But she didn’t react like that.
The loss for words at the previous questions, the disagreement with her boss about the person responsible for the latest killings, her personal involvement, they all came into play. Suddenly, she doubted herself. And when she opened her mouth to give a reply, not one word came out. An incredibly awkward silence, for what felt like days to Summers, hung in the air until she turned away from the crowd and walked out of the media room, leaving the press buzzing amongst themselves.
The radio presenter came back on air, clearly shocked by what had just happened at police headquarters, and added his two pence worth of opinion, branding the decision to give this case to a victim’s relative shambolic, and further bad management by the authorities in charge of solving these crimes and finding The Phantom.
Mrs Green chuckled, and stared into the newspaper cut-out she now held in her hands. Dated six years earlier, the headline read, ‘Detective Summers murdered, Phantom strikes again.’
25
Summers strode into her office, slammed the door closed behind her and sat down heavily behind her desk. She took a minute to work on her breathing exercises, as recommended to her from an old friend from back in her medical days, to help calm down.
‘Oh, sod this,’ she said, as she gave up on the breathing and pulled out her hip-flask.
Half-way through her second gulp, the door to her office burst open and in walked Watts, closing the door behind him and sitting down in the chair the other side of her desk. He raised his eyebrows at her as she screwed the lid back onto the hip-flask and put it into a drawer. She wiped her mouth then gave him her attention, waiting for the inevitable disciplining she was about to receive.
Surprisingly, it didn’t arrive. At least, not in the way that would have been completely justified.
‘We always knew this was going to be hard. We discussed this. You told me this was the case you wanted, the reason you joined the force. Now, I’m going to ask you one last time, and that will be the end of it,’ said Watts. ‘Your personal involvement in this case is not necessarily a problem to me, you know that. But tell me, are your feelings being a hindrance? Or are you going to catch this guy and put him behind bars?’
Summers sat up in her chair, took a deep breath and looked straight into the eyes of her superior.
‘Yes, sir,’ she said, ‘I will bring The Phantom to justice. For my father, for the other victims, for…’
‘Stop,’ Watts interjected. ‘Why you do it is not my concern,’ he said as he stood. ‘Just get it done.’
Summers gave a nod. She understood.
Trying to give the case such a detailed reason as to why she wanted it solved wasn’t the point. If anything, someone so close to the case emotionally should be hiding their feelings, and not give any reason at all. She was a professional, this was her job. That was reason enough.
Watts opened the door but stopped himself before leaving the room, turning back to Summers.
‘One last thing,’ he said, ‘you are not your father, and that’s the last time I want to catch you drinking on duty.’
He paused for a moment, the wheels of thought in motion inside his head.
‘And maybe we’ll keep you away from the press for the time being. If need be, send your man Kite to do the talking,’ he said, ‘but you prepare any statements beforehand. Let them feed on him. Keep your head straight and crack this bastard case.’
He left the room and closed the door.
‘Thank god,’ she thought, before pulling out the hip-flask, and taking what she told herself would be the last taste of the day, or at least of the morning.
26
Natalie rang the door-bell and took a step back on the front porch. She looked around behind her, there was nothing going on in this leafy, upmarket, residential city street. The door opened, and Tanya Reynolds was slightly taken aback to find Natalie on her doorstep.
‘Natalie? Oh my god, it’s been ages!’ said the heavily pregnant wife of David.
David was out, at some sports event he had mentioned to Natalie, and she was ballsy enough to exploit his absence.
‘Yeah, I know, I bumped into David yesterday and he told me the good news,’ replied Natalie, gesturing to Tanya’s swollen body and pulling a bottle of sparkling wine from behind her back. ‘Of course, it’s alcohol-free, but I thought we should celebrate and catch up. If it’s not a bad time, you’re not resting?’
David’s prostitute was invited into the family home. Natalie really had no difficulty being a two-faced bitch.
Tanya opened the bottle of sparkling, non-alcoholic wine with a pop, excitedly poured two glasses and sat down next to Natalie in the front room. They gave a toast to the health of the baby, and took a sip from their glasses. Natalie hid her disgust of the taste; she really wasn’t used to drinking wine unless it was the expensive stuff that Mr Money or one of the other high-flyers would sometimes ply her with, but she knew this was not a good bottle, even for a non-alcoholic.
Tanya spent twenty minutes or so explaining how excited she and David were about becoming parents, how she stopped work around a year ago as David said she was better than the hairdresser she used to be, and also that actually, Natalie was the first visitor that she’d had for quite a while.
Natalie tried hard to pay attention as Tanya gave her what was feeling a lot like a whole life story. The truth was that Natalie had no time for Tanya.
She didn’t blame David for marrying her, Tanya was hot. Not just good looking, or beautiful, but smoking-hot. She would have no trouble becoming a model, even breaking into television with the looks she’d been blessed with, but she had no self-esteem, zero. And she wasn’t very intelligent, either.
David had always loved to show her off when they both started dating, but then the boys-club began to mock him about how slow his girlfriend was, and the women all found it hard to converse with her on an adult level. She knew about hairdressing and celebrities, and she wanted babies; not the same topics of interest for the money hungry, back stabbing bitches of the city, the type that the up-and-coming rich-boys would normally be seen with.
So David kept her at home, starting a family to keep her happy, and he would have the most gorgeous wife on his arm if there was ever an occasion for him to show her off in the right crowd, or for the occasional photograph.
Natalie could sense Tanya was coming to the end of her situation update, now was her chance to do what she had gone there for.
‘You see, Tanya, the real reason I’m here,’ said Natalie, ‘is… I don’t know exactly how to say this.’
Tanya’s face was now one of concern.
‘What is it?’ said Tanya. ‘Natalie, is it Ben? What’s wrong?’
Natalie edged her way closer to Tanya on the sofa.
‘I think,’ she said, looking into Tanya’s eyes, ‘I think I may be pregnant.’
A smile instantly appeared from ear to ear on Tanya’s face. ‘Congratulations!’ She threw her arms around Natalie, who calmly eased her way out of the unwanted hug and told Tanya to calm down.
Natalie explained that it must be early days, if she was pregnant, as she was late on her period by two weeks and had felt a little sick for a few days now. She explained that the real reason she was here was to ask about all the symptoms she should expect at the start of the pregnancy, from someone who has gone through it and what she should do. She claimed she hadn’t yet done the test to confirm as she wanted to do it with Ben.
Tanya couldn’t hide her excitement, and told her all about the first few months of her own pregnancy; the pain in her breasts, the morning sickness that struck in the evening not in the morning and even though she had wanted a baby for years, the hormone changes in her body had given her mood swings that were just awful; happy, depressed, tearful, happy again.