Midnight

21

C halmers tapped the photograph with his index finger. ‘The thing is, Nightingale, you don’t have a sister, do you?’

‘It’s complicated,’ said Nightingale.

‘According to your personnel file, you were an only child.’

‘You’ve been looking at my file?’

‘You’re a suspect in several possible murders,’ said Chalmers. ‘I’m entitled to look at whatever files I want to.’

‘I haven’t killed anybody,’ said Nightingale. ‘I want a cigarette.’

‘You can smoke when we’ve finished.’

Nightingale stood up. ‘I’m finished now.’

Chalmers got to his feet and glared at Nightingale. ‘Sit the hell down, Nightingale. Sit the hell down and answer the questions I put to you.’

Nightingale shook his head. ‘I’m out of here.’

‘If you don’t sit down I will arrest you for destroying evidence at George Harrison’s apartment. Then I get to hold you in a cell for twenty-four hours. And if I can find a superintendent to sign off on you then I can add another twelve hours to that.’ He smiled cruelly. ‘Wait a minute… I’m a superintendent, aren’t I? So it’s an automatic thirty-six hours in a police cell. Is that what you want, Nightingale? All PACE requires is that I give you one main meal and two snacks a day; it doesn’t say anything about cigarettes. So are you going to stop being an arsehole and sit down or do I arrest you?’

Nightingale looked at Chalmers for several seconds, then he shrugged carelessly and sat down.

‘Thank you,’ said the superintendent. He dropped down onto his chair and linked his fingers. ‘Now, this is what I want from you, Nightingale. I want you to agree to give us a DNA sample and your fingerprints. We will cross-check them against the crime scenes we have.’

‘You already know I was at George Harrison’s apartment. And Connie Miller’s house. And I’ve been inside Alfie Tyler’s house.’

Chalmers sighed. ‘Please don’t start telling me how to do my job,’ he said. ‘We’ll check your samples against Tyler’s car and the rope he used to kill himself. And I’ll be talking to my opposite number in north Wales. And we’ll be going over the Harrison crime scene with a fine toothcomb.’

‘You’ll be wasting your time.’

‘It’s my time to waste.’ Chalmers slid a sheet of paper across the table to Nightingale. ‘Sign this and we’ll do what has to be done.’

‘Then can I have a cigarette?’

Chalmers gave him a pen. ‘Yes, then you can have a bloody cigarette.’