Find Them Dead

69 Friday 17 May

Despite the seriousness of the situation, of having a highly dangerous, clever and unpredictable serial killer at large, Roy Grace had to stop himself smiling as he sat in ACC Cassian Pewe’s office, watching his boss’s apoplectic face on the far side of his far-too-big desk.

‘Heads are going to roll, Roy,’ Pewe said.

Yes, Grace thought. And the first one that should roll is yours!

‘This is unbelievable. U N B E L I E V A B L E.’ Pewe said the word again, slowly, as if spelling it out loud. ‘How on earth has this happened, can you tell me?’

With pleasure, Grace thought. ‘A consultant surgeon went into Dr Crisp’s private room to check on the wound in his eye. It appears that Crisp took him by surprise, overpowered him, rendered him unconscious and switched clothing, putting him in the bed instead of himself. I understand the room was dark to ease the pain for Crisp’s eye — he was claiming that bright light hurt it. As a result, no one was aware of what had happened for several hours, until the consultant regained consciousness.’

Pewe, with his tensions rising, opened and shut his mouth several times, looking like a cat trying to cough up a hairball, before speaking. ‘There was meant to be a police guard, twenty-four-seven, outside Crisp’s door — what were they doing — ordering their online shopping?’

‘Guarding,’ Grace said, and then waited for Pewe’s response.

‘I mean, honestly, Roy, how — how could they have let this happen?’

‘I’m afraid it’s very simple, sir. Shortly before the consultant visited on his rounds, the previous police guard went off shift and was replaced by another PC who had never seen Dr Crisp. The consultant was, apparently, wearing scrubs, with a cap and a mask hanging loose over his chin. The new PC hadn’t taken a close look at him. When Crisp came out, some minutes later, dressed in this kit, he had no reason to question him.’

‘I’m holding you personally responsible for Dr Crisp’s escape, Roy,’ Pewe said.

Despite Pewe’s currently senior rank, Grace jabbed a finger at him. ‘No, sir, you’re the one responsible. I emailed you, after we’d learned his injury was self-inflicted, that this might be an escape plan and recommended that we should ask the Metropolitan Police to double up on his guard, which you rejected for cost reasons knowing that they would recharge Sussex Police.’

Pewe narrowed his eyes. ‘Roy, you’ve been the SIO all along on the Crisp case. It’s your responsibility to make sure your prisoner is properly guarded until he is brought to justice and — if there is any justice — sentenced. You’ve failed abjectly. I suggest you buddy up with the Met Police PDQ and recapture the doctor. A man wandering the streets of London in surgical scrubs shouldn’t be too hard to find, even for an incompetent like you.’

Grace bristled at the insult. ‘I’m sorry, sir, I’m not going to take that crap from you.’

‘No? Well, maybe you’ll take this, instead: get Crisp back under lock and key within the next forty-eight hours or I’m reassigning you from Major Crime. We could be looking at suspension here because of the way you are reacting to this.’

Grace responded. ‘This is typical of you. You know you are wrong, so you pull rank, just like a bully.’

Pewe hesitated a moment, mouth opening and closing again as if trying to find the right words. ‘Well, perhaps suspension isn’t appropriate here.’

‘That’s very generous of you,’ Grace retorted. ‘But if you take me off Major Crime — assuming you even have the authority to do that — I would go straight back to the Met in a Commander role, where I have the ear of the Deputy Assistant Commissioner. And my first recommendation to her would be that you are flushed down a fucking toilet into the Thames estuary. But before I do that, I will be sending a full report to the Chief Constable and to the Police and Crime Commissioner on my recommendations to you on how Dr Crisp should have been guarded. And how you rejected them. I wrote them in my Policy Book along with a note about your bullying conduct.’

Pewe winced at Roy’s words, raising a conciliatory hand. ‘Perhaps we are both getting a little bit heated, Roy.’

‘Not me, sir. I’m a cucumber.’

‘Cucumber?’

‘Cool as.’

‘Very well. Look — let’s forget our differences, shall we?’

Grace stared him in the eye, saying nothing.

The ACC blinked first. ‘You and I, we go back a long way.’

Unfortunately, Grace thought.

‘I’ve said it to you before and I’ll say it again now. We may never be best friends. But we have a common purpose, don’t we? To try to make this world a better place.’

Yes, thought Grace, and it would be a much better place without assholes like you.