‘Well I reckon that what people say about you is spot on, DCI Tate,’ he said as the two detectives reached the bottom of the stairs and stepped cautiously towards him.
‘And what is it they say?’ Anna asked him.
‘That you’re as sharp as a fucking razor blade. I imagined I’d be half way to hell before anyone thought to come looking for me here.’
‘So I was right to jump to the conclusion that you’re intending to top yourself?’
He held up the gun. ‘What do you think this is for? And don’t look so worried. I’m not going to use it on the pair of you. But if you’ve got questions for me then I suggest you don’t do anything to make me blow my own brains out before I’ve answered them.’
He was sitting with his back against the wall, still in the suit he’d been wearing earlier. Beads of sweat clung to his forehead, and there was a dull, lacklustre expression in his eyes.
He looked calm rather than anxious, and Anna reckoned that was partly because he was resigned to his fate and partly because he’d downed a fair amount of whisky. The bottle was half empty, and the smell of it wafted across the cellar on his breath.
‘The first thing I’d like you to tell me is where you got the revolver,’ she said.
He gave a small shrug. ‘As you know most hardcore perps in London carry around a knife or a gun these days. So as a copper such things are easy to acquire. I nabbed it off a drug dealer months ago when I started to seriously contemplate suicide. I knew it would come in handy when I decided the time had come.’
‘And that time is now?’ Anna asked him.
He nodded. ‘Well I’ve got fuck all to live for. No way am I going to spend the rest of my days in a prison cell as the dementia eats away at my mind and my dignity.’
‘So why haven’t you already pulled the trigger?’
He swigged back some more whisky before responding.
‘I came here for a reason. I wanted to speak to Jacob, and since this is where he died it seemed like the obvious place. I wanted to let him know how sorry I am for what happened to him. And I wanted to tell him what a shit his grandfather was for leaving me and my mum. He wasn’t supposed to die. I was only going to hold him for a few days so that I could watch his old man suffer. Then I intended to drop him off somewhere with all his stuff. I told him that when I brought him here, and I like to think he believed me. I took steps to make him reasonably comfortable and he didn’t go without food and drink. I was shocked and devastated when I heard that some bastard had set fire to the building.’
‘I’m surprised you actually thought you’d get away with it,’ Anna said. She wanted to keep him talking as long as possible while she tried to think of a way to make him pull back from the abyss.
‘I would have if it hadn’t been for the frigging riots,’ he said. ‘You see, after I grabbed the boy, I brought him straight here. Then I went to the office to wait for the alarm to be raised so I’d be the detective who’d be put in charge. That was important to me because I wanted to be on hand to watch his dad suffer, especially when he read the note I sent, which unfortunately got delayed, again by the riots.’
‘But what I don’t understand is why you hate Mark Rossi so much,’ Anna said. ‘It wasn’t his fault that your father left you and married his mum.’
‘That’s true, and in the beginning I just resented him for taking my place. But as time went on, my own life became one long nightmare. My stepdad died of a stroke way before his time, which left my mother heartbroken. Then my daughter was killed by a reckless driver who took his bloody eyes off the road, and soon after that my wife ran off with another bloke. But at the same time Mark Rossi was living the dream. My father helped his TV career prosper and he had the perfect family. He didn’t stop boasting about his great life on social media, which pissed me off big time. Like it did lots of other people, including Michelle Gerrard.
‘The day of my daughter’s funeral he posted photos on Facebook of himself, his wife and son enjoying a holiday in the Maldives. Then a week after my wife left me he decided to renew his marriage vows in a lavish ceremony in the South of France. And it was my dad who made a speech describing Rossi as a terrific stepson.
‘Then a few years later a lot of publicity was given to Isaac’s funeral and sure enough it was Rossi who took centre stage, saying what a wonderful stepdad he’d been blessed with. When Rossi then decided to set up home in Bromley it felt like he was deliberately trying to wind me up. And that was when I started to fantasise about ways to sink his boat. But it was only when I was diagnosed with dementia that my hatred for him soared to a new level. After all I’d been through it was just so fucking unfair. All the bad stuff was happening to me and never to him. I suddenly realised that I wouldn’t be satisfied unless I did something that would shatter his perfect fucking life. And something that would make me feel good for the first time in years.’
He paused there and his eyes shifted from Anna to the gun he was holding. It was now resting against his chest, the muzzle pointing at his face.
Anna took a tentative step forward, telling herself that if she could get just a little closer she might be able to rush at him and grab the gun. But as a copper himself he obviously knew what was going through her mind.
He raised the gun, pressed it into the flesh below his chin, said, ‘One more step and I’ll pull the trigger. So get on with it. Anything else you want to know before I depart this world?’
The breath hissed out of Anna’s throat as she asked the first two questions that sprang into her mind.
‘How did you know where Jacob would be last Monday afternoon? And how did you go about snatching him?’
He raised his brow and left the gun where it was. ‘After I’d decided that the best way to get at his dad was through his son, I monitored the lad’s movements. To my mind Jacob was too young to be walking home by himself, but that made it easy for me. He strolled past my car on two occasions before that day, but I didn’t make a move because there were either other people around or other vehicles passing. But on that Monday the street was clear so it required little effort to grab hold of him and bundle him into the boot. I was wearing a false beard and a hoody so he’d never be able to recognise me, and I’d set this place up well in advance so it was ready for him to move straight in.’
‘And you weren’t planning to kill him?’
‘Of course not. I’m not a killer or a pervert. My objective was to take his father to hell and back. Then after a few days I was going to leave Jacob in a safe place and go on sick leave so I wouldn’t be the one to interview him when he was safely back home.’
‘But then he was killed.’
‘And that was tragic. Afterwards I knew there was a chance that it would lead back to me so I had to stay close to the investigation to try to ensure that it didn’t. I thought I’d be in the clear after Slater turned up dead and I was able to plant Jacob’s phone and wallet in his house. As for George, I just assumed I’d done enough to keep him away from the pub. When he turned up again I knew he’d tell you who I was and what I’d done. So that was when I rushed home, picked up the gun, and came here.’
‘Why did you bring Jacob here of all places? It’s more or less on your doorstep.’ This from Sweeny.
Another shrug. ‘It was for that very reason. I knew about the cellar and that the building was easy to get into. I also wanted to be close enough so that I could come over to check on him at night and bring him what he needed.’
‘But weren’t you worried that he’d scream the place down and attract attention?’ Sweeny asked.
‘I warned him that if he did, I’d kill him. And the chances are he wouldn’t have been heard anyway.’
Anna stood there without moving, her body drenched now in a cold sweat. She knew that if she made the wrong move then Benning might not be the only one to end up dead.
She watched him guzzle some more whisky. Then he placed the bottle on the floor and held the gun in both hands.
‘That’s enough talking, Detective. I’ve used the opportunity you gave me to get a load of stuff off my chest for Jacob’s sake as well as my own. I just hope the boy has been listening. But now I’m ready to go, and I hope it’s obvious to you that I’m not going to let you stop me.’
Anna gulped at the fetid air, struggling to get it into her lungs. She would have pleaded with him not to go through with it if she’d thought he would listen. But she knew he wouldn’t.
‘I’m going to count to ten and then squeeze the trigger,’ he said. ‘So unless you want to see my brains splattered all over the wall and ceiling I suggest you get out of here sharpish.’
As he started to count, Anna told Sweeny to go upstairs.
‘But what about you, guv?’ Sweeny said.
‘Don’t worry about me, Megan. Just go. Someone needs to bear witness to what’s going to happen next.’
Benning finished counting just as Sweeny reached the top of the stairs.
‘If I could go back and change things I would, Detective,’ he said. ‘But I can’t, and I’m really sorry about that.’
They were his last words. Anna closed her eyes and the gun went off. It was so loud in the close confines of the cellar that she feared her eardrums might burst.