Tom, Dick and Harry in town.’ He paused,

waiting for an answer. ‘Did you rape Jen that day as well?’

‘No.’

‘Too shell-shocked to do anything? Couldn’t believe you’d been so gullible?’

Silence.

‘So you went back two weeks later and punished her with the roughest sex you could think of. It doesn’t work that way, Charles. Prostitutes have rights, too, you know.’

‘Not when they take your money and refuse to honour the contract they don’t.’

‘How does telling you to go ahead and do your worst constitute refusal?’

‘She wasn’t planning to go through with it.’

Jones looked enquiringly at DI Beale. ‘Are you following any of this?’

‘I think the lieutenant’s saying there were two different agendas operating. His and Ms Morley’s. For whatever reason, he was willing to pay for a sex act . . . and, for whatever reason, she thought she could pocket the money without obliging him. I’m guessing, because of the relationship they’d had, she believed she knew him well enough to assume he wouldn’t demand his rights as a client.’

‘Is that correct, Charles?’

‘Pretty much.’

‘Why did she think she could get away with it?’

‘She thought she knew me.’

The superintendent’s frown deepened. ‘What were you doing in her flat that day? Was your only intention to have sex?’

‘No. I went to collect my stuff before I went to Iraq. She wasn’t supposed to be there. I still had a key.’

‘So she broke her word twice?’

‘Three times. There was nothing to collect. She’d destroyed most of it.’

‘And that made you angry?’

‘Everything about her made me angry. I hated her . . . she repulsed me.’ Acland spoke with real loathing. ‘I didn’t even want to touch her. I sure as hell didn’t want her touching me.’

Jones was less perplexed by the ambiguity behind this statement than some of the others Acland had made. The line between love and hate was a thin one. ‘So you decided to punish her instead . . . and paid for the right to do it?’

‘Only to show her how it feels to be treated like a laboratory rat.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘If you press the right button you get a reward . . . if you press the wrong one you get an electric shock.’

*

Jackson stooped to pull the duffel bag upright. It was softer than it looked, made of hemp rather than canvas, and the contents were heavier than she was expecting. If there was a bottle inside, it was full. She untied the strings at the top and pulled the opening wide to disclose a plastic carrier bag loosely wrapped around a rigid object about twelve inches long. With belated caution, she swivelled the hemp bag to allow the object to lean against the back of the driver’s seat in order to retrieve some medical gloves from her case, but as she let go of the opening, the hemp fabric, unsupported, fell in folds over further objects at the bottom, at least one of which was visible. At first glance, she thought it was a mobile telephone, until she noticed the two strips of embossed metal at the top and knew she was looking at a stun gun.

*

Beale felt instinctively that his boss had taken the wrong route when Jones chose to ask Acland how Jen had rewarded him. There was a slight relaxation of the lieutenant’s stiff posture when the

superintendent homed in on sex as a currency within the relationship. ‘Did you have to negotiate for intimacy? Did Jen only sleep with you when you behaved the way she wanted?’

‘More or less.’

‘Most men would find that demeaning.’ He watched Acland for a moment. ‘More so if she had to get high just to go through the motions.’

No response.

‘We saw her outside the pub earlier. She had a client waiting in a taxi and we think she was on her way back from her dealer.’ Jones pulled what passed for a sympathetic smile. ‘It’s not easy to get excited about sex when you’re only doing it to feed a habit, Charles. You shouldn’t have taken Jen’s lack of enthusiasm to heart.’

It was a deliberate needle but Acland met his gaze unflinchingly. ‘I didn’t. I got out.’

‘You punished her.’

‘Not as much as I wanted to. You asked me the other day why I travelled so light . . . well, that’s why. There was nothing left after she slashed my clothes and trashed the rest. I had a new laptop. It was in pieces on the floor.’

DI Beale stepped in when his boss didn’t say anything. ‘What did she use to smash it, Lieutenant?’

There was a slight hesitation. ‘Probably a hammer. I kept a tool box at her flat.’

Beale nodded as if the matter were of little importance. ‘She obviously has a violent streak,’ he said idly. ‘Did she use ever the hammer against you?’

Acland’s expression closed abruptly. ‘No.’

‘Are you sure? You called yourself a laboratory rat earlier . . . talked about pressing the wrong buttons. Did you discover too late that you’d signed up to a coke-addicted bunny-boiler instead of an Uma Thurman fantasy?’

*

Jackson stared down at the exposed wooden club. She was no expert in African artefacts but the polished rounded head and stock reminded her of a picture she’d seen of a Zulu knobkerrie. There was no reason for her to place any particular significance on it – the police hadn’t shared their forensic findings with her – but the hairs on the back of her neck bristled anyway. She’d read enough of the newspaper coverage to know that the three victims of the ‘gay killer’ had been beaten to death.

Of rather more weight in her decision to step away, leave everything as it was and call the police to come to her were the two mobiles lying beside the stun gun, one of which had a strip of Dynotape stuck to its front.... . . saying ‘Harry Peel’.

*

Jones uncrossed his legs and leaned forward. ‘I think it was you who was the abuser, Charles. You’ve got a real temper on you when you’re angry, and we all know how undignified it is having to beg for sex.’ Acland moved his palms to gain a better purchase against the wall. ‘You obviously know more about that than I do.’ Jones smiled slightly. ‘I’ve never been reduced to raping a woman because I couldn’t get it any other way. And I don’t go looking at Holocaust exhibitions to wallow in misery over my own behaviour either. Did that make you feel better . . . salve your conscience . . . because the Nazis had done worse to the Jews?’ Acland took a shallow breath and put his head back. ‘That’s not how it was.’ ‘Oh, yes, I forgot. You and Ms Morley had a business deal . . . compensation for a broken laptop. That’s some revenge from a man who claims not to care about possessions.’ ‘You don’t know the first thing about it.’ ‘I know this much, you don’t behave like a man who’s at peace with himself. What are you ashamed of? That you regularly beat her . . . or that you allowed her to do it to you?’

Silence.

‘I’m guessing you came in here to drown your sorrows . . . to think about things.’ He put a cynical stress on the words. ‘Did you target Harry Peel because he annoyed you? You wouldn’t be the first pussy-whipped man to take out his frustrations on a complete stranger.’

Beale made another move to intervene. Jones’s relentless belittling provocation was driving the lieutenant deep into the corner. His pallor was catastrophic. Even his lips were bloodless. ‘You have to stop, Brian. This is too much. He needs a doctor.’

With an irritated sigh, Jones stood up and shoved his chair in front of Acland. ‘For God’s sake, sit down before you fall over. What makes you think a trained soldier is any better equipped to deal with a violent woman than the rest of us? If we fight back, we give her the opportunity to paint herself as a victim . . . If we don’t, we’re in danger of taking a knife between the ribs. Why would you want to defend her?’

Acland ran his tongue around the inside of his mouth to generate some saliva but, even so, his voice sounded brittle when he spoke. ‘I’m defending myself.’

‘Against what?’

‘Whatever your next accusation’s going to be.’ His tongue rasped against his dry palate. ‘Last time it was Mr Tutting . . . This time you started with a taxi driver who was murdered . . . then a civil servant . . . Now it’s rape and humiliation.’

Jones pointed to the chair. ‘Sit down,’ he ordered peremptorily. ‘I’m damned if I’ll end up in another fight because I have to force you.’ He watched Beale pour a glass of water, then perched on the side of the bed as Acland lowered himself on to the chair. ‘I want to know why you came back to Bermondsey and why you’re involved in this investigation.’

Acland took the water with a muttered ‘Thank you’ and drank it at one swallow, before bending forward to place the glass on the floor then pressing his left hand to his eyepatch. ‘Maybe you should ring Dr Campbell and ask her to explain synchronicity to you.’

‘I don’t follow.’

‘If you look for meaning in random events, you’ll probably find it.’

*

Jackson’s call was put through to DC Khan. As he listened to what she had to say, he was reading an email on his monitor.

‘Re. urgent request for fingerprint identification on body taken from river this a.m. Match found with Paul Hadley, 68. Awaiting trial on indecent assault charges against a minor. Registered address 23 Albion Street, Peckham SE15. No known family. Photograph attached.

He clicked on the attachment and stared at the mug shot of Paul Hadley.

‘I hear what you say, Dr Jackson, and I understand your frustrations, but first I’d appreciate confirmation of a photograph I have on my computer. I think it has a bearing on what you’ve found in your car. Do you have a 3G mobile? I’d like you to confirm whether the man in the photograph is the one you know as Chalky.’

*

‘Why should I accept that any of this is random?’ asked Jones. ‘You drank in the same pub as Harry Peel . . . you were in possession of Kevin Atkins’s mobile . . . and you spoke to Walter Tutting a couple of hours before he was attacked. I’m looking for connections, not meanings.’ ‘It amounts to the same thing.’ ‘Not in my book it doesn’t. Anyone can invent meaning after the event – it depends how irrational you’re prepared to be – my job is about understanding causes.’ ‘I didn’t know you’d be here tonight,’ Acland pointed out, ‘so this interview is entirely random . . . and all in your favour. It wouldn’t be happening if I’d let Jackson take me back to the Bell.’

‘Why didn’t you?’

‘I needed to think about things.’

The irony wasn’t lost on Jones and he gave a low laugh. Leaning forward on their respective seats – the superintendent on the bed and the lieutenant on the chair – their heads were only inches apart, and they seemed in thrall to a mutual respect rather than a mutual enmity. ‘So you decided to steer Dr Jackson’s car towards the Crown.’

Acland shrugged. ‘Even if I did, I still didn’t know you were going to be here. Chance works in different ways for different people, so you and I will never take the same meaning from anything.’

‘We might if we agree that the end result is satisfactory.’

Acland raised his head slightly. ‘And if we don’t?’

‘The only way that could happen is if you’re the person we’re looking for,’ the superintendent said reasonably. ‘Or you’re shielding someone.’

A tiny smile lit Acland’s eye. ‘Or I don’t give a shit. We’re just rats in a cage . . . you, the inspector and me . . . acting out our alpha, beta and omega roles. Maybe I’m bored with the whole stupid game.’

‘You’ve got quite a thing about rats.’

‘Only the caged ones.’

‘So who’s the omega? You? On what basis? That you’re passive in every situation . . . or that you allow alphas to dominate you?’

‘You and the inspector are doing a pretty good job at the moment.’

Jones gave a grunt of genuine amusement. ‘We’re doing a lousy job, Charles. An omega would have run for cover as soon as we entered the room. We see that type all the time. They hide behind solicitors, lie their heads off and duck into the nearest bolt hole the minute we turn our backs.’

‘Maybe I’m just keeping my head down while you throw your weight around. That’s pretty standard omega behaviour.’

‘Is that how you dealt with Ms Morley?’

Acland held his gaze. ‘Why are you so interested in Jen?’

‘I’m far more interested in you, Charles. You react violently in certain situations and I want to know why.’

‘I’m angry about what happened to me and my men.’

‘Rightly so . . . but that’s not what makes you fire off when you’re touched. You’d be getting into fights all the time if resentment was your driving force.’

‘Except you’ve already cleared me of the attack on Mr Tutting, and I can prove I was back on my base by the early evening on both the dates you mentioned.’

Jones stared at him, wondering why he’d waited so long to offer a defence. Was everything a test of nerve with Acland, a need to see how much pressure he could absorb before he issued a challenge of his own? ‘We’ll certainly check on that,’ he said. ‘Presumably your regiment keeps records—’ He broke off as his mobile started ringing. ‘Excuse me.’ He straightened and took the phone from his pocket.

The caller was DC Khan but, after giving a clear indication that he wasn’t able to speak freely, Jones let the constable do most of the talking. Bar a couple of requests to clarify information, the superintendent’s longest speech came at the end. ‘Agreed. Send a couple of uniforms here. The inspector and I will wait. Just make sure nothing’s moved until we get there. We’ll be with the SOCO team in thirty minutes max.’

He tucked the mobile away and turned his concentration back on Acland, staring at him intently for several seconds. ‘What’s Dr Jackson ever done to you, Charles?’

‘Nothing. I like her . . . rather a lot as a matter of fact. Has she found the bag?’ He gave a hint of a smile at Jones’s expression. ‘I could have got rid of it, you know. I carried it around for twenty-four hours before I put it behind Jackson’s seat. Hasn’t she worked that out yet?’

‘Not by the sound of it. According to DC Khan, she’s furious about having to cancel her patient list again. Why did you leave her to find it? Why didn’t you hand it to me when I came to the car?’

‘I wasn’t ready.’

Jones could just about accept that. ‘You could have told Dr Jackson at least.’

Acland focused his attention on the carpet in front of him. ‘I was trying to. I just hadn’t got round to it. I thought she’d be less spooked if she found it herself. One of things in the bag belongs to me.’

‘So you know what’s in it?’

‘Yes.’

Jones rose to his feet. ‘Then I won’t be asking you any more questions tonight.’ He stared down at Acland’s bent head. ‘Are you well enough to spend the night in a cell? The alternative is to sit on a chair in a waiting room until I’m ready for you.’

‘A cell will be fine.’

‘You won’t be under arrest, but I will be placing you in the charge of two uniformed officers. If for any reason you feel you’re not fit enough to travel in the back of a police car—’

Acland straightened. ‘I’m OK, sir. You don’t need to worry about me.’

Jones gave a sigh of pure frustration. ‘You’re a flaming bloody nuisance, Charles. I don’t know whether to admire you for your guts or despise you for your stupidity. What am I supposed to believe here? That you’re the victim of another unfortunate coincidence?’

Acland’s mouth twisted into an approximation of a smile. ‘It sure as hell looks that way,’ he said.