He sat back on the bunk when he had finished eating, and did what Chief Inspector Lloyd had suggested. He thought about it, thought about it hard, until they came for him again.
Lloyd listened and watched as Judy briskly reconvened. ‘Interview with Curtis Law resumed at 21.30 hours, Tuesday twenty-ninth July,’ she said. ‘ Present are …’
Curtis Law had been fed and watered, and given a rest from questioning. The book was being observed, page by page, paragraph by paragraph. There would be no suspicion of Law’s treatment being other than exemplary. Now he was back, he was reminded of his rights, and he still didn’t want a solicitor. Judy even advised him that he should reconsider that, but he refused.
Then she asked him if he had anything to tell them about Bernard Bailey’s death, and he nodded, taking a moment before he spoke. When he did, his voice was quiet, and resigned.
‘I spent the weekend with Rachel in London,’ he said. ‘The last time I had been with her, she had had bruises, like she always did, because that bastard used his fists on her all the time, and that was bad enough. But there were other bruises. Old ones. All over her body. None on her face, or her neck, or her legs. Just her body, so that when she was clothed, nothing would show.’ He looked away from them, blinking away the tears that had sprung into his eyes. ‘Uncontrollable temper is one thing, but
that
– that was like some sort of torture, like the Gestapo or something.’
That was exactly how Judy had described it, Lloyd thought.
Law got himself together before he carried on. ‘He had been going to do that to her again, and she had told him she was pregnant in order to stop him. When I left her on Sunday, I kept thinking what was going to happen when she went home. The baby should have begun to show, and it wasn’t going to, was it? Bailey was certifiable, but he wasn’t stupid. I bought a paper, caught the train, and tried to do the crossword to take my mind off it, but I couldn’t, because I kept thinking about what he would
do
to her when he found out she wasn’t pregnant.’
Law had been directing his statement at Judy, but now he looked at Lloyd. ‘I just went there to tell him that I was in love with Rachel, and I was taking her away,’ he said. ‘I didn’t mean to kill him. I didn’t mean to do anything. I just wanted to tell him, so that she
couldn’t
go home. She was determined to hang on, to divorce him, and get the money he owed her, but I couldn’t let her do that. I had to make her leave him. Do you understand?’
‘Yes,’ Lloyd said. ‘But you did kill him, didn’t you?’
Law nodded.
‘For the tape, please,’ said Judy.
‘Yes,’ said Law. ‘I did kill him.’
Lloyd wasn’t doing his usual thing of taking a turn round the room, reading notices, standing on tiptoe to look out of the high window, wandering off to get coffee. He did that when he wanted to catch them out. But this was a confession. And a kind of hollow victory, because it had been so easy. He just wanted it to be over. He still had a bit of a headache, he was tired, and thirsty, and fed up.
‘When I got there, he was drunk. I mean really, really drunk. I don’t know how he made it to the phone. I said it was me, and he let me in, but I’m not convinced he really knew who I was. And I told him about me and Rachel. I told him everything. I told him I loved her, I told him I knew what he’d done to her, I told him I was taking her away – and do you know what he did?’
His mastery of the pause was almost up to Lloyd’s own standard.
‘He fell asleep on me. Just lay down on the sofa, and fell asleep. And I couldn’t believe it. He hadn’t even taken any of it in. That bastard had—’
Lloyd saw the tear fall before Law felt it; he flicked it away, and tried to go on, but he couldn’t, not for a moment.
‘Would you like a glass of water or something?’ Lloyd said.
Law shook his head.
Pity. Lloyd did.
‘I looked at him lying there, and … and I thought of what he’d done to her, and there was a knife on the table, so I picked it up and … and – I stuck it into him.’ He had mimed the action, and the tears came again, unchecked. ‘ I don’t know how often,’ he said. ‘Three, four times. Then I tried to cover up the fact that I’d been there.’
Lloyd asked again if Law would like some water, and this time he nodded, thank God. He stood up. ‘ I’ll get us all some,’ he said.
‘Chief Inspector Lloyd leaves the room, 21.43 hours,’ said Judy.
Lloyd went along to the water dispenser that thankfully they had had put in, though he had thought it a complete waste of money at the time. There was nothing wrong with the water out of the taps, he had said, he had yet to hear of a policeman dying because he’d drunk unfiltered water, they had much better things to spend their money on than quite unnecessary pieces of equipment, and so on. But the dispenser was much closer than the taps, the water was chilled, and tonight it tasted like wine, like the water from the streams at home had tasted. He smiled tiredly. He hadn’t thought of that for years. He drank two cupfuls, wishing that they had put in an aspirin dispenser while they were at it, then filled three more, and made his way back to the interview room.
‘You doctored the tape,’ Judy said. ‘ Then what did you do?’
Law rubbed his eyes. ‘I let myself out of the house, threw the knife into the bushes, and I left the farm. I dodged the camera on the roadway – it’s not difficult. But then I realized that I’d lost the newspaper, and I couldn’t get back in to get it.’
‘Does that mean the alarms were on?’ asked Judy.
‘Yes,’ said Law. ‘ Why wouldn’t they have been?’
‘No reason,’ she said, wondering if Finch had got to the bottom of Nicola Hutchins’s strange story yet, as the door opened slowly, and she turned to see Lloyd carrying three paper cups of water, easing his elbow off the handle.
‘Chief Inspector Lloyd returns 21.50 hours,’ she said, getting up and relieving him of two of the cups, handing one to Law. ‘Go on,’ she said.
‘Well, I had the idea about doing the crossword in my own newspaper where people could see me, and getting up to the farm somehow so it would look as though it was the one I’d dropped. But I realized I
couldn’t
use my own paper, because Gary was picking me up. But he always goes to the cafe for breakfast when we’re in Harmston, so I thought that if I could get another paper there, and if I could get to the farm once the news broke, I could try to make it look like I’d dropped it then.’
Judy sipped her water, and made a note.
‘When Paxton told us what had happened, I put the paper in my pocket, and when we got to the farm, I waited until Gary had got out of the car, and I hid it under the seat.’ He looked at Lloyd. ‘I went into the house after Gary, not before,’ he said. ‘You were right. He went in there and pointed his camera straight at Bailey, and the newspaper. I didn’t know he’d be filming everything.’
Judy looked back through her notebook, at the places where she had put query marks.
‘Why did you go to see Bernard Bailey at a time when you had every reason to suppose he would be in bed?’ she asked.
‘I … I wasn’t thinking straight. I just wanted to stop Rachel going back to him. I wanted to get it over with.’
‘You wanted to get it over with? So why didn’t you get there until twenty past two? It takes less than half an hour from Barton station to Harmston at that time of night.’
‘I got there at about one,’ Curtis said. ‘ I sat in the car’
‘Why? I thought you wanted to get it over with?’
He looked at her for a long time, then nodded. ‘All right,’ he said. ‘I meant just to talk to him. When I left Rachel, I didn’t tell her what I was going to do, but I meant just to talk to him, maybe early in the morning, when Gary and I got there. But then I realized that I couldn’t do that. She couldn’t have gone home, and she would have lost her money. She would never have forgiven me.’
‘So you decided to kill him?’
‘I don’t know what I decided. Yes. Yes, I did. I thought if I could get him to let me in – I knew he had a shotgun somewhere, thought maybe I could get hold of it. So I drove out to the farm, and then I sat in the car trying to work up the courage to do it. And I emptied my ashtray because I smoked so much I couldn’t get any more cigarette ends in there, and I didn’t want to throw them out lit. It was so dry – I didn’t want to be responsible for starting a forest fire or anything. And when I did finally get out and use his entry phone, I don’t know how he managed to answer it. He let me in, but he was so drunk he couldn’t stand up. He’d thrown up on the carpet and all over himself. I don’t think he even knew who I was. He fell on to the sofa, and passed out. I saw the knife just sitting there, and I just – stabbed him with it.’
‘And you did intend killing him when you stabbed him?’
He nodded.
‘For the tape, please, Mr Law. Did you intend killing Bernard Bailey when you stabbed him?’
‘Yes.’
‘Can you tell me why you left the hotel a day before Mrs Bailey?’ Judy asked.
‘I had to. The first train on Monday morning wouldn’t have got me back early enough to take my car in and be in time for Gary picking me up. So I got the last train on Sunday evening. She knew nothing about it. Nothing at all. The whole thing was my idea from the start.’
‘From the start?’
He closed his eyes, letting his head fall back.
‘You didn’t get this idea on the train, did you?’
‘No,’ he said, his voice flat.
‘This demonstration that was supposed to be taking place in Harmston on Sunday – you invented that, didn’t you? So you and Rachel could go away for the weekend?’
‘Yes.’ There was a pause, then he carried on. ‘I had to get Rachel away, so I could kill that bastard before he killed her.’ He brought his head up again, and sat forward. ‘I had to do it!’ he shouted. ‘She wouldn’t
leave
him. She couldn’t take any more punishment like that, but she
would
have done. I swear, she thinks she’s indestructible. She
knew
he was in financial difficulties, that he might have to sell before he realized she wasn’t pregnant –
I
didn’t! All I could see was someone who had no intention of selling, and who would beat her to a pulp when he found out she’d been lying to him! I had to do it. I
had
to!’
‘And that’s why you left the hotel and she stayed,’ said Judy. ‘So that you could kill him while she established an alibi by ringing room service in the middle of the night.’
‘No,’ he said. ‘ Rachel knew nothing about it. Nothing at all.’
Judy glanced at Lloyd, but he was deliberately staying out of it, leaving it to her. He didn’t want Rachel Bailey to be involved. He wanted her to do his dirty work. He’d done hers before now, and she didn’t begrudge him the favour, but she hadn’t much heart for it. Curtis Law and Rachel Bailey seemed to have done everyone something of a service.
‘But you dropped your newspaper at the scene,’ she said. And thought up the business with the other one. So you were in the café, conspicuously doing your crossword, when Steve Paxton got that call. How did you know Mrs Bailey would call there?’
‘I didn’t,’ said Law.
Judy glanced through her notebook, saw the list of the contents of what the papers would undoubtedly call their love nest in Barton, and saw Lloyd’s little puzzle about the mobile phone.
‘Why did Mrs Bailey ring room service at half past three in the morning?’ she asked. ‘Was it because you had woken her up? Because you phoned her to tell her what had happened?’
Judy was taking a Lloyd-like leap at this one. There had been no record of a phone call to Rachel Bailey at the hotel, but the mobile phone had been charged up, and there had to be some reason for that. Being apparently omniscient was sometimes all you needed for a confession, and it wouldn’t hurt to try.
‘You had left her the mobile phone in case you had to contact her, hadn’t you?’ she said.
Law covered his face with his hands, and there was a long silence. Judy prayed that the tape wouldn’t give its audible warning that it was running out; it must be pretty nearly there by now. Hang on, she told it silently. Hang on. I’ve got him, I know I have.
‘I rang her,’ he said eventually, from behind his hands. ‘I told her I’d killed him. I knew she’d told Bernard she’d be home by ten, and I knew Steve Paxton would be in the café then. I asked her to ring him. I know what he’s like – I knew he would say what the call was about if I asked him, and that would give me the excuse to go up there.’
‘And she had the phone in case something went wrong, and you had to get in touch with her, didn’t she?’
‘Yes, but not the way you think. I told her that I was giving it to her because I wanted to be able to ring her whenever I liked without Bailey getting suspicious. But it was really because I didn’t know what was going to happen once I got into the farmhouse. I didn’t know if I’d be able to find his gun, or even if I could do it once I had. I gave it to her so I could be sure of getting hold of her. If Bailey knew about us I had to be able to tell her not to go home.’ He pulled his hands down his face, and looked at Judy. ‘But I did kill him, and she wouldn’t have known anything about it at all, if I hadn’t had to ring her about the paper.’
‘Planned murders really only work in books,’ Judy said. ‘Real life has a habit of getting in the way.’
Lloyd terminated the interview as the warning sounded, and Law was led away to be charged with murder. Judy felt rather sorry for him, though Lloyd, not unnaturally, did not. And when they tried to pick up Rachel herself, who was, at the very least, an accessory after the fact, she had gone to ground. Now, why didn’t that surprise her?
She felt a little weary as she and Lloyd said goodnight, and got into their respective cars. She turned the key, and felt even wearier when she saw the petrol gauge; she had meant to fill up that morning on her way to work, but what with one thing and another …
She didn’t even dare to try making for the nearest all-night petrol station; she must have been driving on the vapour as it was. She flagged Lloyd down as he tried to make good his escape.
‘Leave it,’ he said. ‘We can sort it out in the morning.’