The Operator (Bruce and Bennett Crime Thriller 2) (24 page)

Erica could get back to her homeopathy practice,
and her writing, and keeping fit. If only her intern would take a break from
her arduous duties, Erica could relax and enjoy her flourishing sex life.

She knew the police would be up to their helmets
with this second murder, and its apparent significance after Kingston’s. But
she couldn’t forget Will’s treatment of her and his infuriating way of hinting
that she was a possible suspect or even a dealer in fake drugs. It was pretty
low, to use his position to strongarm her, just because their relationship hadn’t
worked out. He couldn’t pretend to suspect her now, and she was determined to
let him know she knew it.

She rang him, and explained that it was about an
alibi for the murder.

‘A what? Alibi?’ His voice sounded weary; a stark
contrast with the hyped-up euphoria of Gary Thomas. The reporter thrilled with
the story, able to pile pressure on the police. The police officer, up all
night, expected to come up with the goods, sickened by the horror of the crime.

He sounded sceptical as well damn him.

‘For the murder, yes.’ She was beginning to feel
angry again, remembering him questioning her in that horrible interview room,
trying to pin the crime on Tessa, angry with her for interfering, for being
there, for backing Tessa up. ‘I got the impression you thought I might be
involved. So I want you to know I have an alibi.’

‘May I ask why you haven’t told me this before?’
he asked, testily.

‘It’s only just happened! For God’s sake, I’ve
only just heard about it myself!’

‘Sorry, I don’t understand. How could you have
just found out about your own alibi?’

‘Two men are dead. Let’s not play silly buggers. I’ve
rung you up voluntarily, to tell you that I have an alibi for the murder of
Paul Chambers, last night.’

He sighed. ‘I see. I assumed you were referring to
the murder of Robert Kingston. I couldn’t understand why you hadn’t told us
before.’

‘I have no alibi for Kingston’s murder, and I shouldn’t
have to provide one. But you took it upon yourself to suspect me, and this time
I have got an alibi, and I want you to know about it!’

Really the man was infuriating. Perhaps he was
stupid. Perhaps his supreme physical fitness and intense blue gaze had blinded
her to his lack of brain.

‘Is there any reason why anyone
should
suspect you of the murder of Mr Chambers?’ he asked. ‘We really are very busy
here, you know. We don’t need frivolous calls from the public clogging up the
system.’

 Gah!

‘Assuming the same person killed both doctors,
obviously you’ve got a nutcase with a medical fixation on your hands. Surely
this new development must clear several suspects from the first case, for
example Tessa Kingston?’

‘And why should we assume the same person
committed both crimes? Do you have information about them? Been doing some more
nocturnal jogging?’

This sounded like some kind of obscene double
entendre. She resisted the temptation to say ‘Ooh, Matron!’ ‘The two killings
have features in common, haven’t they? The bash on the head, the pierced hands,
the mutilation relating to the victim’s medical specialism...’

‘That’s rather more information than has been
given out so far,’ he retorted sharply. ‘May I ask where you obtained this
information?’

‘You may, or you may ask who told me.’ She was
sick of his pompous police-speak. Any minute now he’d say ‘whilst’, or ‘commence’.
Well backatcha! ‘Ay was hinformed of the crayme by a journalistic colleague,
whose name Ay ham not at liberty to reveal. We journalists must protect our
sources.’

‘I see. I should have known.’ That little scrote from
the
Evening Guardian
! Mouthy git. ‘All I can say is that the police are
keeping an open mind.’

‘Really? Is this a new policy? I’m sure Tessa will
be pleased to hear it.’

‘All I can say at this time is that we are
investigating a possible link between the two killings.’ He spoke as if through
gritted teeth. ‘If you can give a checkable alibi for the evening and night, fine.
In the event we want you to come in and sign a statement we’ll contact you.’

Don’t hold your breath, he implied, as if she was
foisting herself on the police for her own entertainment. It was as if he had
never hinted she might be a suspect.

‘Alright then, I spent the afternoon, the evening,
and in fact the whole night, with a doctor from the hospital - you know,
Kingston’s old stamping ground. Jamie Lau. He will be able to confirm that. And
of course, I stand alibi for him.’

A brief silence. When he spoke it was in a more
hostile tone.

‘I see. I must say, you ‘journalists’ go to great
lengths to chase up information.’

His tone implied she was some amoral hackette
willing to sleep with anybody who would give her a few lines for the paper.

‘It was no hardship, believe me, and yes, it was a
case of ‘great lengths,’’ she said sweetly, hoping Will hadn’t been laid in
months and serve him right.

‘Anyway,’ he went on, ‘there is no reason to suppose
Dr Lau was ever a suspect in the Kingston case. Unless you have information to
that effect, of course?’

‘If you want information about Jamie, you can get
it yourself, I’m sure you have your own methods. Not the same as mine, I hope,
I don’t want him exhausted. I assumed anyone who knew Kingston was a suspect,
that’s all.’

‘We’ll be in touch, if we
need any more assistance,’ Will barked, and slammed the phone down. Like he
didn’t have enough to contend with, she had to go rubbing his nose in her
filthy slutty goings on... Will muttered and threw innocent papers about until
his long suffering colleagues had gathered for a briefing on this new
development. The station was buzzing with the news of Chambers’ murder, and the
phrase ‘serial killer’ was being passed round like a fat joint, getting the
younger officers high as kites.

‘Right.’ Will put up photographs of Paul Chambers,
alive and dead, next to those of Robert Kingston, and Hassan gave a brief
summing up of the crime and how things stood. The close-up of Chambers’ scrotal
wound caused a group wince among the male officers and the excitement about
serial killers took a rest while they took in the reality of what had happened
to a man like themselves.

‘Due to the obvious similarity between the crimes,
we have to consider they might have been committed by the same person, or
persons. There are some confusing factors however. Sometimes it’s hard to tell
if a feature is a difference or a similarity.’ Hassan pointed to the two
photographs of Kingston’s head and Chambers’ groin. ‘Different wounds, yet both
seem to be references to the victims’ specialisms, orthopaedics and urology.’
He pointed to the two pictures of the hands with their metal piercings. ‘Both
had their hands pinned down with sharp implements. Different implements were
used however.’

‘Sarge, the implements also refer to their
specialisms.’ Paul got in first before Sally could start her arse-kissing
routine.

‘Quite right lad.’ Hassan was all approval.

Paul wanted more. ‘So that suggests the Operator
did both of them...’

Will blew up at this. ‘The
who
?
What
did you say?’

‘Erm, the Operator, the serial killer Guv...’

‘I only hope you’ll be as quick to catch this
serial killer as you’ve been to adopt the sensationalist name invented by that
excuse for a reporter who was getting under our feet last night, and whom I
suspect of using police radio frequencies.’

Paul subsided.

‘I’m afraid the media are already riding on that
bandwagon,’ Hassan said philosophically. ‘It’s going to be hard to avoid the
term.’

‘Yeah I know.’ Will pushed up his hair into
spikes. It already looked rumpled due to lack of sleep. ‘But I don’t want you
all assuming this ‘Operator’ actually exists. As DS Massum has been pointing
out, the evidence is ambiguous. Yes, the killer used implements on the hands in
a similar way, and used the surgeons’ own tools, which seems like the same MO.
BUT the killer or killers used implements already at the scene. Is that another
link? Or is it a sign that one of these killings was dressed up to look like
the other? If pins taken from Kingston’s room had been used on Chambers we’d
have a definite sign of a single killer. We’ve got nothing from forensics yet
except it looks like Chambers’ killer used one of the scalpels on his um,
privates before pinning his right hand with it.’

‘Is Chambers right or left handed?’ Paul was back
in the game.

‘What, you think he might have done it himself?’
mocked Sally.

‘Hardly. But maybe it’s significant you know.
Symbolic like. The hand that did the operations, being spiked with the scalpel
that he did them with after it had done his operation...’ Paul was getting lost
in a chain of connections.

‘Fair enough, Paul. You could follow that up.
Hassan?’

‘Right well as I was saying, at the moment it
could be the same killer. But we are not dismissing the possibility of two
separate crimes. There are such things as copycat killings. Also, murder for
personal gain or other reasons can be disguised as a motiveless killing, and
how better than to give the impression of a crazed serial killer on the loose?
Even Agatha Christie thought of that one.’

‘Maybe we should bring her in on suspicion,’
muttered Kev to Paul.

‘So, we need to follow up all the possibilities.
Are there any suspects in the Kingston case we can eliminate, if it does turn
out to be the Op- the same killer?’

‘We don’t have many named and identified so far.
But there’s Tessa Kingston. Kev, you were watching her last night I think?’

‘Yes Guv. She was at the gym, till late. For
nearly three hours, as per usual.’

Sally added, ‘She does a long session each time,
longer since Kingston died. Working off her grief perhaps? Or guilt. She does
classes, machines, has a swim, sauna, steam room, you name it she does it
there. I checked all that with the desk a while back.’

‘Kev. Could she have slipped out the back,
assuming you were alert enough to spot her leaving by the front doors?’

‘I suppose it’s technically possible, but she’d
have to get back in, in order to come out the front doors at the end of her
session, and the back doors, fire doors, only open from inside. And yes Guv, I
was watching. I’m sure she didn’t slip by me.’

‘Why would she murder Chambers anyway? Doesn’t
mean she didn’t kill Kingston.’ asked Sally. ‘And if Kev was following Tessa,
nobody was watching Tara.’

‘Oh come on,’ Paul scoffed. ‘Why would she go
after Chambers?’

‘To get Tessa off the hook, of course. She’s
emotionally involved, wracked with guilt for letting Tessa stay in an abusive
marriage for so long... I mean if that story’s true...’ She tailed off.

Hassan resumed. ‘Connections between the victims.
Both surgeons. They both played golf, at different clubs, though Kingston was
once a member of the city club too so presumably knew him. They trained at the
same university, though Chambers is older - he’d done some travelling before he
signed up to be a medical student. But they only trained together until they
began to follow different specialisms. So far we’ve not found that they were
close friends or saw a lot of each other. Lots of doctors in this region know
each other.’

‘Could be some nut who hates all doctors. Could be
some wannabe doctor who didn’t make the grades!’

‘Good point Sally. Maybe you could check out that
angle?’

‘Is it still our case though Guv? Chambers lived
in town. Won’t the city lads and lasses take over?’

‘No, we’ve agreed on an approach. Bearing in mind
they might be two separate killings, the second disguised to look like the
first, City are looking into Chambers’ case and we are still looking into
Kingston’s. Any connections either of us find, we share.’ Will flattened his
hair down. It had been standing up for record time. ‘But just to say all we’ve
found out so far about Paul Chambers is he was a quiet, hardworking, rather sad
lonely man, at least since his wife died. Not at all like Kingston. And you don’t
tend to get so many failures with vasectomies. Serious complications are rare.’

‘You’d not get me under the knife,’ said Paul.

‘Not after seeing those crime scene pix.’ Kev
shuddered dramatically.

Sally snorted. ‘Huh. Try childbirth!’

Erica was sure this new
murder, tragic though it was, would at least let Tessa off the hook, though
Will had been evasive. Not to mention downright nasty when he heard about her
and Jamie. Like he had any right to an opinion of her morals! A couple of days
later she was just thinking she hadn’t heard from the blonde sisters lately,
when she had a call from Tara to say Tessa had moved back into Kingston’s
house.

 ‘Not the most pleasant associations, but she’s
determined to stay there. She says it’s her home now and she wants to start
standing on her own two feet. I think the new murder has made her feel less
under suspicion though personally I think they still have her in mind. I know she
would love to see you. You’ve been such a help and support to both of us.’

Erica decided to call round. She hadn’t been back
to Kingston’s house since the night she’d jogged past it and the golf ball had
hit her arm, narrowly missing her head. The first time she went there, she’d
found Kingston’s body. Not her favourite venue. As her therapist, Erica wondered
how Tessa was coping. She decided not to ring first but to ‘drop in’ when ‘passing’,
to get more idea of Tessa’s state of mind.

She rang the doorbell,
feeling a new chill as she relived standing there waiting to interview
Kingston, bracing herself to put up with his patronising manner, his aggressive
arrogance, unaware that he had been rendered harmless for good by someone who
had objected to him much more drastically than she had.