McDermid, Val: Trick of the Dark

Lisa's head swivelled between them like a spectator at a table tennis game. 'You don't know what's best for you, Jay. You never have. That's always been the trouble.' She pounded on her chest with her free hand. 'I'm the one who knows. All over the world, people accept I'm the one who knows what's best. They come to my seminars, they buy my books. Because I understand, because I know what's best.'

Jay shook her head. 'I'm not arguing, Lisa. I'm done with this.' She held out her hand. 'Give me the spray.'

Lisa looked as if she was going to cry. The conflict between what she wanted to do and what Jay was asking of her was ripping her up. 'I can't do that,' she cried. 'You've got to trust me, Jay. Go, now. Just go. You don't have to be part of this. I'll deal with it. Like I always do.'

'I'm not going.' Jay took a step closer to Lisa, closing the angle and making it harder for Lisa to keep both women in her sights.

Suddenly Lisa pushed Jay in the chest, shoving her hard against the wall. 'I'm doing this for your sake,' she screamed, whirling round to face Charlie.

Charlie squeezed her eyes tight shut and threw herself at the floor. But instead of the aerosol hiss she expected, she heard a scuffle of feet, a thud and the clatter of something metallic hitting the wall. Then a voice shouting, 'No, Lisa.' A scream and the sound of bodies moving.

Charlie scuttled backwards till she hit the chimney breast then opened her eyes to see Lisa on the floor, struggling with Jay. 'Let go of me,' Lisa screamed. 'I'm doing this for you.'

Jay wrestled against her, grunting as Lisa elbowed her in the ribs. 'For fuck's sake, help me here,' she shouted.

Charlie hadn't been in a fight since she'd turned six, but the odds were decent and it was her life that was on the line, she reminded herself as she threw her body over Lisa's thrashing legs. She turned her head in time to see Jay land a punch that rocked Lisa's head back to hit the floor. Dazed, Lisa tried to swing her fist at Jay, but Charlie was able to grab her wrist.

And then it was all over. Lisa went limp, all fight gone from her. Without getting off her, Jay pulled the belt from her jeans. 'Tie her ankles up,' she ordered Charlie.

Feeling foolish, like a character in a bad TV show, Charlie did as she was told, then stood up. Warily, Jay eased herself up and away from Lisa, who turned her face away and hugged herself tightly. Her jaw was already red and swollen, a bruise in the making. 'I'm sorry,' Jay said, rearranging her clothes and running a hand through her hair.

'It's a bit late for that,' Charlie said. 'Four people dead because you didn't put a stop to her before now? Sorry doesn't begin to cover it.'

'So what happens next? You're going to wreck some more lives? And for what? Some crazy idea of justice? I know all about your relationship with justice, Dr Flint. There's four dead women whose families know all about it too.'

All the rage that Charlie had been keeping in check suddenly surfaced. 'Putting Lisa Kent behind bars will save lives. Mine, for example.'

'You know that's not necessarily true. Surely it's clear to you that she's mad as a box of frogs? You must have a colleague who'd agree with you that she needs to be sectioned. For her own safety. Look at her.' She pointed to Lisa, who was mumbling incomprehensibly into the carpet. 'If that's how she reacts to the small matter of me turning against her, I think it's safe to say you can demonstrate she's completely off her chops.'

Charlie shook her head. 'Her delusions are too organised. She'll get herself together and convince the powers that be that she's as sane as anyone can reasonably be expected to be. Then she'll be out, and who knows what she'll think is necessary then? There's no way round this, Jay. We need to call the police.'

'You'll be putting Howard Calder behind bars too.'

'It's where he should be. He killed your mother. Don't you care about that?'

Jay sighed and stared out of the window. 'I think Howard's inhabited his own personal hell for twenty years. Prison, punishment, pain — that would be a relief for him. So no, I don't want the law to extract its pathetic price from Howard. I'm happy for things to stay just the way they are.'

'You don't have the right to make that choice. There's a price we pay for being part of society. You don't get to make rules that apply only to you. I don't care how much money you have or how clever a businesswoman you are. The law isn't always fair. Nobody knows that better than me right now. But it's the best we've got. Now give me your phone.'

Jay shook her head. 'I can't do that, Charlie. I can't go to jail. It would kill me. Never mind what it would do to Magda. Who is the real innocent in all of this. When Corinna set you on this path, do you really think she wanted you to destroy her daughter's life? Because that's what you'll be doing.'

'Magda has the right to know the sort of woman she's living with.'

'Jesus,' Jay exploded. 'All I did was cover other people's backs. I never did anybody any harm. Except Kathy, and I tried to save her, I truly did. I'm not the bad person here.' She lashed out with her foot at Lisa's prone body. 'She's the killer, not me.'

'You could have stopped her. You could have saved lives.'

'You could have stopped Bill Hopton. You could have saved lives,' Jay shouted. 'Nobody's sending you to jail though, are they?'

'I couldn't stop him legally,' Charlie said, furious now. 'Because at that point Bill Hopton hadn't killed anybody. Unlike Lisa.'

Jay cast a quick look around, as if seeking inspiration. She turned to Charlie and gave her the full wattage of her charm. 'Look, here's a deal. Give me a head start. Twenty-four hours. Enough time to get out to somewhere we don't have extradition with. Somewhere decent, where Magda can join me.' Jay spread her hands wide. 'I'm not a criminal. Nobody's going to die because of me if Lisa's out of the way.'

Something inside Charlie's head snapped. She was fed up of being fucked around with. She'd had enough of being a scapegoat. She was tired of being dismissed as irrelevant and insufficient. She'd had more than enough of people who thought their desires were the only thing that mattered.

She let the slim metal canister she'd picked off the floor slide down into her hand, unnoticed by Jay, who had walked over to the window. 'You think you deserve that chance?' Charlie said, her voice tight and hard. As Jay turned to face her, she raised her hand and sprayed her with pepper.

Screaming and coughing, Jay collapsed on the floor, her hands over her face. 'You fucking bitch,' she spluttered.

'I'll do it again if I have to.' Charlie backed away from her and stepped over Lisa. She crouched beside her and said, 'You'll get the same if you try anything.' But it was an empty precaution. Right now, Lisa was too far inside her own head to hear. Charlie fished her phone out of Lisa's jacket pocket and moved into the hallway out of the way of any drifting pepper. A sudden tide of exhaustion rose through her, making her legs weak and her head swim. But there was something she had to do first. Wearily she dialled 112. 'I want to speak to the police,' she said. 'I want to report a murder.'

Eight months later

The three people at the table had converged on the Turkish restaurant from very different places. Detective Sergeant Nick Nicolaides had come from the Foreign Office, where he'd been briefed by a civil servant in the Spanish section. Maria Garside had come by taxi from Euston Station; the swift and regular Virgin Pendolino service from Manchester meant she could conduct most of an afternoon surgery and still make it to the capital in time for dinner. Dr Charlie Flint had come from a meeting in Holborn with the providers of her professional indemnity insurance.