Peter James: Love You Dead

Jodie grabbed a glass vivarium containing what looked like four tarantulas, raised it in the air and held it over him.

‘Who the hell are you?’ she shouted. ‘Are you police?’

He looked up at the spiders, clearly terrified. ‘Who the fuck are you?’ he shouted back. ‘Jodie? Judith?’

‘Both of them,’ she replied, clearly. ‘And more.’

‘Get this thing off me!’

‘Oh yes? And then what?’ She raised the vivarium higher as if preparing to bring it smashing down onto him.

‘No. Noooooo! Please, I hate those critters, please. Look, lady, I’ll go away, I promshhhh.’ The snake was winding more tightly round his throat.

‘Like I believe you. You know something? I’ve killed three people — two husbands and a fiancé — actually, four, if you count my stupid sister. You think I care a toss about some shitty intruder?’

Grace stopped the recording and looked down at Jodie, who was again toying with the chain of her locket, and then at her solicitor. ‘Is that real enough evidence for you?’

‘With respect, Detective Superintendent, this is my client, in fear for her life, shouting out a threat in self-defence.’

‘Self-defence? Strangling her intruder with a massive snake? I don’t think so. And that explosion you heard, for your information — that was a bomb placed in her Mercedes car, possibly with the intention of killing a police officer, and we are looking to establish if your client was involved.’

‘Can you give us one shred of evidence that it was placed there by my client?’ the solicitor asked. ‘It’s preposterous.’

Grace closed the lid and picked the computer up. ‘We’ll let you have a copy of this recording before you leave, Mr Orson.’ Then he smiled. ‘Oh, and by the way, the police team searching your client’s house discovered the sum of one hundred and ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred dollars, in new bills, concealed in a mattress in one of the rooms. This may be entirely coincidental, but I’ve been informed by the New York Police Department that your client is a person of interest in the theft of two hundred thousand dollars from a hotel room in Manhattan on the night of Wednesday 18th February of this year. However, what your client doesn’t know is that it is counterfeit money. As I say, this might be entirely coincidental or perhaps even circumstantial. I apologize for interrupting this interview. Please continue.’

Jodie, still toying with her necklace, glared at him.

About to walk out of the room, Grace hesitated suddenly, stared hard at her and took a step towards her with a frown. ‘Could I have a look at your necklace and locket, please?’

‘Why?’

‘I’d like to see it.’

She removed it and handed it to Grace. He studied the locket for a second and then shook it. Something inside rattled. Looking back at Jodie, he noticed her face had paled a fraction. He opened the locket carefully and peered inside.

At what appeared to be a solitary snake fang.

He paused for a moment, thinking hard, then said, ‘I’m taking this item into police possession as a potential exhibit in my investigation.’

‘Would you please be careful with it?’ she replied. ‘It’s sentimental. My first husband gave it to me. It came from a Gaboon viper that bit his best friend. Christopher killed the snake and managed to save his friend’s life. He gave me this fang as a good luck charm soon after we met.’

‘I apologize again for interrupting this interview. Please continue.’ Grace left, closing the door behind him.

Grace was in a pensive mood. ‘The time is 8.30 a.m., Monday 16th March. This is the eleventh briefing of Operation Spider.’ He scanned his assembled team. Everyone was present except for Norman Potting, who had left him a message that he was on his way.

‘I’ll give you the good news first,’ Grace continued. ‘Most of you here were involved in Operation Violin, the investigation last year into two revenge murders and the abduction of a young boy. Our prime suspect, an American professional killer known only by the name Tooth, vanished following a fight with Glenn on a dock at Shoreham Port. He was missing, presumed drowned, after jumping into the water, although a subsequent extensive underwater search never found a body. Then a short while ago we had a tip-off from Pat Lanigan from the NYPD that Tooth was very much alive and active again, and had returned to Brighton in pursuit of a memory stick and a sum of money that had been stolen from a hotel room in New York, allegedly by none other than our Jodie.’

He sipped some water, then some coffee from the mug in front of him. ‘According to intelligence Lanigan had received, Jodie had links to a Romanian bagman for a Russian crime gang, who was found murdered in New York at the same hotel she had been staying in. She was seen in the bar with him by hotel staff one evening, a couple of days before he was found dead in his room. In what I suspect is not a complete coincidence, during a search of Jodie’s house at 191 Roedean Crescent yesterday, the sum of one hundred and ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred dollars was found inside a mattress. Interestingly, a single one-hundred-dollar bill, matching the plate serial numbers of those in the mattress, was found in a holdall in Tooth’s hire car, on Saturday, along with a USB memory stick. We’ve learned that the money was actually counterfeit.’

He sipped some more coffee. ‘The contents of the memory stick are currently being examined by the High Tech Crime Unit. It appears to be some kind of ledger, containing names, addresses and coded transactions, within the US and some mid-European countries. We’re sending a copy to the NYPD as it holds a number of names of persons of interest to them, we understand.’

‘Do we know how Tooth escaped after going in the water?’ Branson asked.

‘Not yet. And I’m not sure that we ever will.’

‘How come?’

‘Video footage taken from Jodie’s Roedean residence shows the unfortunate Tooth attempting to attack her with a stiletto knife. She defended herself by hurling a huge boa constrictor at him, which proceeded to wrap itself round his torso and neck in apparent self-defence — and constrict his airways. This charmer suffered severe oxygen starvation, as well as several bites and stings from various other creatures before the snake was removed. He’s currently in the Intensive Care Unit of the Royal Sussex County Hospital, on life support. His score on the Glasgow Coma Scale — which measures responses — is not good. The only sound he has uttered since being admitted on Saturday morning is, apparently, the word “Yossarian”.’

‘ Yossarian? ’ Guy Batchelor said. ‘Yossarian was a character in that amazing novel, Catch-22. One of my favourite books.’

‘Can you elaborate?’ Grace said. ‘Apparently he’s repeated it several times, in a state about it.’

‘He was the central character,’ Batchelor said. ‘Shit, I read it a long time ago. He was paranoid that people were trying to kill him, I seem to remember.’

Grace wrote down the name, Yossarian , in his policy book. ‘It would be helpful, Guy, if you could look into this further.’

‘Yes, boss.’

‘Tooth is currently undergoing further tests and I hope to have an update later today. Meanwhile he is under police guard in hospital.’

He looked down at his notes again. ‘OK, now on to Operation Spider, where the news is not as good as I’d hoped. First, I’d like to commend DS Potting, who’ll be here in a minute, for his bravery. None of you will be aware of this, but he was our undercover operative. He placed himself in great danger, and we have sheer luck to thank for him still being with us today. The unintended victim of the bomb was a suspected member of the car theft gang, and a known offender, Dean Warren. He has been identified from fingerprints on an intact arm recovered at the scene. From what we are able to establish so far, Warren appears to have decided Saturday morning was a good time to steal this car.’