Stephen Leather - Once bitten

I felt my face redden and before I could answer there was a bang on the door and the guard opened it to let in De'Ath carrying two cups of coffee, one in each hand, with a file under one arm.

His teeth were clenched and he grunted as he put both cups down on the table so hard that liquid spilled and pooled around them. "Yah! They're hot," he cursed. He waved his hands in the air and swore. He pointed at one of the cups. "That's yours, white and sweet, just like your good self," he said to me.

"Whereas your's is black and cool, I bet," I replied, and he laughed.

"Man, you are one slick Englishman," he said. "Almost makes me wish we never got our independence."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I said. "Can we get on with this, please?"

"Sure," said De'Ath. He looked over the girl. "Professor Van Helsing introduced himself?" he asked her. "He's the man who's gonna tell us if you're sane or not, so be straight with him, d'yer here?"

She nodded, wide-eyed.

"Has she been charged yet?" I asked him.

"It's coming," he said. "Paperwork's taking time. They're out in force tonight. When you've finished with her there's a guy in room B who reckons that Satan told him to go and stick up a liquor store and shoot the owner's wife in the face." He leant against the wall and sips his coffee.

"OK, I'll be along when I've finished here." I pressed the 'pause' button on the tape recorder and sat and looked at him because there's no way I was going to start questioning the girl while he was there. He finally got the message and left us alone. Alone with the woman guard that is.

"He called you Van Helsing?" Terry said.

"A joke."

Her brow furrowed.

"Professor Van Helsing. The vampire hunter. The one that went after Dracula. In the book."

"Oh, right, sure, yeah," she said, and her manacled hands went up to her mouth and touched the smear of lipstick. Except that I realised that it wasn't lipstick, it was dried blood. I pressed the 'pause' button again to start the tape running.

"Terry, I'm going to ask you some questions, OK? Just relax, they're not tricks, I'm not trying to catch you out or anything. Trust me, OK?"

"Sure. Fire away. Hit me with your best shot."

"What day is it, Terry?"

"Friday."

"What month?"

"August."

"What year?"

"Nineteen ninety two."

"What year were you born?"

She smiled. "What is this, Wheel of Fortune?" she asked.

"Just help me out, Terry. Answer the questions and then I can go home to my bed. When were you born?"

"Twenty-five years ago," she said. "Or thereabouts." She was a lot older than she looked.

"Who is the president of the United States?"

"George Bush." She giggled and put her hands up to her mouth again. There was dried blood on her hands, too.

"What's the capital of the United States?"

She grinned. "Los Angeles," she said. She watched me scribble her answer in my notebook and held up her hand, waving it to stop me. "I was joking, Jamie. OK? I was joking. Washington is the real capital."

I sat back in the chair and gave her a stern look. Or tried to anyway. She wasn't supposed to be using my first name. It didn't show the proper respect, you know? "This is serious, Terry," I said.

"Oh, for sure," she sighed. "For sure it is." She leant forward and looked at me intensely with her jet black eyes. "The black guy, now he's serious, Jamie. He's trying to bring me real grief, but you? You, Jamie, you're a pussycat." She smiled and winked. "Fire away."

"Can you name three cities beginning with the letter D?"

"Detroit, Dallas, Durham."

"Durham?"

"Yeah, Durham. It's in England."

"I know, it's just a strange city to think of, that's all."

She shrugged.

"Have you been there?" I asked.

"Oh, sure," she sighed, and I wasn't sure if she was joking or not.

"What's your favourite food?"

"Are you hitting on me?" she said coyly.

"No," I said.

"Lasagna. What's the point of these questions?"

"They help me assess your state of mind. What was the last film you saw?"

She looked up at the ceiling, thinking. There was dried blood on the underside of her chin, a thin streak as if she'd run a bloody finger gently along it and left behind a trail. She lowered her eyes and caught me staring at her neck. "TV or movie?" she asked.

"Doesn't matter."

"Casablanca."

"What's your favourite colour?"

She looked down at her gown. "Well it shitfire sure ain't grey," she said. "Black, maybe. Yeah, I like black."

"Which weighs the most – a pound of coal or a pound of feathers?"

"Shoot, Jamie, we did that one at school. They're the same."

"Which would you rather have, a dog or a cat?"

"Neither."

"You don't like animals?"

She shrugged. "Don't like, don't dislike. Neutral."

"Do you know why you're here?"

"Yes."

I waited but she didn't expand on her answer, she just sat back and looked at me.

"Will you tell me why you think you're here?"

"They, like, think I killed a man."

"And did you?"

"Are you a psychologist or a detective?"

"Fair point," I replied. "How do you feel?"

"About being here?" I nod. "Scared, I guess. Confused. A bit, like, angry. Yeah, angry, for sure."

"Why haven't you asked for a lawyer?"

"I haven't done anything wrong, that's for sure."

I asked her a few more general knowledge and current affairs questions and then I switched off the tape recorder and put my pen in the inside pocket of my jacket. "OK, Terry. That's it. I told you it'd be painless."

"Is that all?"

"That's the first bit over." I picked up my briefcase, opened it and took out my portable computer. She watched as I flicked up the screen and powered it up. The disc whined and the orange screen flickered into life. It asked me for my password and I typed in "Deborah" and I made a mental note to change it because her name brought back too many memories.

"OK," I said. I moved my chair next to her's and swivelled the computer round so that we could both see the screen. I looked up at the guard and asked her if she'd take the cuffs off Terry.

"I'll have to check," she said and went out, to look for De'Ath I guess and to get his blessing.

"You really should ask for a lawyer," I said to Terry.

She shrugged. "I haven't done anything," she said. "I mean, like, it's their problem, not mine, you know? Their mistake. I'll be back on the streets before you know it. I'm cool, you know?"

"I can recommend a good lawyer. If you change your mind."

She smiled and nodded. "Thanks, Jamie. But no thanks."

The guard came back with two uniformed officers, which I reckoned was piling it on a bit thick because the girl was showing no signs of aggression and she certainly wasn't on Angel Dust or anything else that was going to give her the strength of ten men, or even one. One of the men stood by the door, his hand on the gun in his holster. The female guard unlocked Terry's handcuffs while the second man went and stood behind us.

Terry massaged her wrists.

"Better?" I asked.

"Yeah, thanks. What do you want me to do?"

"OK, this is just another test, just like the questions I asked you before, except this time they're on this screen. All you have to do is to make choices."

"Multiple choice questions?"

"That's right, just like you did at High School. Each question will give you a choice of two answers, yes or no. You use the mouse to indicate your choice." I showed her how to use the mouse and she nodded. I pressed the start button and a single line of type flashed up on the screen.

"I prefer cold weather to hot weather," it said. "This is an example," I explained. "If you prefer cold weather to hot weather, you indicate Yes. If you prefer hot weather, you indicate No. It's as easy as that. The machine will ask you five hundred questions. Some of them will be very straightforward like this one, others might seem a little strange. But you must answer yes or no.