Hold Your Tongue

by Deborah Masson

  Cooper bristled by her side. Those two words, silencing her, had hit him in the same way that they’d punched Eve in the gut.

  Sonia’s ‘male work colleague’ had in fact been her boyfriend of two years, Michael. He had logged countless calls to the police with concerns over Hardy’s behaviour.

  An official warning had finally been issued to Hardy after officers responded to a late-night call from Michael. They’d found Hardy kneeling outside Sonia’s door, shouting obscenities through her letter box. Still, they’d been surprised when Hardy had appeared to heed the warning and stopped.

  Eve had spoken on the phone with Sonia. She’d confirmed everything had stopped that night, but she and Michael had moved anyway. They were happy. Hardy had no idea where they were. She’d pleaded to Eve that she made sure it stayed that way.

  What had made Hardy stop? Eve was damned sure it wasn’t a warning from the officers. Maybe he had targeted someone else. Helen? Perhaps he decided it was time that he was the one doing the silencing.

  Eve took over from Cooper. ‘Tell me, if you were concerned about Sonia, sure that Michael was bad for her, why did you then leave her alone?’

  ‘Again, I think you’ve seen the file.’

  ‘And you listened to the warning? The model citizen?’

  ‘Detective, like anyone, I can only do my best. And I did the best I could for Sonia. Some people can’t take the help they’re being offered. Don’t deserve what they’re being offered. He’d brainwashed her. More than I ever realized. But something clicked and I saw her for what she was. Weak. Disloyal. I wasn’t willing to waste any more time on her.’

  Hardy certainly had an overblown sense of self-worth. His black-and-white warped approach was chilling.

  ‘You found someone else to help?’

  ‘You could say that.’

  ‘Tell me.’

  ‘My, my, Detective, if I were to get into the details of all that, you’d be in danger of wheeling in the psychiatrist’s couch.’

  Eve gritted her teeth every time Hardy said ‘Detective’. The way he used it as an insult. Eve hid her irritation. ‘Hey, I’m here to listen. Think of me as your regular shrink.’

  ‘I jest. Regular shrink? Believe me, it’s something I’ve never needed. I know who I am. It’s those around me who struggle.’

  Eve shifted in her seat, aware Cooper knew she was still visiting the psychiatrist, hating that Hardy’s words were making her feel even worse about it.

  ‘Tell me about that then.’

  ‘I’m different. I see the world differently. People don’t always see that as a good thing. It’s why I prefer animals: they accept you as you are. They let you help them, care for them.’

  The career choice of veterinary assistant and, when that career choice was no longer his, the pet shop, made sense to Eve. It seemed Hardy had the intelligence; it was something else that was amiss.

  ‘You turned to animals?’

  ‘No, Detective. I may have my fantasies, but fornicating with our four-legged friends isn’t on the list.’

  Cooper made his disgust clear.

  Eve nearly smiled. ‘What is on the list?’

  ‘Basic human needs: sex, affection. Dare I say love?’

  ‘And you found someone who could give you that?’

  ‘The sex, yes, even the affection. And sometimes I choose to kid myself it’s not a lie.’

  ‘A lie?’

  ‘As I said, I’m different. I know what you think you see. Some bookish, unattractive guy, socially awkward, too intelligent for his own good.’

  Eve didn’t say that, apart from the last trait, it was exactly what she saw.

  ‘I’m not stupid. I know the reasons women don’t want me.’

  Nothing to do with being an obsessive psycho. ‘They say there’s someone out there for everyone.’

  ‘Indeed they do, but some of us need to get out there more often.’

  Eve allowed a smile. ‘You’re making do?’

  Hardy nodded.

  ‘Prostitutes?’ Cooper sounded surprised.

  ‘Singular. So lock me up for the admission.’

  Cooper snorted.

  Eve flashed a warning glance at Cooper before continuing the questioning. ‘The same prostitute and the only one since Sonia?’

  ‘Yes. And please keep your voice down. My aunt doesn’t and has no need to know.’

  Eve wanted to speak even louder but refrained. ‘How did you meet?’

  ‘The way you do. Online. I perused the goods on offer and chose what I wanted to buy.’

  ‘Is that when you got involved in drugs?’

  ‘Ah yes, from what my aunt said of the call earlier, I could tell you’d done your homework, Detective.’

  Eve clamped her back teeth. ‘It’s my job.’ Or rather it had been Ferguson’s – he had come through on the connection and then got his hands on all the press reports for the drugs.

  Hardy smiled. ‘Is that all you’re here for? Has there been another theft or something? Are the insipid individuals I worked for at the surgery trying to pin something else on me?’

  ‘Pinning it on you? Are you saying that you didn’t steal ketamine from your workplace?’

  ‘I’m not saying that at all. What I will say is that I didn’t steal the quantity that they said I did. People see what they want to see. No one wants to believe their own flesh and blood would be capable of stealing from them, let alone why they’d be stealing what they were.’

  Cooper had said it was a family-owned business. But she wasn’t here to dispute whether the owners’ son or daughter was a closet junkie.

  ‘Anyway, my question. Did you get involved with drugs around the same time you started paying this prostitute?’

  ‘Rosie. She’s called Rosie.’ Hardy’s voice was hard, blue eyes sub-zero.

  Eve jumped on the show of raw emotion from Hardy. ‘It sounds like you have a lot of time for Rosie.’

  ‘She’s a good person. She lost her way like many do, but I helped her.’

  A common thread. It seemed Hardy wanted to look after a woman like he did an animal. Have them dependent on him for their care.

  ‘How did you do that, Adrian?’ Eve hated using his name, her mouth feeling dirty.

  ‘I took her away from the flat her pimp had her operating from, paid her a monthly fee to be mine and mine only. Got her a bedsit. I could afford it then, when I was still working at the surgery.’

  Cooper mumbled, ‘Eat your heart out, Richard Gere.’ Hardy missed it, too busy basking in his own glory.

  Eve carried on, liking this side of Cooper. ‘And she agreed?’

  ‘Yes. Of course. She was able to keep a roof over her head, to be fed and watered and to have someone looking after her.’

  Same requirements as a dog. What did Hardy do if the dog ever defied its master? She thought about the women slain, paralysed but awake, at the mercy of their killer.

  ‘Where did the ketamine come in?’

  Hardy was choosing his words carefully. ‘When she found out where I worked. I’m a clever man, Detective. I know why these women do what they do. Rosie was no different. She wanted me to add a little spice to our time together.’

  Eve was willing to bet that spice wasn’t why Rosie wanted it. She’d read the side effects countless times since finding out ketamine was being used on the victims. A feeling of being out of themselves, a disassociation between their mind and body, no concept of pain, paralysis in high doses. Removed from reality. Removed from Hardy.

  She looked at the pathetic person in front of her. ‘Spice. Is that what you call it?’

  ‘You should try it.’

  It was Cooper’s turn to grunt.

  Eve didn’t falter. ‘I like having my full faculties about me.’

  ‘Believe me, our sex life was even better after that. And I didn’t think it could be.’

  Yeah, because she was out of it and you could do what you wanted to her.

  She thought of Helen B
lack. Had Hardy been visiting his aunt in St Andrews and needing what Rosie normally gave him at home? Maybe Helen fought him, wouldn’t do what he wanted. He went too far. Did something he didn’t know he was capable of. The catalyst for his lust for murder. A means to silence the women who had spurned him. Maybe he’d tried it on with Melanie or Lexie in the past. Eve was starting to build a case in her head.

  Had he met Jenkins during his time in the press for his theft? Did he flirt with her only to be mocked by her? All ‘what ifs’. Concentrate. Helen first. ‘Did you visit your aunt often when she was in St Andrews?’

  Hardy’s head snapped up. ‘What’s my aunt got to do with anything?’

  Loyal, protective. A puppy dog himself when it came to his aunt – probably the only woman who had been there for him and accepted him as he was. She didn’t want to think what their relationship might be.

  Eve continued. ‘Nothing. My colleague who spoke to her on the phone said she sounded like she was proud of you. That, like you and Sonia for example, she wants to look out for you.’

  ‘Do not compare my aunt to that tart.’

  Cooper shifted in his chair, ready to pounce. Sonia was a tart now. Another Hardy layer unravelling.

  Eve played it carefully. ‘Sorry, nothing intended other than you seem to have a good relationship. Did you not travel to see her on occasion?’

  Hardy sat back, clasped his long bony fingers together and placed them on his jeans. It was a full minute before he spoke. ‘Detective, I’ll ask again. Why are you here?’

  Eve gave the rehearsed answer, the one they’d given his aunt on the phone.

  ‘We’ve had a spate of crimes linked to ketamine. Initial investigation threw up your name on the system. We are interviewing anyone who has a record with the drug. Process of elimination, nothing more.’

  ‘Detective, like I said, I’m not a stupid man. Sonia. Rosie. St Andrews.’

  Was he playing with her?

  Eve’s eyes bored into Hardy’s, looking for that flicker, that sign that he was their man. But instead Hardy smiled. Not the one of earlier. A full-blown smile. A grin. Small sharp teeth on show.

  In that grin, Eve saw Melanie – bound, leaning against the cold bathroom wall. Lexie – bound, shackled to the hard wooden barre of the dance studio. Jenkins – her plump pink tongue wrapped in newspaper. And that smile on the smarmy bastard’s face in front of her.

  Cooper stiffened beside her. The charge in her own body language crackling throughout the room, firing up her colleague, putting him on red alert.

  Eve tried to calm herself. Hardy was enjoying the effect he was having on her. Control. She watched his grin widen further.

  ‘Careful, careful, DI Hunter. This is my home.’

  Eve shifted forward, challenging him. ‘You were given your rights when we arrived. They still stand. If you wish legal counsel, it can be arranged. You can come to the station.’

  A twitch. The smile faltering. Silence.

  ‘What, Hardy? Cat got your tongue?’ Eve was trying everything she could think of to get a reaction. The surname, using the animals Hardy loved, hinting at the murders. She wanted to push more, to accuse him of more, to push him to the edge, to force a confession from him.

  But Hardy wouldn’t be pushed. He just sat there waiting for Eve to compose herself – enraging Eve even further. When Hardy spoke, it was with calm control. Control.

  ‘You think I have something to do with those murders. The women. Don’t you, Detective? Like most people, I follow the news. Seems you’re quite the celebrity. It’s certainly true to say you’ve had your fair share of scandal.’

  Was he goading her?

  They’d never released information about the ketamine to the press. Had never linked Helen’s murder in St Andrews a year ago to what was happening. And he knew about her past. MacNeill. Did he know him? Eve grasped the gouged edge of the table in front of her, squeezing.

  Cooper startled her when he spoke. ‘Could I have a moment, ma’am?’

  Eve was pissed off at his nerve. He was showing her up, interrupting her flow at the crucial moment. She sat a moment before giving in.

  Chapter 30

  Eve struggled to free herself and her damned leg from the table before stalking from the room.

  Cooper joined her in the hallway, shutting the door gently behind her, both of them watching Muriel scurrying to the living room, neither of them surprised at her eavesdropping. They waited until she closed the door.

  Eve stood there, finding it tough not to have a go at Cooper for having the balls to do what he was doing. She knew he was right.

  His voice was a hushed whisper. ‘Eve, I’m not sure what was happening in there. I know he’s a dickhead, every pore on my body is shrivelling beneath his crap, but we can’t blow it. Can’t assume anything.’

  ‘Three women, Cooper. How many more? Jesus.’ Eve dragged a hand over her hair. ‘He’s playing us. It’s him.’ Eve thought again about MacNeill. About what he’d said about knowing people on the outside who would be more than willing to play with her. But how the hell could he have known about Hardy? ‘I think he might know MacNeill, or at least one of MacNeill’s men might’ve been supplying Hardy with the drugs, is using him now in all this.’

  Cooper looked confused. ‘What? Where did that come from?’

  Eve didn’t want to get into it. ‘I’ll tell you later, once I’ve figured it out in my head.’

  Cooper looked hurt, maybe thinking that she’d kept him out of the loop on something. ‘Fair enough. But maybe he’s just a saddo who has to pay for sex. He’s clever, clearly unhinged, and he likes to be in control. Maybe that’s all this is. But the fact is that everyone knows about the murders, that we’re working round the clock on the case. That we’re desperate.’

  Eve pulled at her blouse collar and let Cooper continue.

  ‘Come on, it’s not such a jump for Hardy to think that’s what this is all about. It would make sense of the questions we’re asking. I mean, yeah, I was going at him too, but not letting the piece of shit lead me. We need to calm down.’

  Eve saw Cooper for the officer, the friend, he was.

  Cooper looked worried that he’d overstepped the mark.

  Eve spoke in a whisper, scared what her voice might do if she didn’t. ‘Sorry. You’re right. I … thanks.’

  Eve turned and went back into the kitchen, desperate to return to the interview, to work, Cooper following her lead.

  She was ready to think straight.

  Instead, it was Hardy who spoke first.

  ‘I want you to leave, Detective. Unless you have a reason to take me to the station, that is. But I think you’ll find that I have an alibi for any dates you have in mind, because I’ve done nothing wrong.’

  Eve stood glaring at Hardy. There was little she could do.

  Hardy smiled. ‘There is something you should know though.’

  ‘And what’s that?’

  ‘I want to look after people, not hurt them. Go see Rosie. She’ll tell you that.’

  Eve stared at the mass of ink lines on the incident-room whiteboard. The thick black brushstrokes of inquiries and leads branched off in all directions. And in her head, they were all pointing towards MacNeill.

  Cooper lifted the lid of the pizza box between them, steam rising as he took a slice and turned to the board, a piece of pepperoni falling on to his chest. ‘Shit.’ He picked at the greasy piece of meat and stuck it in his mouth, the fat stain mixed with tomato sauce spreading on his shirt. Eve put her own half-eaten triangle on the napkin in front of her. She wasn’t hungry, even though she’d been convinced she was starving.

  ‘Feels like the longest day ever. We’re staring at this board as if it’s going to give us answers. Why don’t you finish your pizza and get home to Louise and the kids?’

  Cooper shook his head. ‘No need. Louise’s folks are round as she’s away to the cinema with pals. The kids’ll be down already.’

  Eve glanced at the
wall clock, surprised to see it was gone 8 p.m. The windows either side of the clock were black. Beneath the harsh overhead lighting, she could see herself and Cooper reflected in the dark glass. ‘I thought Mearns and Ferguson would’ve been here. We’ll see what they have to say and then you should head off.’

  ‘You know, I feel like there’s something we’re missing. A link that’ll join all the dots.’ Cooper said exactly what Eve was thinking, something he had an uncanny knack for.

  Eve had already updated him on what MacNeill had said – about how he knew people on the outside willing to play with her – and then she’d met with Hardy.

  ‘What have we got?’ Eve launched into the tried-and-tested format that she and Cooper had always used – sounding things out together.

  Cooper wiped his hands on a napkin. ‘OK, Hardy was known for stealing drugs from his workplace and being involved with them, with Rosie at least.’

  Eve nodded. ‘Drugs being something that MacNeill made a living from. And then there’s Sanders.’

  Cooper leaned back, lifting his right ankle and resting it on his left knee. ‘Sanders was Hardy’s arresting officer when he stole the ketamine from his work. And Sanders was the officer who was with you the night Johnny Junior went off the road.’

  ‘Indeed.’ Eve picked a piece of chopped green pepper off the solidifying piece of pizza in front of her. ‘And it was Sanders that Johnny Senior lured to that address, along with me, when his son still lay in a hospital bed six months later.’

  Cooper turned in his seat towards her. ‘Coincidence?’

  Eve cocked an eyebrow. ‘You know, Hardy’s a creep with his own sordid past. He likes to control women.’ Eve took a sip of water. ‘But could MacNeill be using him on the outside? To murder, I mean?’

  Cooper stared at her. ‘Let’s say he is. But why? What does it all mean? How is Melanie connected?’

  Eve picked at her finger, the skin open and raw there. ‘I don’t know, but we do know Ryan dabbled in drugs, with Forbes. But small potatoes compared to the world MacNeill operates in. Although we know Lexie was being supplied drugs too.’