Kate sighed. ‘I can’t laugh, Patrick. After patting myself on the back these last days I now have to fight my way out of yet another dirty big hole. I was on top of everything. I had Suzy even though Ratchette had told me to ease off her because she has friends in very high places. She’s actually on video with those kids, showing them what she wants them to do. Christ knows how Robert got hold of them. I can’t even talk to him now because I have in effect ruled myself out of the enquiry by losing my temper with Suzy.’
Patrick felt bad. Once more he was the cause of Kate’s being investigated. It was high time for him to pull himself together and start hauling them both out of the shit before his dreams of retirement and marriage to Kate went straight down the pan.
Willy ambled into the hospital room eating a bag of crisps.
‘All right, Pat?’ He lowered himself carefully into a chair.
‘Still in pain?’
Willy nodded, screwing up his face. ‘It’s me nuts, Pat. They did take a hammering, boy.’
Patrick couldn’t help grinning and Willy laughed as well.
‘You’ve been a good mate, Willy Gabney. The best.’ Willy was embarrassed. ‘Stop being a tart, Patrick, and tell me what’s going down?’
He explained about Suzy Harrington and what had happened to Kate.
Willy was amazed. ‘How can you be involved in all that?’
Patrick shrugged. ‘No idea, and I don’t recognise any of the names in the statement she gave either. Someone is up to a large piece of skulduggery and my name is at the top of the list of suspects. I got Tarbuck to give them the sob story. I am not only a suspect, I am going to get me fucking collar felt and all. But they won’t come in here with a warrant.’
Willy frowned. ‘It has got to be Duggan, Pat. He was into everything. Weren’t there no addresses - nothing?’
Patrick shook his head. ‘Her statement basically says that she gave the films to a third party, who she didn’t know, who then allegedly gave them to me to distribute. I was protected because I had a bird who was a Filth. The usual old fanny, but that’s the general drift.’
Willy finished his crisps.
‘It can only be Duggan,’ he grunted. ‘I mean, if you’re involved without knowing it - and I reckon you could be, given what we know now - that means Boris must have some knowledge, don’t it? He’s in the driving seat now. Which brings me to what I came here for. I went to the club and had a chat with Pascal.’
He shook his head once more in consternation.
‘That Boris is a right saucy fucker, Pat. He is still letting the club’s fucking bills be settled in your name while he is skimming off the cream. He needs a serious sorting out and I am just the fucking man to do it. I have a few numbers and addresses from Pascal. I think I may have to waste that Russian cunt, Patrick. Just for the piss-take, like. And it ain’t like I ain’t got reason, is it? I respected him as a businessman, but this last lot is too much. He needs the hard word.’
Patrick agreed with what Willy was saying but wasn’t so sure he wanted his old friend in on it all.
‘Listen, mate, I am going to sort him out so stop worrying. Get the addresses and numbers checked out by Billy Baines. He is trustworthy. We’ll work from there, OK?’
Patrick picked up the phone and called Ratchette’s private line.
‘I have just had a thought, Willy. I think I will pull in a favour.’
Robert Bateman looked at Kate in disbelief.
‘I was under the impression you were not involved any more.’
She could tell he knew what had occurred and wondered who had enlightened him: the police or his brief.
‘Is this a
legal
interview?’ Kate didn’t answer and he grinned. ‘Oh, I see.’
He sipped at a glass of apple juice. ‘It’s all I can drink these days. Now then, what do you want to know?’
She sat opposite him and lit a cigarette. ‘How did you get your hands on those videos - the ones with Suzy in them?’ She saw his cunning grin and held her breath.
‘I told you, I have keys to a great many homes. Including Suzy Harrington’s.’
‘Where are those keys?’
‘Oh, you are in a hurry, aren’t you?’
‘I certainly am, Robert. And I’m not feeling very patient at the moment as you have probably guessed.’
He pushed back his hair in the feminine gesture Kate had come to know so well.
‘Temper, temper, Katie.’
She had had enough.
‘Robert, you were mad to do what you did but not so mad you can’t remember it. Now then, how can I put this? If you keep fucking me about I am going to come round that table and kick your head in! This is no idle threat. Ask Suzy what I’m capable of when I’m upset. So tell me what I want to know and I’ll leave you in peace.’
Robert seemed to be enjoying himself. ‘What exactly do you want to know, dear?’
‘Who distributed the films?’
His soft-eyed expression was replaced immediately by a look of disdain. ‘Are you really telling me you don’t know?’
Kate closed her eyes and murmured a prayer that he was not going to try and lay it at Patrick’s door. If he and Suzy had shared a brief then Kate was finished and she knew it. It had been a long shot anyway and Ratchette had put his arse on the line allowing this interview in the first place. Not that that bothered her, but to come all this way and then find out that Robert was in collusion with Suzy would be the final straw.
‘The distributor was a recent recruit. Suzy went to her old friend and mentor Lucas Browning, of course. I’d already guessed she would use him.’
‘How do I know any of this is true?’
Robert straightened his shoulders and said gently, ‘You don’t. I am telling you this because you asked, dear. I liked you, Kate. Liked you a lot. You can take it from me it’s true - Suzy told me. You see, I had already let her know I was on to it all. She thought I was part of it. I would drop hints about kids I thought might be ripe for her kind of offer. Mothers who were hard up, in debt or just basically pieces of shit.’
Kate couldn’t believe this fresh twist. ‘So you actually gave her some of the kids you say you were protecting?’
He nodded. ‘Terrible, aren’t I? You see, sometimes I think one way, really loving kids and wanting to help them, and then another time I think something completely different. So I would tell her and then watch from the sidelines. I am ashamed to say I enjoyed it.’
He looked suitably contrite: ‘Barker had been to see her. I waited for him to come out of her flat before approaching him. He had also been to see Sharon Pallister. I killed her shortly after his visit. Trevor told me all I needed to know. I toyed with making it look like Barker had killed her but in the end I couldn’t be bothered. By then I was just taking everyone out as and when the fancy took me.’
He sighed then said gravely, ‘You know the worst thing of all, Kate? Once you kill, it gets easier and easier. Strange that, isn’t it? Someone should write a paper on it. I enjoyed it so much that I needed the buzz again and again and again. I would kill now if I got the chance but don’t quote me on that one, dear. And I felt I was making a difference, was ridding the world of scum, so I had righteousness on my side into the bargain.’
He chuckled and shook his head. ‘I always wanted to be a do-gooder.’
He had lost it again. Kate watched as his mouth opened wide and he literally roared with laughter.
‘Were you in on all this, Robert, really?’
He stopped laughing and was quiet again. It was as if someone had turned a switch and shut him down.
‘Who knows, Katie?’ he said quietly. ‘Who
really
knows anything?’
Then he was off again and she left him shortly after, his laughter echoing in her ears and his fanatical eyes burned into her memory. It seemed that now he was caught, now he was locked up, he didn’t have to keep the threads together any more. He was insane, she already knew that much, and he liked playing games, which was why she couldn’t really believe what he had had to say until she had investigated it fully for herself.
As she passed Golding he ignored her and she was pleased. He was learning to play the game. Once he had finished he was going to be a good officer, she was sure of that.
She held her head up as she left the station, but it took all the strength she had to do it.
Evelyn had gone to the hospital and Kate was glad to have the house to herself. She went upstairs to shower and change and without thinking walked into Jenny’s room and looked around.
All her stuff was gone. Clothes, smellies, everything.
Kate felt bitterly disappointed. She could understand Jenny’s not wanting to be implicated by staying with her now but Kate had at least expected her to say she would be leaving to her face. She felt sick from the letdown.
While she was showering she heard the front door open and, assuming her mother was home, she wrapped a towel around herself and walked down the stairs.
Two men were standing in the hallway. She recognised Boris as soon as he opened his mouth.
‘Miss Burrows, so pleased to meet you at last.’
He looked her up and down and Kate stood like a statue, one hand on the stair rail, her eyes wide with anger and fear.
‘How did you get in here?’ Thank God her voice didn’t waver, she was pleased about that. She needed to keep herself together.
He smiled easily. It was an oily smile that made him seem less handsome.
‘Please don’t insult my intelligence by asking me something so mundane. I can get in anywhere, Miss Burrows. Or may I call you Kate?’
‘You can call me what you want but I have to inform you that you have entered my premises without permission and you are now being asked to leave.’
Sergei decided he liked her. She was obviously nervous. The fact that she was near naked gave them an added psychological advantage over her. Fully dressed people are much more inclined to be brave; it was one of the first things he had learned from Boris. Strip your enemy. It takes away their confidence and with it, their power to reason.
He smiled gently. He couldn’t see Kate covering herself in her own shit in an effort to even things up. That was what the men usually did when stripped and humiliated. It was the only thing they could do to defend themselves. No one wanted to touch someone else’s shit, it was human nature.
Kate stared at the two men. Her heart was beating so loudly it was like a drumbeat in her head. She was frightened and she knew it was imperative that she didn’t let it show. For the first time ever she wished she still had Benjamin Boarder as her minder.
‘What do you want?’ Her voice was quivering and she knew that both the men had picked up on that.
‘I just want to talk to you. That is all.’ Boris held up his hands to make himself seem less of a threat. ‘Please, get dressed and we will talk.’
Kate stood uncertainly at the bottom of the stairs. Her legs were weak with fear and she wasn’t sure she could move.
‘I want you out of my home now, Mr Stravinski. You
and
your ape.’ She glared at Sergei as she spoke, then wondered if her hard woman act had perhaps gone a little too far.
Boris chuckled. ‘Get dressed, and we will make ourselves a drink.’ He took the phone off the hook and gave it to Sergei. ‘I will trust you not to use your mobile upstairs. But hurry, I don’t have much time.’
Kate made her way back to the bathroom and pulled on a thick candlewick dressing gown belonging to her mother. She was back down the stairs in seconds.
‘Please, sit down,’ Boris told her.
‘I really don’t need you to offer me a seat in my own home. Now state your business and then leave.’
‘I need your help, Miss Burrows. I want you to do for me what you do for Mr Kelly.’
Kate screwed up her eyes. ‘I beg your pardon?’
Sergei liked her more by the second. She was brave, he had to admit that. He knew men who would have been gibbering wrecks just to find Boris in their home.
‘Are you trying to insinuate that I am doing something illegal for Mr Kelly? Only if so I will have to disabuse you of that notion here and now. He and I are partners in the personal sense, but not in business. I’m sorry, you have been misinformed and I resent your even making that statement without any proof.’
Boris shook his head as if at a recalcitrant child.
‘Let me rephrase that, Miss Burrows. You
are
going to work for me as and when I require you to. Do you understand what I’m saying to you?’ His voice was harsh now, his accent stronger with anger.
Kate stared into his eyes. He really was an extraordinarily good-looking man. She guessed this was usually used to his advantage.
‘I understand, Mr Stravinski, but I am afraid I have to decline your offer. Now, if you don’t mind, I am very busy.’ Her voice was still strong though her body was shaking.
‘You don’t seem able to understand me, Miss Burrows. This is not an offer. I am telling you that you are now working for me.’
Kate knew by his voice that she was in no position to refuse what he asked. He was at the end of his patience and she already knew what he was capable of. Swallowing her pride, she said with as much dignity as she could muster while wearing her mother’s dressing gown, ‘I understand you perfectly, Mr Stravinski. If you would be kind enough to leave me now, I will think over what you have said. But as from today I am under suspension from my job. I am sure you can verify that if you need to. I attacked a prisoner in my care.’
Boris looked at her with a mixture of surprise and respect.
‘So I don’t think I shall be of any use to either you or Mr Kelly in the future.’ Kate was quaking in her boots. ‘Once again, if you gentlemen will excuse me, I have rather a lot to do.’
Boris smirked. ‘Miss Burrows, you are now working for me. I’ll be in touch.’
Kate didn’t answer him and he left the house with Sergei in tow. She slumped down on the sofa, her heart still in her mouth and her legs weak with fright. It never rained but it poured was an expression of her mother’s that had irritated her over the years. The last few days, though, had made her realise that clichés could also be true.