‘Oh, please don’t say this,’ groaned May, passing a hand across his face.
‘I did some tests. The hands exactly fit the bruises on Noah Kramer’s neck. There was even a tiny wooden splinter stuck on the surface of the baby’s epidermis. I talked with Dan, and he says he can’t find any evidence that anything human touched the baby. What’s more, there was no forced entry to the nursery. So far he’s found no signs of anyone apart from Mrs Kramer and the nanny having been in there.’
‘So what you’re telling me is that after the baby was left alone, Mr Punch climbed down from his hook, turned the key in the nursery door lock, crept over to the cot, took his rage out on Noah Kramer and fulfilled his mythical destiny to become a murderer,’ said Bryant, genuinely shocked.
The senior detectives felt it was important for the PCU staff to be able to share time together away from their desks and laptops, so they had set aside the newly designated common room. May thought it would be an area where they could form impromptu gatherings at various times of the day and night to share their ideas about ongoing cases.
Instead, they usually found Bimsley there with his boots off, eating cheese and onion crisps while thumbing through the latest issue of Gadgets. Now it was heading toward midnight, but the lights were still ablaze in the common room, and all was far from well.
‘Oh no,’ said Raymond Land, studying the photographs Sergeant Jack Renfield had taken. ‘No, no, no.’
‘I’m afraid that’s who she is,’ said John May. ‘I assume that’s why we’ve been given the case.’
‘The daughter of the Minister for Public Buildings,’ said Land. ‘Gail Strong is working for this troupe?’
‘It’s a theatre company. A troupe refers to the actors. She’s on the production side. Assistant stage manager, I believe. A perfectly reasonable explanation for what she was doing on the premises.’
‘Yes—but the murder of a baby? And she’s a potential suspect? That phone is going to start ringing any minute now. My God, the implications are appalling!’
‘The only appalling thing is that an infant has been brutalized,’ said May, annoyed. Land worried too much about his job and not enough about the victims of tragedies.
‘Yes, yes, babies die all the time, but the involvement of a minister’s daughter is unthinkable. I suppose you know that Gail Strong fled the country after a pregnancy termination earlier this year? She told the press she has a horror of babies. She also has a habit of disappearing whenever the spotlight gets too strong. Her father usually pays the press to hush everything up. What if she killed Noah Kramer in a fit of jealousy or something? No, even worse, suppose Bryant starts thinking she’s guilty? Her father’s department has been under fire lately. This could be a lethal blow for him.’
‘I’m glad you’ve got your priorities in the right order.’
‘I look at the broader picture. You just have to deal with the aftereffects of the crime. I’ve got to keep the money coming into this Unit. If the budget dries up, cases like this will revert to the Met’s jurisdiction, and we know what that means. You might as well give them to the cat.’ He threw a poisoned glance at Crippen. ‘I’m sorry, I don’t mean to sound callous. Coming in this morning I thought to myself, this is a good start to the week. I’ve had trouble at home all weekend; I was glad to get back to work. And now this.’
‘It’s not Leanne again, is it?’ asked May solicitously. Land’s wife was bored and showing renewed signs of unfaithfulness. She had taken a suspiciously large number of flamenco lessons lately, and was now attending sherry-tasting evenings in the company of a twenty-three-year-old Tio Pépe representative from Jerez. She had already suggested going on holiday with Paco instead of their customary cycling fortnight in Wales.
‘I think it’s some kind of midlife crisis. She’s dyed her hair blond and wants to buy a sports car. It’s all these late-night women’s TV shows about fulfilment she’s been watching. She’s suddenly got it into her mind that she should be enjoying regular sex. But enough of my troubles. Get this sorted out as quickly as possible, will you? And try not to involve Gail Strong. She wants to be a singer or something. She’s hired a PR consultant to manage her, but he has to spend the whole time covering up her indiscretions.’
‘I’m surprised you know about all this,’ said May.
‘I saw it on television,’ Land admitted sheepishly. ‘One of Leanne’s programmes.’ He eyed the overcoat he had hung on the back of his chair, and knew there would be no likelihood of slipping into it until midnight at the earliest.