Still Waters (Charlie Resnick #9)(12)

“Yes, Inspector.”

When Resnick sat down on the bed, Divine flinched. All those months and the memory of it clear like burning, raw inside him. Cold sweats when his body turned against him, wrenching him. The shame. Like a knife inside him. Skin on his skin. Cunt and whore. Carl Vincent delicately covering him.

“Mark?”

Divine’s voice so quiet, even that close, Resnick could not be certain he had spoken.

“Can I get you something? Cup of tea? Cigarette?”

When Divine looked back at him, his eyes were bright with tears.

Resnick’s counterpart was bluff, busy, sandy haired. Working in cities less than twenty miles apart, they knew one another by sight and reputation, little more. To Barrie Wiggins, Resnick was a bit of an oddball, soft round the edges, not the sort you’d opt to sink a few pints with after closing, swapping stories. Wiggins, Resnick knew, enjoyed a reputation for being hard as High Peak granite, the sort who still liked to be out with the lads on patrol of a Sat’day night, roll up his sleeves and pitch into a bar-room fight. One of the best-known anecdotes about him, how he got hold of some ex-miner clinging to his right to silence, slammed his head down into a desk drawer and squeezed tight till the man changed his mind. It was an anecdote that Wiggins liked to tell about himself.

“Bloody mess, Charlie. No two ways about it. Your lad, got himself in a right bloody mess.”

“Tell me,” Resnick said.

Wiggins shook a packet of Benson Kingsize in Resnick’s direction, raised an eyebrow at his refusal, lit one for himself and inhaled deeply. “Leaving aside the scraps he was into in half a dozen pubs beforehand, it’s the ruckus at Buckaroos that’s the dog’s f*cking bollocks.”

Resnick had driven by the place several times in the past: a sprawling nightclub with a kicking stallion in pink neon over the door and bouncers who wore bootlace ties with their DJs.

“None of this corroborated, of course. Not fully. Not yet. My lads out asking questions now. But the way it seems, your lad was abusive to the bar staff right from the start; he asks this girl to dance and when she says no, drags her out onto the floor anyhow. She manages to pull away and when he comes after her, lobs her drink in his face. Your boy slaps her hard for her trouble.” Wiggins tumbled ash from the end of his cigarette. “When security shows up, he sticks a pint glass in one of’em’s face.”

“Provocation?”

“Like I say, we’re asking questions. No problem there. More witnesses than you can shake a stick at.”

“And the injuries?”

“Seventeen stitches in some other poor bastard’s face. One lad with a cut across his hand, tendons severed, doubtful if they’ll mend. When the first uniforms arrived, that was when he pulled the knife.”

“What knife?”

“Stanley knife. Inside pocket of his suit.”

“And he used it, is that what you’re saying?”

Wiggins shook his head. “Not what we’re hearing so far.”

“Threatened to?”

“Apparently.”

“It’s not possible the officers misinterpreted, heat of the moment?”

“Come on, Charlie.”

“It’s possible, though? Couldn’t he have been handing it over?”

Wiggins chuckled. “Blade first?”

Resnick was on his feet, hands in pockets, pacing the room. “Divine. You know what happened to him. A few months back.”

“I’d heard something.”

“He was raped. Smashed round the face with a baseball bat and raped.”

“Doesn’t excuse …”

Resnick brought the palms of both hands down against the inspector’s desk, flat and fast. “Reasons, not excuses. Reasons. This is a serving officer …”

“Suspended …”

“Sick leave.”

“Same thing.”

Resnick let that pass. “A detective constable with a commendation for bravery …”

“And a knife in his pocket.”

“He’s frightened.”

“Funny way to show it.”

“Ever since he was attacked, frightened. Months before he’d go out at all.”

“Ah, well, always find a reason, eh, Charlie. Search hard enough. Excuses for every f*cking thing. I don’t doubt but you could find him some psychiatrist, half an hour in the witness box, make it seem as if nowt ever happened.”

Resnick shook his head. “I just want you to understand.”

“Oh, I understand. One of yours, Charlie, you want to do your best for him, I can appreciate that. Respect it. Good management. Good for the team. But see things from my point of view; think how the papers’d look at it, bloody television, some copper runs amok with a blade and we pat him on the head and tell him to take it easy, dole out a few aspirin.”

“That’s not what I’m saying. Not what I want.”

“What do you want, Charlie?”

“To think your people’d treat him with some understanding. And go easy when it comes to laying charges. Think about the whole picture.”

“The whole picture,” Wiggins smirked. “We’re good at that. Noted.”

“Don’t keep him locked up longer than you have to. Whatever else, ask for police bail, don’t let him fetch up inside on remand.”