"Try me."
"Go on then."
Galbraith snapped one bracelet onto his own wrist, then leaned forward and snapped the other onto Tony's. "Anthony Bridges, I am arresting you on suspicion of conspiracy in the rape and murder last Saturday night of Mrs. Kate Sumner of Langton Cottage and the grievous bodily assault this morning of Miss Margaret Jenner of Broxton House." He stood up and started walking toward the door, dragging Bridges behind him. "You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defense-"
"Shit!" said the young man stumbling to his feet. "This is a joke, right?"
"No joke." The DI twitched the spliff out of the young man's fingers and flicked it, still alight, into the corridor. "The reason Steven Harding was attacked by a dog this morning is because he attempted to assault another woman in the same place that Kate Sumner died. Now you can either tell me what you know, or you can accompany me to Winfrith, where you will be formally charged and interviewed on tape." He looked the man up and down, and laughed. "Frankly, I couldn't give a toss either way. It'll save me time if you talk to me now, but"-he shook his head regretfully-"I'd hate your neighbors to miss the fun. It must be hell living next door to you."
"That spliff's going to set my house on fire!"
Galbraith watched the joint smolder gently on the wooden floorboards. "It's too green. You're not curing it properly."
"You'd know, of course."
"Trust me." He yanked Bridges down the corridor. "Where were we? Oh, yes. It may harm your defense if you do not mention, when questioned, something you later rely on in court." He pulled open the door and ushered the man outside. "Anything you do say may be given in evidence." He prodded Bridges onto the pavement in front of a startled old lady with fluffy white hair and eyes as big as golf balls behind pebble spectacles. "Morning, ma'am," he said politely.
Her mouth gaped.
"I've parked behind Tesco's," he told Bridges, "so it'll probably be quicker if we go up the High Street."
"You can't take me up the High Street like this. Tell him, Mrs. Crane."
The elderly woman leaned forward, putting a hand behind her ear. "Tell him what, dear?"
"Oh, Jesus! Never mind! Forget it!"
"I'm not sure I can," she murmured in a confidential tone. "Did you know you were naked?"
"Of course I know!" he shouted into her deaf ear. "The police are denying me my rights, and you're a witness to it."
"That's nice. I've always wanted to be a witness to something." Her eyes brimmed with sudden amusement. "I'll tell my husband about it. He'll be pleased as punch. He's been saying for years that the only thing that happens when you burn the candle at both ends is the wick gets smaller." She gave a joyful laugh as she moved on. "And, you know, I always thought it was a joke."
Galbraith grinned after her. "What do you want me to do with your front door?" he asked, grabbing the handle. "Slam it shut?"
"Jesus no!" Bridges lurched backward to stop the door from closing. "I haven't got a key, for Christ's sake."
"Losing your nerve already?"
"I could sue you for this."
"No chance. This was your choice, remember. I explained that if I had to arrest you, I would take you out as you were, and your response was: Go on then."
Bridges looked wildly up the road as a man rounded the corner, and Galbraith was rewarded with a scrambling stampede for the safety of the corridor. He shut the door and stood with his back to it, halting further flight by a jerk on the handcuffs. "Right. Shall we start again? Why did Steve go back to Chapman's Pool this morning?"
"I don't know. I didn't even know he was there." His eyes widened as Galbraith reached for the door handle again. "Listen, dickhead, that guy coming up the street's a journalist, and he's been pestering me all morning about Steve. If I'd known where the bastard was I'd have sent the bloke after him, but I can't even get him to answer his mobile." He jerked his head toward the sitting room. "At least let's get out of earshot," he muttered. "He's probably listening at the door, and you don't want the press on your back any more than I do."
Galbraith released the handcuffs on his own wrist and followed Bridges into the sitting room again, treading on the spliff as he went. "Tell me about the relationship between Steve and Kate," he said, resuming his seat. "And make it convincing, Tony," he added, taking his notebook from his pocket with a sigh, "because A: I'm knackered; B: you're getting up my nose; and C: it's completely immaterial to me if your name is plastered across the newspapers tomorrow morning as a probable suspect on a rape and murder charge."
"I never did understand the attraction. I only met her once, and as far as I'm concerned, she's the most boring woman I've ever come across. It was in a pub one Friday lunchtime, and all she could do was sit and look at Steve as if he were Leonardo DiCaprio. Mind you, when she started talking, it was even worse. God, she was stupid! Having a conversation with her was like listening to paint dry. I think she must have lived on a diet of soap operas, because whatever I said reminded her of something that had happened in Neighbours or EastEnders, and it got on my tits after a while. I asked Steve later what the hell he thought he was doing, and he laughed and said he wasn't interested in her for her conversation. He reckoned she had a dream of an arse, and that was all that mattered. To be honest, I don't think he ever intended it to get as serious as it did. She met him in the street one day after the incident with Hannah's buggy and invited him back to her house. He said it was all pretty mind-blowing. One minute he was struggling to find something to talk about over a coffee in the kitchen, and the next she was climbing all over him. He said the only bad part was that the kid sat in a highchair watching them do it because Kate said Hannah would scream her head off if she tried to take her out.
"As far as Steve was concerned, that was it. That's what he told me anyway. Wham, bam, thank you, ma'am, and bye-bye. So I was a bit surprised when he asked if he could bring her here on a couple of occasions in the autumn term. It was during the day, while her husband was at work, so I never saw her. Other times, they did it on his boat or in her house, but mostly they did it in his Volvo. He'd drive her out into the New Forest and they'd dose the kid with paracetamol so she'd sleep on the front seat while they set to in the back. All in all it went on for about two months, until he started to get bored. The trouble was Kate had nothing going for her except her arse. She didn't drink, she didn't smoke, she didn't sail, she had no sense of humor and all she wanted was for Steve to get a part in EastEnders. It was pathetic really. I think it was the ultimate dream for her, to get hitched to a soap star and swan around being photographed on his arm.
"In all honesty, I don't think it ever occurred to her that he was only balling her because she was available and didn't cost him a penny. He said she was completely gobsmacked when he told her he'd had enough and didn't want to see her again. That's when she turned nasty. I guess she'd been conning idiots like her husband for so long it really pissed her off to find she'd been taken for a ride by a younger guy. She rubbed crap all over the sheets in his cabin, then she started setting off his car alarm and smearing shit all over his car. Steve got incredibly uptight about it. Everything he touched had crap on it. What really bugged him was his dinghy. He came down one Friday and found the bottom ankle-deep in water and slushy turds. He said she must have been saving them up for weeks. Anyway, that's when he started talking about going to the police.
"I told him it was a crazy idea. If you get the filth involved, I said, you'll never hear the end of it. And it won't be just Kate who's after you, it'll be William, too. You can't go around sleeping with other guys' wives and expect them to turn a blind eye. I told him to cool down and move his car to another parking place. So he said, what about his dinghy? And I said I'd lend him one that she wouldn't recognize. And that was it. Simple. Problem sorted. As far as I know he didn't have any more aggro from her."