"And we swim through your legs." They knew his weak spot and were prodding at it now standing on the pool side, squirming around his legs like fat tadpoles, tugging at his hands, trying to get him into the water, teasing him, brushing him. "And after that you swim through ours."
"No definitely not '
"We're all mermaids. Look '
"Let go!" Gummer was starting to shake. He'd taken his pills that morning, but there was still that bloating tension in him, waiting to burst out. He wanted to cry. The girls were swarming around him now, stirring the hairs on his skin. He couldn't bear them to touch him it was so important that they didn't touch him. It was no good it was no good he was going to
"STOP!"
His voice echoed around the pool. The lifeguards and the spectators in the gallery all looked up. "Just stop it now!" A blast on his whistle and one or two heads, slick heads like young seals, popped up in the water, shocked and sobered. "When I say no I mean no." The children next to him backed away, surprised. He was trembling, bright red, his whole face the colour of his rubber bathing cap. This time none of the children laughed. "Right." He gestured to the changing rooms. "Lesson's cancelled for today. You've proved you can't follow the rules so the lesson's cancelled."
It was getting late but there was nowhere to park in King's car park, and Caffery had to take the Jaguar almost half-way to Brixton before he found a side-road to leave it in. Souness still hadn't paged him. Walking to the hospital, twice he broke into a jog as if he might silence his mind. Hyper hyper hyper a hothouse of images and voices, making connections where none should be. Peach, Alek Peach, it wasn't you ten years ago, but it was you with Rory. What's happening? Are you copying someone? It didn't make sense. He felt like striking his forehead. Exasperated and tired, he stopped in the main corridor to get a cup of vending-machine coffee.
"Mr. Caffery."
He looked up. Ndizeye stood a few yards along the hallway, body turned slightly away as if he had been crossing the corridor and stopped when he'd noticed Caffery. He was holding a stack of X-rays under his arm and his glasses had slipped down his sweaty nose.
"Mr. Ndizeye." Shit I haven't returned his calls. He straightened up. "I'm sorry I've been meaning to uh I just…" He tailed off, looking down at the empty styrofoam cup in his hand, embarrassed. "How's the family?"
"Yes. Very well. My family's my blessing." He pushed the glasses up his nose and crossed the corridor to watch Caffery adjust the plastic cup under the nozzle.
When he didn't say anything and didn't move, and when Caffery could feel the clown face smiling at him, he let go of the cup and straightened. "Did you want me to did you want to talk about the case? You can just submit your expenses to our office manager."
"That's OK, I've done it."
"Good, good."
"Well," Ndizeye leaned back slightly, clutching the X-rays to his round stomach, 'it's not going too well for you I suppose."
"You can say that again."
"Is there anyone else you're interested in? Anyone else you'd like me to have a look at."
"Maybe if something comes up on another case, then yes, but we've got the corroborative evidence with the DNA. I mean, I'm sure prosecution will be wanting to see you in court, of course, but that won't be for some time."
Ndizeye frowned and leaned up against the coffee machine. "Corroborative evidence?"
"DNA. We got DNA proving that Peach was the motherfucker who did his own son sorry if that's offensive."
"Mr. PeachV Ndizeye blinked behind his thick spectacles. "Then who on earth bit him?"
"I'm sorry?"
"I said who on earth bit Rory? It was the same person who bit that young lad in the park, but it wasn't Alek Peach."
"What?"
"I'm sorry, I thought that's what you meant. His cast. Doesn't match the bite."
"His cast? But I thought
"Oh it's not perfect, he moved too soon. But I got enough. Oh yes. Whoever it was bit Rory it certainly wasn't Alek Peach."
It was an odd sunset as if the earth was tilting sideways, or the solar wind had lost track and was mixing pink light from another galaxy. Caffery cruised slowly round Brixton, as conscientious as a kerb-crawler, looking at the lights in the houses, wondering, just wondering. He parked on Dulwich Road and walked across the park, listening to the wind howl and chase things through the trees.
Number thirty had been released as a crime scene and technically he should get Carmel Peach's permission to enter, but she was still at the Nersessians' and, anyway, he'd kept a copy of the padlock key. Donegal Crescent was quiet no cars passed. The only sounds were a TV in a lit-up living room next door and a dog barking in one of the back gardens. He carried the torch in his pocket. He liked its heaviness.
Inside, the hallway was dark, the air bitter and salty, sealed up, heated and reheated. He reached for the light and even as he did he remembered Shit. The electricity key: Souness had removed it when they left and placed it on top of the meter. He switched on the torch, followed the beam quickly to the kitchen, and pushed the key back in. The lights came on, the fridge started up noisily. He stood for a moment, blinking in the light, his senses quivering. The walk down the hallway the silent living room on his right, the door to the basement had set the hair on his neck straight up. Not like you not like you It took a moment for his heart to stop racing.
He flipped open the fridge it was covered in DS Quinn's fingerprint dust and a black and grey crust of microbes. The smell was of riverbeds and mushroom fields, but there was another smell in the house. The smell that Souness had been troubled by the last time they were here. This time it was stronger, still faint but distinctive. He switched off the fridge at the plug, anxious to preserve whatever electricity was left, and went back to the kitchen doorway, finding the light switch for the hallway. It was just as he'd remembered it the framed prints on the wall, the plastic runner to protect the carpet, Rory's turbo water-gun on the stairs. And the smell. Stronger now.
He sniffed, trying to imagine the receptor that very particular smell stroked. It was almost, almost but not quite, the sweetly familiar smell in Penderecki's house. Almost the smell of death. 7s it something the science unit missed? Something else in the house no one's seen?
Something else in the house. Yes. Someone else had been in the house with the Peaches. He was sure.
He put the torch in his trouser pocket and went to the bottom of the stairs. The last thing Peach said he remembered was standing here, looking up the staircase. Caffery hung his jacket on the newel post and went slowly up the stairs. The higher he got, the stronger the smell. He stood on the landing, resting his hands on the cupboard door. The message was still there, smudged and scraped where DS Fiona Quinn had cut samples from the paint. Female Hazard. This little cupboard had been Carmel Peach's home for more than three days. Here she had lain, crunched up and in pain, listening to her son crying below, her wrists bleeding.
If she was to be believed.
Come on, then.
He pushed open the door. There was a lagged tank at the back of the cupboard and slatted shelves above. On the top shelf, a stack of towels. Caffery sniffed. He crouched down, sniffing the carpet. Here, even outside the cupboard, it had been soaked in Carmel's urine and the sharp alleyway smell of it came up to him now, almost making him cover his nose. But that isn't the smell you're after it's something else… He straightened and turned, looking up and down the landing.
The master bedroom was at the front of the house, the bathroom facing it. The boards creaked as he walked to the end of the landing, flicking on the lights and looking in both rooms. Silence. The street-light shone orange on the bedroom curtains. A copy of Hello! magazine lay on the dressing-table, Carmel's cosmetics stood in a silent little line, a cardigan and a pair of socks were on the floor. In the bathroom Rory's bath toys were piled in a plastic laundry basket under the sink. Caffery turned off the lights and went back on to the landing. He watches them he watches them, in bed. Past the cupboard, Carmel's cupboard, down to the back of the house. This was Rory's room. He pushed open the door and stood for a moment.