The Scarlet and the..... Grey Part Nine
Tim
stood at the back of the cramped interview room as Alex and Alistair sat down to
face Nikki. She sat there, shoulders hunched, cigarette in her hand, toying
listlessly with her coffee cup.
"Nikki,
how long had you known Amanda?"
Alistair
gently started to question the young woman.
"I
dunno, guess it was since we were at school. 10 years or something?"
"And
did she make a habit of coming down to Jamaica Lane to see you?"
"No,
only when I needed her to get something for me."
"And
how often was that?"
"I
only asked her to do it a few times. Last night was the first time for ages. I'd
forgotten condoms, and she was the only person I could get hold of. So she said
she'd buy some and bring them down."
"And
what time was that?"
Nikki
thought for a few seconds.
"It
was just before one of my regulars showed up, so it would have been about 11 or
so."
"And
how long did Amanda stay? Was she still there when you left?"
"Yeah.
She made sure I got into the car, and was talking to one of the other girls when
we drove round the corner."
"Which
girl was it," chimed in Tim, angry at being left out of the loop.
Nikki
looked at him distrustfully. Alex brought Nikki's attention back to the
question.
"Who
was it, Nikki? You have to tell us."
"Lucy.
She's got long black hair and always wears a leather jacket. She usually gets
there about 12. She'll be there now."
Alex
smiled at Nikki.
"Thanks
for your help. Do you need a lift anywhere?"
Nikki
shook her head.
"No,
I don't really wanna be seen with cops, you know?"
Alex
led her out of the interview room, leaving Tim and Alistair alone.
"Tim,
I know you think Alex is being harsh on you, but you have to understand that
she's your boss here. You being three hours late to a murder scene was pushing
it, even for Alex."
Tim
looked resentfully at Alistair.
"Look,
I wasn't doing anything last night that you weren't. Because you're sleeping
with the boss just makes it easier. She's bound to be easier on you than she is
on anyone else!"
Alistair's
face darkened as he approached the taller man. Squaring up to him, he looked him
directly in the eye.
"Alex
isn't going to treat me any differently than you or anyone else in CID! She
reamed me out this morning for defending you, so I think you'd better be sure of
your facts before you go shooting your mouth off, okay?"
Tim
was about to retort when the door opened and Alex faced them both.
"Can
I ask what I'm missing out on here?"
Alistair
took two steps back from Tim and faced his D.I..
"Uh,
nothing, Guv, just a little disagreement on what we should do next, that's
all."
She
looked at him quizzically, knowing there was definitely something wrong. He only
ever called her Guv when he wanted to make a point. Alex looked over at Tim, who
merely shook his head.
"Yeah,
sorry. And Alex? I'm really sorry I was late this morning, it won't happen
again."
Alex
looked between the two men again and finally smiled.
"Okay,
Tim, just don't let your sex life come between you and the investigation,
okay?"
Tim
blushed as Alex grinned broadly.
"I
don't mind you seeing Jolie, because I can hardly criticize what you're doing,
just so long as it doesn't get in the way. And I really would appreciate you
being a bit discreet about Alistair and I. If it gets out, we're both in the
shite."
Tim
nodded, understanding that if this was Gee, he wouldn't even be allowed to see
Jolie out of work, so he really did owe it to Alex and Alistair to keep things
quiet. Throwing the flimsy plastic coffee cups into the bin, Alex turned back to
Tim.
"We
really do need to find this Lucy woman. I want you and Alistair to go down to
Jamaica Lane to talk to her. Bring her back here if you have to, we could do
with having her on the record to be honest. I have to go and talk to Jolie, find
out whether there's any difference between the symbol on the floor and the
symbol on the wall. I'll meet you two back here at, say, 4? Is that okay?"
Tim
nodded and left the room, leaving Alex and Alistair alone. Alex sat on the edge
of the table again, looking up at Alistair. He looked back at her, eyebrows
raised, waiting for a signal to let him know what she wanted. She smiled softly
and patted the table next to her, inviting him to sit down.
"Alistair,
I had to send you with him, prove I'm not biased, okay? I wanted to go with you,
but I have to prove to Tim that I'm not favouring you just because we're
sleeping together..."
Slowly,
gently, Alistair leaned in and placed a soft kiss on Alex's lips, his hand
reaching to caress her cheek.
"I
understand. What are you doing for Christmas," he asked, matter of factly.
"Nothing,
to be honest, I was going to spend it on my own. Why?"
"I
want you to spend it with me. We can have the whole day together, no
interruptions. What do you think?"
Alex
smiled wearily.
"Much
as that would be good, I really think we ought to make Tim welcome here. We
ought to invite him to eat with us, at least..."
Alistair
nodded.
"You're
right. It's not fair to get him over here over Christmas and force him to spend
the day on his own. D'you think he'll want to bring Jolie too? I mean, three can
be a crowd."
Alex
nodded.
"I’ll
ask her too when I'm there this afternoon. We'll just have them over for lunch
or dinner, and we can have the rest of the day to ourselves. Is that okay?"
Alistair
pulled her into his arms and kissed her gently.
"Dinner
would be better, I think. Your place or mine?"
"Yours.
The kitchen's a lot bigger."
He
kissed her once more, before finally releasing her and following her from the
small interview room.
Tim
was waiting outside with Reg Hollis, talking about Reg's frustrations that he
couldn't get the front of the station to look pretty in the winter. Tim looked
eminently bored.
"You
ready, Tim," asked Alistair.
He
nodded, and followed Alistair outside.
Reg
looked knowingly at Alex as she turned to go upstairs to the CID office.
"What's
so funny, Reg? Is there something amusing in me talking to my sergeant about an
investigation?"
Reg
blushed.
"No,
ma'am, course not. Just wondering how things were going an' all that."
"Things
are going just fine with the investigation, Reg. Now, will you open the door,
please?"
************
Jolie
sat facing Alex across her massive old oak desk. She regarded the younger woman
cautiously and with some disdain as she fired question after question at her.
"Oh
come on, you can't tell me you didn't know Amanda Sargent! She was one of the
best students here, and was signed up to your lectures!"
"I'm
not saying I didn't know of her, just that I'd never spoken to her. Does that
answer your question?"
Jolie
raised a cynical eyebrow in Alex's direction.
"Can
I ask what you're accusing me of, Inspector? What, exactly, am I supposed to
have done here?"
Alex
got up from her chair, walking slowly around the cramped office, looking at the
Voodoo esoterica on display.
"The
symbol, Jolie. The one next to all the bodies. What's its significance? Its real
significance, I mean. And I don't want any of the bullshit you fed us the other
night about it being used to trap souls for Damballah. I want the truth,
okay?"
Jolie
smiled a catlike smile.
"What's
the matter, Inspector? Something upset you today? Not getting any good lovin'
from that man of yours? Then again, he's probably too scared to say no to the
boss lady."
Alex
looked furious as she toyed with a feathered Voodoo mask hanging from the wall.
"Sounds
like you're the one who's jealous, Jolie. What D.S. Greig and I do is no-one's
business but our own. Now, what the hell does this symbol mean and why was it on
the wall this time, not on the floor?"
Jolie
waved her hand dismissively towards Alex.
"Floor,
wall, tree, whatever. It makes no difference as long as it's near the body. An'
you're right, it's not to trap souls. It's to protect the killer from the soul
of the victim. Well, you did say you wanted the truth, Inspector!"
She
drew the last word out dramatically as she looked Alex directly in the eyes.
Alex smiled at last.
"That's all I wanted to hear. Now, on a lighter note, do you have any plans for Christmas Day?"
Jolie
looked at Alex in surprise. This woman seemed to be able to switch from
hard-nosed bitch to friend in a matter of seconds.
"I
was planning on inviting Tim for a Cajun Christmas. Why?"
Alex
smiled.
"Alistair
and I would like to invite you and Tim for dinner at Alistair's house. If you've
already made plans, though..."
Alex
left it hanging, waiting for Jolie's reaction.
“No,
I’d love to come, see a traditional English Christmas. Never seen one before.
Or will it be a traditional Scottish Christmas?”
Alex
wasn’t quite sure whether Jolie was being facetious or merely inquisitive. She
decided to play along.
“I
daresay it’ll be a Scottish Christmas. You know, haggis, bashed neeps and
tatties. Don’t look so scared, I’m only joking! We’ll be having a turkey
like everyone else. So you’ll come?”
Jolie
smiled at last.
“If
Tim’ll come too, then count me in, okay?”
“Okay.
I’ll let him know the details, and I imagine he’ll be seeing you later?”
Jolie
nodded, knowing that Alex had the upper hand here. She showed Alex out of her
office, and closed the door heavily behind her. But what was with all the new
questions?
************
Tim
and Alistair stared long and hard at Lucy over the desk in the interview room.
Finding Lucy had been the easy bit. It had been far more problematical getting
her to talk to them at all, let alone bringing her in for questioning. In the
end, they had had cause to bring her in when she had hit Alistair hard in the
face. He was now sporting a livid purple bruise on his left cheek.
“Okay,
Lucy. D’you mind telling us why you hit me?”
Alistair
was very pissed at her, and it showed.
“Because
you’re a bloody pig, that’s why.”
Lucy
was about twenty, but acted more like a sulky thirteen year old. Her legs were
barely covered by a tiny, shiny miniskirt, and a minute halter-neck top bared
her cleavage. This was offset with an outsize leather jacket bearing the legend
“Die Motherfucker, Die” in peeling paint on the back. She had been wearing a
massive silver ring on the middle finger of her right hand, the shape of which
was now imprinted heavily on Alistair’s cheek.
“And
why do you like to hit “bloody pigs”? Is it fun?”
She
smiled wickedly at him.
“Yeah.
I like to do it. What you gonna do about it, you Scottish prick?”
“Would
you mind repeating that for the tape, Lucy? I’ll remind you now you’re under
caution...”
“I
said what the fuck you gonna do about it, YOU SCOTTISH PRICK!”
Lucy
stood up and leaned towards the tape recorder to make her point. Alistair
suppressed a wry smile.
“Well,
well, Lucy, you have picked up a mouth on Jamaica Lane, haven’t you? And to
think I remember you when you were all sweetness and light. Oh yes, that was
before you pushed your sweet old grandmother down the stairs for the £5 in her
purse! Old crack habits die hard, Lucy, don’t they?”
Lucy
spat across the table, narrowly missing Alistair. He looked at her in disgust.
Tim broke the uncomfortable silence.
“You
were seen talking to Amanda Sargent last night. Mind telling us what that was
all about?”
Lucy
smiled sweetly at Tim.
“You
don’t look like a pig. She wanted to buy some crack, but I di’n’t have
any, so I told her to fuck off. Then a guy pulled up, I got in an’ we drove
off. I di’n’t see her after that.”
“What
was she doing when you drove off, Lucy? Was she talking to anyone else? Or did
she walk away?”
Alistair
decided to take control of the interview again. Lucy looked at him with
undisguised contempt.
“A
car pulled up and she started talking to the woman in the driver’s seat. Can I
go now?”
“No,
you can’t go. Have you ever seen the car before? Can you describe it?”
“It
was black, alright? A black BMW. A big one. That good enough for you?”
“Did
you get the registration number at all? See anything unusual about it?”
“No,
I didn’t.”
Alistair
sighed in exasperation. They weren’t going to get anything more out of her
now.
“Okay,
Lucy, it’s just the charge of assaulting a police officer now. Detective
Bayliss will take you down to the Custody Suite and get everything sorted. I
guess you know the procedure by now. Interview terminated at... 16.34.”
Alistair
got up from his chair and left the room, almost running right into Alex outside.
“Hi.
A little birdie told me you might be in here. Shite! What the hell happened to
you?”
She
reached up and gently touched the rapidly spreading bruise on his cheek. He
winced in pain.
“Lucy
decided that it would be more fun to assault me than to talk to one. It’s
okay, the F.M.E. looked at it, nothing’s broken. How did it go with Jolie?”
Alex
smiled warmly.
“She
tried to spin me the bullshit line at first, but finally admitted that the
symbol is used to protect the killer from the vengeful spirit of the victim. Not
sure if that’s true, but it’s closer to the truth than the original story
she threw us. I hope you’re having Lucy charged?”
Alex
became serious and concerned again as she looked at his cheek. Alistair grinned
back at her, not without showing how much pain he was in.
“It’s
about time she got charged with something, Guv. She seems to be one of those who
gets away with everything. Anyway,” he said, changing the subject, “what did
Jolie say about Christmas Day?”
“She
said she’d come if Tim was welcome too. What did Tim say?”
“Pretty
much the same thing. So, it looks as though we have guests for Christmas. I’d
rather it was just us, but you’re right, we do have to make them welcome.”
“There’ll
be other times, Alistair. Now, what say we go back to my office and wait for Tim
to finish? I could use a good coffee right now...”
There
was promise in her eyes as she led the way upstairs to the CID office.
Part Ten of "The Scarlet and the..... Grey?"