“And he believed them?”
“Their word against mine. Besides, they were all mates. People around the station already thought I was a bit weird. Some of them even used to call me the ‘Hippie Cop’ behind my back, or so they thought. You know, I did yoga and meditation and I didn’t eat meat and watch sport on the telly and talk about sex all the time. That’s enough to make you seem weird, for a start. I also had a reputation around the place for not being very interested in men, just because I didn’t find any of the blokes I worked with particularly attractive. I’m sure they all thought I was gay. That hits a certain kind of male the wrong way. He thinks all a lesbian needs is a big hard cock in her and she’ll soon come to her senses. And, of course, he’s just the bloke to give it to her. As it happened, I did have a boyfriend at the time, nothing serious, but I kept my private life separate from the Job.”
“Did you tell the chief super what really happened?”
“Yes. Every detail.”
“What was his reaction?”
“He looked very embarrassed.”
“Didn’t he initiate some sort of inquiry?”
“Like I said, their word against mine. And apart from a pair of torn knickers, I’d pretty much destroyed the evidence, hadn’t I?”
“Even so… these days…”
“What about these days?”
“Annie, there are procedures to guard against these things.”
“Procedures? Hah. Tell that to the chief super. He also told me, by the way, that no one wants that sort of internal investigation going on. It hurts everyone, and it especially hurts the force. He said the officers involved would be disciplined for their excessive high spirits, but it would be best for all concerned if it went no further than his office. He told me to put the good of the force as a whole above my own selfish concerns.”
“You agreed to that?”
“What choice had I?”
“He should have been kicked off the force.”
“I’m glad you agree.”
“So all that happened was they got a slap on the wrist and you got shipped off to the middle of nowhere?”
“Not quite. Not immediately.” Annie looked down into her coffee cup. “There were complications.”
“What complications?”
She wrapped a strand of hair around her forefinger and stared down into her cup for a few more seconds before looking up at Banks. “Remember, I told you I kicked one of them in the balls?”
“Yes? What about it?”
“Something went wrong. They had to operate. He lost them. Both of them. The devil of it was that he was the youngest of the three and the most junior in rank. Just a DS himself and only married a year. Planning a family.”
“Jesus. I can imagine you were a popular woman around the station after that.”
“Exactly. For a while I thought of leaving the force altogether. But I’m stubborn. The chief super suggested it might be better for all concerned if I transferred somewhere else. He said he’d look into some possibilities, and they came up with Harkside. Millicent Cummings was immediately sympathetic, of course, and I think our ACC used to work with Chief Constable Riddle.”
“So Riddle knows all about what happened?”
“He knew my chief super’s side of the story, yes.”
“Which means that to him you’re a troublemaker? A ball-busting lesbian bitch?”
Annie mustered a crooked smile. “Well, I’ve been called worse, but thanks for the compliment.”
“No wonder he put us together. Never was much of a judge of character, though, wasn’t Jimmy Riddle. I’m surprised he got as far as he did. I’m sorry about what happened to you, Annie. Sorrier than I can say.”
“All water under the bridge.”
“I’m also amazed you would even consider getting involved with me, a DCI. I would have thought that what happened would have been enough to put you off your fellow coppers for life, especially senior CID ranks.”
“Oh, come on, Alan. You do yourself a disservice. Do you really think I’m that stupid? That’s insulting to both of us. I’ve never, not for one moment, seen any similarity whatsoever between you and the men who assaulted me. I didn’t even know you were a DCI when I first saw you, and I fancied you right away. The thing is, I thought I’d faced up to it and got on with my life.”
“Haven’t you? You seem to be doing all right to me.”
“I’ve been in hiding. I shut myself away. I thought I was over it and that I’d simply chosen a quieter life. The celibate life of reflection and contemplation. There’s a laugh. I thought that was my choice, but it was really a result of what happened, of not facing up. But I’d already practiced meditation and yoga, had done for years, and I came from a small seaside town, so it seemed only natural to dig in my heels at Harkside.”
“You aren’t happy there?”
“What’s happiness? Something you measure in relation to unhappiness? I get by. I have my nice safe little life at the center of the labyrinth, as you so astutely pointed out. I have few possessions. I go to work, I do my job, and then I come home. No social life, no friends. I certainly didn’t dwell on what had happened to me. I didn’t have recurring nightmares about it. I suppose I was lucky that way. And I felt no guilt about what happened to that young DS. That might sound harsh, but I’ve probed myself deeply enough to know it’s the case. He was egged on by his superiors, true, caught up in the spirit of drunken revelry. I suppose some people might excuse him by saying he was too weak to resist or he simply lost his rag, temporary insanity. But I was the one he raped. And I was the one who saw his face while he was doing it. He deserved all he got. The only real shame is that I didn’t get the chance to do it to the other two as well.” She paused. “But let’s face it, I haven’t even done any serious detective work in Harkside. I know I’m good at the job – I’m quick, I’m bright and I’m hard-working – but until this case came along it’s all been break-ins, vandalism, the occasional runaway kid.”
“And now?”
She shrugged. “Now I don’t know. You’re the first person I’ve told since it happened.”
“You didn’t tell your father?”
“Ray? No. He’d be sympathetic, but he wouldn’t understand. He didn’t want me to join the police to start with.”
“A hippie artist? I shouldn’t think he did.”
“He’d probably have led a protest march to New Scotland Yard.” She paused and played with her hair again. “Now it’s your turn. Remember, you promised to tell me something, too.”
“Did I?”
“Uh-huh.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Did you really punch Jimmy Riddle?”
Banks stubbed out his cigarette and slipped his credit card on the little tray the waiter had left. It was snatched up almost immediately. The theaters had come out now and people were queuing at the restaurant door.
“Yes,” he said. “I did.”
She laughed. “Bloody hell. I wish I’d been there.”
The waiter finished with the card in no time flat. Banks signed the receipt, Annie gathered her packages and they walked out into the busy West End evening. The streets were packed with people standing drinking outside the pubs. Four men blocked the pavement, all talking and laughing at once into a mobile phone. Banks and Annie skirted them. Across the street, Banks saw a drunken woman in a tartan schoolgirl mini, black thigh stockings and fuck-me shoes try to carry on an argument with her “boyfriend” and walk at the same time. She failed, teetered at the edge of the pavement and went sprawling in the gutter, cursing all the way. Sirens blared in the distant city night.
“Don’t laugh at this,” said Annie, “but that time… you know, in the backyard, when you put your arm around me?”