‘What were you wearing when you killed Helen Matthews and Sybil Hastings?’
‘My white dental coat, of course.’
‘I meant specifically when you moved the bodies.’
‘A tweed jacket.’
‘Like the one you were wearing in the fishing photograph I saw in your mother’s bedroom?’
‘Very astute, Jane. Yes, the same one, actually. I planted my jacket and Sybil Hastings’ car keys in Aiden Lang’s hostel room to frame him for the murders. That was quite clever, don’t you think? Rather reminiscent of a Sherlock Holmes mystery.’
‘So you are quite knowledgeable about forensics and fibers then?’
‘I’m an avid Conan Doyle fan. I read about Holmes examining some fibers he’d found on a dead man’s coat. He deduced they were shed from the murderer’s jacket.’
‘How did you kill Aiden?’ Jane wanted to know if the pathologist’s theory about the novocaine was right.
‘Oh, you’re going back to him, are you? How do you think I killed him?’ Simmonds asked with a sneer.
‘When he was sitting in your dental chair you injected his tongue with novocaine. A forensic odontologist we consulted said that a lethal dose of novocaine could cause an instant heart attack.’
Simmonds gave Jane a slow handclap. ‘Correct! What a clever girl. No doubt you have also deduced that I skinned his head and removed his fingers because I didn’t want anyone to be able to identify him.’
Despite her revulsion, Jane humored him. ‘Your plan was very ingenious. You fooled all of us at the beginning. We thought Lang was a murderer on the run. In fact, you’d probably have got away with it if we hadn’t found the body parts.’
Simmonds cocked his head to one side. ‘How did that happen?’
‘Foxes scavenging for food ripped open one of the plastic bin bags.’
‘I must admit that’s something I hadn’t considered. I thought with the end of the bin strike, all the rubbish in the park would be taken to a landfill site and he’d never be found. How did you manage to identify him?’
‘We could only surmise, but with reasonable certainty, that it was Aiden Lang. Officially the coroner hasn’t yet formally identified his body, but I’m sure he will be able to now you’ve confirmed it.’
He smiled. ‘It’s the least I could do, under the circumstances.’
‘Where, and how, did you dismember the body?’
‘I thought about taking him out to the cellar, but I couldn’t risk one of the neighbors backing onto the house seeing me. So I cut him up in the bathroom, put the body parts in the black bin bags and kept them in the cellar freezer until I was able to dump them in Rye Park.’
‘What did you use to cut him up?’
‘A hacksaw.’ He laughed.
‘What’s so funny?’
‘These questions and answers are getting to sound a little like a game of Cluedo.’
‘This is not a game to me, David.’ Jane found she couldn’t maintain her façade of neutrality any longer. ‘To be honest, I find your attitude completely sickening.’
He looked chagrined. ‘I’m sorry. It wasn’t my intention to upset you. Please carry on with your questions, Jane.’
‘There had been a recent fire in the garden. Was that how you destroyed some of the evidence?’
‘Only the rags I used to clean up the blood, and Sybil Hastings’ pocket date book, which had my name and address in it.’
‘What did you do with Lang’s fingers? We didn’t find any of them in the park.’
‘I put them in a bag with a large stone and threw them into the Thames from Lambeth Bridge.’
‘Was that after you used two of Lang’s severed fingers to plant his fingerprints at Helen Matthews’ and Eileen Summers’ flats?’
Simmonds started rocking in his chair. ‘The idea came to me whilst I was cutting up the body. Because Simon Matthews was a patient, I knew where Helen lived and still had the keys to her flat. Summers’ keys were in her handbag, along with a letter addressed to her. I put two of Aiden’s fingers from his right hand into a jar, then went to Helen and Sybil’s flats and made it look like the rooms had been ransacked by him. Really terribly clever, don’t you think?’
Jane couldn’t help herself from bringing Simmonds down a peg or two. ‘It wasn’t all that clever, David. It didn’t take long for our fingerprint experts to realize every print was from the first or second finger of Aiden Lang’s left hand, which started us wondering.’
Simmonds’ rocking became more energetic. ‘It still fooled you, though, didn’t it? Everything pointed to Aiden Lang. You’d have been none the wiser if you hadn’t found his body.’
‘But it didn’t fool us, David. Or you wouldn’t have been arrested.’
Simmonds stopped rocking and leant forward. ‘Without my confession, neither you, Moran, nor any of your so-called detectives would have enough evidence to prove I murdered anyone. Without my confession you’d have nothing!’
‘Don’t flatter yourself,’ Jane replied evenly. ‘You’ve tried to be too clever for your own good. For all the awards you’ve received, you’re actually one of life’s failures. The only positive outcome of your confession is that I can at least tell the families what happened to their loved ones and give them some form of closure. Aiden Lang posed no threat to you. He was an innocent victim, an opportunity for you to distance yourself from the murders. You used him—’
‘Aiden Lang was a disgusting guttersnipe.’
‘He was a small-time thief. A rent boy with a drug habit, that’s all.’
‘I told you already: he was blackmailing me. Why do I have to keep repeating myself?’
‘I don’t believe you.’ She stood up and went over to the filing cabinet in the corner of the room and took out some confession statement forms. ‘Are you still willing to make a written confession?’
‘Aiden Lang approached me outside my Harley Street clinic when I was leaving one night.’
Jane put the confession forms on the table and sat down. ‘When was this?’
‘I don’t know exactly, but it was weeks before he first attended my Peckham clinic.’
‘Tell me what happened.’
‘I was leaving the Harley Street clinic to go to my favorite Italian restaurant. He walked up to me and said something, but I didn’t hear him properly. I asked what he wanted, and he said, “It’s not what I want, it’s about what you want.” He then offered me... his services. He seemed drunk or high on drugs. I was outraged.’
‘If you’re worried about telling me exactly what words he used, don’t be. I won’t be offended.’
‘I didn’t want to repeat his foul words. But he actually said he’d suck my cock for twenty pounds or I could fuck him for forty. I told him he was disgusting and to go away or I would call the police. He laughed in my face and said if I didn’t give him some money he’d start shouting in the street that I’d approached him for sex.’ Simmonds was becoming increasingly agitated.
‘Did you give him any money?’
He nodded. ‘Twenty pounds. He clicked his fingers and said he wanted more. I gave him another ten and turned to walk away. He grabbed my arm and said he wanted a weekly payment. You understand why I had to pay him, don’t you?’
‘Not really, no. And if he was blackmailing you, why did you give him dental treatment?’
‘When I first met him there was nothing wrong with his teeth, but then it became part of the blackmail deal. I met him in the West End a week later to give him more money. He said someone had knocked out his tooth and he wanted me to fix it. I agreed to do it, but at the Peckham clinic, for obvious reasons.’
‘Did you ever have any form of sex with Aiden Lang?’
‘No! I already told you I am not a homosexual!’
From his frantic manner, Jane sensed that he was lying. It was obvious that Aiden Lang was more than just a patient to him.