‘Possibly not,’ I acknowledged. ‘But she’ll understand why I did it. Una Burt is a cop, not an administrator. She’s not your teacher and she’s not your mother. She plays by the rules because she has to, but she wants to win. She believes all that guff about standing between the monsters and the weak, Georgia, because when you get down to it she’s just like me.’ I started the car. ‘I’m leaving it up to you to decide whether you want to stay on the team or not. You pick.’
‘What if I decide to stay?’
‘Then you’d better make sure you do the job.’
25
I stood outside the morgue watching the clouds scud across the sky on a stiff summer breeze that plucked at my clothes and ruffled my hair. It was one of those times when I would have liked to be a smoker, to have a reason for standing there on my own. The door opened behind me, and Derwent stepped out.
‘All right?’
‘Yeah.’
‘You made it all the way through.’
I half-laughed. ‘Were you hoping I wouldn’t?’
‘Nope. I thought you’d be OK.’
‘OK is debatable.’ I risked a look at him, expecting to see judgement on his face, or pity, and unsure which I’d prefer.
What I got, naturally, was neither. He was frowning at the middle distance. ‘No one enjoys it. Maybe the pathologists do, but no one normal.’
‘I know that. I’ve been to enough PMs.’
‘It’s different when it’s someone you know.’
‘It makes you realise we’re all just meat.’ I was trying not to think about it: the organs and how they fitted together, the surprising untidiness of what was inside a human being once you unpacked it.
Derwent winced. ‘You’re making it very hard for me to look forward to the next time I eat steak and kidney pie.’
‘She was alive on Sunday.’
‘Yeah.’
‘While we were poking around the storage unit and dealing with Turner and Oliver Norris. While I was interviewing her stepbrothers.’ I swallowed. ‘What if something I did or said made it too risky to let her live?’
‘It’s possible.’
‘Oh, thank you very much for the comfort.’
‘What? You know it’s true.’
‘She was drugged.’
‘Diazepam.’ Derwent frowned. ‘Enough to make her drowsy and confused, the doctor said.’
‘So she had less chance of fighting him off,’ I said, biting off the words. ‘She was slight, wasn’t she? I don’t think she would have caused too much trouble even if she hadn’t been drugged, but someone didn’t want to take the chance.’
‘If she was drowsy and confused, maybe she didn’t know what was happening.’
‘It explains the lack of defensive wounds.’
‘Three broken ribs,’ Derwent said, and I shivered.
‘I wish I’d done more for her. I should never have left her with the Norrises.’
‘She was an adult. It was her choice.’
‘Still. The obvious place for her to be was with her dad.’
‘And she wouldn’t go near him,’ Derwent said.
‘She was afraid of her stepbrother.’ I thought for a second. ‘Maybe not afraid enough.’
‘Why do you say that?’
‘Nolan had a car. He went missing from school. Maybe he was supposed to pick her up and take her somewhere.’
‘And he killed her instead?’
‘It’s possible, if she was blackmailing him into helping her. Maybe he decided it was too risky to let her live.’
‘Wouldn’t it be more likely that he’d have strangled her or beaten her to death?’
‘He’s not all that athletic. Maybe he didn’t want to take the chance of her fighting him off.’ Her lungs had been saturated with clean water – no dirt, no grit. ‘Holding her down in a full bath would have done the job. He was out on Sunday night, according to his dad. And where she was dumped isn’t a million miles from the M40, his road home.’
‘Does his story about why he left school check out?’
‘Funnily enough, the drug dealers don’t remember him specifically and don’t want to make any statements, helpful or otherwise. Of course, if they sold him the diazepam they’re not going to say.’ I sighed, frustrated. ‘We could look for his car on CCTV in Oxford but he didn’t go through the city centre. If we don’t find him, that doesn’t mean he wasn’t there.’
‘Bit weird that he chose that night of all nights to be out of school.’
‘Coincidences happen. If he was looking for an alibi deliberately, he probably wouldn’t have chosen the one involving illegal activity, expulsion and a gang of dealers as his main witnesses.’
‘He might if he was a moron.’
‘He might, and he might well be a moron.’ I hugged myself. ‘What about Morgan Norris?’
‘What about him?’
‘He’s a predator.’
‘Then he’d have raped her before he killed her.’
‘Maybe he miscalculated. Or he decided we knew too much about his DNA to risk it. I spent a lot of time telling him about DNA. I might as well have held up a giant warning sign.’ I shivered again. ‘If she was living in the same house as her murderer, I’m not sure I can live with myself.’
‘It’s not about you. You weren’t in charge of her just because her mum was dead.’ He frowned at me. ‘Why does this bother you so much?’
‘Because …’ I swallowed. ‘Because no one ever taught Chloe the rules. No one ever looked at her and saw a beautiful young woman who needed to know them.’
‘What rules?’
‘That your body is public property, if you’re young and female. That men will take advantage of you, if they can.’
‘Some men. Not all men.’
‘It only takes one. And they don’t always announce themselves until it’s too late.’
‘Is that why you dress like that?’
‘Like what?’ I looked down at my very plain trouser suit, my high-necked top. ‘I’m at work.’
‘I’ve seen you off-duty too. You dress like you don’t want to be noticed.’
‘And you dress like you have shares in North Face clothing. It’s almost as if you want everyone to know you’re an off-duty copper. So what?’
‘It’s interesting, that’s all.’
‘To you, maybe.’
‘She wasn’t raped.’ Smoothly, he’d returned to Chloe. ‘She didn’t fight. She might not have known what was happening, if she was drunk or drugged.’
‘I hope she didn’t.’ I could imagine her horror, as someone she’d trusted turned into something unrecognisable. A monster.
‘Do you think it was the same guy who killed Kate?’
‘I hope so, or we’ve got two to catch.’
Derwent grinned. ‘It would be a lot neater.’
‘Chloe trusted him, whoever he was. And Kate was taken by surprise, wasn’t she?’
‘That’s how it looked.’ Derwent rubbed his chin. ‘Do you fancy another look at Kate’s house to see if it gives us any ideas? I’ve got the keys.’
‘Aren’t we supposed to be going back to the office?’
‘Burt will understand.’ Off-hand, casual, infuriating. I felt sorry for Una Burt now and then.
‘OK. Putney it is.’
We both parked right beside Kate’s house, even though it wasn’t coned off any more and the police guard was long gone from the door. The windows were boarded up against burglars and the press alike, the door taped off. Maybe I wouldn’t have felt like parking in front of it either.
I walked over to Derwent, who was digging in the boot of his car for shoe covers and gloves. ‘If you give me the keys, I’ll open the door.’
He turned, rummaging in his pocket, looked past me and frowned. ‘What’s this now?’
William Turner was limping towards us at speed. His face was strained under the bruises, and one hand supported his ribcage.