Coffin Knows the Answer

by Gwendoline Butler

  Then he remembered: his wife worked there.

  Another car followed Joe’s in.

  ‘That’s Mercy Adams,’ said Phoebe. ‘Are they together?’

  Chapter 17

  Mercy Adams parked her car near to Joe’s. Far from being with Joe, she had not even been aware he was there in the hospital. She was going to visit her boyfriend, Dr Stephen Wrong.

  She was going to tell Stephen that she was not pregnant and never had been. She did not know if he would be pleased or not. He had sounded excited at the idea of a child.

  ‘Marriage, why not? And you can give up this terrible work you do.’

  He did not like the idea of Mercy as a detective, especially when the crime was murder.

  ‘But you are very interested in it, you question me about it, and you must read all the details in the newspapers because you always know the details before I tell you,’ she said. ‘Sometimes, I think you know more than I do.’ She had no intention of giving up her work, especially as he seemed to find it so absorbing too.

  He hadn’t cared for that, had denied it indignantly moving them into one of their very rare quarrels.

  ‘But if we don’t fight,’ Mercy said to herself, ‘it’s because I watch my tongue.’

  Mercy was worried about Dr Wrong. To her mind he took too keen an interest in the serial murders.

  He was a doctor, so perhaps his desire for detail was understandable, but she thought his interest obsessive. She knew, although he had not told her, that he had got into the morgue to see at least two of the bodies when they were being investigated.

  An outsider, someone who did know him as well as she did, might be suspicious of him.

  Doctors could be killers, Phoebe had suggested as much the other day.

  Had he really said “they cut up beautifully”?

  ‘You could be a killer yourself,’ she’d said, a case of not watching her tongue, at which he had been very angry. Anyway he was not a surgeon but on the medical side, working with allergies.

  She felt split loyalties; she was going to see Dr Wrong to say that it might be better if they didn’t see each other again.

  At least not while the murder investigation went on.

  Mercy had hinted to Phoebe about her worries over Stephen and considered talking to Les Henderson or Winnie Ardet but so far she had said nothing officially. It didn’t seem fair to Stephen somehow. So she had been keeping quiet.

  She was careful about talking to John Coffin. He was the big boss, you only went to him when you had a very good reason, as she had done before. He had a reputation for being both kind and perceptive, but he was also formidable. Stella Pinero, his actress wife, was more easily approached but she was intensely loyal to her husband.

  Stephen Wrong was sitting at his desk studying some records. He looked up, pleased to see Mercy.

  He stood up and came up to her. ‘Nice to see you.’ He studied her face. ‘That’s good, it’s a smile. You’ve been giving me some strange looks lately, That’s the worst of being a copper, I suppose, you worry about everyone. Come and have some coffee and talk. I’m fond of you, Mercy, perhaps more than that. We could be happy together but not if you are going to keep looking at me as if I am raping the cat.’

  ‘You have worried me,’ said Mercy. The hospital canteen was quiet for once, and the coffee hot and good. ‘I suppose I have been over-imaginative.’

  ‘About me you have. You ought to look closer home.’

  As she drank, he went into details.

  ‘I see what you mean,’ said Mercy.

  ‘I hope you do. I wondered whether to speak to you or not because you are part of the team investigating the killer. That’s why I have been so curious.’

  Mercy nodded. Then she frowned. ‘Oh, I don’t know, it is just so hard for me to suspect that particular person.’

  The Chief Commander had seen both Mercy and Joe go into the hospital.

  ‘Working?’ he asked Phoebe. ‘Are they both working?’

  ‘Could be. It may be nothing.’

  ‘It’s when you think it may be nothing that it’s worth taking a look.’ In fact, he had a very clear suspicion inside him. He was not passing just by chance, after all. His suspicions had been growing for some time now, but without any hard evidence. Perhaps now was the chance he had needed.

  He drove to the police HQ where he dropped Phoebe, then told her he planned to go to the hospital. She offered to come with him, but Coffin refused.

  ‘I’ll just go on my own and take a look round. Casual. It’ll seem more official if you come with me.’

  ‘I’d better come,’ Phoebe insisted.

  ‘No, if I’m not in touch in half an hour, you can come then. Bring Les Henderson if he is around.’

  Before going he telephoned Stella. She came out of a rehearsal to speak to him. ‘What is it?’ She wasn’t too pleased to be interrupted.

  ‘I’m off to the University Hospital. No, nothing wrong with me, but I think something is going on there and I want to find out what.’

  Then he told her what he wanted her to do in certain circumstances.

  Coffin drove back quickly to the hospital. There were three entrances so he chose the one which Inspector Jones had used. Joe might need help.

  He walked in to a long and busy corridor with sub corridors opening off it. No sign of Mercy or Joe.

  He walked slowly down towards the end where large doors opened on to a big ward. He didn’t expect to see Mercy or Joe in there.

  ‘What am I doing?’ he asked himself. ‘Wasting my time.’ But he kept on walking. Then out of the crowds passing all around him, a nurse came up to him.

  ‘Chief Commander Coffin?’

  He stopped. ‘Yes?’

  She was a pretty young woman, but her face looked tired. ‘I’m Charge Nurse Pritchard.’ She looked too young to have a lot of responsibility but she also looked efficient. ‘I went to a talk you gave once so I recognised you.’

  He looked at her. One of the Coffin fan club? No, she was in earnest about a real problem.

  ‘I was looking for someone to report to and all our security men seem absent …’ She gave Coffin a charming smile. ‘So I was glad to see you.’

  ‘How can I help?’

  ‘I think there’s something going on in the side office on Ward E. It’s a waiting room for general use.’

  ‘What sort of something?’

  ‘Maybe a fight,’ she said. ‘It sounded serious.’

  ‘Take me there.’ Coffin ordered.

  She led him through the crowd, then took a side turn down a short corridor. A big door led to Ward E, but at the end of the passage there on the left there was another door.

  The nurse nodded towards it. ‘In there.’

  Coffin could see through the glass door. There were four people in there: two women and two men. He knew them all but felt surprise all the same. This was not what he had expected to find.

  ‘I know the doctor and the nurse but do you know the other man?’

  Coffin took a long, thoughtful look. ‘Oh yes. I know him.’

  He said in a low voice. ‘One of my officers … Inspector Joe Jones.’ He felt more shocked than he could show.

  Joe was holding a knife, with a gun in his other hand.

  ‘You’d better get away.’

  ‘What about you?’

  ‘I’ll be all right,’ said Coffin. ‘I doubt if he will attack me although he may want to.’

  Privately he was not so sure.

  ‘He won’t touch me.’ In fact he was far from sure - perhaps Joe wanted him as well as Stella. Or was it Joe’s wife, that tall, lean angry figure by his side?

  ‘I’ve never been quite sure if you are man or woman,’ Coffin thought to himself. ‘And I don’t believe you know either.’

  He pushed open the door. ‘Well, Joe, so this is it?’

  Nurse Pritchard called after him: ‘I’ll get help.’

  Coffin strode into the room. ‘I didn’t
know the killer was you, Joe.’

  ‘Who said it was?’

  ‘I do. But why?’ The obvious question, but somehow he had to ask it.

  A voice from the other side of the room spoke up: ‘The dead boy, the one dug up, was my son … Joe’s stepson … he wanted to win the prize and position as actor that your wife Stella was offering … he didn’t get it, so he killed himself and his woman and his child. We buried him where it would do most damage to Stella Pinero.’

  Coffin looked towards the tall, thin, figure of Joe’s wife. She was wearing a trouser suit and managed to look more masculine than Joe. She continued in a harsh voice.

  ‘I had to avenge him. So I killed the Stella Freaks …’

  ‘Yes, I had noticed the connection.’

  ‘I’d have had her in the end.’

  Coffin was silent, but he gritted his teeth.

  ‘Don’t blame Joe … he’s a little bit mad as you may have noticed. And I enjoyed the killings. You can, you know. Or do you?’ She looked questioningly at Coffin.

  ‘Over the years, I have learnt that sad truth,’ said Coffin.

  Josephine went over to stand beside her husband. He had his gun and knife, she too carried a knife.

  The bond between them would have been touching if it hadn’t been so terrible. Can you catch madness? Coffin asked himself.

  ‘Some of you may get out of here alive, but I’m not sure who.’ Josephine faced them defiantly.

  Mercy leaned against the wall, she looked as though she was on the point of fainting. Dr Stephen Wrong had his arms round her.

  Coffin took a breath. ‘You must think I am a fool … Do you really think I came here tonight without back up?’ He had to keep talking because Mercy was pulling herself together and edging towards Joe and his wife.

  ‘Phoebe and Stella and I have a code. When I told them tonight I was coming here, they knew to send some support.’

  Of course he had his mobile telephone in a convenient pocket, but sometimes the sight of the telephone in use provoked danger. So he said a silent prayer that Stella would get it right.

  Stella did know what she had to do and it involved sending a message to tell Paul Masters to send help. Les Henderson and Phoebe too. She had her instructions.

  Stella had been told: ‘If I don’t telephone you once within the first half hour then tell Paul Masters to see I get help. Ask Les to come with the unit. Phoebe will know where, Paul Masters can empower everything. But Les is the one to come. He may have to look for me, but he’s clever.’

  ‘Do I come too?’ Stella had asked, and got a firm NO. ‘I don’t want you mixed up in it.’

  ‘But I am mixed up in it,’ she had protested: ‘I didn’t know all the women, but I bet they all knew me.’

  Stella Pinero, famous actress and the power behind the theatre complex she had created for the Second City, was a vital part of this series of murders. She was the cause, she knew it. She didn’t know why, but it all revolved around her and the theatre.

  What she didn’t say to him was that she felt their ghosts pressing down on her head with every day that passed.

  So she watched and when she saw Les setting out, with two supporters, not police constables she knew but she recognised their style - toughies - she followed. Les soon saw that she was following him and he knew that the Chief Commander would not want her there because of the very real danger she would be in. But she was the Guvnor’s wife and he did not feel able to stop her.

  There was Phoebe following him, as well, he saw.

  Between the two of them, they might manage to lose Stella inside the hospital. But she was out of her car, parked and going through the hospital with her eyes fixed on him. She was just behind him.

  He swung round to face her. ‘Miss Pinero, Lady Coffin.’

  ‘Make up your mind.’ She kept her tone gentle but he could feel the whip of anger.

  ‘Do not follow me.’

  ‘Did he tell you to stop me?’ She held out her hand to grab Phoebe who had drawn level with them.

  ‘No, but I know he told you to stay away.’

  ‘How do you know?’

  ‘I’m a detective, Miss Pinero.’

  ‘I am sure that he has got hold of the serial killer and that I am part of the motive. I want to be there.’

  She could not get past him without pushing.

  ‘Lady Pinero, Lady Coffin …’ he was flustered, but he got himself together. ‘Stella, the man in there … he abducted you once.’

  ‘I got away.’

  ‘He let you go … he wanted to prolong the game, that’s what the Chief Commander thinks,’ Les was talking fast, anxious to get where he was needed. ‘If you follow me, you will be playing his game, and he will kill you. In front of your husband. Stay with Phoebe.’ Phoebe nodded as if she understood. She probably did. He wished to hell he did.

  Stella stared at him without speaking.

  ‘There is no death penalty now, remember,’ said Les. ‘You will be dead and he will be alive, you will have given him victory.’

  From a double door on their left there came the sound of raised voices.

  Stella knew the voice of her husband while Les Henderson knew the grindingly angry voice that was answering him.

  If it was an answer, it sounded more like an attack.

  Ignoring Stella, he nodded to his two companions, specially chosen officers, and pushed open the door.

  All the same, it could have been a bit quicker, Coffin thought - why the hell had Les and Co. been such a while coming. He must remember to find out, he decided as he pressed the wound on his arm where the blood was dripping, and kept his other arm tightly round Joe’s neck while Mercy gripped the woman, arms behind her.

  At least it had given him time to ask what he had needed to know.

  ‘Why the hell did you involve the lad Charlie, cut his fingers off?’

  ‘To keep him from sticking his fingers into my life. He was a nosey little bugger.’

  No answer really Coffin thought. Joe was mad so he kept his own fingers tight round his neck.

  Although it could have been a speedier rescue, it had been a comfort to see Les and his cohorts rush in.

  When it came down to it, neither Joe nor his wife struggled that much. Perhaps they had wanted to be caught, you never knew.

  Later that evening Stella gave a her husband a loving look. ‘You were lucky to get away with a slashed arm.’

  Then she asked the question on her mind: ‘What will happen to Joe and his wife?

  ‘A more comfortable fate than that of their victims,’ replied Coffin. ‘The wife might get off if she has a good lawyer although to my mind she was as much if not more guilty than her husband. No, she won’t get off, forget I said that, she was the one who stole the uterus and made use of it, although why or what good it did we may never know. Might find out if she talks. But he will go down as her mad mentor, I expect. As a former police man he won’t have an altogether easy time. To rape and kill all those women with her encouragement he doesn’t deserve it anyway.’

  ‘Good,’ said Stella with some satisfaction.

  They were back in the comfortable sitting room of their home in the tower. They knew now why the three bodies, so close to where they lived and underneath what would have been Stella’s latest workplace, had been buried there.

  To haunt Stella.

  They were already doing so.

  Gus the dog sat at Coffin’s feet. He could smell blood, and having undergone a serious operation himself he was prepared to be sympathetic.

  The cat also smelt blood which was of interest, there might be something to hunt or to eat. Coffin, fortunately, did not know he was being assessed as eatable, so he reached out to pat the cat’s head.

  ‘If you have to get knifed, I suppose a hospital is as good a place as any,’ said Coffin. He added indignantly: ‘Do you know, they wanted to keep me in. I wouldn’t allow it.’

  Stella said:‘It’s ruined that tweed jacket �
�� Still, I never liked it, it wasn’t worthy of you.’ She tidied the jacket away. ‘What about the paedophile cases? You haven’t mentioned them.’

  ‘Not much progress there, but we’ll get there.’

  Stella thought she had heard that before. She smiled and shook her head.

  ‘End of story, my love.’

  Except that, as Coffin knew all too well, there were always questions at the end of each case. Probably it had been Joe who had planted the mannequin. But Coffin knew it was Josephine who had dressed it to look like Stella. She had boasted of it. The store of props had been uncovered.

  Something would have to be done, also, about the letters Joe Jones had sent to confuse the paedophile investigation. It had set them back considerably. He must have been ill for longer than anyone realised. Corruption had run deep in him.

  No case ever really ended with a full stop, he thought. You always went on wondering.

  COFFIN KNOWS THE ANSWER. Copyright © 2002 by Gwendoline Butler. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

  First published in Great Britain by Allison & Busby Limited

  THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS.

  An imprint of St. Martin’s Press.

  www.minotaurbooks.com

  eISBN 9781466811980

  First eBook Edition : February 2012

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Butler, Gwendoline.

  Coffin knows the answer / Gwendoline Butter.—1st U.S. ed.

  p. cm.

  1. Coffin, John (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Police—England—London—Fiction. 3. London (England)—Fiction, I. Title.

  PR6052.U813C597 2003b

  823’.914—dc21

  2002041568

  First U.S. Edition: April 2003