Obsession (30 page)

‘Great. I’ll get onto Felicity, tell her we need her.’

‘Anything I can do?’ another researcher asked.

‘Yeah,’ Corrie answered. ‘Get onto Scotland Yard press office, see what other information they’re giving out. Try, if you can, to get the name and address of the man they’ve arrested.’

‘You got it,’ the researcher answered.

‘Awaiting instructions,’ Perkin called out.

‘Stand by to rewrite the entire script,’ Annalise yelled.

‘What’s going on?’ Bob Churchill asked, walking into the office at that moment.

Quickly Alan Fox filled him in.

‘All right, get to it,’ Bob said to the production manager. ‘Line them up a crew, a car, a telephone. Any luck with Chelsea Police yet, Corrie?’ he added when she put the phone down.

‘Yeah, eleven o’clock, Radcliffe will give us first crack. They’re doing a press conference at midday though, so it’ll still be on the news before we hit the air.’

‘Doesn’t matter. What do we know about this guy?’

‘Nothing yet. We’re working on it.’ She turned to the other researcher.

‘All lines are busy right now,’ Jennifer told her. ‘I’ll keep trying.’

‘How are you doing with Felicity?’ she asked Annalise.

‘She’s not there, I left a message on her answerphone.’

‘Shit!’ Corrie said, slapping her forehead. ‘She’s got an audition today. We’ll never get hold of her. Anyway, let’s
get
onto Carol, we want the prostitutes’ reaction to this. Shit! What are we going to do about Felicity?’

‘Alan, you’ll have to do the interview,’ Bob said.

‘Can’t,’ Alan answered. ‘I’m already booked out today with another crew.’

‘This is an emergency.’

‘Hands off!’ Cindy, Alan’s producer, yelled. ‘I’ve moved heaven and earth getting this interview lined up with the Archbishop of Canterbury. It’s today or not at all.’

‘All right,’ Bob winced. ‘Where are the other reporters?’

‘All out,’ the production manager answered.

Bob turned back to Corrie. ‘Get to work on the questions,’ he barked, as Corrie picked up an incoming call, ‘bring them to me when they’re ready.’

‘Hello?’ Corrie said into the receiver, then put her hand over it as Annalise said.

‘You’ll have to conduct the interview yourself, Corrie.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous! I’ve never been in front of a camera in my life.’

‘There isn’t anyone else. You’ll have to.’ Annalise grinned. ‘Your chance for stardom.’

‘I don’t want stardom,’ Corrie snapped, and took her hand away from the mouthpiece.

‘Corrie? Corrie, it’s Luke. I just heard the news. What have you got lined up?’

‘Chelsea Police. We’re working on the prostitutes, and trying to find out who the guy is. Scotland Yard …’

‘I can tell you who he is,’ Luke interrupted. ‘His name’s Bobby McIver. Have you got a pen, I’ll give you his address.’

‘Fire away,’ Corrie said.

She jotted down the address, signalling at the same time for the production manager to come and read over her shoulder. ‘Hang on a second, Luke,’ she said. Then to the production manager ‘Can we get a crew over there to do some exterior shots of where he lives?’

‘Leave it with me.’

‘Luke, are you there?’

‘Yeah. I’m on my way in.’

Corrie looked at her watch, and not giving herself a second to think of the impropriety of ordering Luke about, she said, ‘No, don’t do that. Meet us at Chelsea Police Station. We need someone to do the interview. Felicity’s not available.’

‘You’ve got it,’ Luke said, and rang off.

Luke was in his car, only a few minutes’ ride from Chelsea Police Station. He was chuckling quietly to himself as he listened to LBC chuntering out the few details they had on the arrest. Picking up his car phone he dialled a number, and pulled over to the side of the road.

‘Phillip?’ he said, as Phillip’s voice came over the line. ‘Have you heard the news?’

‘No,’ Phillip answered shortly.

Luke laughed, ‘Well you will, soon enough,’ he said, and rang off.

When Corrie and Annalise arrived at Chelsea Police Station Corrie immediately started briefing Luke on the questions needing to be asked. Meanwhile, Annalise was organizing the crew as they set up their equipment in DI Radcliffe’s office.

‘So remember,’ Corrie said to Luke when Radcliffe went off to comb his hair before appearing on camera, ‘we don’t need any preliminaries, you can just start right in on the questions. Now, there’s something I want to ask you.’

‘About Watkins?’ Luke suggested.

‘Yes. About Watkins. Why do we have to take out …’

‘Later,’ Luke said, holding up his hand. ‘I’ll explain everything later. Now, it looks to me that we’re about ready to roll.’

They were, so Corrie stood to one side as Radcliffe
reappeared
from the men’s room and he and Luke sat either side of Radcliffe’s desk, while the cameraman adjusted the lights.

‘OK, Steve?’ Annalise said.

The cameraman nodded.

‘Then turn over.’

‘Speed,’ the cameraman said a few seconds later.

Annalise nodded to Luke, and clearing his throat Luke turned to Radcliffe.

The interview lasted no more than ten minutes, during which Radcliffe confirmed that a man by the name of Bobby McIver had been arrested in the early hours of the morning. At this stage the police weren’t prepared to divulge much about McIver’s background – probably, Corrie thought, because they didn’t know anything. However, Radcliffe and his team were in no doubt that they had the right man.

‘He has made a full confession,’ Radcliffe said, ‘giving us certain details unknown to the public at this stage. What’s more a team of detectives are even now at his home, where they have found considerable evidence to back up McIver’s claims.’

‘And what led you to suspect McIver in the first place?’ Luke asked.

‘A tip-off from a neighbour,’ Radcliffe answered. ‘We would like that neighbour to come forward again, if they would, in complete confidence, naturally.’

‘And what are your feelings now, Inspector Radcliffe, concerning the legalization of brothels?’

‘They remain unchanged,’ Radcliffe told him. ‘The fact that we have caught one maniac does not mean that there won’t be others. I believe we should have legalized brothels in this country.’

When he continued to elucidate his opinions Annalise looked at Corrie. Corrie nodded, and waiting until Radcliffe came to a natural end, Annalise said, ‘OK, cut.’

‘Thank you very much, Inspector,’ Corrie said, moving into the light and handing both him and Luke handkerchiefs to wipe the sweat from their faces.

‘He hasn’t told us much,’ Annalise whispered, when Luke and Radcliffe wandered outside into the corridor to give the crew some room to pack up.

‘I know, but I think it’s all we’re going to get,’ Corrie whispered back. ‘They’ve only had him in custody a few hours remember.’

‘If you don’t need me for anything else I’m going to head off to the office,’ Luke said, coming up behind them and draping an arm over each of their shoulders.

Annalise looked to Corrie for confirmation. ‘Sure, that’s fine,’ Corrie answered. ‘We’ll just do a vox pop with the prostitutes over at Shepherd Market. Thanks for helping out, Luke.’

‘The pleasure was all mine,’ he grinned.

Corrie found Radcliffe a few minutes later, once again coming out of the men’s room. She smiled as he came towards her and held out her hand. ‘I was wondering,’ she said, ‘how a policeman feels on a day like today?’

Radcliffe chuckled. ‘Exhausted, is your answer,’ he said. ‘Elated too, I suppose. And relieved. And several other things I’d better not tell you about.’

Corrie looked at him curiously, even a touch flirtatiously, but she could see he wasn’t going to be drawn. ‘Where’s McIver now?’ she asked.

To her surprise Radcliffe looked at her long and hard before answering. ‘Safe,’ he said at last.

‘Safe?’ Corrie echoed, her surprise showing. ‘Safe from whom?’

‘The press, of course.’

They both smiled, then Corrie, more or less repeating the question Luke had asked during the interview, said, ‘So you don’t know anything about his background yet?
Whether
or not he has a mother, a wife, or any family at all come to that?’

Radcliffe shook his head.

‘I suppose it’s crazy to ask at this stage if you know
why
he did it?’ Corrie ventured.

Radcliffe grimaced. ‘Finding a motive can be a very long process, and even then we don’t always succeed. In McIver’s case it’s going to be even more difficult.’

‘Why do you say that?’

Again Radcliffe looked at her as though assessing her. ‘McIver has the mental age of a ten year old,’ he said carefully. ‘The strength of an ox, of course, but the mind of a child.’

‘Why didn’t you say any of that in the interview?’

‘Because we don’t want to unleash a storm of criticism on the mentally incapable roaming our streets. Most of them are harmless, but … Government cut-backs, Miss Browne, I’m sure you understand what I’m saying.’

‘You mean you’ve had instructions from the top to keep this quiet?’ Corrie said, understanding perfectly but wanting it spelt out.

He looked at her. ‘I’d prefer that you kept this to yourself for the time being. It’ll come out eventually, but for now …’

‘OK. If that’s what you want. But tell me, are you prepared to say now what the evidence was that you were holding back?’

Radcliffe shook his head. ‘Still too early for that. But I will tell you this much. There are two extremely peculiar things about this case, that only the murderer – and ourselves, of course – could know about. The first concerns a certain fragrance, as I told Mr Fitzpatrick myself, a week or so ago. You can put that into your programme, you probably already have.’

Corrie nodded. ‘We don’t know the brand name though.’

‘No,’ Radcliffe confirmed. ‘But McIver does. The second
thing
he’s been doing is something which still has us all totally baffled. McIver’s confessed to it, but refuses to give a reason why.’ He looked up then as someone called out his name, and turning briefly back to Corrie he said, ‘I’ll be in touch, Miss Browne.’

When they left the police station Annalise and Corrie took the crew on to Shepherd Market to interview the prostitutes, and from there went on to McIver’s flat in Camberwell to join up with the other crew. They shot what they could of the exterior through the crush of other photographers and press, then headed back to the office to begin a rushed re-edit of the programme.

It was a great relief to Corrie that for once Annalise seemed to be on the ball, since Corrie couldn’t get the conversation with Radcliffe out of her mind. Why, she kept asking herself, had he told her things he’d refused to say on camera? And why, at the end, had he told her he’d be in touch? He’d made it sound as though he wanted her to know something else, but what? And this cover up about McIver’s mental age. OK, if Radcliffe was being leaned on to keep it quiet, she could understand that, but why tell her? And why even trust her? After all, wasn’t she one of the press Radcliffe had said he wanted to keep McIver ‘safe’ from?

In the end she decided to go and talk it over with Luke. She didn’t feel she was breaking Radcliffe’s confidence, since Radcliffe himself had told Luke about the fragrance, he’d even told Luke the brand name, though Luke had refused to tell either her or Annalise. But as she got up from the edit suite, leaving Annalise to it, one of the secretaries called out that there was a telephone call for her.

To Corrie’s astonishment it was her father, asking if they could meet that night. As she was explaining that she wouldn’t be able to make it until nine o’clock at the earliest she saw Luke walk out of the office.

‘It’s all right, I’ll wait,’ Phillip said. ‘The Man in the Moon? Like before?’

‘OK,’ Corrie answered, distractedly. ‘I’ll see you there.’

By the time she rang off Luke had already gone down in the lift. Well he was sure to be back later, she’d try to speak to him then, if not it would just have to wait until tomorrow. In the meantime she had her very first transmission to sort out, so making a concerted effort to put Radcliffe’s bewildering comments, and her father’s cryptic meetings, out of her mind, she returned to the edit suite.

It was a frenzied afternoon, with new graphics being drawn up every few minutes, fresh material being inserted into the main body of the programme and a miraculous re-jig of the main interviews to make them more pertinent. At four o’clock there was a deafening cheer when one of the secretaries managed to get hold of Felicity, who took a fast car from St John’s Wood to come and record a new voice over. By six thirty the dubbing was finished and they were ready to go into the studio for Luke to top and tail the programme. It only remained now for it to be sent down the line to the transmission centre. At seven forty-three they received the all clear from Euston and just as Corrie and Annalise were heaving a great sigh of relief, Luke came into the studio to congratulate them.

‘I watched it going through from my office,’ he told them, ‘you’ve done a great job. And someone somewhere is smiling on you, that we should be transmitting the very day the murderer was arrested. Quite a coup! How about some champagne in my office to celebrate?’

Annalise and Corrie, both pale and harassed, looked at each other, then broke into a grin. ‘And why not?’ Annalise said. ‘We’ll drink to Corrie, because the whole thing was her idea in the first place. And if I were a truly generous person I’d have given up my producer’s credit for her. But I didn’t. Not because I’m not a truly generous person, you understand, but because I only just thought of it.’

Laughing, Corrie hugged her. ‘I couldn’t have done it without you,’ she said.

‘Which is why,’ Luke added, ‘I am taking you both – and Felicity too – out to dinner the minute the programme ends.’

‘Ah, now that could be difficult,’ Corrie said. ‘Felicity has already left, off on some hot date somewhere, and I have a date too, I’m afraid.’

‘Cancel it!’ Annalise cried.

‘I can’t.’

‘Then bring him along,’ Luke said.

‘That wouldn’t work either, I’m afraid. No, you two go along and drink a few glasses for me.’