Dexter smiled.
‘Well, I’d say it’s a long shot… unless she happens to smoke Kool cigarettes as well!’
‘What?’ Jane’s face completely drained of colour.
‘We believe that the female suspect connected to the bomber smoked a brand of menthol cigarettes called “Kool”… We recovered two stubs from the phone box, with lipstick on them. According to the witness the suspect was smoking and was also wearing leather gloves.’ Dexter laughed. ‘Incredible really… she was able to describe a headscarf and gloves, but not her bloody face!’
Jane felt as though she was suffocating, and swallowed hard as Dexter stood up. It was clear that she was very distressed.
‘Natalie Wilde smokes menthol cigarettes, and I’ve seen the packet… they’re called “Kool”…’
‘Jesus Christ!’
Dexter walked over to the drinks cabinet and poured two glasses of whisky before returning to sit down next to Jane.
‘Here you go… drink this. You look like you’re going to faint.’
Jane’s hand was shaking as she took the glass and gulped from it. Tears began to stream down her face.
‘Listen, sweetheart,’ said Dexter. ‘I want you to take your time and give me a blow-by-blow account of how you met this woman. Start from the beginning and take me right up to the point you found the scarf. You didn’t take it, did you?’
‘No. I made an excuse and left her flat. I said I was going to my parents’ and that I would call to say if I could get back to see her later. She wanted to go out to a pub this evening.’
Dexter went into the bedroom and came out with a notepad and pencil, which he put down on the coffee table in front her.
‘I’m going to have a quick shower, and put some clothes on. You just calm down and sip your whisky, then we’ll talk everything through… all right?’ Dexter hesitated, then rubbed his head.
‘You know, just in case you may have made her suspicious, why don’t you give her a quick call now and say you got held up at your parents’? Make some excuse.’
Jane nodded, and Dexter gave her a gentle, affectionate, pat on her head. He went into his bathroom and shut the door, letting out a long, deep, sigh.
‘Jesus Christ Almighty…’ he said quietly under his breath, as he turned on the shower. He was so stunned by Jane’s revelation that he forgot to take off his tracksuit bottoms and swore as the jets of water soaked them.
Jane had to really talk herself into making the phone call, but it was easier without Dexter there. She dialled the number and waited as the phone rang a couple of times before Natalie picked it up.
‘Hello, it’s me… Jane. I’m just ringing to say thank you so much for lunch, and for the bolero… it’s perfect. I’m sorry not have been able to get back to you earlier, but I had quite a time sorting out my parents’ luggage.’
‘I tried to call you at your flat,’ Natalie said, and Jane had to think fast.
‘I’m still at their flat. I didn’t realise how much I’d had to drink, and got really worried that I might be stopped… and being a police officer it would have been really embarrassing. So, I’m going to sleep here and go back home in the morning.’
‘OK, well, let’s talk during the week. Thanks for calling.’
Jane replaced the receiver, and went to sit back down on the sofa. Confident that Natalie had believed her, she began to make bullet points to describe everything about her interaction with Natalie.
By the time Dexter had showered and returned to sit next to her, she was much calmer. She found his closeness unnerving. He was wearing a loose T-shirt with white tracksuit bottoms, and he smelt of soap and shampoo. Dexter glanced over her notes then, as if he sensed that his closeness was making her feel uncomfortable, he stood up and poured some more whisky into their glasses. This time he added ice cubes.
‘Did you phone her?’
‘Yes… I said I was staying over at my parents’.’
‘Good. So, DC Tennison, let’s crack this. You need to go step by step. Then we’ll either need to take this to HQ in the morning, or we go with the possibility it’s all down to conjecture and coincidence.’ He paused. ‘That said, we’ve never released the information regarding the brand of the two cigarette stubs we recovered from the phone box… Let’s go from the first time you met Natalie Wilde, up until this afternoon.’
Jane concentrated as she recounted how she had met Natalie at the hospital shortly after the bombing. She could recall exactly what they had said and that they had talked about being at Hendon training college. She described their first dinner at Fratelli’s restaurant and the later cooking lesson at Natalie’s flat in Belsize Park. Dexter listened intently and only interjected with reassurance, encouraging Jane to expand and give details about how long Natalie had said she had lived at her flat, and what the furnishing was like. When Jane admitted she had given the names of the officers she was working alongside, Dexter gave no hint of disapproval. But as she spoke more about the things she had discussed with Natalie, Jane felt increasingly alarmed.
After nearly two hours Jane had finished talking and Dexter had been brought up to date with everything to do with Natalie. He had made copious notes and had topped up their drinks again. Jane felt completely drained and was ashamed at how much she had divulged to Natalie, albeit innocently. Only that afternoon she had even told Natalie about their key witness, Daphne Millbank, dying.
‘I didn’t give her Daphne’s name, but I did say she was an important witness.’
Dexter stood up and drained his glass.
‘That might actually be advantageous. If she is who we think she is, and feeds the information to her ASU cohorts, then they will be feeling confident.’
Jane stood up and suddenly felt very dizzy and sick.
‘I’m so sorry but I think I’m going to be—’ She started retching and Dexter grabbed her by her arms and hurried her through his bedroom into the bathroom. Jane didn’t quite make it close enough to the toilet bowl before she threw up into her hands and all over herself, falling to her knees to continue vomiting into the toilet bowl. She emptied her stomach of the lunch, the wine and the whisky, until she was heaving up bile. Her head felt like it was going to explode as she tried to stand back up on her feet.
‘You sure it’s all out of you?’ Dexter said, holding a towel out towards her.
‘Yes. I just feel dizzy.’
Dexter ran some water into the sink and rinsed out a cloth for Jane to wipe her face. He then suggested that she might want to have a shower, as her clothes were covered in sick. Jane leant on the edge of the sink as he turned on the shower.
‘Get undressed and wash yourself down… I’ll leave you something clean to wear afterwards. If you need me, just yell. I’ll be right outside.’
‘Thank you… I’m so sorry,’ she whispered.
Jane took off her soiled shirt and put it in a basin of warm water to soak. Her skirt was even more stained, and she felt so faint that she left it on the floor as she removed her underwear to get into the shower. She used the ‘soap on a rope’ to wash, then shampooed her hair from a bottle in the shower tray. She was beginning to feel less dizzy, and stepped out of the shower to find a thick white bath towel on the heater and a smaller towel to wrap around her wet hair. When she was dry, she put on the oversized James Dean T-shirt that Dexter had left on the radiator for her. As she pulled on her knickers there was a knock on the door.
‘You all right in there?’
‘Yes, I’m just coming out…’ she called. She spent another few minutes checking around the edge of the toilet and using the brush from the stand beside it to make sure it was clean. She took a deep breath and walked out.