‘Well, that’s news to me... and another reason I’ll avoid the area,’ Barnes said with a nervous smile.
‘Had you ever met Aiden Lang before at the Heath toilets?’ Gibbs asked.
‘No, I had not, and I resent your insinuation that I was there for anything other than a pee.’
Gibbs held his hands up. ‘I wasn’t insinuating anything, Mr. Barnes.’
Barnes didn’t look convinced. ‘I’m very busy, officers, and have a business to run. I don’t know anything about Aiden Lang — other than that he’s a criminal. If you don’t mind, I’d like you to leave.’
‘Lang is also a triple murder suspect,’ Edwards said evenly.
Barnes now looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights.
‘How did your wife take it when you told her you were robbed in a toilet on Hampstead Heath?’ Gibbs asked.
‘She was upset... of course.’
‘Best we speak with her then. What’s your home address?’ Edwards asked.
Barnes stiffened. ‘I will not be spoken to like some criminal! Please leave now.’
‘You leave us no choice than to arrest you for perverting the course of justice in a murder investigation, Mr. Barnes. You are not obliged to say anything—’ Gibbs began.
‘All right, all right.’ Barnes’ body seemed to go slack. ‘I’ll tell you what happened, but please don’t say anything to my wife. She’d leave me and take the children.’
‘I’m not interested in your home life, Mr. Barnes, just your association with Aiden Lang,’ Gibbs said.
Barnes looked relieved. ‘I’d never met or seen Aiden Lang before that day. I’d had a working lunch with a client in the Jack Straw’s Castle pub next to the Heath. When I left, Lang approached me in the car park and propositioned me.’
‘Why would he approach you in particular?’ Edwards asked.
‘I don’t know. He might have seen me at the toilets before with another man. We went to the toilets, then... in a cubicle he performed oral sex on me and demanded ten pounds. We’d originally agreed a price of five pounds, so I handed him a fiver. Lang became aggressive and started screaming at me. He grabbed me round the throat and took my wallet. The PC turned up and arrested him. I assume, like me, he didn’t want the officer to know what we’d been doing.’
Gibbs gave him a curt nod. ‘Thank you for your time, Mr. Barnes. If we need to speak to you again, we know where you are.’
Barnes said nothing as they walked out of his office.
‘Where to now?’ Edwards asked as they got in the car.
‘Jack Straw’s Castle. We can have a bit of lunch and a pint, and ask a few questions about Lang in case he’s still a regular.’
Edwards didn’t look very excited about Gibbs’ suggestion, but he knew he had no choice in the matter.
Arriving at the top of Hampstead Heath, it was easy to find Jack Straw’s Castle, an imposing building that stood alone like a sentinel looking down over the greenery. They spoke with the landlord over lunch and showed him pictures of Lang and the victims, but he didn’t recognize any of them and neither did any of his staff. Already uncomfortable with the idea of enjoying a pub lunch whilst on duty, Edwards felt like it was a wasted visit. Gibbs, however, had one more idea up his sleeve. Leaving the pub, he told Edwards to park the car up near the toilets, so they could keep observation for a while and see if Lang, or anyone else who might be cruising for gay sex, turned up.
Edwards cheered up. ‘We’ll be the dog’s bollocks in the office if we get Lang.’ He grinned.
It wasn’t long before they saw a youth hanging around outside the toilets. He was then approached by an older, camp-looking man, who was walking a small black and tan Yorkshire terrier. The two men then went into the toilets.
‘You don’t think the dog’s involved in a threesome, do you?’ Edwards joked.
Gibbs laughed. ‘Let’s have a word and see if either of them know Lang or have seen him in the area.’
Edwards sighed. ‘Can’t we wait until they come out? If we go in there we might get one of them SID things, like gonear.’
Gibbs laughed even harder. ‘It’s gonorrhoea, you pillock, and STD, which is short for Sexually Transmitted Disease, and you can’t catch them off a toilet seat or urinal, so shift your arse.’
When they got to the toilet, the two men were just coming out.
‘That was a quick one,’ Edwards quipped as he held his warrant card up to stop them.
‘Pardon?’ the older man said.
Edwards gave them a stern look. ‘Gross Indecency in a public toilet is a criminal offence under the Sexual Offences Act 1956.’
But the man showed no sign of being intimidated. ‘As a barrister, I’m fully aware of that offence, officer, as is my son here, who’s currently studying law at university.’
Edwards shook his head. ‘Yeah, good try, mate — these toilets are a well-known haunt for you bum bandits.’
The older man looked incensed. ‘We’ve just met up to go for lunch in Jack Straw’s Castle. I hope, for your sake, you’re not implying that we have just committed a sexual act in the toilets?’
Gibbs realized the man was telling the truth and quickly stepped in to defuse the situation. He apologized for any misunderstanding and told the two men they were looking for a murder suspect who frequented the Heath and showed them a picture of Lang, but neither the solicitor nor his son had seen him before. Gibbs thanked them for their assistance and hoped they had an enjoyable lunch.
The barrister nodded at Gibbs, then turned to Edwards.
‘I suggest you don’t jump to blinkered conclusions in future, officer. My son and I could just as easily have mistaken you and your colleague for a gay couple, but we’re not as narrow-minded as you. Good day.’
When the pair were out of earshot, Edwards muttered, ‘Fucking wankers. I reckon that lawyer is a closet poofter like our Mr. Barnes.’
Gibbs shook his head. ‘You need to wind your neck in and change your attitude, Edwards. We could have ended up with a serious complaint there.’
Edwards looked at him in surprise. ‘What? You make remarks about poofters as much as I do.’
‘That’s just having a laugh amongst ourselves. I don’t have a problem with gay men. To be honest, I couldn’t care less if Aiden Lang is a gay rent boy; the fact he’s brutally murdered three women is what makes me detest him.’
‘I need a pee.’ Edwards stomped off to the toilets with a disgruntled look.
Gibbs waited a few seconds before sneaking into the toilets and creeping up behind Edwards, who was muttering to himself about queers. Gibbs reached out and squeezed Edwards’ bottom, making a startled Edwards jump forward, urinating on his trousers and shoes.
As Gibbs burst out laughing, Edwards turned and shouted angrily, ‘That’s not funny, guv. Look at the state of my bloody trousers!’
After dropping Lawrence off at the lab, Jane rang Moran to update him about the visit to the Golden Lion and the woman who’d been looking for Aiden Lang. Moran also had some positive information.
‘We’ve had a call from a woman in Kilburn called Brenda Matthews. She was so distressed it was hard to understand what she was saying, but anyway, the gist of it is she thinks her daughter Helen may be the unidentified victim. Everyone’s busy so I’ll get the local plods to visit her.’
‘I’m on my way to Eileen Summers’ primary school in Kentish Town to see Mrs. Rowlands. Kilburn’s nearby so I could follow up on Brenda Matthews first,’ Jane said, hoping he’d say yes.
‘OK, do that. The address is flat forty, Bronte House on the South Kilburn Estate.’
Jane parked in the street outside Bronte House, an eighteen-story concrete tower block in South Kilburn. The grass area outside the block was littered with rubbish bags spilling out rotting waste due to the bin strike. But Jane knew the rundown appearance of the estate was also due to the area’s drug problem, which brought a lot of crime to the neighborhood.