Elizabeth George - This Body of Death

Isabelle considered her approach. Her palms were damp, but the last thing she intended to do was to wipe them casually along her skirt. Should she do so, she knew that Hillier would see that her hands were shaking as well. She schooled herself to relax. What was called for here was a show of strength through a clear indication that she would not be cowed by tabloids, broadsheets, solicitors, news conferences, or Hillier himself. She looked at the assistant commissioner squarely and said, “The fact that Yukio Matsumoto is mental hardly matters, as I see it, sir.”

Hillier’s skin went rosy. Isabelle continued confidently before he could speak.

“His mental state didn’t matter when he avoided our questions and it matters even less just now.”

Hillier’s skin went rosier still.

Isabelle plunged on. She made her voice certain and she kept it cool. Cool would mean that she had no fear of the assistant commissioner’s disagreeing with her assessment of matters. It would mean she believed that her assessment had been and was rock solid. She said, “The moment Matsumoto’s ready for an identity parade, we have a witness who’ll place him in the vicinity of the crime. This is the very same witness who created the e-fit recognised by the man’s own brother. Matsumoto was, as you know, in possession of the murder weapon and wearing bloodied clothes, but what you might not yet know is that two hairs found in the hand of the victim have been identified as Oriental in origin. When DNA tests are completed on them, those hairs are going to belong to him. He was acquainted with the victim, she’d lived in the same building as he, and he’s known to have followed her. So frankly, sir, whether he’s a mental case or not is incidental. I didn’t consider mentioning it when I met with you and Mr. Deacon because in light of everything else we knew about the man, the fact that he has a mental condition-which hasn’t been attested to by anyone save his own brother and his brother’s solicitor, by the way-is a minor point. If anything at all, it’s yet another detail that weighs against him: He wouldn’t be the first untreated mental patient to murder someone in the midst of an episode of some sort and, sad to say, he won’t be the last.” She stirred in her seat, leaning forward and placing her arms along Hillier’s desk in a gesture to show that her assumption was that she was his equal, and the two of them-and by extension, the Met-were in this together.

“Now,” she said, “this is what I recommend. Incredulity.”

Hillier didn’t reply at once. Isabelle could feel her heart beating-it was slamming, really-against her rib cage. She reckoned it could have been seen in the pulse on her temples had she worn her hair differently and she knew it probably was evident on her neck. But that, too, was somewhat out of Hillier’s view, and as long as she said nothing more, merely waiting for his reply, obviously communicating to him nothing but confidence in the decisions she’d made…She merely needed to keep her eyes on his, which were icy and rather soulless, weren’t they, and she hadn’t actually noticed that before this moment.

“Incredulity,” Hillier finally repeated. His telephone rang. He snatched it up, listened for a moment, and said, “Tell him to hang on. I’m nearly finished here.” Then to Isabelle, “Go on.”

“With?” She made it sound as if she assumed he’d followed her logic, all surprise that he needed her to clarify.

His nostrils moved, not a flare so much as a testing of the air. For prey, no doubt. She held her ground. He said, “With your point, Superintendent Ardery. Just how do you see this playing out?”

“With our astonishment that someone’s mental condition-unfortunate though it may be-would ever trump the safety of the general public. Our officers went to the site unarmed. The man in question panicked for reasons we haven’t yet ascertained. In our possession is hard evidence-”

“Most of which was gathered after the fact of his accident,” Hillier noted.

“Which is beside the point, of course.”

“The point being?”

“That we have our hands on a person of serious interest who can, as the phrase goes, ‘help us with our inquiries’ in a fashion that no one else can. What we’re looking for, good people of the press, is-might I remind you-whoever is responsible for the brutal murder of an innocent woman in a public park, and if this gentleman can lead us to that party, then that’s what we’re going to demand he do. The press will fill in the blanks. The last thing they’ll ask is the order in which events occurred. Evidence is evidence. They’ll want to know what it is, not when we found it. And even if they unearth the fact that we found it after the accident on Shaftesbury Avenue, the point is the murder, the park, and our belief that the public might prefer we protect them from madmen wielding weapons rather than tiptoe round someone who might or might not be hearing Beelzebub muttering in his ear.”

Hillier considered this. Isabelle considered Hillier. She wondered idly what he’d received his knighthood for because it was odd that someone in his position would be given an honour that generally went to the higher-ups. That he’d been knighted spoke not so much of a service to the public heroically rendered but rather to Hillier’s knowing of people in high places and, more important, knowing how to use those people in high places. He was, thus, not a man to cross. But that was fine. She didn’t intend to cross him.

He said to her, “You’re a wily one, aren’t you, Isabelle? I’ve not missed the fact that you’ve managed to swing this meeting your way.”

“I wouldn’t in the least expect you to miss that fact,” Isabelle said. “A man like you doesn’t rise to the position you have because things get by him. I quite understand that. I quite admire it. You’re a political animal, sir. But so am I.”

“Are you.”

“Oh yes.”

A moment passed between them during which they were locked in an assessing look. It had about it the air of the distinctly sexual, and Isabelle allowed herself to imagine going at it with David Hillier, the two of them locked in an entirely different kind of combat on her bed. She reckoned he imagined much the same. When she was as certain of that as she could be, she dropped her gaze.

She said, “I assume Mr. Deacon’s waiting outside, sir. Would you like me to stay for that meeting?”

Hillier didn’t reply until she raised her eyes. Then he said slowly, “That won’t be necessary.”

She rose. “Then I’ll get back to work. If you want me”-her choice of verb was deliberate-“Ms. MacIntosh has my mobile number. As, perhaps, do you?”

“I do,” he said. “We’ll speak again.”

SHE WENT DIRECTLY TO THE LADIES’. THE ONLY PROBLEM was that she hadn’t thought to bring her bag with her to Hillier’s office, so at the moment she was without resources and she was left relying on what was available, which was water from the tap. This was hardly an efficacious substance for what ailed her. But she used it for want of anything else, on her face, her hands, her wrists.

Thus she felt little improved when she left Tower Block and made her way back to her office. She heard her name called by Dorothea Harriman-who for some reason seemed incapable of referring to her in any terms briefer than Acting Detective Superintendent Ardery-but this she ignored. She closed her office door and went directly to her desk, where she’d left her bag. Upon opening it, she discovered in short order that she had three messages on her mobile phone. She ignored them as well. She thought, Yes yes yes as she brought forth one of her airline bottles of vodka. In her rush to have it, she dropped the bottle onto the lino floor. She scrambled on her knees beneath her desk to fetch it, and she downed it as she rose to her feet. It wasn’t enough, of course. She emptied her bag on the floor to find the other. She downed this and went for the third one. She deserved it. She’d survived an encounter that by all rights she shouldn’t have survived at all. She’d avoided the participation of Stephenson Deacon and the Directorate of Public Affairs in that encounter. She’d argued her case, and she’d won, if only for the moment. And because it was only for the moment, she bloody well needed a drink, she bloody well deserved one, and if there was anyone between here and hell who didn’t understand that-