Saturday cont.
After Bailey had left and Nigel had gone back to
sorting out Henry’s document chaos, Mia hovered at Gary’s desk. She obviously
wanted to talk to him and he was only too glad to a take the opportunity to ask
her about knowing Bailey.
“So you had actually never met him in person.”
"No, and I don’t want to have anything to do
with him.”
“I thought you’d finished with Mike and his
associates,” said Gary.
“I have. Mike knew Bailey and showed me a photo he
had taken of him somewhere. He also told me a few things about him.”
“Logical if he was on a photo.”
“Not for Mike.”
“So what did he tell you?”
“About Bailey’s double life, but he would not go
into detail. He said I couldn’t cope with it.”
Mia paused.
“Go on!”
“My ex-husband sneered at brutality in others while
not being too finicky himself, Gary.”
“I know that, Mia, but I’m not really following the
thread of your story now.”
“Bailey is a writer by profession, isn’t he?”
“Cleo researched R.D. Day, his pseudonym, but did
not find any books he had written,” said Gary. “Some writer!”
“Bailey called himself R.D. Day for the vanity
publishing he was planning, but he wrote and was published under another name, Mike discovered.”
“Really? Titles?”
“Mike only knew about two. Bailey had done the
research for them in dark corners of Soho and Manhattan.”
“What kind of research?”
“Social relationships. Racial hatred. Anthropology.
Features of personality. The weirder the better.”
“What kind of a published sold such books, Mia?”
“Non-fiction, Gary. An academic publisher producing
research material. An endless chain of information.”
“Cleo’s a sociologist and will have read most of
the current literature.”
“Impossible. There too much of it.”
“So what name did Bailey use?”
“L.C. Digby-Mortimer.”
“Elsie? That’s a woman’s name.”
“L.C. as initials.”
“I wonder if that choice of alias was deliberate.
I’ll ask Cleo if she’s heard of her or of a him pretending to be a her.”
“Strange, isn’t it?”
“Weird,” said Gary. “He didn’t give the impression
of being anything but an angry farmer and possibly a failed author with a
grudge.”
“The books were panned by the critics, apparently.
They were revealed as fake science sold purely to make money. Popular
folk-science, like those books on the hereafter and faith healing. A lot of
people buy them and live by them.”
“And Mike found all this out.”
“Yes.”
”Does Mike have L.C. Digby-Mortimer’s books, Mia?”
“Oh yes. When he found out about them he ordered
them from the New York publisher. He was going to expose Bailey for what he
really is, but … well, you know the rest.”
“No. Fill in for me!”
“I flipped through those books at the time. I
thought they were absurd and so did Mike. Fraud was a hobbyhorse of his. He had
dozens of books on the subject of fraud and faking.”
“So on the one hand, Mike was a purist wanting to
reveal the truth about Bailey’s fraudulent books, and on the other he had no scruples
about raping and beating his wife on a regular basis,” said Gary. “I’m
surprised he let you into his plan at all.”
He didn’t. I found the books and asked him about
them. He refused to explain. Then, when he was safely behind bars I decided to
burn them, but looked at them first and was fascinated by the idea behind
Mike’s research.”
“So Mike has intellectual quality, but he behaved
abominably.”
“Mike is a Jekyll and Hyde, Gary. That’s what he
was going to accuse Bailey of.”
“It takes one to know one,” said Gary.
“Something held me back from destroying all those
hours of painstaking work, even if they were Mike’s, and he was still working
on his research. It was going to be his big breakthrough as a private
detective. I knew that much.”
“Private? He was a cop before his conviction.”
“He would have quit the police, Gary. Part of his
problem was my success. He could not beat it, so he beat me instead.”
“Literally,” said Gary. “That’s how Cleo explained
his behaviour. I’m glad we caught up with him.”
“He wanted to be a success, somehow, somewhere. The
only reason I am still alive is that Mike wanted to get his research honoured
and for that I believe was prepared to enter into the evil he had read about in
Bailey’s books, to get at more detailed information.”
“You should have told me all this before, Mia. It’s
alarming and he should have been removed from his job long ago.”
“That’s why he was glad to come to Middlethumpton.
I think the Birmingham colleagues were starting to get suspicious.”
“Of what, Mia? Cannibalism? Surely not. Did you get
a warning from Birmingham?”
“An anonymous phone-call telling me to throw him
out, if only to protect the child. I didn’t take it seriously.”
“So you ignored the warning signs and put up with
him?”
“He could be nice.”
“There are lots of nice people locked up for life,
Mia. You should talk to Cleo about that.”
“If I had taken action, Tim and I might not have
survived.”
“But you’re a cop, Mia.”
“I was a defenceless woman at home.”
“I’ll phone Cleo now,” said Gary. “No. On second
thoughts, it’s getting quite late so I’ll make for home, discuss this with Cleo
and get in touch.”
“OK. My son would like a few waking hours with his
mother.”
“Thanks for this head to head talk, Mia, though you
haven’t really told me everything, have you?”
“No, but I will.”
“I’m glad Mike is behind bars,” said Gary.
“He’s due for parole. He’s behaved well.”
“Then we’ll have to get a move on, won’t we?”
“I’ll collect all the evidence I have and get it to
you by Monday.”
“Please do that. And there is just one question I
want to ask now.”
“Go ahead.”
“When you mentioned anthropology, you meant anthropophagy,
didn’t you?"
***
Gary had thought of asking Mia if the
pseudo-scientific books had anything to do with the Monkton Priory case, but decided
that seeing Bailey live for the first time along with the association with the subject of Mike’s
research had motivated her to tell him about it. She had not answered his final
question and Gary thought he knew why.
***
Bailey had comported himself decently and Gary had
had no reason to think he would lie about the dog ownership, since it could be
checked. But the idea that the guy was entirely innocent would have to be
dropped, however. He may not have taken part in the terrible drama surrounding
the victim in the priory case, but he might know more about it than he would
reveal. As for the publication of sham scientific books, that could be
something a guy like Bailey could do living quietly in the country and making
it up as he went along, or transferring some kind of personal experience -
working it out of his system. It was a perfect cover – for what? A fertile mind
or criminal acts?
***
Discussing the ongoing case with Cleo was a normal
procedure for Gary, but this time Cleo had already put forward ideas that took
the case out of normal dimensions. As a sociologist, Cleo had herself never
come across cannibalism, but read about it while she was studying, so
developments of any kind in that direction were bound to be accompanied by
speculation.
The idea of cannibalism in the Priory case had
first come from Cleo, supported by Chris, who had examined the skeletal finds
at Monkton Priory and come to that conclusion. The idea that dogs could have
done the damage was new, but under consideration by Chris, but the dog theory
would have to be eliminated if Bailey had told the truth about when he acquired
the animals.
A quick check with the animal rescue centre
confirmed Bailey's statement about the Rottweilers getting a home - all former
guard dogs had to have a decent retirement, it appeared. No questions seem to
have been asked about what the dogs were trained to do apart from guarding
property.
It occurred to Gary that they did not know when the
son had actually disappeared. Was Brad Bailey being kept a prisoner? Did Bailey
obtain the dogs to have them maul and kill his son?
It was clear that the bones had been buried in some
sort of ritual since the trip to the priory – sacred ground even after many
centuries – bearing the remains of the victim in bio-degradable sacks was
macabre, but indicated a reverential burial act. Even planting a tree on the
spot where the skull found its resting-place could have been part of a
ceremony. Gary comforted himself with the idea that the interment of those
bones had been respectful, if gruesome.
It was apparent that Bailey’s dogs could not have
savaged the son unless they were at the farm before Brad went missing. That was
possibly the most stunning revelation so far: the blame for the condition of those
remains had not been removed from Bailey' pets. Being spoilt for choice was,
however, macabre and might not be proved.
In a short phone-call to Chris, Gary asked if DNA
had been taken from the dogs. Chris told him that he had done so and wanted to
know why.
“Until we know for certain that Brad Bailey
disappeared before the dogs arrived at the farm, we ‘’ have to keep that
possibility open,” said Gary.
“Meaning that dogs’ DNA might still be on the
bones?”
“Or on the plastic sacks containing them, Chris.”
“I hope the trash has not been collected, Gary.”
“Can you check?”
“Of Course. I wasn’t planning to take the weekend
off.”
***
Gary also had to admit that those bones might belong
to someone else. Only DNA could identify the victim. If the bones were not
related to Bailey, they would probably never know who the victim was.
And there was Mike’s research into Bailey to
consider. It was years back and thus not provoked by events at the priory, but
Bailey was up to no good, of that Gary was sure. How could they pin him down?
Would Cleo know the books he had written as a sham scientist? Or was it all a
big coincidence?
***
No wonder Gary was emotionally loaded when it came
to presenting all that to Cleo, who listened wordlessly to his report, taking
brief notes and biting her lip as she did so.
***
“Let’s get methodical,” she announced when Gary
finally came to a halt. “I’ll look for Digby-Mortimer. Elsie is a woman’s name,
isn’t it?”
“L.C. as capital letters could be anybody,” said
Gary.
“I can’t recall it so if I did read the books, they
did not leave much of an impression,” she said. “What a cunning way of
disguising one’s gender.”
“This case is getting weirder by the minute, Cleo.”
“Have you
considered that Mia might know more than she told you. She’s quite a dark
horse.”
“I thought she trusted me, but she was too scared
to do anything about what she knew at the time, and now she’s scared because
she has finally realized that the situation has come to a head with the
findings at the priory. It must tally with some of the stuff Mike Curlew was
treasuring and working on because of Bailey’s association with Mike – whatever
form that too. Mike is near parole so Mia will go back in her shell out of
self-defence.”
“I would not like to be the one to tell Mike that
his research is up for scrutiny,” said Cleo.
“She’ll need protection,” said Gary.
“You’ll have to act fast,” said Cleo.
“Correction! We’ll have to act fast.”
“I’m still nursing the little ones. My liberty is
limited.”
“I mean that we need to discuss it all in detail,
hoping we get some more facts tomorrow when Mia brings Mike’s research material
to HQ. I’m relying on you, Cleo. I could write books, but they would be
romantic fiction, I think. I’m not up to crime, and totally out of my depth
with cannibalism.”
“Most of us are, but it exists and not just in the
animal kingdom.”
“Can we leave the animal kingdom out of this?”
“Instinct, Gary. It explains why perverse sexuality
can actually lead to anthropophagy, but that does not justify it by any means.
We humans are supposed to have reached a point where we have learnt to respect
one another and act with propriety. But it doesn’t apply to everyone. There
would be no homicide if that were the case.”
“Implying that some individuals will go to the
limits of humanity and beyond,” said Gary.
“Yes, and it ties in with what I keep saying: that
you cannot normally tell from looking at someone what kind of evil is going on
inside his head; you can’t tell by looking at someone whether he is kind and
compassionate or blood-thirsty and unprincipled.”
“Do you think Dorothy could shed fresh light on the
case?”
“Ask her.”
“I will.”
“And we could do a video conference at your office
on the basis of Chris’s new findings over the weekend. I can join in from here.
I am as keen as you are to sort out this business.”
“I’m not technically equipped, Cleo. I’ll have to
rope Greg in and use my old office for that.”
“The more the merrier. Ring Dorothy and invite her
to supper. Grit left us a casserole. Your mother is an angel, Gary. There’s
enough for Mia, too, I’m sure.”
“Would it bother you if I asked Mia to bring
anything relevant that she finds tonight?”
“Not at all. She should also bring her son. He can
sleep in the boys’ room while we talk.”
***
Dorothy was touched to be included, but she said
she would rather wait until Monday and take part in the video conference from
the cottage, if Gary said she could.
Mia went o the playground with Tim. She would try
to get a baby-sitter at such short notice. If she couldn’t, she would of course
bring him along. He was playing happily with a huge plastic digger as she spoke.
Mike’s research material was stored in an old
leather satchel. After the Bailey questioning, she had taken another brief look
at the files, but not found anything. Mike would have stored it in a database,
but she had no idea where. Mia thought she could be at the cottage by 7 p.m.
Supper was enjoyed by all, including Tim, who was
quite happy to join in with the Hurley boys’ big bath-time, after which he was
dressed in one of the twins’ pyjamas and had quite obviously decided he was
there for the night if not for ever.
After supper, Charlie went next door to finish her
homework with Lottie and Uncle Joe who was a whiz at maths, drawing cartoons
and making up stories. He was delighted to aid and abet the girls. Joe's wife,
Barbara, had produced pancakes with ice-cream and handed her little son around
for approval by the teenagers.
"I can't remember life without Uncle
Joe." Charlie said.
"I'm glad you decided on Barbara and not
Sonia," Lottie added.
The whole story of that fated relationship with the
schoolmistress at the boarding school Lottie had been sent to in South Africa emerged
from Lottie’s point of view, with which Joe did not argue.
"We're all glad about that," said
Charlie, "even if you are a lady cop, Barbara."
"Was she really so awful?" Barbara asked.
"Ghastly," said Lottie, and Joe had to
agree.
But Joe still had a guilty conscience about sending
her packing after she had actually changed her mind about being with him and
had come all the way from S.A. to tell him that she would even consider having
a baby since Cleo would e close buy to help raise it..
"She didn't even like the little
Hurleys," Lottie said. "And she was using me to get at Daddy, but she
could never have been my step-mother. I would have kicked up a fuss."
"She sounds nightmarish," said Barbara. “You
had a lucky escape, Joe!"
"We all did," said Charlie.
***
The rough and tumble of Hurley family life was all
Gary really needed, as he told Cleo repeatedly.
“Okay, you have the next babies,” she would then
reply, “I’ll do the garden and sort out crime in this district.”
“Would you?” Gary would then say.
“I’ll do your jobs if you manage to do mine,” Cleo
would retort. “But don't forget that humanity would have died out long ago if
we females had left it to males to procreate on their own!”
***
At 8 Greg arrived. He was very curious about what
Mia wanted at the cottage after office hours when she rang him and asked him if
he had time.
“I’m not involved,” Greg had told her. “I was away
when it happened and I think I’m being excluded.”
“Rubbish, Greg. We need you in this really nasty
business.”
“You’ve convinced me,” said Greg. “What time should
I be there?”
“I’m not sure about the food situation, so eight would
be good if you please eat first. I’m taking Tim along. I couldn’t get a
baby-sitter at such short notice”.
***
Gary was overjoyed to see Greg, not least because
he wanted to use what was how his office for the video conference.
“I haven’t been keeping you out of it,” he told
Greg. “Please remember that you walked out on us, but I’m glad you’re back, and
I mean that.”
“That chemist case got sewn up without me, Gary.
You’ll get the report on Monday.”
“Congratulations, whoever managed it!”
“The case more or less solved itself,” said Greg.
“That chemist took a pot shot at the junkie, wiped the gun clean, and put it in
the victim’s hand.”
“That was stupid, wasn’t it?”
“Exactly. The bullets were from the gun and yet it
was clearly not suicide, as Chris confirmed. People don’t shoot themselves in
the back. So we decided that the chemist had tried to camouflage murdering the
intruder in a very amateurish way. It didn’t take much questioning to pin him
down. I think he was genuinely shocked.”
“Another would-be innocent killer,” said Gary.
“Don’t let empathy overtake you, GReg. He did not run amok; he took careful
aim.”
***
“I’m glad Tim feels at home, Mia,” said Cleo. “I
can hear them. They’ll go to sleep when they’re tired. Tim can stay here if
he’s asleep when you leave, Mia.”
“Won’t that be a nuisance?” said Mia, who wondered how
Cleo could possibly cope with so many kids.
“It’s easy when you love them all to bits,” Cleo
replied, looking hard at Greg, who was starting to see Mia in quite a different
light.
“I agree,” said Greg, to his own surprise, but
somewhat disconcerted. Cleo’s eyes seemed to see right through him. He was shy
and not in the least demonstrative. Was Cleo managing a sea change? The more
Greg thought about it during that evening, the better he liked the idea.
***
“Open Sesame!” said Gary as he presently tipped the
entire contents of Mike’s satchel onto the dining table.
The two pseudo-scientific books written by L.C.
Digby-Mortimer fell out. They were thin paperbacks from a series called
“Helping yourself to understand”.
“How can you take a book seriously if it’s entitled
‘When Outside goes Inside’?” said Gary.
“What about ‘Bitter or Sweet: The Taste of Love’?”
said Greg, reading the second title out aloud like a monologue.
***
“Do you know these books, Cleo?” Gary asked.
“Unfortunately, I had to read a number of such
penny dreadfuls during my studies. They are bought and devoured by many people
looking for answers to their real or imagined troubles and are often the guys
we deal with as social workers. Our candidates are often misfits and spurred on
by all sorts of imagery to say or do things they probably would not say or do
if they could think straight. But they keep the publisher’s afloat.”
“Even in my darkest hour I would not want to
consult one of those books,” said Greg, flipping through the pages of the book
whose title he had just read out.
“Just listen to this: “for some people, being
hungry for love boils down to hunger for the lover, he read. “What junk!”
“It could be metaphorical,” said Cleo. “Or hinting
at anthropophagy.”
“What’s that when it’s at home, Cleo?”
“Cannibalism, Greg. Those who indulge in it believe
that it’s the greatest sacrifice of all.”
“Am I or on a horror trip?” said Greg. “Is that
what the priory case is all about? No wonder everyone goes around whispering.”
***
“I’m impressed with Mike’s industry,” said Greg an
hour or two later. “But if I’m honest, I don’t want to be part of this
investigation.”
“Do you still have a choice?” Mia wanted to know.
Gary caught the waves of mutual attraction drawing
Mia and Greg together. Cleo grinned in his direction. The world is full of surprises.
From rivalry to romance, she mused.
***
“So why don’t you go home, kids?” Gary suggested.
“Neither of you need to get involved. Mike’s inquiry is coincidental to the
priory case, but it looks as if he was on the right track, though he did not
know about the current cannibalism discussion, so he's the next in line for
questioning and that's my job in this case.”
“Are you sure?” said Cleo.
“No,” said Gary. “But I’m going to talk to him in
prison first thing tomorrow and hope I’ll know more after that.”
“What if he won’t cooperate?” said Greg.
“He will if he thinks he’s going to be
rehabilitated.”
“That’s a high price to pay,” said Mia. “I’ll have
to think about going elsewhere if you take him back.”
“No need,” said Greg. “Face him. He must have
learnt his lesson by now – and you have me to fall back on.”
Mia looked surprised.
“Do I?” she said.
“Only if you want it,” said Greg, wondering how he
had had the courage to make that offer.
He was not very good at personal relationships.
“I’m not sure I can refuse that offer, Greg.”
***
“The intriguing part is the alternative to the
cannibal solution,” said Cleo, thinking that Greg's flirting was out of
character and probably difficult for him to sustain. “If Bailey is the gangster
you now believe he must be, he will have minions doing the dirty jobs for him,
including disposing of the victims in a particularly vile way. If that’s the
case, he might know which of his associates would be capable of such
brutality.”
“Unless he did it himself,” said Mia. “Farmers have
access to abattoirs and know how to chop up animals.”
“How creepy is that!” said Greg. “If you want a
lift home, get your coat on, Mia. I’m in court in the morning and I need some
sleep before then.”
“We all need some sleep, Greg,” said Gary. “Let’s
call it a day, shall we?”
"It's Sunday tomorrow, Greg. No court
procedures."
"So it is," said Greg.
Mia looked disconcerted.
“Tim’s fine here, if that’s what’s bothering you,”
said Cleo.
“Are you sure?”
***
Mia had a flat in an old villa on the outskirts of
Middlethumpton. It did not take long to get there with Greg following Mia’s
little care in his own.
Throughout the drive, Greg was trying to find a way
of showing Mia he was interested. But he needn’t have worried. The cars had
hardly pulled up in front of the villa when Mia told Greg he could leave the
car on the street and come in for a nightcap.
***
“I’ve been thinking about us all evening,” she
said. "Ithink you have, too, Greg."
“I’m a bit overwhelmed,” he stammered. “I thought
you’d finished with men, living in that shelter.”
“As soon as I realized that Mike was going to be
absent for a couple of years I looked for somewhere nice to move into and filed
for divorce,” said Mia. “Mike has no claim on me.”
“You must be glad about that,” said Greg. “And this
place is great. No sign of your ex.”
“He has never been here, Greg, and I am back in the
land of the living.”
That sounded like an invitation to Greg. He sat
down and lounged on the two-seater sofa feeling quite at home.
“I’ll get us some coffee, but I should warn you
that I am not the little woman type of woman, you know, stirring jam and
knitting socks all day.”
“Is that what Mike wanted?”
“I think he wanted someone to knock about, Greg.”
“I’m not likely to do that.”
“Tim is well looked after at the Hurleys, and this
is the first time I’m going to spend the night alone here.”
“There is an alternative, Mia.”
“Is there?”
“There’s me, for instance,” said Greg, feeling a
bit shy now things appeared to be hotting up.
“When do you really have to get up?”
“If it was Monday, I’d have that chemist case at
10,” said Greg. “But it’s Sunday, so I usually get up when the mood takes me.”
"It's really my job to deal with drugs, Greg,
so I should beat the court case, shouldn’t I."
"Not unless you want to. The chemist thought
his daughter was dating the dead guy. The motive could be that he did not want
a junkie to date his daughter, so he set a trap. His daughter cooperated
without knowing what was at stake.”
“She can’t be made to testify against her father,
can she?”
“No. but she can be made to admit that the dead guy
was not her boyfriend.”
“So it was self-defence, after all,” said Mia.
“It’s more complicated than that. The genuine
boyfriend came an hour early, helped himself to drugs and left. The other guy
just happened to notice that the chemist door was not properly shut and got in
that way.”
“So how had the real boyfriend got in?”
“He had a key, Mia. The junkie came at the time the
boyfriend was due to come.”
“Why didn’t I find out about all this, Greg?”
“The call came in to me just after I got back from
my sabbatical, because there were homicides. You were busy with that shop-theft
incident. I think you suspected the security officer and the thief to be in
league and had gone to find out more.”
“Don’t tell me the boyfriend had also been shot.”
“OK. I won’t tell you.”
“Where and when did it happen?”
“The young man was on the way home from the pub about
3 hours later. There were no witnesses.”
“So the chemist realized he’d got the wrong guy and
wanted to put the record straight.”
“That’s what the court will have to decide.”
“But surely the shots were from the same gun?”
“And that’s where it gets interesting. Two deadly
accurate shots into the heart – both from the back – but one gun. Whoever did
it does not know much about ballistics.”
***
“Enough shop-talk "said Mia. "Would you
like to stay here tonight, Greg?”
“Are you inviting me?”
“I suppose I am.”
“Then I’ll stay.”
***
“Left side or right?” said Mia.
“What are we talking about?”
“My bed, of course.”
“I can take the sofa,” said Greg, now totally confused
by the mixture of formality and friendliness.
“You can’t stretch out on it,” said Mia. “Top or
bottom?”
“Now what’s the riddle?”
“Pyjamas, silly.”
“I don’t normally wear any,” said Greg, now acutely
embarrassed.
“Then don’t,” said Mia. “We don’t have to have sex,
but you’ll be more comfortable in bed.”
Greg had thought Rosie was a forward little vamp.
Well, you live and learn.
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