"Good G.o.d, man, what is there to smile about?"
"Your phone," Hoffer said. "It"s a phony, isn"t it? I mean a fake."
"I believe it"s a replica."
"Lot of fakes about these days, Mr Johns. I"ll have tea, please, milk and two lumps of sugar."
Johns stared at him, deciding whether or not to let the brash American have his tea. Politeness won the argument.
Johns buzzed his secretary and asked for a pot of tea.
"I believe," Hotter said, "your princ.i.p.al duty lies with your clients. Would you agree, Mr Johns?"
"Of course."
"Well, one of them"s been murdered. And her family have asked you for your help. Now, way I see it, they want her killer found, she would want her killer found, and probably you do too."
"Of course I do," fussed the lawyer. "No "probably" about it. I think they should bring back hanging for terrorists."
"Terrorists? What makes you say that?"
"What?"
"That the a.s.sa.s.sin was a terrorist?"
"Well, who was his intended victim?"
"I"ve no reason to believe it wasn"t Mrs Ricks."
"Really? But the MP and the diplomat ... ?"
Hotter shook his head. "The Demolition Man usually gets who he aims for."
"Ah, but the papers say he shot the wrong person in New York. They say that"s where your story starts."
Hotter accepted this. He"d been interviewed yesterday and this morning by a couple of papers and a radio station. No television yet, which was surprising. The story had a new angle with the two East European countries closing their 150.
mutual border. The Demolition Man was still news, and Hotter always gave good copy.
"As I see it, Mr Hotter," Johns went on, "my duty is to aid the official police investigation any way I can. I don"t believe you form part of that investigation, therefore I"m not obliged to grant you an interview at all." .
"If you know anything," Hoffer said, "you"ll know that if anyone"s going to catch this man, that person is me."
"Really? And how long have you been tracking him? Quite a while, I believe."
Hotter was getting to like the solicitor better all the time.
"Have you spoken to the police much?" he asked.
"Practically every day, twice yesterday." Johns shook his head. "I try to help where I can, but some of the questions..."
A tray of tea arrived. Hotter gave the secretary a good look as she stood beside him and leaned over to put the tray down on the desk. Great legs, nice a.s.s, but a face so thin and sharp you could use it as an awl.
"Thank you, Monica," said Johns. After the secretary had gone, he started pouring milk and tea with the grace of a d.u.c.h.ess.
"I"ll let you help yourself to sugar."
Hotter helped himself. "What sort of questions?" he asked casually.
"Well, the one that got me was: what colours did she like to wear? I couldn"t see the point of that at all, but the officer said he had his reasons for asking."
"Didn"t tell you what those reasons were though?"
"No, he didn"t. A typical policeman, I"m afraid."
"Her favourite colours, huh?" Hotter pondered the question himself, seeking the point behind it, while he stirred his tea.
It was one of those elegant little china cups with a handle so overelaborate and undersized that he ended up with his hand around the cup itself, ignoring the handle.
151.
Johns seemed to be having no trouble with his own handle. They probably taught tricks like that in law school.
"I should tell you, Mr Johns, that I"m working pretty closely with the London police. They know I"m on the right side. I mean, we"ve all got the same objective, right?"
"Yes, I understand."
"So don"t misunderstand me." HoBer smiled humbly. "The press don"t always paint the real picture of me. I"m not after glory or anything, I"m not some obsessed crazy guy with a mission from on high. I"m just a cop doing my job." Sincerity was easy. "And I"d appreciate your help."
Johns put down his cup. "And you shall have it, so far as I can give it."
The telephone interrupted them. It might be a replica, but it had a nice old tinny ring which faded only slowly after Johns picked up the receiver.
"Monica, I wanted all calls held. All right, put him on.
h.e.l.lo, Ray, what can I do for you? No, I haven"t had the news on this morning. What"s that?" He looked at Hoffer and kept looking. "That"s interesting. When was this? Mm, well, I don"t know what to think. No, no comment at this time.
Thank you, goodbye."
He put down the phone but left his hand on the receiver.
"That was a reporter," he informed Hoffer. "He says a local radio station has been contacted by someone claiming to be the a.s.sa.s.sin."
"Some crank," said Hoffer. "What"s he saying?"
"He says he wants the two East European countries to know he wasn"t hired to a.s.sa.s.sinate the diplomat. He says he got who he was aiming at." Johns looked very pale as he lifted his hand from the receiver. "I think I need something stifler than tea."
There was a drinks cabinet beneath the window. Johns poured a dark liquid into two tiny stemmed gla.s.ses. There was about a shot"s worth in the gla.s.s he handed to Hoffer, who sniffed it.
152.
"Sherry." said Johns, gulping his down.
Hoffer, who"d only come across the stuff in English trifle, knocked it back, rolling it around his mouth before swallowing. It was sour to start with, but quickly got mellow as it warmed his gut.
"Not bad," he said.
"You still think this was a crank call?" asked the solicitor.
"I don"t know."
"Maybe your man has just found himself a conscience."
"Some conscience." Hofifer still didn"t get the question about Ricks"s clothes. "The policeman you spoke to yesterday, the one who asked what Mrs Ricks normally wore, can I ask who he was? Was it Chief Inspector Broome maybe? Or DI Edmond?"
"No, neither of those, though I"ve spoken to them before.
This was someone new to the inquiry. He apologised for asking questions I"d probably been asked before."
"Was he on his own?"
"No, he was with another officer."
"He didn"t have brown hair, did he?"
"Black hair, cut short as I recall."
Hoffer was beginning to wonder. Mark Wesley had got some fake ID from Harry Capaldi ...
"Did they show you any identification?"
"Oh, yes. The man was called Wes ... no, hold on." Hoffer had nearly leapt from his chair, but the solicitor was fussing on his desk again, trying to find a sc.r.a.p of paper or something. "Here it is. Inspector West."
"No first name?"
"No. His a.s.sistant was a woman, a Detective Constable Harris."
Hoffer shook his head slowly. "I don"t know them," he said, not convinced he was quite telling the truth.
Bob Broome wasn"t thrilled to see him. Vine Street was its i53 usual chaos and gloom. Broome wouldn"t let Hoffer past the front desk, so Hotter waited for Broome to descend.
"I"m busy," he said curtly, when he finally arrived.
"You"ll find time for me, Bob, when you hear what I"ve got."
Broome narrowed his eyes. "I"ve got enough cranks around here as it is."
"You don"t think that call was a crank, do you?"
"I don"t know."
"Have you got a recording or just a transcript?"
Broome narrowed his eyes further. "Is that all you"re here for, to try pumping me about the phone call?"
Hoffer shook his head defiantly. "Just tell me this: DI West and DC Harris, do you know them?"
"First names?" Hoffer shook his head. Broome gave it another couple of seconds. "Never heard of them."
"West sounds a bit like Wesley, doesn"t it?"
"Come on, Hoffer, what"s your story?"
"Can we go upstairs and talk about it? I feel like a victim stuck down here."
Broome decided to give the American the benefit of his very grave doubts.
"Come on then," he said. On the way up, they pa.s.sed Barney coming down. He winked at Hoffer.
"I"ll have it for you tomorrow," he said.
"Thanks," Hoffer said, trying to sound guilty or embarra.s.sed as Broome gave him a long dirty look.
When they got to the office, Broome made a show of checking the time. "You"ve got five minutes," he told Hoffer.
Then he sat down and looked like he was waiting for a show to begin.
"I don"t pay dues to any acting union, Bob." Hofifer sat down slowly, taking a while to get comfortable. "I"ll put it to you straight, but stop acting like you"re in a sulk."
"Sulk? You"re going around like you"re the Chief Inspector and I"m just some office-boy who gets in your way. I"m not i54 sulking, Holler, I"m b.l.o.o.d.y furious. Now, what have you got for me?"
A Detective Constable came into the room and placed a small packet on Broome"s desk. Broome ignored it, waiting for Hoffer to speak. Hoffer pointed to the packet.
"Is that the tape, Bob?" Broome didn"t say anything. "Come on, let"s listen to it."
"First tell me what you know."
"Well, "know" is a bit strong. But there"s this solicitor, Geoffrey Johns. Know what Johns are in the States? Well, never mind."
"I know Mr Johns."
"Yes, you do. But you don"t know anyone called West or Harris. West"s in his mid-thirties, tall and lean, with short black hair. He"s with a young woman, pretty tall with short fair hair. I"ll let your guys go get more detailed descriptions from Johns and his secretary."
"Good of you. So you think West is Wesley?"
"Yes."
"And he"s posing as a police officer?"