فصل 08

Terry Amson drove up the motorway. He and Tennison were going to talk to the woman Marlow had attacked before he was sent to prison. Tennison told Amson what had happened in the case up to that time.

‘We have three girls, Della Mornay, Karen Howard and Jeannie Sharpe. All of them were tied in the same way. I still think Marlow is the man.’

Pauline Gilling lived in a small house with her father. It took her a long time to open the door because it had so many locks.

She was about thirty-eight but she looked older. She spoke in a soft voice as she told them about the night Marlow attacked her.

‘It was the seventh of November, 1988, about four-thirty in the afternoon. I worked in a flower shop, but it was closed for the afternoon. I went to the hairdresser’s.’

She was very nervous and kept coughing as she forced herself to speak. ‘As I came up to the front door, I heard somebody call my name. “Pauline! Hello, Pauline!” I turned round and saw this man. I didn’t recognise him.

He was smiling and he walked towards me. “Aren’t you going to invite me in for a cup of tea, Pauline?” I said I was sorry, I thought he’d mistaken me for somebody else. Then he came very close and grabbed me by the throat and started pushing me into the house. He kept hitting me and I fell down, then he kicked me.’

She stopped speaking.

After a moment, Tennison said, ‘And then your father came in?’

‘Yes. He was upstairs. Daddy called my name and the man ran away. My father is blind. He couldn’t identify the man.’

‘But you were able to identify him?’

‘Oh yes,’ Pauline said. ‘He was clever, he had a beard when he attacked me but he shaved it off afterwards. But I recognized his eyes. I’ll never forget his eyes . If my father hadn’t called out, George Marlow would have killed me.’

Tennison crossed the room and sat beside Pauline Gilling. ‘Thank you for telling me what happened. I’m sorry you had to talk about it again.’

‘I think about it all the time,’ Pauline said. ‘Every time someone knocks at the door or there’s a strange sound at night, I expect him to come back and kill me. I had to leave my job.

I can’t sleep. He should have been in prison for years but they let him go after eighteen months. I’m frightened that he’ll come back. He said he would.’

As Tennison climbed back into the car, she said to Amson, ‘Marlow had a beard when he attacked her and then shaved it off! That matches what the girls in Oldham told me. They thought that Jeannie’s murderer had a beard.’

Two men were painting the row of garages near Marlow’s house. A few yards away, Marlow stood, his hands in his pockets, watching them.

One of the men went to his van for another tin of paint.

‘Excuse me, are you painting all of the garages?’ Marlow asked.

‘Just these,’ Detective Lillie said.

‘Most of the people around here park on the road,’ Marlow went on. ‘My car was stolen from here not long ago. It was a beautiful car, a Rover Mark III, about twenty years old. I loved that car. It had all these silver badges on the front.’

He continued talking as the two policemen went on painting.

Late in the afternoon Tennison and Amson visited Brixton Prison. They wanted to talk to Reginald McKinney who had been a prisoner with Marlow.

‘You were in prison with Marlow, weren’t you?’

‘That’s right.’

‘And you met him again after you were both released from prison?’ Tennison asked.

‘Yeah. I met him in London. We went for a meal and then he drove me home. I offered to take the train but he said he was driving near my house because he wanted to do some work on his car at his garage.’

Tennison was careful not to show how excited she was. ‘He had a garage?’

‘Yeah. That car was really important to him. He spent a lot of time on it.’

A prison guard looked round the door.

‘There’s a telephone call for DC Tennison.’

Tennison took the call. The officers had found reports on two more bodies in the north of England which had marks on them like those of Karen Howard and Della Mornay.

Marlow was still talking to Rosper and Lillie when the police cars arrived.

Tennison jumped out of the first car. She ran up to Muddyman.

‘Marlow has a garage in another area of London. Search his flat for the keys. They must be somewhere.’

Marlow watched them running towards his house.

‘I don’t believe they’re doing this,’ he said.

Moyra cried as she looked at the damage. The police had rolled back the carpets and removed the floor, they had moved all the furniture and even looked inside the toilet. Tennison and Amson examined all the keys they had found.

‘Why are you doing this?’ Moyra shouted. ‘You’ve searched the place before. Put everything back where it should be!’

Tennison turned to Marlow.

‘You know what we’re looking for, George. Why don’t you tell us where the keys are?’

‘I park my car out on the street. I don’t have a garage.’

‘Your car isn’t always on the street. We’ve asked the neighbours.’

‘When it’s not parked there I’m away on business.’

‘George,’ Tennison said, ‘we know you have a garage. A friend of yours told us.’

‘What friend? I don’t have any friends because of you! Now you’ve made people think I’m a murderer.’

‘We have a witness who says you told him you have a garage.’

‘Was it someone I was in prison with? Let me guess. It was Reg McKinney wasn’t it?’ Marlow laughed. ‘You must be desperate if you believe him. He’s crazy. He and I had an argument - he’s no friend of mine.’

There was a knock on the door and Amson came in.

‘Nothing,’ he said. ‘We haven’t found any keys.’

In a low voice, Marlow said, ‘I don’t have a garage. If I had, maybe I would still have my car.’

Amson drove Tennison home. She was pleased to have a friend working with her. She knew that she could talk to Amson, that he was on her side.

‘If he’s hidden his car, we’ll find it,’ Amson said.

‘What do you think of Marlow?’

‘If he’s lying, then he’s very good at it.’

‘Yes,’ Tennison said with a sigh. ‘For the first time tonight I doubted that he’s the murderer. What about Shefford?’

‘As a suspect? He was one of the best police officers I’ve ever met.’

‘He was also in the area when Karen, Della and Jeannie were killed. We’re going to have to check him out. I want you to look through all his files tomorrow. And don’t tell anyone what you’re doing.’

Jane reached for the light switch. The apartment was quiet. She put down her bag and took off her coat, shouting ‘Peter? Pete?’

There was no answer. She opened the kitchen door. The room was clean and tidy. The bedroom was the same.

She opened the cupboard to put her coat away. One half of it was empty. She checked all the cupboards and drawers - all Peter’s clothes were missing!

In the bathroom there was only one toothbrush and one towel. As she stood by the door, the telephone rang. She picked up the phone. Next to it was a letter.

‘Jane, it’s Mum. Your sister Pam has just had a baby, a little girl.’

‘Hello Mum,’ Jane said as she tore open the envelope.

The letter contained only one piece of paper.

‘I listened to what you said this morning. I can’t live with you or your work. I’m sorry to leave you like this but I think it will be best for both of us. I still love you, but I can’t see a future for our relationship. Maybe in a few weeks we can meet and talk.’

As she drove to the hospital to see Pam, she wondered if all her relationships would end like this. Peter was not the first man who had left her because she didn’t have enough time. She’d never been able to stay with a man for more than a few months.

She parked the car and looked at herself in the mirror. She looked terrible. Her hair needed washing and she needed fresh make-up.

It was late and there were only a few visitors in the hospital. A nurse told her which room to go to. When she reached the door she looked through the window and saw Pam holding the new baby. Pam’s husband Tony sat with his arm around her shoulders. Their two other children were sitting on the bed.

Watching them, Jane’s hand tightened on the door handle. They looked like a perfect family, I family to which she did not belong.

She turned away and walked slowly back down the corridor.

Later she went back. When she went into the room Pam wasn’t there but the baby lay in its bed. Jane moved the blanket to look more closely at the baby’s face.

Pam came back and they talked until a nurse came in and said that it was time for Jane to leave.

‘Give my love to Peter,’ Pam said.

‘If I see him I will. It’s finished.’

Pam was upset. ‘Oh no! Why? Is there someone else?’

‘No, there’s no one else. We both agreed that it was better to finish it.’

‘Well,’ Pam said, ‘you know what you’re doing. Have you solved that case we saw on television?’

Jane paused before she answered. Her family did not understand anything about her work. They did not understand her or how she felt about Peter leaving.

‘No, I haven’t got him - yet. Goodnight. I’ll see you again soon.’

As she closed the door only the expression in Jane’s eyes showed how lonely she felt. Now all she wanted was to go home and cry.