They went down the cop shop to see what developed. It was a long, long wait, but eventually Hunter arrived with DS Sandra Duggan, and she was holding on to the arm of a swearing, struggling Caroline. When Caroline saw Annie there, she spat at her feet and surged toward her. ‘You bitch!’ she yelled.
Hunter grabbed the girl’s other arm, and they carted her off into the depths of the nick, kicking and screaming insults at everyone around her.
‘Well, that worked out well,’ said Annie. She turned to Max. ‘Can you get someone down here to pick her up when she comes out? Then have them bring her over to my place, OK? We can have a chat.’
102
It was Tony who brought Caroline over to the Holland Park house when the police eventually released her. By that time it was gone eleven at night, and a lot of the fight had gone out of her. She looked pale, exhausted and scared when Tony ushered her into the study at the front of the house. Annie was there, sitting behind the desk, and Max was standing nearby. Tony manhandled Caroline into a chair beside the desk and then retreated to the closed door, where he placed himself, an impenetrable wall of muscle.
‘They give you a hard time, down the nick?’ asked Annie.
Caroline said nothing, just looked at her with eyes full of hate.
‘Witness to a murder, taking off like that? You can see they wouldn’t be pleased.’
‘I didn’t see anything,’ said Caroline quickly.
‘That what you told the Bill?’ asked Annie.
‘It’s the truth.’
Annie stared at her. ‘Not so hot then, jumping into Dolly’s shoes before she was even cold?’
‘Shut up, you cow,’ spat Caroline.
‘Tell us what you did see,’ said Max.
‘Nothing. I told them and I’m telling you.’
‘We’re not the police,’ said Annie.
‘I told you.’
‘Tone?’ Annie looked up at him. ‘Come over here and break a couple of her fingers. Just the little ones, we don’t want to cut up too rough yet.’
Tony lumbered over. Caroline shot out of her seat like she’d been launched from a cannon.
‘What the hell?’ she wailed, scooting up against the desk, eyes wide. ‘What did you say?’
‘Oh, come on,’ said Annie. ‘Way I see it, you deserve a few breakages. The way you moved in on Dolly’s patch? You got to admit, that was nasty.’
‘It was Gary’s idea, not mine.’ As Tony approached, Caroline edged around the desk until she was on the same side as Annie. Max was over by the bookcases, watching with arms folded. Now Tony was on the other side of the desk. ‘Wait,’ said Caroline, scuttling behind Annie’s chair. ‘Just wait.’
‘Why? Are you going to stop bullshitting and tell the truth?’ asked Annie. ‘What scared you enough to make you run for the airport? What did you see?’
‘I told the police-’
‘Yeah. Nothing, right? And as I told you, we’re not the police. We don’t have to go by the rules. Go ahead, Tone.’
‘I didn’t-’ Caroline let out a yelp as Tony came round the desk. She darted for the other side, but Max had moved and now he was blocking her path. ‘Oh, come on…’ she said, half-laughing, a scared, disbelieving little sound, as Tony came up behind her.
‘Do it, Tone,’ said Annie, and Tony grabbed Caroline’s arm, gripping her hand, which she instantly pulled into a fist. Tony prised out her smallest finger and held it on the desk’s edge.
‘No!’ Caroline screeched.
Annie looked at her. ‘You really think he won’t?’
‘Shit, don’t, please…’ Sweat was popping out on Caroline’s face. ‘I don’t, I can’t…’
Tony brought his fist down hard. It hit the desk, just an inch from Caroline’s finger. She let out a strangled scream.
‘Next one hits the target,’ he warned, taking aim.
‘I can’t…’
‘You can,’ said Annie, her eyes hard as they rested on Caroline’s face. ‘What did you see?’
Caroline threw back her head and let out a sob. ‘I saw him do it!’ she said, and fell to the floor. Tony released her hand and she sat there, crying hard, cringing, both arms over her head.
Tony looked at Annie. She nodded, and he moved away.
‘Tell us,’ said Max, and Caroline finally started to speak.
103
‘I was so fucking scared,’ said Caroline in a small voice. ‘I was terrified.’
‘What happened?’ said Annie, looking at the girl with a mixture of pity and irritation. She did look shattered; none of her former aggression was in evidence now. ‘Get up off the bloody floor, for God’s sake.’ Annie flicked a look at Tony and he hauled Caroline back to her feet, half-carried her around the desk, and deposited her into a chair.
‘I was in bed, it was late, and Gary was in the sitting room watching the TV when there was a knock at the door and he let someone in. A man. I heard his voice. The bedroom door was half-open, I couldn’t see who it was, not then. I didn’t take any notice really. Not at first.’
‘Go on,’ said Annie when Caroline paused, rubbing her hands over her face.
Caroline gave her a look, a remnant of her usual attitude. ‘If you tell the Bill all this, if they ask me about any of this, I swear, I’ll say you’re lying, that I never said it, that it’s not true. I don’t want to get involved.’
‘OK. That’s fair. Go on.’
‘They were arguing. Just raised voices at first, and then they started shouting. I mean, it sounded vicious. And then… oh fuck…’ Caroline stopped, clutching at her face, her eyes tormented; remembering.
‘What?’ prompted Annie.
‘Then there were sounds like fighting. Something hit the wall. Christ, it was frightening. All the yelling and swearing, and then they were actually hitting each other, and then they were out in the hall… it reminded me of when I was growing up, and Mum and Dad would be knocking seven kinds of shit out of each other. It was scary. So I…’
Caroline stopped talking.
‘Yeah? You did what?’
Tears slipped down Caroline’s face. ‘I did what I did when I was little,’ she gasped out, grimacing. ‘I thought that whoever was there with Gary, I thought they were so angry they were going to kill him, and if they did, then who was in the flat too? Me. And then they would do me too. And so…’ Caroline heaved in a sob. ‘So I hid. I hid in the wardrobe. It had these louvre doors though. So I saw it. I saw it all,’ she said, and broke into a fresh wave of tears.
‘What did you see?’ asked Max.
Caroline swiped a hand across her runny nose and threw him a glance with tear-reddened eyes. ‘If I hadn’t moved when I did, you know what? I’d be dead. I’m sure of it.’
‘What did you see?’ he asked again.
‘They were in the hall, grappling with each other, snarling at each other like dogs, and then they fell in through the bedroom door, and then I saw this bloke, he had Gary on the bed, and… oh shit…’ Caroline’s voice trailed away. She wiped tears from her face with a shaking hand and looked at Annie. ‘Gary was pretty good to me. All right, he could be an arsehole, but can’t they all? He didn’t deserve that.’
‘What?’ asked Annie.
‘That man cut his throat. And I saw it, I can’t get it out of my head, I saw it! There was blood and Gary was screaming and choking, making these sounds like a butchered animal, it was… it was… just horrible. Horrible.’
For a long while the only sounds in the room were Caroline’s sobs. Then Annie said: ‘The man who did it. You saw him through the louvre doors, right? Can you describe him?’