Barry Maitland - The Malcontenta

Long was sprawled absurdly across the edge of the large, cast-iron bath, a collapsed scarecrow in pyjamas. From a knot around his neck, the cord of his old dressing gown looped up to the frame of a shower curtain, which his weight had brought down from the ceiling. The tiled floor of the bathroom was scattered with fragments of ceiling plaster and screws and plugs from the inadequate scaffold, and blood was smeared on his leg, where he had scraped his shin on the edge of the bath. There was a startled look on his face as he gazed up at Kathy.

‘Are you all right, sir?’

‘I …’ he gulped, i don’t think I can move.’

‘Not the practical type, are you?’ She went forward to help him, then paused as Mrs Long appeared in the doorway. She stared down at her husband for a moment, eyes wide, taking everything in. Then she said, in a voice brimming with contempt, ‘Do you really think I didn’t know?’ She turned on her heel and they heard the bedroom door click shut behind her.

Brock advised that there be more than one witness for Long’s interview at Division, so they got hold of Penny Elliot, because she was the only one Kathy trusted, and on Penny’s recommendation Detective Sergeant McGregor from Serious Crime. They came into the building from the basement car park, using the stairs and avoiding the front entrance, and met in the conference room on the fifth floor, next to Long’s secretary’s office. It was 4.15 a.m. when Kathy began by formally cautioning the Deputy Chief Constable.

He ignored her. ‘I’m not a people sort of person, David.’ He seemed to feel a need to address himself to Brock, and Kathy let him go on. ‘I’m a systems sort of person. I think you understand that, don’t you? I have a record of achievement in that area of which I believe I can be justifiably proud.’ His posture, like his speech, was stiff and formal. His eyes were bright, but his grey face was in need of a shave. There had been a moment of farce at the house when it had seemed that Mrs Long might refuse to hand over anything for him to wear. Eventually, however, the bedroom door had opened briefly and a pile of his clothes had been dumped into the corridor.

‘I have never seen it as my job to hunt criminals. I leave that to others. Frankly, I find that side of things utterly uninteresting. Some people don’t understand my position on this. But those same people don’t seem to expect the head of British Coal to wield a pick and shovel!’ He gave a stiff little smile.

‘My role has been to set in place the management systems of a modern police force. And that I have done. You really would have no idea, David, how derisory the procedures were here when I first arrived. Now they are leading-edge, I promise you. At the last review we scored more best-practice ratings than any other County force. The figures are in my office. I would like you to see them. I think you would appreciate their significance, something that cannot be conveniently swept aside by those few detractors — Neanderthals, that’s my word for them. Yes.’

He paused, nonplussed for a moment by losing the thread. There was an embarrassed silence in the room, and then Kathy spoke.

‘Mr Long, please tell us what happened on the afternoon of Sunday z8 October of last year.’

Her tone was not harsh or even unkind, but his face flinched as if she had struck him. His hand formed a fist, and he spoke through clenched teeth as he looked pointedly at Brock.

‘David, I wish to continue this with you alone, please. I would consider it a personal favour. Please:

Brock shook his head. ‘No, Bernard.’

Long looked mildly shocked, sniffed and took in a deep breath, drawing together the remnants of his tattered dignity.

‘The afternoon of Sunday 28 October of last year,’ Kathy repeated, and this time they could see from his eyes that his mind had indeed gone back to that day. He gave a little shudder, and when he spoke there was no more protest in his voice.

‘I had arranged to meet Alex in the gym at four that afternoon.’

‘Not three, as you told me when I spoke to you the following day?’ ‘No.’

‘So you met him at four. Was he alone?’ ‘Yes.’

‘Why did you arrange to meet?’

‘To talk. We often talked. We found it easy to talk.’

‘What is your blood group, Mr Long?’

‘Pardon?’

‘Your blood group.’

‘AB, I think. Why?’

‘Do you know if you are a secretor?’

It was clear from his blank expression that he hadn’t the faintest idea what she was talking about.

‘Never mind. How would you describe your relationship with Mr Petrou at that time?’

‘We were friends.’

‘You were lovers.’

Long stared at the table in front of him. He said nothing.

‘You were lovers.’

Nothing.

‘You were lovers.’

‘Yes!’ he whispered hurriedly, anxious not to hear the words repeated yet again in front of this audience.

‘And you had sexual intercourse with him that afternoon.’

‘No … yes … not at first. At first we talked.’

‘You could have talked in the drawing room upstairs or gone for a walk outside. You met him in the gym because you wanted to have sex with him there.’

‘No!’ Long’s protest was almost a shriek, i needed to talk to him undisturbed. To discuss some matters — in confidence.’

‘I ask you again. What was your relationship with Petrou at this time? What were your feelings for him?’

He sucked in a lungful of air, eyes staring, as if he were drowning, it was a madness,’ he whispered at last. ‘A madness. I couldn’t help myself.’

‘You couldn’t control your feelings for him?’

Long nodded.

‘And what about his feelings for you?’

‘I knew that he was using me. That there were others he was using.’

‘In what way was he using you?’

‘At first, money. He needed money. I didn’t mind helping him. Why should I mind? He repaid me fully.’

‘He repaid you the money you gave him?’

‘No, no. He repaid me in other ways.’

‘With his body.’

Long said nothing.

‘With his …’

‘With his companionship, yes!’

‘But he was greedy.’

‘Yes. And cruel. He enjoyed making me suffer for him.’

‘What else did he want besides money?’

‘I told him there was a chance I would be going to London to a senior position in the Metropolitan Police. He seemed to think that this would be important for him. He had plans to set up some sort of club in London, and he seemed to think that he would need a … special arrangement with the police. I told him it was out of the question, of course, but he wasn’t easily dissuaded. When he decided that he wanted something, he could be completely unreasonable.’

Long was breathing heavily as he spoke now, and sweat was gleaming on his forehead.

‘You must have found that rather worrying.’ ‘Oh yes! It could have been absolutely disastrous, of course!’

‘What did you do?’

‘When I realized he was going to be so unreasonable, so demanding, I became very worried. I suppose I became frightened. One day I had a meeting here with a number of officers about some staffing matters, and at the end of it I was speaking to Chief Inspector Tanner — Inspector Tanner as he then was. On the spur of the moment I asked if he could make some unofficial inquiries for me about the immigration status of someone who was being a nuisance to some friends of mine. I wanted him to check if Alex’s papers were in order, perhaps find out if something could be done to terminate his visa, have him sent back to Greece. That’s what I wanted really, just for him to go away.’

‘When did you have that conversation?’