“He won’t get far,” DI Rick Cole said to Sam Butler.
Butler’s wife and daughter were in the corridor and knowing how impatient Janet could be Cole was keeping it short. She was one woman he didn’t want to upset.
Butler’s eyes sparkled. “He’s pretty bloody clever at keeping one step ahead.”
“Every exit and entry point in the known world is bottled up. He’ll surface.”
Butler nodded glumly, too wise to know that entry and exit points, particularly in the UK, didn’t mean a damn, then grimaced and instinctively touched the thick swathe of bandages around his head as if checking that they were still there. He asked, “What’s Marsh doing?”
“He’s doing what he always does. Hiding in his office and hoping it goes away. We’ve found the missing women and there’ll be no more going missing, at least for a while. One way or another it’s a result. And to Chief Superintendent Marsh that’s all that counts. That doesn’t mean you’re in for a citation, Sam. It doesn’t mean that I’m not going to kick the shit out of you when you get out of here. You were well out of order.” Cole relented and shrugged. “If Marsh could have us without any flak, then he would. But he can’t. Wooderson’s on our side because he’s got nowhere to run and Baxter’s not going to say a word out of turn. The official line is that you were both on official business. Surveillance, recommended by me and approved by Baxter.”
Relieved, Butler asked, “And Anian?”
“She’s all right. She’s going to be fine. She was pretty well out of it. The wonders of Rohypnol or GHB and whatever else he used. She can’t remember much at all, which is probably a good thing. She’s up and about already and a hangover from hell isn’t stopping her.”
“She’s got some bottle, I’ll give her that, but she’s the luckiest girl in the world.”
“She passed out so didn’t see him leave. Geoff reckons that once Lawrence realized she wasn’t pregnant that was the end of it. He never killed for killing’s sake.”
“Very considerate of him. But how could he tell?”
Cole shrugged again. “I think he knew all along. This was just an ego trip or to teach her a lesson.” “I’ll go for the ego trip. He was taking the piss from the start. I can’t imagine he’d waste much effort on a DC, a slip of a girl. This has all been a fucking joke and, somewhere, he’s laughing out loud. At us, at me in particular.”
“The final count was two men, unidentified, and six women he’d operated on. Cause of death almost certainly blood loss or physiological shock.”
“Why didn’t the radar handsets find the cellar?”
“Good question and it’s already been asked. There’s a few red faces in Tech Support but apparently they don’t penetrate areas they’re not pointed at. The operating theatre was twenty feet away from the Gallery’s own cellar accessed by a narrow corridor that was bricked up.”
Butler nodded again and flinched again.
“Well, anyway, that’s about it. There’s someone in the corridor that wants to say hello.” “Janet?”
“And Lucy, of course.”
Sam Butler smiled. He watched Cole move to the door then said, “Rick.”
With the door half-open Cole hesitated and turned to face his old colleague. “Forget it, Sam.” Butler nodded.
“We need you back. There’s been a whole bunch of shit come in.”
“Like?”
“Like our slasher’s had another go. Big time. This time she killed someone in the underpass. Cut him to bits. I say him, but he was dressed as a woman, a fucking cross-dresser would you believe. We’re working on the theory that she got a bit pissed-off when she discovered it wasn’t a woman and really went to town.”
“What else?”
“The gas explosion.”
“Go on?”
“It wasn’t. Or rather, it was, but detonated with an explosive charge made of aspirin.” Butler whistled. “Jesus, that’s a big step from allotment sheds. A double murder. What’s happening to Sheerham? Cross-dressing, transvestites coming out the woodwork, bombings, slashers, murders. It’s becoming a dangerous place to live.”
“Yep. That’s what comes from taking the plods off the street.”
The DS grinned. “Have there been any results at all?”
“Yep.”
“Well?”
“Remember the mannequin nicked from the supermarket? Found her. Took her back. The manager had to give her a bath to get rid of some unwanted hair.”
Butler frowned, wanting more.
Cole smiled, not giving any.
And the white door with its square window swung shut.