Nightmare

6

Nightingale sat down and toyed with his pack of cigarettes as Evans pressed ‘record’ and nodded at the superintendent. Chalmers looked up at the clock on the wall. ‘It is now nine twenty on Tuesday January the fourth and this is Superintendent Ronald Chalmers and Inspector Dan Evans recommencing our interview with Jack Nightingale. So, Mr Nightingale, we were talking about what happened at Lambeth Hospital this morning.’

‘If you say so,’ said Nightingale.

‘You heard Mr Robinson say your name several times, did you not?’

‘That wasn’t him,’ said Nightingale.

Chalmers snorted dismissively. ‘I can assure you that it was most definitely Dwayne Robinson that we saw in the ICU.’

‘His body, yes. But it wasn’t him speaking.’

Evans grunted and shifted in his chair. Chalmers looked across at the inspector and then shook his head slowly. ‘We both heard him speak. We both heard him say your name. He was identifying you as his killer.’

‘As I said before, at the time he wasn’t dead. Brain dead, maybe, but that’s not the same as dead dead.’

‘But he is dead now. Dead dead. And this morning, before he passed away, he identified you as his assailant.’

‘That’s not what happened.’

‘Mr Nightingale, I put it to you that on the evening of July the twentieth last year you shot Dwayne Robinson in the head and that this morning he identified you to that effect.’

‘It wasn’t Robinson talking,’ said Nightingale.

‘Who was it, then? Because I’ll be swearing in a court of law that it was Dwayne Robinson lying in that hospital bed.’

‘You know who it was,’ said Nightingale. ‘It was Sophie.’

Chalmers looked down at his notebook and clicked his pen. ‘You said the name Sophie while you were in the ICU. Who were you referring to?’

Nightingale folded his arms. ‘What are you trying to do here, Chalmers?’ he asked.

‘What I’m trying to do, Mr Nightingale, as you well know, is to find out who killed Dwayne Robinson. And so as far as I am concerned, you are the prime suspect. Now, who was the Sophie that you kept referring to at the hospital?’

‘You’ve forgotten already, have you?’ Nightingale sneered.

‘What do you mean?’

‘You know full well who she is.’ Nightingale took a deep breath. ‘Sophie Underwood.’

Chalmers frowned. ‘Sophie Underwood? Why do I know that name?’

Evans jutted his chin at the superintendent. ‘That was the little girl who died at Chelsea Harbour two years ago,’ he said. He nodded at Nightingale. ‘The one that.?.?.’ He left the sentence unfinished.

Chalmers looked back at Nightingale. ‘The girl whose father you threw out of the window?’

‘Allegedly,’ said Nightingale.

‘And what made you start talking about her? Is she connected with Dwayne Robinson in some way?’

‘You just don’t get it, do you?’ said Nightingale. ‘It wasn’t Robinson talking. It was Sophie.’

Chalmers sneered. ‘What the hell are you talking about?’

Nightingale clasped his hands together and leaned across the table towards the superintendent. ‘It was her. She was asking me to help her. You heard that, didn’t you? She wants my help.’

Chalmers looked across at Evans, then back to Nightingale. ‘Are you seriously telling me that a girl who died two years ago was talking to you through Dwayne Robinson?’ Chalmers sat back and tapped his pen on his notepad. ‘Are you planning some sort of insanity defence, Nightingale? Because I’ll tell you now that’s not going to wash.’

‘You heard what she said,’ said Nightingale. ‘You were there.’

‘I heard Dwayne Robinson say your name several times, and as far as I’m concerned that was because he was identifying you as his killer.’

‘It wasn’t him. How could it be? You heard what the doctor said. Dwayne Robinson was brain dead. It couldn’t have been him speaking.’

‘So what are you saying, Nightingale? That a dead girl has a message for you from beyond the grave?’

Nightingale ran a hand through his hair and then rubbed the back of his neck. He could feel the tendons there, as taut as steel wire.

‘Cat got your tongue again, Nightingale?’

‘I don’t know what was going on,’ said Nightingale. ‘But it was her.’

Chalmers nodded slowly. ‘I see what’s going on here,’ he said. ‘That was the day your life turned to shit, wasn’t it? You screwed up with the little girl; you threw her father out of his office window and your career with it. And don’t think we’ve forgotten about the father. That case is still open.’

Nightingale shrugged.

‘Just because he’d been fiddling with his daughter didn’t give you the right to kill him,’ said Chalmers.

Nightingale shrugged again.

‘No comment?’

‘It sounds like you’ve already made your mind up,’ said Nightingale.

‘This Sophie, how old was she?’

‘Nine when she died. She’d be eleven now.’ Nightingale picked up his pack of Marlboro and toyed with it.

‘And why do you think she’d want to talk to you?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Do you think she blames you for her death?’

Nightingale’s eyes narrowed. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean that maybe this is just your guilty conscience at work. Maybe you feel that you’re responsible for her death and for the death of her father. That’s a lot of guilt for a man to bear, and in my experience sooner or later guilt manifests itself.’

‘You were there this morning, Chalmers. You heard her.’

‘I heard Dwayne Robinson say your name shortly before he died.’

‘Sophie was talking through him. She wants me to help her.’

‘She’s beyond help. She’s dead.’

Nightingale sighed and looked at his watch pointedly. ‘I’ve got a business to run,’ he said.

‘You’re a self-employed private detective,’ said Chalmers.

‘Look, Chalmers, I didn’t kill Dwayne Robinson, and you haven’t got any evidence that says I did. All you’ve got is Robinson saying my name and I’ve explained that.’

‘By telling me that a dead nine-year-old girl was using him as a ventriloquist’s dummy? You think I’m going to buy that?’

‘Buy, sell, steal, I don’t give a toss.’ Nightingale stood up. ‘I’m out of here. The only way you can keep me here is to charge me and if you do that I’ll sue you for false arrest faster than you can say “Colin Stagg”.’

Chalmers glared at Nightingale but didn’t say anything. Nightingale pulled open the door and walked out.