‘I haven’t fuckin’ done anything wrong! I don’t know what you are bloody talking about. Just what offence am I supposed to have done? I tell you what is an offence, you two almost getting me bloody run over and then kidnappin’ me, and bringing me to this shit-hole.’
‘A bigger offence will be you leaving your son on his own while you are in Holloway, because that’s where you are going to be sent for a long time.’
‘Pleeease don’t try that one… you’re fishin’ and you ain’t gonna catch me, because I’ve been around far longer than you ever had hot dinners. If you had anything on me I’d be down the station banged up, instead of being handcuffed with an amateur DC who looks like a teenager let out by Mummy and Daddy for the night.’
Jane felt her hackles rising.
‘You listen to me… I was the officer that got attacked, wearing your coat stinking of your perfume. He tried to rape me, split my lip open, but it is nothing compared to what he did to that poor kid he raped and left for dead. I have to be honest that I was not sure about him committing the rape of that seventeen-year-old, but if you have evidence to prove he is the rapist then you are letting him walk free… Why? Just tell me why?’
‘Money.’
‘What?’
‘He owes me, that’s why.’
‘Owes you? But that doesn’t make any sense… You would let him off the hook because he owes you?’
‘He did this to me…’
Janet pulled open her shirt and there was a deep scar just below her throat and across her breasts. It was shocking and Jane couldn’t think of anything to say as Angie did up her blouse.
‘Screwed me up for stripping in any decent club. Besides, I just wanted to get some compensation. I’d have given it up in time, before his trial anyway.’
‘Given what up? I mean, do you really have incriminating evidence? Come on, start talking to me, I know about the phone calls to Allard’s wife, I know you were blackmailing her into paying you a lot of money and I am asking you now to be honest with me.’
‘Yeah, I admit it, and I reckon that piece of garbage knows I could get him on the rape, otherwise why let his slitty-eyed wife pay up the cash? He knows I’m Angie, but he doesn’t know my real name. I’ve got him by the short and curlies.’
‘What evidence do you have?’ Jane asked.
‘I had the knife that he cut me up with.’
Jane took a deep breath.
‘Did you give the knife to DI Moran?’
‘Mind yer own fuckin’ business.’
‘It is my business. It is very important – was the flick knife in your possession after he attacked you?’
‘Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t.’
‘I wore your coat, and I was attacked because of it. He thought I was you, didn’t he, Janet?’
Janet laughed and leaned back.
‘Just goes to show, doesn’t it, darlin’? In the dark all cats are grey. He had such an adrenalin buzz, he was stinkin’. Let me tell you something else… there’s no way that little slitty-eyed bitch of a wife didn’t know what he was getting up to. He must’ve gone back to her reeking of sex. He’s hung like a horse!’
Jane almost recoiled.
‘The only person that’s been half-decent to me is Nick Moran. After Allard cut me up I couldn’t work. I was badly in debt and I needed money for my son… I’m not making excuses.’
‘Take me through exactly what happened when he attacked you.’
‘I was up by the Lido, waiting for a punter. It was about eleven p.m. and I was getting cold. I was passing under a load of big trees, and the next minute he’s behind me, grabbing me by the neck and saying that he was going to kill me.’
‘Can you remember the exact words he used?’ Jane asked.
‘“You thieving whore… I’m going to kill you.” Next minute he’s lifted me off my feet. I fight him off, punchin’ and kickin’ him, and I grabbed his balaclava… I was trying to pull his hair, but the hood came off in my hand. I spat at him, but he was too strong. He pushed me down on the ground, ripped open my blouse, and slashed at my neck and my breasts with the knife. I thought I was gonna die, so I kneed him in the balls and he dropped the knife. Then he heard the uniform copper shouting, cos he heard me screamin’. By the time they got to me Allard had jumped up and run off.’
‘You had the knife?’
‘Yes, in me pocket.’
‘And as you had taken his balaclava it meant that you could recognize him – did you also take that?’
‘No, I fuckin’ didn’t.’
‘But you saw his face?’
‘Yeah, of course I fuckin’ did!’ Angie shouted.
‘And that was all you used to blackmail Marie, that you could identify him and you had no other evidence?’
‘For Chrissakes, I’ve told you now. I wanna get out.’
At that moment Gibbs opened the passenger door and peered in.
‘Are you all right, Tennison?’
‘Yes, I’m fine… close the door, please.’
Angie continued. ‘Anyway, they took me to hospital, stitched me up, but my face was a mess, I mean, I was in a bad way.’
Jane leaned closer to her. ‘You made out a report at Hackney Station, didn’t you?’
‘Yeah, I did… they photographed my injuries and took a statement after I’d been to the hospital.’
‘Let’s just go back. I need to know when you knew that earlier that night a young teenage girl had been raped in that same area.’
‘I heard about it when I had to make out the report.’
‘Who interviewed you at Hackney?’
Janet turned away. ‘I don’t remember, I was in bad shape, I just wanted to get home. I had to go back cos I didn’t want to take it any further.’
Jane leaned closer. ‘When you went back to Hackney Station did you give the knife to DI Moran? It’s very important you tell me, because the young rape victim remembered her assailant held a knife to her throat.’
‘Yeah, I did… but if it gets him into trouble I’ll deny it.’
Outside Gibbs got to the butt of his third cigarette and tossed it down on the ground impatiently. He had seen that Janet was talking so had kept his distance, his back towards the car. He turned as he heard the car door open and saw Jane getting out of the patrol car. She walked towards him, pulling the collar of her jacket up as the wind was whipping around the open section of the car park.
‘Moran is in the clear for the connection to the blackmail. That’s all down to Angie, aka Janet… but we need to talk to him as soon as possible.’
Gibbs glared at her. ‘Really?’
‘Yes. She was attacked later on the same night the young girl was raped. She was almost killed and fought like a wild cat. She would have been dead if a uniform officer hadn’t found her. The rape victim wasn’t discovered until early morning as she was unconscious and hidden in bushes.’
‘How much longer is this gonna take? I’m freezing my bollocks off up here.’
‘Don’t you understand, Spence? The two cases were not connected straight away. The rape victim is an innocent seventeen-year-old. It was Moran who sifted out the possibility that the attacks were both committed by the same man, but it took him two weeks before he brought “Mary Kelly”, Angie, who we now know to be Janet Brown, in for questioning.’
‘What evidence has she got, Jane?’
‘She snatched the balaclava off his face… she recognized him.’
‘And that’s it?’ Gibbs asked.
Jane hesitated and decided against repeating to him that Janet had admitted giving the knife to Moran to use as evidence. If, as she had said, she were to deny it, it could create even more of a problem for Moran.
‘So she admitted the blackmail?’
‘Yes, she lied about having evidence so that she could blackmail Marie Allard.’
Janet began banging and shouting for them to let her out, and they both started to move towards the car.
Gibbs stopped and turned to her.