The Writer (27 page)

Benny came into the room and
put a strong hand on Dan’s shoulder. “Come on, Dan. This has gone
long enough.”

Dan let Benny walk him out
to the corridor and then to the larger room filled with desks. “I’m
making progress,” he said when they were away from the two rooms.
“The car that hit Longbottom, we know what it looked like,
right?”

“You’re referring to the
police report? I didn’t see anything about that.”

“No, it must have been in
Max’s story. When Handisides interviews Gendry folk in the diner. A
white van that almost hit the undertaker.”

“You know that’s not real,
right? Come on, Dan. Tell me you know it’s not real.”

“But it is real. It’s all
real. Somehow they’ve uncovered the truth. Their writing, it’s
amazing. They’re writing about each other, without knowing it. It’s
like they’ve tapped into some kind of higher power, and they knew
what’s happened. And somewhere here, today, we can find the truth
of what happened to Longbottom. We just have to break them to get
it out of them.”

“Dan, the report by Gant and
Handisides, they never interviewed anyone in any diner. That’s in
one of the stories, but it never happened.”

“Then they’re lying,” Dan
said with a raised voice.

“You’re just getting that
from the books. It’s not real.”

“No, it is real. Handisides
is lying too!”

Dan was shouting
now.

Benny looked at his friend
and saw that he was not interested in thinking of any other
conclusion. Everyone in the office stopped whatever they were doing
and stared at them.

“We’ll find this Johnson
person,” said Benny. “Should be easy enough now we know he’s
Marshall’s wife’s fitness instructor. Then we will get to the
bottom of the whole mess. Until then, take a break. Get some fresh
air and have some food.”

Dan stared at him without
speaking, and then realised that getting some more food would be a
very good idea.

Dun Moore had not seen Dan
for about a week but he heard a lot of talk about what he was up
to. It was the kind of talk that made him not so much angry, more
enraged. When he saw him and called him into his office he was
shocked at how much weight he had gained in that time. That knocked
back some of the anger. He could only guess at what his shirt size
was, but it would be the type at the very bottom of the stack, or
right at the end of the row. Dan’s face was bloated too, and his
eyes were ringed with dark circles.

It was not a good time for
Dun, as his own job performance was under review. He was trying for
a promotion, as were most people with a job like his, but he
recently heard that the entire police department might undergo a
major reshuffle, and Dun could wind up with a lesser role. It was
no time for one of his detectives to go rogue.

“Is there some explanation
for your temper tantrum?” Dun asked as Dan sat in the chair in
front of his desk and caused it to creak. “And why, exactly, did
you have those two in interrogation?”

“Paranormal activity is my
best guess,” Dan said with all seriousness. There was no other
explanation that he could give. He noticed a half-eaten donut on
Dun’s desk and wondered if he should ask for it or just go ahead
and take it.

“I’m sorry, but
what
?”

“They know something;
something big. Don’t be fooled by them. I know they’re lying. One
looks like a day-care helper, or a nanny, but she’s in on the whole
thing. Then you’ve got this stay-at-home type who thinks he’s some
serious writer, except nobody’s ever heard of him; at least not any
normal people. Put out a couple of strange books that I’m guessing
have secret clues in them. Maybe apart they don’t pose a threat to
civilisation, but together they’re a force. And when I say it’s a
force, it may be something even they can’t handle. It’s all there
in their writing. All there. Those are some serious documents we
have there. We need to have them preserved and studied. What we
don’t know: is it an isolated incident or could it be
repeated?”

“Are you out of your mind? I
have no idea what you’re talking about. Except it’s the most
ludicrous nonsense I’d ever expect to hear from one of my
detectives. And this is coming from you, Dan? Weren’t you one of my
best? And now you sit here blubbering
what
? Books and secret
forces? Is that what you said? You’re sitting in my office and
saying
what
?”

Dan went to talk but Dun
held up a hand. He wasn’t finished.

“Do you know how busy I am?
Do you? I don’t need any of this. What’s happened to you, man? You
used to be a good investigator; one of my best, in fact. Now look
at you. Way overweight and untidy in your appearance, and making
outlandish accusations that don’t even begin to make sense. I’m not
liking what I’m seeing here. Don’t like it one bit. Take a good
long look in a mirror, soon as you can. If you can’t see any
difference to the Dan who used to work here; if you can’t get your
act together, I’ll be looking for a new homicide detective. If any
of what you just said gets out, I’m in just as much trouble as you,
my friend. And that will not make me happy.”

“Can’t you see what’s going
on here?” Dan responded like he had not been listening. “They’ve
each written about the other. If I can put it all together, figure
out how it happened, I can catch the killer. I’m not saying it’s
one of them, or even that they know who it is. But together, they
might. Maybe I’m right on it, that maybe it is something
supernatural and spooky. Maybe it’s some psychic thing and they
really don’t know each other. They could be telling the truth and
they don’t know what’s happening, and can’t control any of it.
Maybe they only know each other and what happened down in Gendry by
thinking about it at the same time. A spiritual connection of some
kind. Maybe that’s what it is. There’s a church there that might
hold the key. I think one of Marshall’s books featured a
church.”

“Just stop it right
there.”

“This is serious!” Dan
snapped, surprising Dun and making him shout.

“You’re off the case as of
now!”

Dan took a sharp breath,
realising that he had gone too far.

“Take some leave,” Dun said
with sympathy. He could see that Dan was struggling and that made
him lose some of his temper. “You’re a disgrace to your former
self. Just an ugly sight. Never thought I’d say this to you, Dan,
but if I don’t see a huge improvement when you drag yourself back
in here then you’ll need to find somewhere else to call yourself a
workplace, because it won’t be here and you can be sure of that.
You think I need my detectives talking the way you are? You think I
want to be in this office for the rest of my career? What if one of
my bosses came in here, overheard you? Goodbye promotion. I don’t
need that. Get out and get yourself together.”

Dan sat still and blinked.
Then he relaxed and nodded, rubbing his head like it was all too
confusing for him.

“To answer your question,”
Dun said as he calmed some more, seeing that Dan was finally
listening to him. “No, we don’t look to ghosts for evidence. Not
exactly evidence we want to take to trial.”

“Did you want that?” Dan
asked with a soft voice as he pointed to the half-eaten
donut.

Dun slowly shook his head in
response, unable to comprehend what that had to do with anything.
It seemed like it was in slow motion as Dan reached for the donut
and put it into his mouth. He finished it before he made it to the
door.

Gregory Retter walked with
his usual confidence and was oblivious to what Dan had been going
through. Both caught up in their own worlds, they almost walked
into each other. Dan was too flustered over what Dun had told him,
so that was his excuse. Gregory’s excuse was that he never took too
much notice of other people anyway.

“Hey, Daniel,” Gregory said
with a loud voice after they both exchanged apologies, “what was
the name of that suspect you wanted again?”

“For what case?” asked Dan,
not really interested.

“Hey, are you all right?”
Gregory asked with a concern usually missing from his normal
demeanour. “What’s the matter? You look terrible. You been getting
any sleep? I see you’re eating okay, so it can’t be
that.”

“What case?” repeated Dan,
not in the mood to trade insults.

“Longbottom at Gendry. Are
you getting enough sleep, partner?”

“I can’t afford time to
sleep. I have a case to work. What about the Gendry
case?”

“Guy with a funny
name.”

“You mean Craigfield
Johnson?”

“I thought so, yeah. Hard to
be missing that name, isn’t it. Two officers have just called in
wanting to know if you still want to see him. They’ve picked him
up.”

“They’ve found him?” Dan
asked with wide eyes. “You’re telling me they’ve found
Craigfield?”

“He’s here. You’d better get
downstairs, before they let him go.”

“You mean he’s
real?”

Gregory didn’t know what he
meant. “Of course he’s real. You thought he might not
be?”

“Not just a fictional
character in otherwise true stories?”

“What are you talking about?
What stories? Are you okay?” Gregory found himself standing alone
with no answer as Dan ran to the stairs.

Although seated, Dan could
see that Craigfield was a tall man, and the sort that the ladies
might be easily attracted to. He also saw, in the upright and
unnatural way he was sitting, that he was hiding something. A
uniformed officer was standing in the interrogation room with him
and Dan asked him to leave them alone.

“Got you at last,” Dan said
with an odd smile as he closed the door. He just stood and stared
at his target.

“Are you here to tell me
what this is all about?” Craigfield asked, his voice smooth and
deep, his manner not at all nervous. “I have been brought in here
without a reasonable explanation and I don’t like it.”

“When were you last up at
Gendry?” Dan asked as he peered at him closely. He took note of his
physique and saw that he was strong and regularly worked out. He
had manicured fingernails and a nice haircut. If Dan didn’t know
better, he thought that his eyebrows might have had work
too.

“I have never been to
Gendry. Why, is it a crime to go there now?”

“Do you know a man by the
name Allan Longbottom?”

“I have never heard of
anyone of that name, so no is your answer.”

“What is your relationship
with Sophie Trent?”

“I don’t know anyone called
Sophie Trent. Never have.”

“How about Max
Marshall?”

“Max? Do you mean Jill’s
husband?”

Dan allowed himself a smile.
He paced twice in front of his man, like his prey was cornered and
he needed to ponder how to move in for the kill. “You do know Max?”
he asked with deliberate slowness. He then gave a prolonged look at
those eyebrows and imagined them being plucked by some
beautician.

“Not very well, no. But I do
know his wife, Jill Marshall. She’s one of my students. I help her
at the gym. I teach natural body-sculpting. Is something wrong with
Jill? Is there something I should know about? Is she all
right?”

“She’s fine,” Dan said as he
tried to refocus. He told himself to forget the eyebrows and
anything else about him. It irked him that this man seemed so
artificial. Unreal, even. “Tell me more about her,
please.”

“If you insist. She’s a
little vain, if you ask me. Perfectly fine body, but she’s never
content with it, and wants to do too much too soon. I keep advising
her to be easier on herself, that she doesn’t need to work out at
top level, but she thinks she does, so what do you do? Plenty of
women will kill to have her body. Now, can you tell me what this
meeting’s about? Is something wrong with Jill? Is there something I
should know about?”

“You’re having an affair
with her?”

Craigfield’s whole body
jolted with surprise. “Now wait just a minute.”

“Are you denying it? Her
husband Max seems to think very strongly that you are.”

Craigfield managed a
half-laugh and Dan noticed that he lost his cool. His appearance of
perfection beheld a kink and Dan relished it.

“Denying what? That I’m
having an affair with one of my students? What evidence could you
possibly have to make that assertion? What are you anyway, marriage
police? I didn’t know it was the dark ages again. What’s going on
here? That can’t be the reason you have me here.”

“You had a recent
altercation with Max Marshall?”

“That’s nonsense. An
altercation? I have never had an altercation with anybody. Where
are you getting this? Who’s telling you this? I can’t believe what
I’m hearing. I think I need my lawyer if this is continuing much
longer.”

“You know I have
evidence?”

“Evidence of
what
?”
Craigfield asked, exasperated. “Nothing you have asked me has
anything to do with me.”