She stopped abruptly, and tried to reach out for the glass of water on the cabinet beside her, but her hands were shaking too much. Connolly got up and did the honours, and gave her a tissue to wipe the sweat from her face.
‘You’re doing really well,’ Slider said. ‘Take a minute to catch your breath.’
‘You were really brave,’ Connolly cooed to her, proffering the water again. ‘Fantastic, really.’
Cat turned her eyes up at her. ‘You think so?’ she whispered.
‘You were brilliant. I could never be that brave. I’d fall apart.’ Slider thought this an unwise thing for a police officer to say, but it seemed to do the trick, and Cat took a steadier breath and seem ready to go on.
‘So let me help you along for the last bit,’ Connolly said when she resumed her seat. ‘You knocked on next door’s window . . .?’
‘I could see them behind the glass, looking out. They must have heard me fall in the bush. I kind of staggered over and banged on it and said something – I can’t remember what. They looked shit scared. But they let me in. I can’t remember much after that. I kind of went to pieces.’
‘And no wonder. You’d done so well,’ Connolly said.
‘Just one more little bit,’ Slider said, ‘and then we’ll let you rest. About this man. What can you tell me about him? Did you know him?’
‘I never saw his face.’
‘Had you ever met any of the doctor’s friends or work colleagues?’
‘No. It was always just him and me.’
‘So, tell me what you did see of the killer.’
‘Just the shape of him across the room. And then when I was hanging there, he came to the balcony door, and I saw, like, his feet, between the pot and the wall.’
‘What kind of shoes was he wearing?’
‘I dunno,’ she said, seeming dazed. Then, ‘Work boots. Yeah, he had, like, work boots on. And dark-blue trousers. Not jeans. Like, Chinos.’
‘Good, very good,’ said Slider. ‘Now, when you saw him by the bedroom door, just the shape of him, how tall do you think he was?’
‘I dunno. I think he was tall. And, like, big. In the shoulders, I mean.’ She paused, thinking. ‘And when he was walking away down the road, he had a dark top on, like a bomber jacket. And dark hair.’
‘You’ve done very well,’ Slider said. ‘You’ve helped us a lot. And you were very brave.’
She accepted the praise this time without pleasure. She looked at him blankly out of a blank face. ‘It doesn’t make any difference,’ she said. ‘David’s dead. I never knew anyone get killed before. Especially not like that. I can’t get my head round it.’
‘You couldn’t have helped him,’ Slider said.
The pills must have been wearing off: tears began to gather in her eyes. ‘But who would do a thing like that? I mean, he’s a doctor. Who would kill a doctor?’
‘That’s what we mean to find out,’ Slider said.
‘I’m surprised at her resourcefulness,’ Slider said, when they were outside again in the chilly sunshine. ‘I imagine most people would have panicked and run into the bathroom and been trapped, but she managed to think her way through that, despite being afraid for her life.’
‘Fair play to her,’ Connolly said. ‘She was dumb enough about dating the doctor. Sex twice a week for the price of a meal! And phony promises to help her career. Holy God, she’d want to cop on to herself. Can you imagine her an actress?’
‘Stranger things have happened.’
‘Like?’
‘Who would have bet ballroom dancing would become top-billing TV?’
‘Oh, right. I’ll give you that one.’
‘But given that she’d only know him a few weeks, we can’t discount the possibility that she’s a plant—’
‘Yeah, from the neck up!’
‘—or an accomplice. That she knows more about the killing than she’s saying. She came across as genuine, but we’ll need to investigate her enough to cross her off. Since you liked her so much, I’ll put you on to that.’
‘Thanks, boss,’ Connolly said, with commendable restraint.
‘And we can’t discount that it was a crime of passion.’
‘It sounds more like a hit man.’
‘Disgruntled spouses and lovers have been known to hire them. And actually,’ he corrected himself, ‘we don’t know that it was a hit man.’
‘A gun with a silencer?’
‘But we only have Miss Aude’s word for the silencer.’
‘Wouldn’t the next-doors have heard if it wasn’t silenced?’
‘They’re solidly built, those houses. And you said the Firmans were deaf.’
‘Deaf-ish,’ she qualified, for the sake of the theory.
‘Besides, it’s astonishing,’ he concluded from the depth of a long experience, ‘what people don’t see and hear, even when it’s under their eyes and ears.’
Porson was surging restlessly about his office, like an electron searching for its nucleus. Given the amount of motion relative to the observer, you’d have expected him to generate a magnetic field.
‘So we’re looking for a tall bloke with dark hair, and that’s it? Talk about a needle in a woodpile! You’re looking for the weapon?’
‘Dustbins and front gardens. But I doubt we’ll find it. From the sound of it the killer was very calm and collected, so he’s not likely to have chucked the gun away in a panic.’
‘Probably a rental, anyway,’ Porson grunted. ‘I hate gun crime.’
‘I don’t think going after the man or the gun will yield anything,’ Slider said. ‘We know the victim knew the killer—’
‘We do?’ Porson said sharply.
‘Why else would he have let him in?’
‘Any number of reasons,’ Porson said, though he didn’t offer any. ‘I don’t like to see you jumping to collusions. All the same,’ he added after a beat, ‘you’re probably right. Which raises some interesting questions.’
Yes,’ said Slider. ‘It looks like a professional hit, but if he knew the killer, either he has some strange friends—’
‘Or some friendly enemies. What about this girl – the witness?’
‘I don’t think she was in on it. She seems genuinely shaken up, and her injuries are reassuringly slight. If she was involved, I’d have expected her to have been tied up, or roughed up, to establish her innocence. As it is, her story is quirky enough to sound genuine. And she seems really scared the killer will come back for her.’
‘But he didn’t know she was there,’ Porson objected.
‘I know. But he soon will. Even if she doesn’t talk—’
‘Which she will. They always do.’
‘—there’s the old couple, the Firmans. The press are going to be doorstepping them and we can’t gag them. I’ve persuaded the hospital to keep Aude in until tomorrow, so that gives us time to do a quick check on her background. After that . . .’
Porson nodded, thinking. ‘Try and persuade her to go away somewhere for a few days – parents, old aunty, whatever – and not tell anyone where she’s going. I don’t think she’s in that much danger. If she’d seen chummy’s face it’d be different, but if he’s professional he won’t risk offing a witness who only saw his boots. So, what’s your strategy visa vee the investigation?’
‘As you say, we can’t follow up the man or the weapon, so we’ve got to find out who wanted Rogers dead. That divides into the usual categories—’