Kiss & Die (26 page)

Mann sat in the car park and rested his head on the steering wheel. The head was on ice in a box on the backseat. Kin Tak tapped on his window.

‘Inspector?’

Mann nodded, pulled his keys from the ignition and opened the door. ‘Sorry.’ He clutched his bottle of mineral water as if it were his leash on the world. He’d sat outside in his car until he felt ready. He hadn’t had the stomach for it ten minutes earlier. They crossed the gravel path carrying the box. ‘Sorry I’m late.’

Mr Saheed was business as usual. ‘Hello again, Inspector.’

Kin Tak unpacked the head and placed it in a stand on the autopsy table.

‘His name is Peter Thorne. He’s a forty-five-year-old businessman from the UK,’ said Mann.

Saheed made an incision in the scalp from behind the ear, around the back of the head to the other ear. Then he peeled the scalp away from the top of the head and placed it over Peter Thorne’s face. Saheed talked to Mann as he worked. ‘We have already established that the head
was removed after death.’ He looked at Mann over his bifocals. ‘Moved to your apartment, I hear. You should try not to take your work home with you, Inspector. A fine-bladed chopper was used to sever the spine between the third and fourth vertebrae.’

Kin Tak fetched a small electric saw and pressed the button to start it. It buzzed and whined like a dentist’s drill but louder, much louder, as it cut through the bone. Mann clenched his teeth. The sound was like nails down a blackboard. The smell of burning bone filled his nose. He swallowed. He squeezed the plastic bottle of water without even realizing he had. It cracked as it popped in his hand as it expanded again. Kin Tak took a small hammer and chisel and dislodged the portion of skull that he had sawn through. There was a sound like a boot being freed from sticky mud. He laid the top half of the skull to one side and began stripping the membrane with a pair of pliers. Kin Tak reached inside and extracted the brain.

‘We will leave that cooking for a few days,’ Saheed said as he placed the brain in a bucket of formalin. ‘I can’t dissect till it toughens up. I will let you know what I find from the swabs in the mouth and the fluid tests. They will tell us whether there are drug traces. But I can confirm that the same blade has been used in this case as in the others. Inspector, are you listening? Are you all right?’

Mann shook his head, he took a swig of water. ‘I have to go.’

Mia was waiting for Mann when he got back from the autopsy.

‘Saheed confirms, it’s the same killer.’ He looked at her face and looked away. She was pale: angry, upset, disappointed, the adjectives went on and on. Mann knew that he couldn’t keep Lilly a secret, and he didn’t intend to, but first he had to work out what had happened before it was too late.

‘And the same killer that was in your bedroom. I am going to have a hard job from stopping Sheng breaking out the champagne. How do you think it reflects on the rest of us? We are supposed to be a team, Mann, have you forgotten that?’

Mann tried to focus on what she was saying but his mind kept coming back to the thing that felt more immediate, more gruesome than anything else right now. Was what Lilly had said true? Christ, could he have done it? Could he have had sex with Lilly? He shook his head. He didn’t remember. How had they ended up back at his flat? He didn’t remember anything.

‘You listening, Mann?’

Mann nodded.

‘Someone went to a lot of trouble to plant that head in your apartment, why did they do that?’

‘The perp gets off on that. She loves the thrill. She doesn’t care any more. For some reason she doesn’t care about her own life. She doesn’t use a condom. She doesn’t care about leaving her DNA. She’s left traces of herself everywhere.’

‘It’s all linked to you, Mann.’

Mann looked across at Shrimp and Ng. Mann could see by their faces that even they were beginning to wonder what was going on in his head.

‘Who was Peter Thorne to you?’

‘He was a man I met in a bar, the night I found Max Kosmos’s body. There is nothing more for me to say, Boss.’

‘Why you?’ Mia crossed her arms over her chest and frowned. ‘It has to be someone with a personal grudge against you for some reason. It could be a past girlfriend of yours, Mann.’

‘I’ve dated my share of nutters but I don’t remember one who had all the makings of a serial killer.’

‘The head could have been brought in by someone posing as your cleaner, Genghis. When we went to your apartment the other day the doorman said the cleaner had just left but she hadn’t cleaned, had she?’

Mann shook his head. ‘I’ve already talked to the man on the desk. He doesn’t know one cleaner from another and this isn’t his usual block. They work a rota. The way he described her it could have been anyone. Anyway, I cancelled my cleaner and I left instructions at the desk
telling them not to allow anyone in to my apartment, not my cleaner or anyone else.’

Mia shook her head and ran her hand back through her hair to scrape back the few strands that had fallen down from their clasp. ‘I’m sorry, Johnny. I’m under pressure, that’s all. We all are.’ She turned to Ng. ‘Did Thorne have any connection to the Leung Corporation?’

‘No. He had never worked for them.’

‘Or to Mann?’

‘No.’

‘We know Victoria Chan is out to get you. She has the power. She has the contacts.’

Mann shook his head. ‘I certainly wouldn’t rule her out of this. But murder? I can’t see her getting her hands dirty.’

‘Oh, I can. I can see her bathing in virgin’s blood and using testicles for earrings,’ said Mia. ‘She’s as ruthless as they come. And you still don’t remember who she was you were with last night?’

Shrimp’s eyes darted back and forth and always back towards Mann. He ran the pencil through his fingers like a cheerleader’s baton, a nervous tic.

Shit…Mann wanted to throw up. Had he raped Lilly? Had he had underage sex with a child? Had he abandoned every moral fibre in his body? If he had, what else was he guilty of? Did he know himself any more? Did he trust himself?

Mann shrugged. He didn’t know anything any more. Nothing seemed real. Nothing was fitting. ‘Well, we do know now that Michelle has to be innocent. We have to let her go. Unless it was someone working for or with her?’

‘She was in prison. She can’t have snuck back and left the head. It has to be someone else.’

‘I need to talk to her again,’ said Mann. The eagle flew by the window. Mann wanted to reach out and jump on its back.

‘Inspector?’ Michelle looked at Mann as he walked into the interview room. She twisted one hand around another. She bit her lip. She had on a plain blue t-shirt and prison trousers. Her eyes were swollen bloodshot bags. She was trembling from withdrawal. Mann felt sorry for her.

‘Sit down, Michelle.’ Mia and Ng were watching from the monitoring room outside.

‘How are you doing?’

She shrugged. Mann passed her a cigarette.

‘Michelle, another man has been murdered. His name is Peter Thorne. Ring a bell?’

She lit the cigarette and looked up at Mann. She shook her head. ‘I don’t know who you’re talking about.’

‘Can you give us any more information about the woman who you get the drugs for? The woman who gave you Max Kosmos’s wallet in exchange?’

She shook her head and dragged heavily on the cigarette. ‘I told you, Inspector, I never see her. She’s very careful about that. Never gives the instructions with the same person. Sometimes she even sends a guest up and pretends it’s a song request. She’s clever.’

‘You forgot to mention you also get her a drug called Papaverine. Any reason for that?’

‘I forgot that’s all.’

‘Do you know what it does?’

‘Yeah, I looked it up. It makes cocks hard.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me you supplied it?’

‘I didn’t think it was important.’

‘Anything else you want to tell me that may or may not seem important to you?’

She shook her head. She was getting agitated. She scratched at the skin on the inside of her wrist. She drew heavily on her cigarette.

‘You know Victoria Chan well?’

Michelle thought for a moment before answering. ‘I know her as well as everyone does. She’s been coming to the Mansions this last year. She’s been offering us deals to sign up and become part of the refurb project. She’s been a good friend. She wants to help us.’ She blew the smoke out in a disgusted groan. ‘She isn’t like some people who you think are good but turn out to be bad.’ She paused and looked at Mann. ‘Just like you, huh, Inspector? I used to look up to you. Not any more.’ Michelle looked around her. ‘I want someone else in here as well.’

‘There are cameras, Michelle. Everything is recorded.’

‘Even so, I don’t feel safe.’ Michelle looked up at Mann. ‘I talked to Lilly on the phone this morning. She didn’t go home last night. She said she’d stayed with you.’ Michelle stared hard at Mann, giving him the chance to deny it.

Mia’s eyes opened wide. She stared at Mann on the small screen and shook her head, waiting for Mann to deny it.

‘She says she stayed in your apartment last night and you had sex.’

Mann looked up at the camera. Mia stared back at him.

Mia caught up with Mann and Ng in the locker room. ‘I have to suspend you. You’re now officially a suspect, Mann. Don’t go anywhere until it’s all cleared up.’

Mann looked at Mia’s face. She was fuming but she was also devastated. He nodded. He knew she had no choice. He would have done the same thing.

‘She has refused a rape test. She is not pressing charges. She is probably looking for some payout. Christ, Johnny, I don’t know what the hell is going on. Either you have been stitched up better than Kin Tak can sew up a corpse or you are so out of your head you just don’t know what the hell you are doing any more. Which is it? Either way your fucking judgement is seriously impaired. What the fuck were you thinking?’

Mann took a deep breath in through his nose and bowed his head against the locker door. He rocked his head from side to side against the cold metal. ‘I don’t know. I blacked out. I don’t remember anything after leaving the bar. I woke up this morning and she was in my bed. I don’t think we had sex but I don’t know.’

‘Jesus Christ! Yeah, well that doesn’t inspire huge confidence in me. You have lost it, Mann. You have compromised your judgement. You’ve been crossing the line too often recently, Mann. At a time when Victoria Chan is after your blood and stopping at nothing to stitch you up, you seem to be doing everything to give her a helping hand.’

‘You don’t have to suspend me, Mia. I resign.’

‘No. I don’t accept your resignation. I don’t want your badge. Just go home, Mann, stay out of trouble till we sort it out.’

Mann took out his weapons belts from his locker. Ng was watching him.

‘You’re not alone in this, Genghis. Shrimp and I will do everything we can to clear this up fast and then you’ll be back.’

‘I hope so, Ng, I feel like I’ve been nicely sewn up. Mostly by myself. I am no use to you or any one here any more. As Mia said, I’m a liability.’

Ng watched him leave.

Shrimp caught up with him as he took the lift down.

‘Boss, I didn’t get the chance to tell you something about Tammy’s death. It couldn’t have been Mahmud. I checked the autopsy report of the wound that killed her; the knife went in at an angle, right to left across her body. Mahmud is left-handed. He couldn’t have done it. Shall I get him released?’

‘You better check with someone else, Shrimp. I wouldn’t trust my judgement at the moment.’

Mann walked through the turnstile to the exit. He stood in the garden outside Headquarters, his head bowed, he shook his head. He felt defeated.

Michelle was released. Her body ached for ice. Her heart ached for her kids. Rizal looked up when she unlocked the door. She went to kiss him. He looked her up and down, turned away in disgust and threw the rubbish off the sofa so he could sit. Lilly emerged from the bedroom with just her t-shirt and pants on. Michelle’s eyes flicked back and forth between the two. Lilly stared back, brazen. Rizal looked away sheepishly.

‘Where are the twins?’ Michelle started tidying up.

‘The twins have gone to the old woman down the hall.’

Lilly stayed where she was, leant on the doorframe, her midriff showing, her skinny legs were bare.

‘Get dressed.’ Michelle stood, a pile of papers in her hands. ‘And go and see that they’re okay. Take them for an ice cream, Lilly. And while you’re out, go to the Delhi Grill and ask Nina if she can help me out with some groceries. I need to get cooking straight away.’

Lilly screwed up her face and was about to argue but one look at Michelle’s expression told her she should do as she was told. She shrugged, turned and took her time about moving out of view. Michelle watched her. She saw
her look over her shoulder at Rizal. He nodded that she should comply with her mother’s request. He looked about for the remote. Michelle reached down the side of the sofa, found it. She held on to it. She searched his eyes for the truth; she found it as he turned to watch Lilly walk past.

‘Don’t hurry. I want a word with Rizal,’ Michelle told Lilly as she left. After she’d gone, Michelle turned the volume of the television up high.

‘What are you doing? You gone deaf in prison?’

‘No. I just don’t want the neighbours to hear what I have to say to you.’

Rizal swore and opened another beer as he turned his eyes to the television and ignored her.

Michelle threw the remote at him; it hit him on the side of his head. ‘You will listen to me. I can see what you’ve been doing here. You’ve been having sex with Lilly. Don’t think I haven’t seen the evidence before. I do her washing. I knew when she’d had sex and I knew when she’d been at home that night. You know what is the worst part? I chose to ignore it. I thought it couldn’t possibly be.’

‘What the fuck is your problem? It’s not as if she’s my own daughter and you turn tricks at the hotel. Do I get jealous? Lilly is no fucking angel and she’s no baby. She knows what she’s doing.’

Michelle made a lunge at him. ‘You’re a filthy pig. She doesn’t stand a chance with you here. This is my flat. Get out.’

Rizal looked at her and snorted in disgust. ‘You need me. You can’t do it all on your own. Anyway, I am the father of the twins. If I go, I take them with me.’

Michelle’s eyes turned dark. ‘Don’t touch my children.
They’re not yours. They never were. Now get out!’ Her body was shaking from the anger.

Rizal got slowly out of his seat, a mock smile on his face. He came to stand next to Michelle. She stood her ground. Her chest rose and fell as her heart hammered.

‘Don’t worry. I’ll go. But I can tell you a lot of things about your daughter. The things she likes, the things she asks me to do for her. You wanna ask her where she goes at night. She doesn’t sleep here. She has a secret place where she goes. She stopped being your baby a long time ago.’

Michelle turned her eyes away from his. His beer breath was rank in her face.

He grabbed her face and turned her to look at him. ‘I’m going out with the boys. I need to get out. You make me sick.’ He squeezed her face until her neck was stretched and she began to feel the pain as his fingers dug. ‘But when I feel like it, I’ll come back. Do you hear me? I will come back when I am ready and you better have something good waiting for me and you better accept it.’

He pushed Michelle away and she landed painfully against the corner of the cabinet.

‘Remember, you don’t mean nothing to me. Lilly is getting somewhere. She’s making connections, wealthy ones. She is going to be somebody. You don’t have any moral high ground to stand on. You’re just an old junkie hooker.’

After he’d gone, Michelle sat on the sofa and cried. She realized it had been a long time since she’d done that. The television blared as her shoulders shook and a pain shot through her heart at the realization of what she had
become. She looked around the flat; it was a stinking mess, it smelt of sweat and beer and decay. She felt a huge feeling of shame but she also felt something else. She felt a seed of hope inside her. She hadn’t had ice for the time she’d been in custody. She’d already weathered the worst of the withdrawal. She stopped crying. She got a bin bag and began throwing all Rizal’s belongings inside.