6

 

The video ran quickly on the screen, its glare brightening the room. The sun had already set and only a faint crepuscular light was coming from the window.

Eric flipped the switch, and when the neon light flickered on, Stern jumped in his seat.

‘Holy smoke, boss, you scared me shitless!’ His eyes were swollen and reddened.

‘Were you sleeping, Martin?’ Eric asked, using a scolding tone on purpose.

‘No, no, of course not!’ The young man snapped to his feet, almost standing to salute. ‘I was watching some surveillance video taken from the area around the building where Thompson’s flat is. Here you can see the footage from the jeweller right next to the entrance.’ He pointed at the screen in front of him. ‘The other one is from an ATM across the street.’ He adjusted his shrivelled T-shirt, showing a silhouette of Darth Vader on the chest. It looked like he’d donned it right after taking it out of a tumble dryer. And perhaps that was what had happened. He nodded at the other screen, which was darker, because most of the picture was occupied by a man withdrawing cash. ‘The main entrance is right in line with the video camera, but it’s always out of focus. I’m afraid that’s all we have.’

‘Found anything?’ Eric placed one hand on Stern’s shoulder and squeezed, pushing him back to his seat. He enjoyed putting the young man under pressure. Although he’d been working there for four years, he always appeared to feel uneasy with his boss and so the latter treated him a bit roughly, in the hope that sooner or later the former would start standing up for himself. He was good at his job, but lacked character.

Stern’s face contracted, then he let out a soft whistle. ‘Uh … I’ve been watching the footage of the days when we think the crime may have been committed. I’m into the third day now and so far no woman in black has come out of or gone into the building. At least not during daytime.’

‘The witness says he saw her when he was playing in the corridor. The sun sets late these days. I doubt he was playing at night.’

‘Uh, yes. I’ll keep watching. If this woman really exists, she must have passed through that doorway.’ He opened his mouth wide in a deep yawn.

‘You definitely can’t see her, if you keep your eyes shut,’ Eric commented sarcastically. ‘That’s enough for today, it’s late. You’ll resume tomorrow.’ And he exited the room.

‘Your wish is my command, boss.’ But Stern’s voice came to him as distant, while Eric stepped into the main laboratory.

The room was deserted. As usual, he’d stayed there longer than he should have. Everyone else had already gone. Except for Martin Stern.

‘Good night!’

Stern’s outline rushed down the corridor. He’d surely stayed late to show that he was really fond of his job, and now that he’d got the approval from his boss, he hadn’t hesitated for a second to leave.

The sound of something rolling made Eric turn around, just in time to see a pen fall off the edge of a desk.

Eric sighed. There was really nobody else. Earlier he’d caught a glimpse of Adele walking past his door and he’d barely resisted the desire to follow and talk to her. But what would he have said to her, anyway?

He’d thought about it for a good hour, then he’d just stood up from his desk and left his office, but there was no sign of her anywhere.

In the end, that was for the best. Trying to approach her, even as a friend, risked making himself look more ridiculous than he already had.

He walked across the laboratory to the little room where the staff had teas or coffees during the dead time of an analysis. The light was on, but the room was empty. Then he headed to the ballistics lab, but before he got there, he could see it was closed with no signs of life.

Disconsolate, he looked at his watch. It was almost half past ten. He’d eaten a panini two hours earlier, thinking he’d stay a little more and take care of a few things. Now it was perhaps time to head home.

He strode to his office to grab his jacket. He was passing the locker room when he heard another noise.

He stopped and focused his attention on his hearing. This time it was something metallic, perhaps the door of a locker, but the light in the room was turned off. He looked in. The illumination of the corridor slipped through the doorway, making the inside almost entirely visible, except for a few shadowy corners.

Eric stepped in and passed beside the benches. Everything seemed to be where it was supposed to be.

Once he reached the end of a row of lockers, he was about to turn around when he saw a dark outline out of the corner of his eye a moment before it crashed into him.

He found himself holding Adele.

‘Bloody hell, boss!’ He could feel her body stiffen. ‘What the hell are you doing here?’

He had his hands on her arm, unsure what to say. ‘I … heard a noise. I thought there was nobody here. The light’s turned off.’

Heck, yes. What on earth was she doing in the locker room in the dark?

‘I forgot my tablet.’ Adele pulled away from him and took a step back. ‘I came back to pick it up. I’m perfectly able to move around in the dark.’

‘Sorry if I scared you,’ Eric said, pulling himself together. ‘I thought I was the only one still here.’

Her alarmed expression relaxed and turned into a half smile. Or at least that’s how it seemed to him, from what little he could see in the semi-darkness. ‘No biggie.’

Eric stepped aside to let her pass, and she headed for the door.

‘You should go home, boss.’ She waved to him as she left the room.

He bit his upper lip. What was he doing? He summoned his courage and followed her. ‘I wanted to apologise for the other night.’ He reached her.

Adele looked at him with a perplexed air. ‘What for?’ She didn’t seem to know what he was talking about.

‘You know what I mean.’ He challenged her gaze.

She sighed. A glimmer of understanding took shape in her eyes. ‘If you’re afraid that I could tell somebody about your misadventure …’ She smiled. ‘Don’t worry.’ And she made to turn around.

‘That’s not what I meant,’ he retorted, blocking her path.

That seemed to try her patience. ‘Listen, boss, there’s nothing to apologise for. Everything’s okay.’ She’d said it as if it happened to her every night, to take home people so drunk they passed out in a taxi. She was speaking like it was nothing at all. But that behaviour only increased Eric’s dejection. And a lacerating sense of anger.

‘Okay,’ he gave in, at length. ‘If you say so.’

She patted him on his shoulder. ‘Goodnight, boss.’ And she turned around to leave.

‘I guess you must have paid the bill then, right? I don’t remember paying.’ He couldn’t remember much, to tell the truth.

‘Oh, never mind.’ She kept walking. ‘There was no need to. It’s my pub,’ she added, raising her voice as she stepped into the lift.

Her pub? Yeah, of course, her ex worked there. Perhaps they both owned the place. He held back a sigh of disappointment. It would’ve been better if he hadn’t talked to her in the first place. Adele Pennington had a gift for making others feel belittled. He’d seen her do that with her colleagues all the time, and now she’d done it with him. All this should have annoyed him, but deep inside he felt it only made her even more interesting to him, precisely because she was so elusive.

She was much younger than him, but hardly a little girl.

A bit later, Eric was heading for St James’s Park. As he set foot on the Tube entrance, he noticed a red car pull over along the side of the road. The window rolled down. Even before making out who was driving, he recognised her voice.

‘Do you want a lift, boss?’

 

 

‘I bet you’re enjoying yourself.’ Eric scrutinised her as the car halted at the stop sign.

‘Where can I take you?’ Adele asked, ignoring his comment.

‘Marylebone, York Street. Then I’ll tell you where to stop.’

She turned left into Victoria Street. ‘You’re in my neighbourhood.’

‘I know.’

Adele offered him an ambiguous smile, but didn’t say anything.

‘Oh, yes, you’re clearly enjoying yourself,’ he insisted.

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘I know what I’m talking about.’ He adjusted his seat belt so that he could turn in her direction. ‘I’ve been watching you in these months at the department.’

‘Uh, really?’ There was a shade of impertinence in Adele’s voice, and that irritated him even more.

‘You do everything you can to distress your colleagues, you highlight their mistakes, belittle them in public. You’re so good at it that the insecure ones start to believe it’s their fault.’ As he was talking, he was studying her face to catch a glimpse of a possible reaction, but she was impassive to his words, as if she was uninterested. Yet her nervous blinking told him she was certainly listening. ‘And now you’re trying to do the same with me.’

Adele remained in silence for a few seconds, but accelerated abruptly, overtaking a bus that pulled over to let the passengers get out. ‘I don’t know what you are talking about.’

Eric let out a sarcastic sigh. ‘I don’t know why you do it. You’re good at your work, you have nothing else to prove, but you keep putting a wall between you and your colleagues, which becomes higher and higher as time goes by, and I’d like to understand why.’

‘Listen,’ she exclaimed in a huff. ‘I don’t have to be friends with everyone. And anyway, how I interact with others is none of your business. You’re not my father, and I’m not one of your suspects. You have no right to give me the third degree.’

‘But I’m your boss and the way you behave in the workplace is my business.’

‘Right now we are in my car, not at the department.’

‘So you’d rather we had this conversation at the Yard, in front of the entire team?’

She refrained from replying and took a deep breath.

Eric smiled to himself. He didn’t like using his position to lord it over his colleagues, but this time, he was glad it was an option.

‘Who knows what the others would think if they knew how hard it is for you to hold your beer?’

‘Oh, well,’ Eric retorted; he was expecting this sort of attack. ‘After your little joke this morning, I think that word has already spread that we’re sleeping together, so I doubt this additional piece of information would cause much of a sensation.’ Adele laughed. Oh, yes, she was really enjoying herself. ‘To tell the truth,’ he continued. ‘I should even thank you. It seems to have earned me nothing but admiration.’

‘You wish,’ she murmured.

Eric shook his head. He’d opened a door and now the conversation had taken a turn he didn’t like at all. The problem also was that Adele was right, she’d understood quite clearly what was going through his mind, but he couldn’t let her win. Right now, he was so angry that his personal interest in her seemed to have lost any meaning. She really was a bitch. In his own mind, he’d defended her when he’d heard the things the others were saying about her, but now he was facing her arrogance directly.

The worst thing was that, despite this, he kept feeling attracted by her, even now. His anger only amplified his desire.

The car turned into York Street and Adele directed a meaningful look at him.

‘Pull over after the second intersection,’ Eric said. His time was almost over, and he wanted to end the conversation in a civil manner. ‘You’re an excellent forensic investigator. I have to give credit where it’s due, but our job isn’t only science. Your relationship with your colleagues is important too, if you want to go on and maybe further your career.’

‘I prefer to focus on science to further my career, without getting help somewhere else.’

Eric felt the low blow. His rather unorthodox methods weren’t exactly a secret, but were tolerated and sometimes encouraged, as long as nobody else was involved. But everybody knew that his purpose wasn’t to advance his career or show off to the higher ranks of the Metropolitan Police for getting something back. His only mission was to bring the culprits to justice, no matter the cost. It had become his life’s mission.

The car stopped. ‘Goodnight, boss,’ Adele said in a dry tone.

Eric looked at her, uncertain. Did she really want to end the conversation here? But she kept looking straight ahead. So Eric unfastened his seat belt and opened the door.

‘You’re right.’ He could barely hear Adele’s voice as he got out of the car.

He turned back, thus meeting her gaze.

‘You know nothing about my life,’ she went on. ‘This is a very stressful time for me, and perhaps I’ve been venting my problems on the wrong people.’

He was unable to reply. It was true: he really didn’t know a thing about her, after all. Every opinion he had, whether good or bad, was influenced by feelings he wasn’t supposed to have. For the first time, it occurred to him it would be better if they didn’t work together at all.

‘But you’re wrong about one thing.’ The overhead light could barely illuminate Adele’s face, and he almost thought he saw her watery eyes. ‘I’m not enjoying myself.’ But the half smile accompanying those words seemed to state just the opposite.

Adele reached out and closed the door from which he’d got out, almost tearing it away from his hands. Then she pulled away.

Eric stood there on the pavement, his jaw clenched and his hands curled into fists, watching her car leaving. He couldn’t be sure, but he could feel Adele’s gaze on him through the rear-view mirror. He could almost imagine it.

A gaze of enjoyment.

 

 

It was quicker than him. He tried to run even faster, but his legs seemed not to be responding anymore. As he gasped for breath, he could hardly inflate his chest. He hadn’t been much of a runner when he was young, but as he’d grown older, his performance had worsened. Every once in a while, he looked back. The shadow was still following him; it wasn’t all in his head. It didn’t even need to run. It was faster.

He turned into an alley. He didn’t know the area that well, but perhaps he could hide.

A suppressed noise behind him. Tiny pieces of plaster flew off from the wall beside him. It had been a gunshot. A foot slipped, and he found himself lying on the tarmac. He could feel his heart racing in his chest. He couldn’t get up again, run again.

Footsteps behind him. Then his pursuer stopped.

He placed both his hands on his head, as if it could save him, but he couldn’t resist the temptation to look. His pursuer was still partly concealed by the semi-darkness. He couldn’t see the face, but understood why he hadn’t heard the shot: the pistol was fitted with a silencer.

‘Stand up!’

‘Please, don’t hurt me. You can have all my money.’

Another bullet. This time, it ended up on the ground to his right. It had almost brushed him.

‘No, fuck. Okay, okay.’ He was whimpering. He’d also wet himself, but he didn’t care. He just wanted to get away. Save himself. He started praying as he struggled to rise to his feet. If he didn’t die tonight, he swore he would behave for the rest of his life. Oh God, how many times he had made that promise and then broken it.

His pursuer took a step forward and the street lamp could finally illuminate the face.

He couldn’t understand. Who the hell was this?

‘Turn around.’

Whoever it was, there was a gun in one hand, and so he obeyed, but couldn’t hold back the question. ‘Who are you …?’

‘Death.’

He didn’t even have enough time to understand the answer before his back was hit by fire. He felt a viscous liquid filling his mouth. Then everything disappeared.