The Telling Error (44 page)

‘Got that, everybody?’ Proust was looking only at Simon. ‘Bryn Gilligan has more motivations than Starbucks has branches on UK high streets. Also like Starbucks branches, some of them appear to be miles apart.’

‘Have you never met anyone with several contradictory impulses at once?’ said Simon. ‘I’m not saying his thoughts were consistent, or that he was full of great ideas. He’d decided the way forward was suicide, remember?’

‘Instead of creating morbid fantasies on behalf of a dead cheat, let’s examine the facts,’ said Proust. ‘On the one hand, we have a letter in which Gilligan, who had both motive and opportunity, plainly confesses to murdering Damon Blundy as well as a few other people, and on the other hand, we have Waterhouse telling us that he didn’t because of atonement, sacrifice, saintliness and noble pyres. I know which I find more persuasive.’

‘King Edward VII murdered Damon Blundy,’ said Simon. ‘I can prove it, and I will. Give me a chance.’
Don’t bait him. Stay humble.
‘Can you explain to me why Bryn Gilligan killed Damon Blundy in the way he did – with the knife taped to his face, sharpening it at the scene, the photo of himself in a protective bodysuit emailed to Blundy? Giving us the computer password so we’d see the photo? Why did Bryn Gilligan do all that, do you think?’

‘Oh, let’s see. Contradictory impulses?’ Proust glared at Simon. ‘He wanted to stab Blundy, and yet, being in possession of a complex and nuanced mind, he also didn’t want to stab him. So he suffocated him with a knife and some parcel tape by way of a compromise.’

‘You don’t believe that.’

‘All right, I don’t know why he did it that way!’ the Snowman snapped. ‘All I know is I’ve got a letter here confessing to murder, and I’m taking it seriously. Your turn next: who’s King Edward VII, and why did he kill Blundy the way he did?’

‘King Edward VII,’ Gibbs murmured. ‘I’ve heard that name – recently. I mean, outside this room.’

‘I don’t think you have,’ Simon contradicted him. ‘If you’d heard it, you’d remember who said it.’

‘What? People always remember everything immediately, do they?’ Gibbs shook his head and exchanged a look with Sellers.

‘Sir, you mentioned before that Gilligan had motive,’ Sam finally managed to get a word in. ‘I’m not sure that’s true. ‘Damon Blundy was his chief defender.’

‘Gilligan threatened Blundy with legal action for calling him a liar and a cheat, though,’ said Gibbs.

‘And went on to regret it,’ Simon said.

‘Or so he claimed,’ said the Snowman. ‘Did he ever apologise publicly to Blundy for the threat to sue?’

Simon shook his head. ‘He told me he wanted to, but didn’t want to be seen to be making peace with Blundy because of Blundy’s general persona and attitude. Gilligan thought he was vicious, enjoyed ripping people to shreds a bit too much. He didn’t really want to communicate with him at all. I think, in an ideal world, he’d have chosen a gentler and less offensive defender.’

‘Certainly one less swaddled in parcel tape,’ said Proust. ‘Wouldn’t we all? I don’t believe for a moment that Bryn Gilligan murdered these three other people in –’ he looked down at the papers on his desk ‘– Nottingham, Glasgow and Taunton, but I think he killed Damon Blundy, as he says he did. We find out he’s alibied for the other three, what do we say to ourselves?
Poor deluded man, confessing to murders he didn’t commit …
Then we assume he mustn’t have killed Blundy because we know he didn’t kill the others. That’s what he was hoping for – I’d put money on it.’

‘He’s about to top himself,’ said Simon. ‘Why would he bother with such Machiavellian calculations?’

‘If he’s worried that, in his absence, we might pin it on him for convenience’s sake and he won’t be there to defend himself; if he wants his name cleared after death – which was an element of one of your theories, as I recall. Want to keep that one all to yourself, do you?’

‘Look, we’ll get nowhere by squabbling,’ said Sam. ‘Simon, you said you could prove King Edward VII killed Blundy. How?’

‘Can we please learn this man’s name immediately, so that we don’t have to keep referring to him as King Edward VII?’

‘Let me talk you through it,’ said Simon. ‘I want to get it straight in my own head anyway.’

‘I don’t need to be talked through a perishing
name
, Waterhouse. He’s got a name, hasn’t he? I mean, he is a man? Not a lizard in luminous slippers?’

‘He’s a man, yes,’ said Simon.

‘Then spit it out,’ Proust growled. ‘Afterwards, by all means, follow up with whatever parable takes your fancy.’

‘Chris –’ Simon looked at Gibbs ‘– you didn’t hear the name King Edward VII. You saw it.’

Gibbs frowned. ‘Written down?’

‘Printed. On a sign. A sign none of us has seen, only you. Well, I’ve seen it on a website.’

‘What sign?’

‘Think about sheets of black paper stuck to a windowpane, to cover up the view,’ said Simon.

‘Reuben Tasker’s attic window,’ said Gibbs. ‘But there was no …’ He stopped. His eyes widened. ‘The school.’

Simon nodded. To Sam, Sellers and Proust, he said, ‘The school opposite Reuben Tasker’s house, the one he could no longer stand the sight of, is called King Edward VII.’

‘So … that’s why …’ Gibbs broke off, rubbed his face with his hands. Unable to reach a conclusion as quickly as he’d have liked to, he diverted to a question: ‘So where does that get us? Tasker killed Blundy – right?’

‘Nicki’s reply to Charlie’s “Confidant” ad tells us a lot,’ said Simon. ‘Given everything else we know, I think it’s safe to assume a few things: Nicki posted an ad on Intimate Links in 2010 – “I Want a Secret”. A man calling himself King Edward VII replied. At first, he maintained his anonymity, as you would if you were cyber-cheating with a virtual stranger. Why trust them with your true identity? Then, I’m guessing, they got closer, came to trust each other more, and Nicki probably told him who she was: her full name, where she lived, details about her life. She wanted him to reciprocate – a signal that this increased trust was mutual. Wouldn’t that be a natural way of moving to the next level in an adulterous online relationship?’

‘Yes,’ said Sellers.

‘Right. But King Edward didn’t want to tell Nicki who he was. Why not? I’ll come back to that. He also didn’t want to refuse to tell her who he was, so he told her he was Damon Blundy. This happened round about October 2011 – that’s why Nicki started commenting on Blundy’s columns like someone who was head over heels in love with him, as Paula Riddiough said – because she
was
in love with him. Or, rather, she thought she was. At that point, the man she’d fallen in love with, through his emails, was King Edward. They mustn’t have met in all that time. Once he’d told her he was Damon Blundy, she started to read Blundy’s columns. She researched him, read every word he’d ever blogged and tweeted, no doubt. Blundy was an attractive alpha male with a strong personality.’

Simon paused for long enough to realise that no one was interested in interrupting him any more.
Good.
‘Before too long, although King Edward was the man Nicki was corresponding with, he was no longer, straightforwardly and for his own sake, the man she loved. Now she loved Blundy too, although she didn’t realise there was a “too” involved. It’s interesting, if you think about it: Nicki fell in love with one real flesh-and-blood man at the instigation of another and yet … still managed to fall in love with a man who didn’t really exist. The man she fell for was a fictional fusion of the two: King Edward’s private emails to her combined with Damon Blundy’s public persona.

‘Between October 2011 and February this year, Nicki was in no doubt that the man she was emailing – King Edward – was Damon Blundy. She continued to comment on his columns. In February, they broke up. She stopped commenting and answered a new Intimate Links ad: Gavin.’

‘But her email to Charlie – to Confidant – implies that King Edward is Gavin,’ said Sellers.

‘He is,’ said Simon. ‘I don’t know why Nicki and King Edward split up, but
he
knew, didn’t he? King Edward knew – not only Nicki’s innermost thoughts and feelings, after their years-long correspondence, but also what she was likely to want after breaking up with him. That’s the character he created in Gavin.’

‘The Internet’s brought us a plague of invisible men.’ Proust smacked his hand against his computer screen. ‘I dread to think how many fake online identities
you’ve
spawned, DC Sellers, and how you’ve deployed them.’

‘Dongcaster’s the one he’s most famous for, sir,’ Gibbs said.

‘For fuck’s sake, can we pay attention here?’ said Simon. ‘If Charlie and I split up, acrimoniously, and I knew she was likely to go straight to a particular website to hunt for a new man, I’d know exactly what kind of ad to write to reel her in – one that sounds as if it’s been written by a man who’s everything I’m not.’

‘If she finds such an advert, ask her to forward it to me,’ said Proust. ‘I’m sure we’d all enjoy working with him.’

‘King Edward reeled Nicki in
again
, as Gavin – again pretending to be someone he wasn’t,’ said Simon. ‘OK, at this point, she still believes Damon Blundy’s the man she’s broken up with. That’s why she contacts an estate agent and instructs him to sell her house, too cheaply if necessary, as soon as possible. She only moved to Spilling because Blundy lived there and she believed he was her secret lover – she wanted to be closer to him. Once they’ve split, she wants to get out of Spilling and away from him as quickly as she can. Except then she has a change of heart, doesn’t she? She rings the estate agent back and says, “Forget all that – I don’t want to sell my house after all.” Why?’

‘She decides she doesn’t want to let Damon Blundy drive her away, because it’s weak?’ suggested Sam. ‘Spilling’s her home as much as it’s his – why should she leave?’

‘Or she found out, soon after deciding to sell, that King Edward wasn’t Damon Blundy,’ said Gibbs. ‘If he’s not Blundy, then the guy who broke her heart, assuming that’s what happened, doesn’t live near her. She has no idea who he is or where he lives, so no need to move.’

‘That’s what I think it was,’ said Simon. ‘Sam, when you and I interviewed Nicki on the day of the murder, she told us she didn’t know Blundy. If she knew him and didn’t want to admit it, she’d lie, obviously, but that wasn’t all she said. She also said, “I couldn’t have known him any less if I’d tried.” Why add that? Most people wouldn’t. She sounded bitter when she said it.’

Sam nodded slowly. ‘To us, it sounded like a more emphatic “I didn’t know him”, but to her, it meant “What an idiot I am – believing I was romantically involved with a man who’d never even heard of me.”’

‘Spot on,’ said Simon.

‘You said you were going to come back to why King Edward didn’t want to tell Nicki who he was, and you haven’t,’ said Proust. ‘Who is he, by the way?’ he added with exaggerated casualness.

Simon decided he’d made them wait long enough. Almost. ‘A man who, sitting at his desk one day browsing the Intimate Links “Women Seeking Men” page, found an ad he wanted to respond to. He couldn’t use his own name, so he needed a pseudonym. He probably got up from his desk at that point, walked around the room a bit, like I am now, because it helps me to think clearly. He looked out of the window at the school opposite his house and thought, King Edward VII – that’ll do nicely.’

‘Reuben Tasker,’ said Gibbs. ‘I fucking knew that guy was dodgy.’

‘Well? Waterhouse?’

‘Yes.’ Finally, Simon gave Proust the name he was after. ‘Reuben Tasker. That’s why he started to hate the school and wanted to block out its sign – after his long relationship with Nicki ended, he didn’t welcome the reminder. It would have hurt him every time he saw that name.’

‘And then after Blundy died, he hated it even more,’ said Sam, his voice rising in excitement. ‘That has to be significant.’

‘It is,’ said Simon. ‘Before last Monday, the name King Edward VII was a painful reminder of a love affair gone horribly wrong. Since the murder, it’s reminded Tasker of something he’s even keener to avoid thinking about: the fact that he killed Damon Blundy.’

‘No,
you’re
wrong, love,’ PC Claire Whelan told Yolanda Shaw, the receptionist on duty at the Chancery Hotel. ‘You’ve got a Nicki Clements staying in room 419. Just look, will you?’

‘You can say it as often as you like, it doesn’t make it true,’ said Yolanda. ‘I
have
looked – you saw me. There’s a guest in room 419 whose name bears no resemblance to the one you’ve just given me.’

‘Well, that’s not what I’ve been told.’ PC Whelan pulled her phone out of her pocket. ‘All right, what’s the name of your person, then?’

‘How do I know you’re a real policewoman?’ asked Yolanda, irritated by the attitude.

PC Whelan passed her ID card across the desk. ‘Satisfied?’ As though Yolanda were an unreasonable nag and not a responsible member of hotel staff concerned about guests’ privacy.

The ID looked legitimate.
Damn
. Now Yolanda had no choice but to tell her. ‘There’s a woman called Kate Zilber in 419.’

‘I need the key to that room,’ said PC Whelan. She held out her hand, nearly whacking Yolanda in the face with it, and made repetitive flicking movements with her fingers as if to say, ‘Come on, hurry up.’