For the Sake of Elena (Inspector Lynley, #5)(131)

Gareth pointed first to the posters, then to the photographs. “Mutha,” he said in his strange guttural voice. “Sisser.” He watched Lynley shrewdly. He seemed to be waiting for a reaction to the irony of his mother’s and sister’s modes of employment. Lynley merely nodded.

On a wide desk beneath the room’s only window, a computer sat. It was also, Lynley saw, a Ceephone, identical to the others he had already seen in Cambridge. Gareth switched the unit on and drew a second chair to the desk. He gestured Lynley into it and quickly accessed a word processing programme.

“Sergeant,” Lynley said, when he saw how Gareth intended them to communicate, “you’re going to have to make notes from the screen.” He took off his coat and scarf and sat at the desk. Havers came to stand behind him, the hood of her coat thrown back, her pink cap removed, a notebook in her hand.

Were you the father? Lynley typed.

The boy looked long at the words before he replied with: Didn’t know she was pg. She never said. Told you already.

“Not knowing she was pregnant doesn’t mean sod-all,” Havers remarked. “He can’t take us for fools.”

“He doesn’t,” Lynley said. “I dare say he just takes himself for one, Sergeant.” He typed: You had sex with Elena, deliberately making it a statement, not a question.

Gareth answered by hitting one of the number keys: 1.

Once?

Yes.

When?

The boy pushed away from the desk for a moment. He remained in his chair. He looked not at the computer screen but at the floor, his arms on his knees. Lynley typed the word September and touched the boy’s shoulder. Gareth glanced up, read it, dropped his head again. A hollow sound, akin to a stricken bellow, rose from his throat.

Lynley typed: Tell me what happened, Gareth and touched the boy’s shoulder again.

Gareth looked up. He had begun to cry, and as if this display of emotion angered him, he drew his arm savagely across his eyes. Lynley waited. The boy moved back to the desk.

London, he typed. Just before term. I saw her for my birthday. She f*cked me on the floor of the kitchen while her mum was out buying milk for tea. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, YOU BLOODY STUPID BERK.

“Great.” Havers sighed.

Loved her, Gareth went on. I wanted us special. To be—he dropped his hands to his lap, stared at the screen.

You thought the lovemaking meant more than Elena intended it to mean, Lynley typed. Is that what happened?

Fucking, Gareth answered. Not lovemaking. Fucking.

Is that what she called it?

Thought we build something. Last year. I took real care. To make it last. Didn’t want to rush anything. Never even tried with her. Wanted it to be real.

But it wasn’t?

Thought it was. Because if you do that with a woman it means like a pledge. Like you say something you wouldn’t say to anyone else.

Saying that you love each other?

Want to be together. Want to have a future. I thought that’s why she did it with me.

Did you know she was sleeping with someone else?

Not then.

When did you learn it?

She came up this term. I thought we’d be together.

As lovers?

She didn’t want that. Laughed when I tried to talk to her about it. Said what’s matter with you Gareth it was only a f*ck we did it it felt good that’s the end of it right why you getting so moon-eyed over it it’s not a big deal.

But it was to you.

Thought she loved me that’s why she wanted to do it with me didn’t know—He stopped. He looked sapped of energy.

Lynley gave him a moment, glancing round the room. Over a hook on the back of the door hung his scarf, the distinctive blue of the University letterman. His boxing gloves—smooth, clean leather with a look of having been lovingly cared for—hung on a second hook beneath them. Lynley wondered how much of Gareth Randolph’s pain had been worked out against one of the punching bags in the small gymnasium on the upper floor of Fenners.

He turned back to the computer. The argument you had with Elena on Sunday. Is that when she told you she was involved with someone else?

I talked about us, he responded. But there was no us.

That’s what she told you?

How could there not be us. I said what about London.

That’s when she told you it hadn’t meant anything?

Just a poke for fun Gareth we were randy we did it don’t be such a twit and make it more than that.

She was laughing at you. I can’t imagine you liked it.

Kept trying to talk. How she acted London. What she felt London. But she wouldn’t listen. And then she told.

That there was someone else?

Didn’t believe her at first. I said she was scared. Said she was trying to be what her father wanted her to be. Said all sorts of things. Wasn’t even thinking. Wanted to hurt her.

“That’s a telling remark,” Havers noted.

“Perhaps,” Lynley said. “But it’s a fairly typical reaction to being hurt by someone you love: Measure still for measure.”

“And when the first measure is murder?” Havers asked.

“I haven’t discounted that, Sergeant.” He typed, What did you do when she’d convinced you there was another man?

Gareth lifted his hands but did not type. In a nearby room, a vacuum began to thunder as the building’s bedder made her daily rounds, and Lynley felt the answering urgency of concluding this interview before they were disturbed by anyone. He typed again: What did you do?