‘I still don’t see it.’
‘Then you’re a fool! Now that Maria’s dead, she’s become some kind of saint in Bob’s eyes, and Driver knows she can never compete with her, however much she tries. But I’m still alive – so I’m fair game.’
‘Come on, lass,’ Woodend said uneasily.
‘Don’t you see what she’s offering him? She’s offering another version of me – but without the guilt.’
‘Do you want him back?’ Woodend asked gently.
‘No!’
‘Truthfully?’
‘I want him back – of course, I do – but after all that’s happened, I know I can never have him. What I really don’t want is for Elizabeth Driver to have him – because she’ll destroy him.’
‘You could be quite wrong about the whole thing, you know, Monika,’ Woodend said.
‘I’m not wrong! And before too long, you’ll see for yourself that I’m not.’
Elizabeth Driver had tried to talk Rutter out of going for an end-of-investigation drink with Woodend and Paniatowski. She had done so for no other reason than to see how strong a hold she had over him, but she had not been too disappointed when her efforts failed, because it was still early days yet.
Alone again, now that Rutter had gone, she was on the phone, talking to her literary agent in London.
‘I’ve had a wonderful idea for a book,’ she said. ‘I’m going to base it on one of the regional police forces.’
‘That’s not a very good way to go, if you’re aiming at it being a blockbuster,’ the agent cautioned. ‘It might sell well in the area where it’s set, but that’s about the extent of it. Most people – and Londoners especially – aren’t really interested in how the police work in other parts of the country.’
‘But you see, it won’t be about how this police force works,’ Elizabeth Driver said.
‘No?’
‘No! It’ll be about how it doesn’t work – and it will be sensational!’
‘You might have trouble getting enough information to fill a whole book,’ the agent said, still dubious. ‘Police forces tend to be tightly-knit, and, as you know from your own experience, they’re very good at keeping reporters like you at arm’s length.’
‘Not this time,’ Elizabeth Driver said confidently. ‘This time I’ve got a man on the inside, and he’ll give me everything I need.’
‘What rank is he?’
‘An inspector.’
‘Not bad, providing he has contacts in the higher ranks.’
‘He does. His chief inspector thinks he’s wonderful, and would never dream of hiding anything from him.’
‘And does this inspector of yours know exactly what it is you’re planning to do?’
‘Of course he doesn’t,’ Elizabeth Driver said. ‘He hasn’t got a bloody clue. And he’ll continue to have no bloody clue – at least until the whole thing collapses in on him.’
Sins of the Fathers Page 26