by P. F. Ford
‘That’s all right, officer,’ she said. ‘I know how frustrating it can be. We’ve all been there.’
The young PC opened the barrier for her. ‘They’re ten floors up, on the roof,’ he said.
‘Thank you,’ said Watson and gave him another smile for good measure as she drove past him and headed towards the first ramp.
‘Did I detect the use of your female charms there, Watson?’ asked Slater. He could see she was smiling to herself as she negotiated the successive turns.
‘It doesn’t cost anything to share a smile,’ she said. ‘He’s probably going to get nothing but abuse for the next few hours turning people away from this car park, but now at least one person has given him a smile.’
‘I’m sure you’re right,’ said Slater, ‘and I suspect you’ve just made his night.’
‘Sometimes you just have to use what you’ve got to get what you want,’ said Watson. ‘And most men like a nice smile.’
On another occasion, such a remark may well have piqued Slater’s curiosity, but right now they had more pressing matters to attend to. ‘I’ve got a bad feeling about this,’ he said. ‘Can you think of more than one reason why she would want to be up on the roof?’
‘Do you think she’s going to jump?’
‘I bloody well hope not,’ he said, ‘but can you think of any other reason for her to be up there?’
‘Have you had to deal with a jumper before?’ she asked.
‘No, but it’s probably just as well, I’m not much good with heights.’
‘So, that’s tunnels, boats, and heights,’ she said.
He turned to look at her, and there was just the hint of a smile about her face. ‘Yes, and your point is?’
‘They say you should get up close to your phobias and face up to them if you want to overcome them,’ she said.
‘Yes, thank you for your advice,’ he said, rather more tetchily than he intended. ‘I’ll bear that in mind. Perhaps next time we take a ferry we can re-enact the scene where they’re up at the bow of the Titanic.’
‘The Titanic’s probably not the best choice for a re-enactment if you’re not keen on wa—’ Watson’s sentence was cut short by the dirty look Slater aimed in her direction.
Nothing more was said as they zoomed up and around the final two ramps and emerged onto the roof. The immediate area had been cordoned off. There was enough room for two or three vehicles, and the remaining space was crammed with what appeared to be a small army of police officers. Beyond the cordon, the roof seemed to stretch a long way off into the distance. A hastily erected searchlight revealed a tiny figure in silhouette, apparently suspended in mid-air beyond the wall that surrounded the roof.
DI Styles elbowed his way through the crowd towards them as Slater and Watson climbed from the car. The crowd turned as one, expectant faces filling in the space all around Styles. They were nowhere near the edge of the roof but even so, Slater was already beginning to feel distinctly edgy.
‘We’ve got a problem,’ said Styles, anxiously, as he reached them. ‘She says she’s going to jump.’
‘There you are, Watson,’ said Slater, flippantly. ‘I told you she hadn’t come up here to enjoy the view.’
Styles looked like he wasn’t quite sure what to say to that.
‘So why doesn’t she jump if that’s what she wants to do?’ said Slater, irritably. ‘What’s she waiting for?’
‘She says she wants to talk.’
‘Well, what are you waiting for? Get a negotiator out here and talk her down.’
‘That’s what we’re going to do,’ said Styles, patiently. ‘We’ve just been waiting for him to arrive.’
‘Well, how much longer is he going to be?’
‘He’s here now,’ said Styles, ominously.
Slater took a moment to catch up. ‘Now, just a minute, I hope you’re not suggesting—’
‘Yes, it’s you,’ said Styles with a half-smile. ‘She won’t speak to anyone else.’
Slater’s face turned ashen. ‘Yeah, well you can forget that bloody idea straight away,’ he said. ‘I get dizzy looking out of an upstairs window. I’m not standing on the edge of a roof ten bloody floors up.’
‘I’ll go,’ said Watson.
‘I can’t let you do that,’ said Styles. ‘She says she’ll only talk to DI Slater. She’s made it quite clear if we send anyone else near her, she’ll jump.’
‘What makes you so sure she’ll do it?’ asked Slater.
‘You can never be sure,’ said Styles, ‘but when we got here she was just sitting on the wall. When one of my men went over to try and talk to her, she climbed over. Right now, she’s perched on a narrow ledge less than a foot wide with an arm draped over the wall. If she lets go of that wall, she’s a goner, and she says if anyone other than you comes within ten yards, that’s exactly what she’s going to do.’
‘Well, that’s up to her, isn’t it?’ said Slater, callously.
Styles glanced down and an embarrassed Slater realised he had noticed his shaking hands. ‘You know as well as me that it doesn’t work like that,’ he said, gently. ‘It’s my duty, as lead officer, to try and stop her from jumping. She’s given us a possible way out. I’m sorry, Slater, but it’s got to be you. We’ll fit you up with a microphone and earpiece so we’ll be in touch all the time.’
‘What is it you expect me to do?’
‘Whatever you can to get her to come down,’ said Styles.
Slater thought about it. As the conversation had gone on, the faces around them had turned from expectant to neutral and were now heading towards hostile as they waited for his decision. He let out a huge sigh. He knew Styles was right. He had no choice. ‘All right, I’ll do it,’ he said, reluctantly.
As he turned to Watson, he could hear the murmurs of approval from the small crowd. ‘Is this going to be getting up close enough to my phobias for you?’ he hissed.
‘I think it’s very brave of you,’ she said.
‘I don’t want to be bloody brave, I just want to be safe.’
‘I’m coming with you as back-up’ she said.
‘That’s a great idea,’ he agreed, with a wry smile. ‘You can carry the spare underpants. I’ve got a feeling I’ll be needing them.’
Chapter 42
‘Is that you, Slater?’ Diana had been watching as they approached, and they were about ten yards away when she called out to them.
‘Yes.’
‘Okay, you can stop right there. Is that DS Brearley with you? I said you were to come alone.’
‘I was told you said no one else within ten yards. If it’s a problem, I can send her back.’
He watched anxiously as Diana mulled this over. ‘No, she can stay now she’s here,’ she said, finally, ‘but she doesn’t come any closer. In fact, she can go and sit on the wall over there.’ She pointed away to her left, and Slater realised she wanted Watson where she could keep an eye on her.
‘I don’t think that’s a good idea,’ said Watson, quietly.
‘Nor is pissing her off,’ said Slater. ‘We’ll never find out what happened if she jumps now.’
‘Yes, but what about you?’
‘I’ll be fine,’ said Slater.
‘Are you sure?’
‘No, but do it anyway.’
‘Yes, but—’
‘Sam, don’t make me start ordering you about,’ said Slater. ‘Just do it.’
‘That was very touching,’ said Diana, sarcastically. ‘Now do as he says.’
Reluctantly, Watson made her way to the wall where Diana had pointed. ‘Don’t stop there,’ said Diana, ‘I want to see you sitting on the wall. You won’t be able to do anything foolish if you’re balancing up there.’
Slater watched as Watson carefully eased herself up and shuffled round so she was sitting on the wall. He was feeling distinctly queasy now and wondered how he was going to cope if Diana wanted him to do the same.
‘That’s better,’ said Diana, ‘now you
stay there. If I see you so much as move, I’ll jump, got it?’ Then she turned her attention back to Slater. ‘She cares about you, Slater. Isn’t that nice? But if you take my advice you’ll be very careful, these workplace romances really aren’t a good idea.’
‘Are we going to shout at each other from long range or are you going to let me near enough to talk?’ asked Slater.
‘You can come closer,’ she said, ‘but first I want to see you ditch your microphone and earpiece.’
‘No!’ hissed Styles in Slater’s ear. ‘You can’t do that. We need to hear what’s going on.’
‘He’s right,’ agreed Watson.
Slater hesitated. Should he do as she asked?
‘I’m waiting,’ warned Diana. ‘You’re not going to find your answers if I jump now.’
Slater reached for his earpiece. As soon as he moved, Styles was shouting in his ear. ‘Slater! I forbid you to remove that equipment.’
‘You said to do whatever I can to get her down,’ Slater said into his microphone, as he tossed the earpiece to one side, ‘so that’s what I’m doing.’ He tugged the microphone from his collar, held it up so Diana could clearly see it, and then threw it after the earpiece.
‘That’s better,’ she said approvingly. ‘Now you can come over here, but don’t think you’re going to try any heroics.’
‘Don’t worry,’ he said, as he took his first steps towards her. ‘Heroics and heights just aren’t my thing.’
Diana watched, fascinated, as Slater came closer. Then she seemed to realise how terrified he was. ‘Come right up to the wall,’ she said invitingly, a broad smile on her face. She pointed to a spot a few feet from where she was.
‘This is fine,’ Slater said, ‘I can hear you from here.’
‘That wasn’t a request,’ she hissed.
‘Oh, crap, really?’ he asked. ‘Do I have to?’
‘I know you’re a bit scared—’ she said.
‘A bit scared? Who me?’ he said. ‘I’m not a bit scared, I’m bloody terrified!’
‘The thing to do with your fears—’
‘Is to face up to them, yes I know,’ said Slater, glancing across at Watson. ‘So I’ve been told.’
‘Well, then,’ said Diana. ‘Come and look over the wall.’
‘I’d rather not.’
Diana was still holding onto the wall, but she leaned away from it, just long enough to make her point.
‘All right, all right,’ said Slater, hastily. ‘Don’t jump. I’ll do it.’
He shuffled agonisingly towards the wall. By the time he reached it he was sweating profusely and shaking uncontrollably. He grabbed the top of the wall and clung to it, eyes closed tight.
‘It’s such a shame it’s dark,’ she said. ‘You can see my old house from up here.’
‘Oh, dear, what a pity we’re going to miss it,’ said Slater, his voice almost unrecognisable.
‘Open your eyes,’ she said.
Slater slowly opened his eyes, making sure to keep his gaze on Diana’s face.
‘Now look down there.’ She pointed down towards the ground, and obediently he allowed his gaze to follow, finally going up on tiptoes to see right over. He had turned a deathly shade of white and now his head began to swim and he gagged a couple of times.
‘Careful,’ said Diana, not unkindly. ‘I don’t want another death on my conscience.’
* * *
Ten yards away, Watson had Styles ranting in her ear. ‘Has he pulled off his back-up mike as well?’
‘I don’t think so,’ she whispered.
‘Well I hope you can hear the conversation then,’ he snapped, angrily, ‘because the bloody thing isn’t working.’
‘I might be able to hear better if you stop shouting in my ear,’ muttered Watson, but she had only managed to catch the odd word since Slater had reached Diana, so she didn’t hold out much hope.
‘I heard that, DS Brearley,’ raged Styles. ‘I’ll remind you I’m the senior officer here.’
‘Yes, sir,’ said Watson, ‘I understand that, but it’s actually DI Slater who’s risking his life here, and if the mike’s not working it’s not his fault and it’s not mine. I respectfully suggest shouting in my ear isn’t helping.’
‘I’ll deal with you later, Brearley.’
* * *
Meanwhile, Slater’s legs seemed to have turned to rubber, and he could hear the blood pounding in his head as his heart began racing. He was now using the wall to stop himself from collapsing in an undignified heap. He wondered how much longer he could keep this up.
‘Take some deep breaths,’ said Diana, a trace of concern in her voice. ‘You’ll feel much better.’
He did as she suggested, and after a short while, his head stopped spinning and he began to calm down.
‘I suppose you’ve worked it all out now, haven’t you?’ she suddenly asked.
Slater felt the urge to tell her that actually no, he hadn’t, but he had several theories if she could just give him some pointers. He resisted the urge, however, and said nothing.
‘I never meant to kill anyone, you know?’ she said.
‘But you ran Colin Norton down,’ argued Slater. ‘We’ve got a witness who saw you accelerate straight at him.’
‘Oh, I meant to kill him,’ she said matter-of-factly. ‘But he deserved to die. It was all his fault. None of this would have happened if I’d never met him.’
Slater wondered if he should tell her Colin Norton wasn’t actually dead, but he decided to keep it to himself for now. He was more interested in finding out what she could tell him about the bodies.
‘But why did you want to kill Colin?’ asked Slater. ‘I thought you were lovers?’
‘Ha! That was a long time ago,’ she said scornfully. ‘It was the biggest mistake of my life. I thought I’d got away from him when I went to Flipton, but he knew what I’d done. He used it against me. I was trapped.’
‘He was blackmailing you?’
‘Yes, but not in the way you think of blackmail. He was using me for sex, not money,’ she said. ‘He insisted we had to carry on with our affair or he’d tell everyone what I had done. I would have lost everything.’
Slater couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing. ‘He was blackmailing you for sex?’
‘Can you imagine? It was like agreeing to be raped every week. And then he started to come to our house like some long-lost friend, and of course, Alan invited him in, and I had to pretend . . .’
She seemed to be genuinely distressed at this point, so Slater gave her a few moments to compose herself. While he waited, he thought about what he’d just heard. They had suspected blackmail was involved somehow, and they had suspected Diana had still been seeing Norton, but this scenario had never crossed their minds. He glanced towards Watson, but in the poor light he couldn’t see her face clearly. He just hoped Styles had enabled her earpiece so she could hear what Diana was saying.
‘I used to spend half of every Wednesday night in the shower, I felt so dirty,’ Diana continued. ‘He always used to tell me I had brought it on myself, but it was his fault right from the beginning.’
She said nothing for what seemed like an age, and Slater began to think that was all she was going to tell him, so he took a wild guess. ‘So he was there the night you ran Kylie down?’
‘I had ended the affair a couple of weeks before,’ she said. ‘I saw the move to Flipton as a chance to get away from him and start over. Alan’s a good man, you know? He didn’t deserve to have me cheating on him. I wanted to put that right, but Norton was threatening to tell Alan if we didn’t have one last night together.’
She gave Slater a knowing look. ‘Yes, I know, you’re thinking how bloody stupid am I? A trained detective inspector, and I actually thought he would go away if I gave him what he wanted.’
‘I wasn’t thinking that,’ said Slater. ‘I was just wondering if I would have done any different if I was in that situation. I think if desperation offered u
s an easy path, most of us would take it. Isn’t that what panic does?’
‘I was a bloody fool.’
There was another long silence.
‘So this was the night of your leaving party?’ asked Slater.
‘There’s a hotel we used to go to,’ she explained. ‘It’s far enough away for us to be anonymous. We used to go there a lot.’
‘And you had to drive through Trillington to get there?’
‘Yes, that’s right.’
‘And what happened? Were you drunk?’
‘Good God, no,’ she said. ‘I’d had a couple, and I would have failed a breathalyser, but drunk? No way.’
‘We figured maybe you’d come up behind Kylie Mason, lost control, and run her down.’
‘Oh, I lost control all right,’ she said, ‘but only because that animal Norton couldn’t keep his bloody hands to himself. It’s a bit difficult to keep your car under control when someone suddenly shoves his hand between your legs!’
Slater thought he couldn’t argue with that. ‘So you ran her down?’
‘I tried to avoid her, but the road was damp and the car went into a skid . . .’ She stopped for a few moments. ‘We ended up going broadside. It was the back end of the car that hit her. Once I realised what I’d done, I just screamed at Norton to get out of the car and run. I couldn’t afford to have anyone find us in that situation so I told him I would sort it out, and if anyone asked anything, we were never there.’
Slater felt a brief satisfaction as a gap in their theory about what had happened had just been filled. ‘So you actually wanted to keep him out of it? That sounds like you cared about him.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ she said, scornfully. ‘It was damage limitation.’
Now it was Slater’s turn to be scornful. ‘Even in a situation like that, the only thing you were worried about was yourself? My God, Diana, what a piece of work you are!’
She looked daggers at him, and then looked down to the ground below her. For a moment, Slater’s blood ran cold as he thought she was going to jump.
‘If you’re supposed to be talking me down,’ she said. ‘I don’t think abusing me is the approved method.’