Lonely Hearts cr-1

by John Harvey

“She is.”

  “She came to, um, to interview me-is that the correct terminology?”

  “It’ll do.”

  “A charming young woman, earnest. Not of the brightest caliber, possibly, but competent.”

  “She’s a good policewoman.”

  “She was there under your jurisdiction, Inspector?”

  “As part of a routine inquiry, yes.”

  “Into the deaths of two women.”

  “Yes.”

  “You must be relieved that it’s over.”

  “Over?”

  “National television, the six o’clock news, a man you previously suspected has confessed.”

  “All manner of men confess, Doria.”

  The academic uncrossed his legs. “A brandy, Inspector? Or are you driving?”

  “I’m not driving,” said Resnick, “but I’ll say no to the brandy, just the same.”

  With a nod of the head, Doria rose and went towards the bar.

  A woman in a purple trouser suit sat in one of the cubicles with the door open and carefully emptied the entire contents of her handbag out on to the floor. Quietly, she was singing to herself.

  Rachel combed through the ends of her hair, twisting her head round so that she could see the back of it in the mirror.

  “How long have you known Charles?” Marian asked, pretending to straighten the folds of her dress.

  “Not very long. A matter of weeks.”

  “He seems very happy.”

  “I think he is.”

  Marian touched Rachel’s shoulder. “You will forgive me, but I have known him for many years, and I know he would not be pleased at my saying this, but for a long time now Charles has needed somebody.”

  Rachel pursed her lips at the glass and turned away. The woman in the cubicle was picking up her belongings and replacing them inside her bag, still singing.

  “Those flowers are lovely,” said Rachel, looking at Marian’s corsage. “Did your friend give them to you?”

  “Yes,” said Marian.

  “He has good taste,” said Rachel. “Shall we go back?”

  “The taxi will be here in a few minutes,” said Resnick.

  “Oh, you are not going already?” Marian protested.

  “Afraid so.”

  “Then,” said Doria, standing with a flourish, “Rachel must have one dance with me before you do.”

  He stood with both arms extended, hands out palms uppermost, eyes shining, daring her to decline.

  “Thank you,” Rachel said, “I’ve danced enough.”

  “I insist,” said Doria.

  “Even so,” said Rachel. “The answer’s the same.”

  “On some future occasion, then?” said Doria, resuming his seat.

  Rachel just looked at him.

  “You don’t want to share our cab, Marian?” Resnick asked.

  “No thank you, Charles. I think we’ll stay a little longer.”

  He took her hands lightly and kissed her forehead. “Safe journey home.”

  “Of course.”

  “I’ll ring you.”

  “What does a nice, intelligent woman like that see in a creep like Doria?”

  Resnick lifted his hand from the switch on the coffee grinder.

  “She thinks he’s charming.”

  “As a snake.”

  “You really didn’t like him, did you?”

  “Neither did you.”

  Resnick poured water into the machine. “Was it that obvious?”

  She put her arms tight around him and rested her head in the small of his back. “Charlie, you’re always obvious.”

  He turned to her and kissed her. “Isn’t that preferable to devious?”

  “Certainly.”

  “In that case,” he said with an expression that was half grin, half smile, “when the coffee’s ready can we take it to bed?”

  “You see,” she said.

  “See what?” Her face was inches away from his, less. “Let it happen once and straightaway you’re taking it for granted.”

  “I’m not.”

  “Oh, Charlie.”

  “I’m not taking it for granted. Or you.”

  “You just naturally assumed that because I jumped into your bed the last time I was here that I would again. Evening out, dance and a drink, bed. Right?”

  Resnick laughed, squeezing her. “Yes.”

  She kissed him. “One condition.”

  “Of course.”

  “I don’t want to make love.”

  How could he stop the disappointment showing in his eyes?

  “I think I’d like just to lay there with you quietly and cuddle.”

  “Fine.”

  “Then let’s have the coffee down here, before we go up.”

  When Resnick rang, Marian picked up the phone almost immediately.

  “Naturally I am home all right,” she said in answer to his question. “What is the matter with you? Why all of this concern, sweet as it is?”

  Resnick told her he simply wanted to be sure.

  “Sure of what?”

  “Doria, is he…?”

  “He left me after I had turned the key in my front door, Charles. A gentleman.”

  “Good night, Marian,” Resnick said.

  “Charles, you are a strange man.”

  Rachel’s shoulder rested in the crook of Resnick’s arm. Pepper lay against her left hip, Bud had dared to find a space between the pillows and the bedhead. Miles made little snoring sounds from beyond her toes.

  “I feel honored, Charlie.”

  “Mmm?”

  “Your cats, the way they accept me.”

  “They sense that you like them.”

  “They’re right.” She snuggled closer against him. “Where’s the fourth one?”

  “Dizzy? Out prowling.”

  “I saw Vera Barnett the other day, did I tell you?”

  “No, I don’t think so.”

  “She’s coping okay, except that she keeps scraping the bathroom paintwork with her chair and complaining when we won’t come and redecorate it for her. The kids seem fine, not a lot of bounce yet, but fine.”

  Resnick was stroking her breast. “Doesn’t it bother you more than you’ll admit, not having any of your own?”

  For several moments Rachel said nothing. Then she shrugged off his hand and pushed herself up in the bed until the cats had scattered and she was on her knees, facing him.

  “You know what I am to you, Charlie, I mean, really? A vacant womb. A womb with a view to marriage.”

  The garden was dark and in shadow. Slow and insinuating, Dizzy wound himself around the man’s legs, pressing his fur against them, in and out. The man paid the animal no heed: he allowed nothing to deflect his attention from the upstairs window, behind which a shaded light still burned.

  Thirty-Four

  It was the first time Resnick had ever caught the superintendent at it, but there he was, running, head up, even swing of the arms, straight as a die back to the station. Resnick leaned against the post near the foot of the steps and waited. The superintendent’s running suit was light gray, loose-fitting, with fluorescent strips along the arms and down the legs for use at night. A small wallet was velcroed to the tongue of one shoe for his key and some small change. Not one to be caught short, the Super.

  He eased his pace down with twenty yards to go, raising a hand in greeting.

  “Lovely morning, Charlie.”

  “Brisk, sir.”

  “Just been round the lake. Moorhens, deer standing out in the water with the last mist still round them-beautiful.”

  Resnick knew that round the lake meant a run of some mile and a half or more down to the park, along a straight avenue of trees past the golf club, another mile from there and then the same distance back, the last section of that up a hill steep enough to make casual cyclists get off and push. And Skelton was barely short of breath.

  “Sorry about the other day, Charlie. That business over the uni
versity.” He was limbering down, jogging gently on the spot, stretching his calf muscles and his thighs. “Tell the truth, I’d had a bit of an argument at home that morning. That daughter of mine.” He shook his head a trace self-consciously: it wasn’t usual for him to admit to colleagues that he had a private life. “Happens in the best-regulated of families.”

  “Yes, sir. Of course it does. Everything okay now, I hope?”

  “Oh, yes. Storm in a teacup.”

  Resnick nodded understandingly. “Good.”

  “Better have a session later, Charlie. Now that things will be getting back to normal.”

  “Yes, sir.” Resnick followed him into the station. “Normal it is.”

  Divine was still filtering information into the files, messages and movements; he glanced up and said good morning to Resnick with his usual hearty belligerence. Typical, Resnick thought, going on into his own office: the files aren’t sorted, but the kettle’s simmering ready for a top-up and the tea’s been brewed these five minutes. Maybe he should try having a word with Divine about priorities, about his future. Though he doubted if the future for Divine stretched far beyond opening time or closing time, whichever was the nearer.

  He sat behind his desk, wondering if Kevin Naylor and his Debbie had come any closer to making a decision about moving. He supposed he’d be sad enough to lose the lad, although to be truthful Naylor needed a bit of shaking-up before he’d ever get to make a good detective. Though getting out from under Divine’s guidance wouldn’t come amiss. Maybe he should send Lynn Kellogg out with Divine? Resnick allowed himself a smile: he wouldn’t be surprised to discover that Divine was terrified of her.

  “Sir?”

  Millington came round the door with a freshly trimmed mustache and a couple of extra-strong mints underneath his tongue.

  “Good weekend, Graham?”

  “Not bad, sir. Wife got me doing a bit of grouting.”

  “Sounds fun.”

  “She’s been on at me since summer. Wants it right for when her mother comes at Christmas.” He moved the mints into his cheek. “Meant to ask you about that, sir. Any chance of getting on the roster over the holiday? Wouldn’t mind doing quite a bit and there must be lots want it off.”

  “See what I can do,” said Resnick. “Anything before we get started?”

  “One thing, sir. You remember those break-ins?”

  “Videos and so on?”

  “The Boulevard, yes. I had a call from that bloke I know.”

  “The fence, you mean?”

  “That’s him. He reckons there’s something iffy coming in later today. I know he’s said that before and it fell flat, but this time, might be kosher.”

  “He’s calling you?”

  “Yes, sir. I thought, if it’s all right with you, I’d get young Divine to stick around. He’s handy if anything turns nasty.”

  “All right, Graham. Now let’s get that tea in here before it sticks to the cup.”

  He’s in a cheerful mood this morning, thought Millington, going out into the main office. If I didn’t know him better, I’d reckon he’d had his leg over the right side of breakfast.

  “How did it go?”

  Rachel glanced up from the sheaf of messages that had come through from the emergency duty team. A fourteen-year-old lad with a history of solvent abuse found unconscious in an underground car park; an old lady of eighty-seven who was taken into casualty as an emergency and was found to have severe bruising which she claimed to have been caused by her sixty-three-year-old daughter; a ten-year-old boy who phoned through to the local radio talk-in program and said that his uncle and his elder brother were both sexually abusing him.

  “Fine.”

  “I presumed last night was that at least.”

  “What’s that…? Oh, Carole, I’m sorry. It was thoughtless of me. I should have phoned.”

  Carole went to her desk. “It’s only that you said you were popping round for an hour for a chat.”

  Rachel made a face. “That’s what I thought.”

  “It’s stupid of me, I know,” said Carole. “I know you’re free, white, and over twenty-one and all that, but…”

  “Don’t let the anti-racist development officer hear you using that expression,” smiled Rachel.

  “Oh, God!”

  “But I didn’t mean to worry you. I know what it’s like when you’re sharing. If it happens again, I’ll make sure and let you know. Then at least you can bolt the door.”

  “To tell the truth, I was going to look up the number and ring there, but that made me feel too much like your mother.” She turned over a page of her diary. “Anyway, if you’re going to start spending weekends there, it’ll be…”

  “Carole!”

  “What?”

  “Hang on a minute!”

  “I was only going to say it will make things clearer.”

  “Carole,” said Rachel, on her feet, “I am not going to start spending weekends at his house. Not. What’s the matter with everybody?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re as bad as he is, that’s what I mean. You can’t get me in there fast enough.”

  “Is that what he wants then?”

  “Does a cat have fleas?”

  “Then where’s the harm? You do like him, don’t you?”

  “Of course I like him. I’m not in the habit of going to bed with men I don’t like. But that’s not the same as…Carole, I’ve only just got out of one relationship.”

  “You make it sound like a prison sentence.”

  “Maybe that’s because sometimes it felt like that.”

  Carole looked away towards the window. She was biting down into her lower lip and thinking it was a sentence she wouldn’t mind serving. Three years now since Mike had handed her the envelope because he hadn’t been able to say the words out loud.

  “Look,” Rachel said.

  “What is it?”

  “He slipped this into my bag this morning when I wasn’t looking.”

  Rachel put the two keys on the desk, one mortice, one yale.

  “What are you going to do?” Carole asked.

  “Take them back.”

  Graham Millington was jubilant. Not only had he been proved right about Simms, the dirty little pervert, even though they were having some difficulties getting his stories to tally, now this. Proceeds from ten or more burglaries for certain; Naylor and Patel were round at a lockup in Hucknall now making an inventory of the rest. VCRs, stereos, televisions, Walkmans up the wazoo! Brilliant! Even the dust-up had been fun in its own way.

  “Where’s Divine?” Resnick asked.

  “Off at casualty, sir. Suspected broken collarbone.”

  “And you?”

  Millington shrugged. “Bumps and bruises, sir. I’m okay.”

  “You’ve seen the doctor?”

  “No need.”

  Millington had a swelling on his left cheek, flakes of dried blood at the corner of his mouth. His clothes looked as if they’d been round in the dryer without being washed first.

  “See him.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I just had a word with the custody sergeant. He said it needed four of them to get Sloman into a cell.”

  “He caught hold of the radiator and wouldn’t let go. Nearly wrenched it out of the wall.”

  “His colleague’s got a nasty cut over his eye. I take it your report will account for how that happened?”

  “No problem, sir. Sloman did it.”

  “Sloman?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Try telling that to Civil Liberties.”

  “No, it’s right. What happened, Divine and I walked in on them, well, I had no idea it was going to be that pair, how could I? Course, they knew me straight off from the other business. Sloman panics, turns fast with a cassette deck in his arms, and catches Jilkes smack in the face. He’s down and moaning and Sloman goes for the door like he’s bouncing off the ropes and looking for a knock-down. It
was all Divine and I could do to hang on to him. I mean, sir, he may not be in training any more but he’s still a big lad.”

  “Talking, though, I understand?”

  “Reams of it, sir. Once he’d calmed down in the cells for a bit he couldn’t stop. Sounds like this garage of his has got enough in it to restock Lasky’s.” Millington touched his cheek gingerly. “Tell you what did come out, sir.”

  “Yes?”

  “All those records that were nicked-you remember, that James Brown. He kept them at his place. Priceless, he says. Original American pressings some of them. Worth a bomb.”

  “Don’t forget to see the doctor, Graham.”

  “No, sir. Oh, and, sir, there was a call for you.”

  “Man?”

  “No, sir, female. Name of Chaplin. Said she’d ring back later, either that or she’d catch you at home this evening.”

  Resnick turned away quickly but not quickly enough to hide the look of pleasure that had come to his face. The randy old sod! thought Millington. He is having it off after all.

  Thirty-Five

  The first call came when Rachel was still in the office. Carole had left to accompany a new young worker on a difficult client visit and Rachel was trying to bring the accumulation of papers on her desk down to acceptable proportions.

  “Hello, Rachel Chaplin.”

  She had a bundle of photocopied articles for filing in her other hand, expectation in her voice because she thought it was probably Resnick getting back to her at last.

  “Rachel?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is that Rachel?”

  “Yes, this is Rachel Chaplin. I’m sorry, who is this?” Whoever it was, it wasn’t Charlie. For a moment she remembered him calling her in the middle of a busy meeting, asking her to meet him for a drink.

  “I wondered if you were still free tonight, but maybe I’m already too late.”

  “Look, what’s going on here? Is this some kind of joke, because…?”

  “I understand, you’re already fixed up, is that it?” The voice was low, insinuating, something about it that encouraged Rachel to picture the speaker’s slow leer into the receiver. “Or there’s somebody else there in the office, am I right?”

  “No, there’s…” Mouth open, Rachel’s breath caught and stopped.

  “You’re tied up, already catered for, I do understand, believe me. No surprise, the way you put yourself across…”