“Good luck with that. She didn’t have any teeth left.”
“How do you know?” Carter asks.
That’s a very good point but I’ve grown weary of this shit show.“Where is Mary, Mr. Woolf?” I ask, and they both turn to stare at me as though they had forgotten I was here.
“Forget about Mary. I think we should arrest him; he’s practically confessed. Look at the suitcases in the hallway, he was about to do a runner,” Carter says.
The two of them go at it again.
“You think you’ve got it all figured out, don’t you?” Harrison responds with an unkind smile. “You don’t know shit, you pathetic little prick. You should be more careful. You might be dead soon too. It happens to someone somewhere every day, every hour, every minute, every second.”
“Perhaps you would like to continue this conversation at the station?”
“I’d rather slam my penis in a car door.”
Why must men behave like men?
“Let’s just all take a breath and take a step back,” I say, trying to calm things down, but Harrison is having none of it.
“Look at you,Sergeant Carter, playing dress-up like the rest of the losers in this village tonight. Except your costume is a police uniform. Sergeant Cock-up would be a better fit. Wearing a badge doesn’t make you an upstanding member of the community. How dare you come into my home, judging me. You’re a hypocrite and you should learn to keep your dick in your pants. Walking around like you matter. You’re nobody. You’re nothing.”
“And you’re a gold-plated arsehole,” Carter says. “Ifyouwon’t tell us the truth about your wife, maybe we should arrest your freak of a daughter and question her again instead?” he says and Harrison launches himself at him. Carter is the younger and fitter of the two men and dodges out of the way. I put myself between them, trying to keep them apart, wondering what the fuck I am doing here and how it came to this.
“That’s enough. Both of you. Harrison Woolf, I am arresting you for intimidating a police officer and withholding evidence from apolice investigation. You do not have to say anything but it may harm your defense if you do not mention when questioned—”
“Is this a fucking joke?” Harrison roars.
“Do I look like I’m laughing?” I say, taking out my handcuffs. He stares at them, then at me, and regains his composure.
“You don’t need those, I’m sorry,” he says, sounding like a smaller version of himself. Defeated. Deflated. “There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for my daughter.”
It’s exactly what Carter said about his own child earlier tonight.
The two men have more in common than I think either of them realize.
I catch Carter smiling. “Wait outside,” I tell him.
“But—”
“But nothing. You almost jeopardized this entire investigation with your misconduct. Again. I’m calling it in and I’m calling for backup. Wait outside.”
56HARRISON
Carter goes outside but insists on standing on the bloody doorstep, as though guarding the front door, which he has refused to close. Every now and then he turns to look through the crack at us, as though he thinks I might be about to attack his boss. I’ve realized tonight, and too late, that the boy cop isn’t as dumb as I thought.
And DCI Bird isn’t as smart.
“You can’t arrest me,” I tell her. “Take these bloody cuffs off.”
“No,” she says calmly, but then she grimaces, as though she might be in pain, and I remember how ill she is.
Thanatos told her how little time she has left and this is how she chooses to spend it. In Hope fucking Falls. It isn’t what I would have done in her situation. She’s a beautiful woman. The clothes—the tweed jacket and sensible shoes don’t do her any favors—but the plaited hair is a nice touch. I almost feel sorry for her as she paces up and down the hallway, trying to put the remaining pieces of the puzzle together. Trying to make them all fit.
They do not make a pretty picture.
Unlike the one of my daughter in the hall.
It’s an old photo, I only just put it up. It hides where one of Eden used to be. Gabriella was eight when it was taken, just before her accident. I see the detective stop and stare at the picture as though she has just seen a ghost. Because she recognizes my little girl.
