‘Hi, Fiona, it’s DI Kingston from the Flying Squad. I was wondering if I could come and take a statement from you this evening. I appreciate you’re busy, but I wouldn’t ask unless it was important. It’ll be easier if I explain when I get there. I’ll be about half an hour. Thanks, I really appreciate it. See you in a bit then.’ He put the phone down. ‘That was—’
‘Fiona Simpson. If it will speed things up I don’t mind writing the statement while you get the details from her.’
‘Thanks for the offer, but Simpson’s pub is on my route home, whereas you live in the opposite direction. You’ve done well today, so go home and put your feet up.’
She finished her Scotch and stood up.
‘I’ll see you in the morning then.’
‘Could you grab me some statement forms from the documents tray in the squad room, please, while I sort myself out?’
He picked up his jacket and put his pen in the inside pocket. Jane nodded and went to get the forms.
‘Everything all right?’ Katie asked, as Jane opened the statement form tray and got a handful out.
‘Yes, DI Kingston needs to get an urgent statement regarding some information I got earlier this evening.’ She put the forms in a folder.
‘You got the statement forms, Jane?’ Kingston asked as he came out of his office.
‘Yes, Guv.’ She smiled.
He handed a copy of the artist’s impressions to Katie.
‘Stick them up on the wall for me. I’ve got to shoot out on an urgent enquiry. Man the phones for another hour then you can go home.’
‘Will you be coming back to the office tonight?’ Katie asked.
‘No,’ Kingston said as he and Jane left the room together.
‘Bitch!’ Katie muttered to herself, wondering exactly what sort of ‘urgent’ enquiry they were really on.
Jane’s journey home to her flat in Melcombe Place took her 45 minutes — a lot quicker than her morning trip in rush hour. After parking her car, she walked to a nearby fish and chip shop. It had been open for about a year and served the best cod and chips she had ever tasted. It was owned by a Greek immigrant called Filippos, affectionately known to his customers as ‘Fil the Greek,’ who had sensed a business opportunity as soon as he saw the popularity of fish and chips. Some local residents objected when it first opened, worried he would start selling kebabs as well and lower the tone of the area, but Fil was savvy enough to offer the locals a free first meal. Once they had tasted his fish and chips they soon came back for more. In the far corner of the shop there were three small tables where people could sit and wait for their food to be prepared or eat in if they wanted.
‘Long time no see, Sergeant Jane. How you doin’?’ he asked in a strong Greek accent.
‘Fine thanks, Fil.’
She’d become a valued customer after threatening to arrest a couple of drunken toffs who were calling him ‘greaseball’ one night.
‘What do ya fancy from the menu tonight?’
‘Small cod and chips, please.’
He picked up a large piece of skinned and boned cod by the tail and quickly dipped it in batter before dropping it into the bubbling hot oil, where it sizzled furiously.
‘Take a with you wrapped or eat in open?’
‘I’ll have it wrapped to take away, thanks.’
‘So, where you a working now?’ he asked as he turned the fish in the oil.
‘I’m on the Flying Squad at Rigg Approach in Leyton.’
‘You work on de helicopters now?’
Jane laughed. ‘No, we deal with armed robberies in London. We’re also known as the Sweeney — have you never seen the TV show?’
‘I never get a chance to watch a TV as I work most evenings, but I have a Sunday off. My a wife, she a says I should get one of them Betamax things that records what’s on TV to tape, then I can watch what I miss in da evening.’
‘My dad just got a VHS recorder.’
‘I look at one of dem, but the cassette tape is too big. I don’t reckon VHS will last as Betamax tapes are much smaller and better quality. You gonna get one?’
‘I don’t watch much TV myself, I prefer a good book.’
‘I like a book as well — I bet you like Sherlock Holmes — he lives near here, in Baker Street,’ he said, proud of his local knowledge.
She didn’t have the heart to tell him Holmes was a fictional character.
‘Conan Doyle’s OK. I read a lot of his stuff when I was younger, and I guess in some ways it inspired me to be a detective.’
‘Who’s your favorite, then?’
She thought for a moment. ‘Probably Raymond Chandler. I saw a film called The Long Goodbye a few years ago, based on the Chandler book, and it inspired me to start reading his novels. What do you like to read, Phil?’
‘Greek history and mythology, like the Iliad by Homer and the Histories by Herodotus. I think you’d like the tragedy Medea by Euripides.’
He scooped up a large portion of chips and placed them on some newspaper.
Jane was surprised by Fil’s choice of reading.
‘I never studied Greek history — what’s Medea about?’
‘A woman’s revenge upon her a husband. Have you no a heard of Jason and the Argonauts?’
‘I saw the film with my father years ago — I remember it had a lot of special effects and was quite scary.’
‘After the Argonauts’ quest for the Golden Fleece, Jason he a marry barbarian princess called Medea and they move to Corinth in Greece, where he then a leave Medea for a royal princess, Glauce. Medea, she was a distraught and plotted her revenge... You want salt and vinegar, Sergeant?’
‘Just on the chips, please. So what did Medea do?’
‘She poisons Glauce and her father King Creon, then Jason confronts Medea, only to a discover she had stabbed their sons to death,’ he said, shaking salt and vinegar over the chips.
‘I can understand revenge against her husband and his mistress — but why did she murder the children?’
He put the fried cod on top of the chips.
‘Although Medea loved dem, for her it was the ultimate revenge. She fled a Corinth with the children’s corpses, mocking and gloating over Jason’s pain, then a leave a him a broken man.’
He wrapped the fish and chips up in the newspaper, put it in a brown paper bag and handed it to Jane.
‘Well, there’s a saying that “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,”’ Jane remarked, trying to hand him a pound note, which he waved away.
They argued good-naturedly for a minute, and eventually Fil let her pay fifty pence, but only if she let him give her something. He quickly went out the back while she kept an eye on the shop and returned with a book.
‘Plays by Euripides. You’ll find Medea in there.’
‘Thanks, Fil. Sounds like the perfect bedtime reading! I’ll bring it back when I’ve finished it.’
Once inside her flat Jane opened a bottle of white wine and poured herself a large glass, then sat down to eat her fish and chips at her small kitchen table. As she unwrapped the newspaper the aroma of the fish and acidic tang of the vinegar reminded her of days out at the seaside with her parents and sister when she was a girl. She smiled to herself, remembering sitting in the car at Brighton beach eating fish and chips with her fingers, while watching the waves break on the pebbles. She gently broke off a piece of the golden hot battered cod, blew on it a few times, then popped it in her mouth.
Delicious, she thought, realizing for the first time just how hungry she was.
She was halfway through the large portion and beginning to feel full when the phone rang. Grabbing a tea towel, she wiped the grease from her hands and picked up the phone.