The Bat(99)

‘Are you sure you don’t get sunburnt? With this sun and your skin—’

‘You’re the one who rubbed in the suntan lotion, herr Hole!’

‘I was just wondering if it was a high enough factor. OK, forget it. I just didn’t want you to get burnt.’

Harry stared at her light-sensitive skin. When he had asked for a favour she had said yes straight away – without any hesitation.

‘Relax, Daddy, and tell the story.’

The fan wasn’t working.

‘Shit, it was brand bloody new!’ said Watkins, hitting the back as he switched it on and off. To no avail. It was no more than a piece of silent aluminium and dead electricity.

McCormack growled.

‘Forget it, Larry. Ask Laura for a new one. It’s D-Day today and we have more important things on our minds. Larry?’

Watkins, irritated, moved the fan away.

‘Everything’s ready, sir. We’ll have three cars in the area. Miss Enquist will be equipped with a radio transmitter so that we can plot where she is at any given moment, as well as a microphone, so that we can hear and assess the situation. The plan is she takes him home to her flat where Holy, Lebie and myself are positioned in the bedroom wardrobe, on the balcony and in the corridor respectively. If anything happens in the car, or they drive somewhere else, the three cars will follow.’

‘Tactics?’

Yong straightened his glasses. ‘Her job is to get him to say something about the murders, sir. She’ll put him under pressure by saying she’ll go to the police with what Inger Holter told her about his sexual habits. If he feels secure that she can’t escape he may lift the lid.’

‘How long can we wait before we go in?’

‘Until we have substantial evidence on tape. In a worst-case scenario, until he lays his hands on her.’

‘Risk?’

‘This isn’t without risk, of course, but strangling someone isn’t a quick process. We’re only seconds away at any stage.’

‘What if he’s got a weapon?’

Yong shrugged. ‘From what we know that would be uncharacteristic behaviour, sir.’

McCormack had got up and started pacing to and fro in the small room. He reminded Harry of a fat old leopard he had seen in the zoo when he was young. The cage was so small the front part of the body began to turn before the rear had finished the previous turn. Back and forth. Back and forth.

‘What if he wants sex before anything is said or anything has happened?’

‘She’ll refuse. Say she’s changed her mind, she only said it to persuade him to get her some morphine.’

‘And then we let him go on his way?’

‘We don’t do any splashing unless we know we can catch him, sir.’

McCormack sucked his top lip under his bottom lip. ‘Why’s she doing this?’

Silence.

‘Because she doesn’t like rapists and murderers,’ Harry said after a long pause.

‘Apart from that.’

There was an even longer silence.

‘Because I asked her to,’ Harry said at length.

‘Can I disturb you, Yong?’

Yong Sue looked up from his computer with a smile. ‘Sure, mate.’

Harry slumped onto a chair. The busy officer typed away, keeping one eye on the screen and one eye on him.

‘Nice if this stayed between us, Yong, but I’ve lost my belief.’

Yong stopped typing.

‘I think Evans White’s a wild goose chase,’ Harry continued.

Yong looked bewildered. ‘Why?’

‘It’s a bit difficult to explain, but there are a couple of things I can’t get out of my mind. Andrew was trying to tell me something at the hospital. And before, too.’

Harry broke off. Yong motioned him to go on.

‘He was trying to tell me the solution was closer to home than I thought. I believe the guilty party is someone Andrew, for some reason, couldn’t arrest himself. He needed an outsider. Such as me – a Norwegian who drops in and has to catch the next flight back. I reckoned that was how it was when I thought Otto Rechtnagel was the murderer, that because he was a close friend, Andrew wanted someone else to stop him. There was something that grated though, for me, deep down. Now I realise he wasn’t the person Andrew wanted me to nab, it was someone else.’

Yong cleared his throat. ‘I haven’t mentioned this before, Harry, but I was surprised when Andrew came up with this witness who had seen Evans White in Nimbin on the same day Holter was murdered. Now, in retrospect, it’s struck me that Andrew might have had another motive for removing the focus from Evans White: the guy had a hold on him. Evans White knew Andrew was on heroin and could have had him kicked out of the force and put in prison. I don’t like the idea, but have you considered the possibility that Andrew and White may have struck a little deal? That Andrew would make sure we gave White a wide berth?’