The Memory of Blood

∨ The Memory of Blood ∧

27

Source

Arthur Bryant dug out an old penny and inserted it in Madame Blavatsky. “I say, come and see this, Raymondo.”

Land reluctantly dragged himself over to the glass case containing the tattered medium. “This is all a load of old rubbish,” he complained, but watched over Bryant’s shoulder.

There was a clonk, and Madame Blavatsky’s eyes glowed to life. Her gears creaked and groaned as she reached out a grubby, rubbery hand, dropping her prediction into the slot beneath her. Bryant pulled out the card and read it.

LIFE AND DEATH ARE INDIVISIBLE

“Not very exact, is it?” said Land. “I don’t think she’s going to be helping us much in the investigation.”

“She’s right, though. Two dead bodies and two living puppets.” Bryant rolled his eyes at Land suggestively.

“Why am I even listening to you? I should have prevented you from taking control of this unit years ago. It’s your fault we’ve ended up in a building once rented by Aleister Crowley. Now you want me to believe inanimate objects can come to life and murder people.”

“Well, you’re not getting results using traditional investigative methods, are you?” Bryant took out his gobstopper to see if it had changed colour, then reinserted it in his mouth. “Did you find out where all the guests at Kramer’s party were around Gregory Baine’s estimated time of death?”

“Many of them were travelling at that point of the evening. We’re checking their Oyster cards and looking at CCTV footage, but nearly half are unaccounted for. The whole thing is a nightmare.”

“Poor old sock, you’re not cut out for this sort of thing, are you?” said Bryant. His gobstopper rattled annoyingly against his false teeth. “For years we’ve tried to protect you from involvement in our work, and now you’ve got stuck in and made a mess of things. I’ll be happy to help you out, but you have to let me work in my own fashion. You’ve started from the wrong end. Turn the case around the other way. Forget about what the witnesses did or didn’t see, and start with the killer’s mind. Why would you wait until there was a house full of people to murder someone? To increase the number of suspects. Why would you leave the PCU’s business card at the site of the second death? Because, having met them, you’re sure they’re on the wrong track and you want to keep it that way. Why direct attention to the Punch and Judy dolls? Because Robert Kramer believes in their power.”

“You’re already losing me.”

“You have to believe very strongly in something before you act upon it. Ray Pryce was surprised by Kramer’s interest in his script – Kramer was interested by the idea of the dummy exacting revenge. His fascination with the Punch legend arose because he sees a mirror image of himself in it. Strong men are always looking for analogies that explain why they’re so driven. Remember the Thatcher generation? When the bankers openly admitted they believed greed was good, back in the eighties? Do you know what the top-selling book was in the City of London during that time? Machiavelli’s The Prince. Those captains of industry saw in it a reflection of themselves.”

“So you think it’s Robert Kramer?”

“I didn’t say that. It’s one of two leads I’m pursuing, but you wouldn’t like the other one. As far as I can see, Kramer is the only one with a real motive and the ability to hide his feelings that deeply. His relationship with Gregory Baine was strained to breaking point. Baine was Kramer’s partner and strongly disapproved of his expansion plans. The pair of them own a dodgy company that Baine has been draining money from.”

“How do you know all this?”

“It’s not difficult. I checked their company registration and followed up reports in the financial papers. Kramer is subject to fits of anger. We know that from talking to his wife and to Ray Pryce, who saw them fighting in the theatre. Now, let’s suppose Kramer follows his role model. He revels in being pugnacious, amoral, murderously strong-willed. He determines to remove all obstacles to his ultimate victory.”

“But what does he hope to achieve?”

“What does anyone with that mentality hope for? Power over others. And what is the one trait that marks such men out from those whom they consider to be their inferiors? Aggressive, overreaching self-confidence. Which is why he even dares to link Baine’s death to our unit.”

“Well, when you put it like that…” Land rubbed his chin, thinking it through. “But if he’s that smart, how do we nail him?”

“By understanding how he did it,” said John May, appearing in the doorway. “I think I have a lead.”

“Wait, I’m not saying he did it,” Bryant backtracked. “I’m merely proposing an academic theory. Now, if you’d like to hear my further thoughts on the matter – ” But Land and May had already gone.

♦

Lucy Clementine had sea-green eyes, long legs and raven-wing hair. Her smile was so bright and perfect that if the room slowly dimmed on her it would have been the last thing to disappear, and the sight that everyone would most remember. She sat in the Ladykillers café in a short black skirt and suit jacket, stirring honey into her lemon tea, listening to May.

“I can’t tell you anything more than that, because the matter remains under investigation, but if you really can shed light on the case I’d be grateful.” John May’s weakness for pretty women manifested itself in the gentlest and most charming of ways; he found himself believing almost anything they said. If a woman told him she was cold, he would raise the heat to an unbearable degree. If she told him she believed in astrology, he would follow her horoscope for weeks. And now that Brigitte, his partially present, wholly difficult ladyfriend, had decided to extend her stay in Paris, he was more susceptible than ever.

Lucy was a government employee in a division he was not familiar with, something called the Department of Social Resources. She said she had decided to email May after reading about the case in the Daily Telegraph that morning.

“I worked for Mr Kramer at his property company, Cruikshank Holdings. It wasn’t an easy job. He was nice most of the time, but had – well, let’s say anger management issues. He used to be extremely unreasonable with his wife.”

“Did you ever see or hear him lose his temper?”

“Yes, several times. The worst was just after Judith – I mean, Mrs Kramer – told him she was pregnant. She came to the office one evening – they were going out to dinner – and they had such a terrible argument that she went home in tears. After she’d gone, he told me he didn’t want to become a father, that it would interfere with his career. He used to keep these creepy dolls in his office, Punch and Judy puppets, and I remember something he said that really bothered me.”

“What was that?”

Lucy looked up at May with sadness in her eyes. “He said that Punch had the right idea when he beat the baby to death.”

“You clearly recall hearing him say those exact words?”

“Yes, I do. But I don’t know whether he meant half the things he said. I think he liked to shock people.”

“What was he like to work for?”

“Very charismatic but a bit frightening – his energy amazed me. He could go out to a fund-raising night until two in the morning and be at work the next day at six a.m. I was in awe of him. He told me he was superstitious. That was why he owned the puppets.”

“What do you mean?”

“He believed in what they represented. Some evenings, if we were working late, he would open a bottle of wine in the office. He would invite me to sit and have a glass with him.”

“And did you?”

“No, I don’t drink. But I would listen to his stories. I think he felt lonely, even though he was married. He once explained the whole Punch story, how it was a metaphor about the making of the modern world. He called Punch ‘the unpalatable face of heroism’, and said that this was the way all successful businessmen would have to behave one day.”

If May was surprised by the luscious Ms Clementine’s rehearsed glibness, he didn’t show it. “It sounds as if believing in such things was very important to him,” he remarked.

“I think he was always looking for ways to understand his life. I heard he became rich at a very early age, something to do with creating a website for students. When you make so much money at that age, it’s bound to affect your behaviour, isn’t it?”

As May took his leave, he thought about the Hangman figure found by Gregory Baine’s body. Somebody who had attended Robert Kramer’s party knew about his fascination with the story of Punch, or believed it themselves. And now they were using it to show him how little power he really had over his own life.

Which meant that Robert Kramer might not be the main suspect at all, but the main target.

Arthur had said he was developing two theories. If one involved the investigation of Robert Kramer, what, May wondered, was the other?