Now You See Me (33 page)

Judith came out of the elevator on the ground floor to meet Mick. He looked with appreciation at her elegant black suit and high heels, her stripy hair pulled back smoothly off her face, emphasising her fine strong features. She’d been a pudgy, shy girl in baggy clothes when he’d first known her.

She smiled at him and gave him a brief hug, but her bewilderment was evident at his sudden request to see her. She waited while he pinned on the security pass the constable on duty gave him.

‘This is the first time I’ve ever seen you in the lion’s den, Mick,’ she said. ‘Aren’t you afraid some of our ruthless pursuit of the pound of flesh might rub off on you?’

He laughed as they got into the lift together. ‘Nope. My strength is as the strength of ten, because my heart is pure.’ When they reached her level he followed her into her office. He looked around at the cramped space, at the reception cubicle outside her door where the assistant she shared with two other prosecutors sat.

‘Well, it doesn’t give you much in the way of perks,’ he said, gesturing at the generic furniture and the bland, durable colours. ‘Enforcing the moral will of the people and all that.’

‘Bu
t
ou
r
hearts are pure, too,’ she said. ‘Purer, since we don’t have plush penthouse suites and ten-minute billable periods. We do it all in the abstract search for justice.’

He sat in the client’s chair. ‘Do you ever wish you were young again, Jude?’ he said. ‘But knowing some of what you know now?’

‘If I’d known then what I know now I would have been a suicide statistic,’ she said. ‘What do you want, Mick? I assume it’s something about Paddy. I don’t think I can help you, if it is. I feel terrible about it — almost responsible, in a strange way, as if having known him for so long makes me a part of it. But I’m keeping right away from the case preparation, especially as I wouldn’t put it past you to suggest me as a defence witness.’

‘Yeah, it’s about Paddy,’ he said. ‘But it’s also a bit nearer home for you, I’m afraid. There’s some weird stuff going down, Judith.’

‘Like what?’ She fiddled with her old-fashioned desk set, rearranging pens. ‘Mick, I think you have to be very careful what you tell me. If I feel I have to pass it on to whoever’s prosecuting, I will.’

‘I don’t think so,’ he said. ‘You’re more likely to want to take some of your accrued leave.’ He turned to look out of her high narrow window to the view of the top floors of the office block across the street.

‘What do you mean?’ Her voice was impatient. ‘Mick, it’s lovely to see you, really. But I’ve postponed several meetings to fit you in. You’ll have to start speaking English.’

‘Paddy’s virtually off the air,’ he said. ‘It might not even come to trial at this rate. But he’d been gabbling about an alibi, and something Tom told me to ask him seemed to focus him for a split second. He says he was with a woman the night Justine Riley disappeared — well
I
thin
k
it was a woman; a sort of semi-professional hooker of one sex or another, anyway. Her name’s Diana.’ He paused and watched for her reaction.

‘So? Have you traced her?’ She was still impatient, clearly ignorant of where this was leading.

He let out his breath heavily, unaware until then that he’d been holding it in. ‘He sort of remembered where her flat was. It was the wrong block, but the guy we hired had the wit to check the adjacent buildings as well. We found the right one, next door. Jude, the flat’s in Tess’s name.’

She gave him a look of pure shock that turned slowly to something like a reluctant understanding, and he saw the implications shudder down the whole length of her body.

‘What?’ she said, her hands clenching spasmodically on the desk. I don’t understand.’ Then she seemed to drag herself together, briefly, finding her crisp lawyer’s voice. ‘How do you know that’s the relevant flat?’

‘Paddy gave us bits of description of its interior decoration. When the investigator showed us the list of tenants, Tess’s name leapt out at me. The caretaker let us in — after a bit of cash changed hands, of course. It all matched the fragments we were able to get out of Paddy. Down to the colour of the towels in the bathroom. Jude, we’ll have to question her, and we have to assume the cops’ll get that far themselves, pretty soon. If they haven’t already. The public defender’s shitting himself because we instituted what was virtually an illegal entry — though we’ve applied for a court order now. Mind you, the PD’s Gareth. He’d shit himself if he got a parking ticket.’

She didn’t smile. ‘Of course you’ll have to talk to her; don’t be silly. I’m sure there’s an explanation, and she’ll be only too happy to provide it. Perhaps she lent it to friends and didn’t know what it was being used for ...’

‘Perhaps.’ He leant towards her. ‘Jude, let’s cut the bullshit. I can see you’ve caught the possible ramifications of this. We share a history. We know about the AOKs. And we also both know how these things work. We’ve got two people, now, who’ve been friends for twenty-five years, both with abusive family backgrounds. Paddy’s virtually admitted he’s a killer with some sort of avenging angel mission, and Tess’s apparently associated with the place where he claims an alibi. You can see why I’m just the slightest bit perturbed.’

‘Yes,’ she said quietly. She was thinking about Tess going to the sentencings of convicted child murderers and rapists. She was remembering saying to Rosa that for all she knew, Tess might have an apartment somewhere, a secret life she knew nothing about. She was about to say that Tess hardly ever saw Paddy, then realised she’d thought the same about her contact with Carly, too.

‘Have you asked him about this? Paddy?’

‘No. I haven’t talked to him since we found this out. I might try to see him again this afternoon, but I probably won’t manage it — I’m up to my ears in my own work. Gareth’s holding off on Tess until I’ve talked to you, but he doesn’t like it.’

‘He ... Paddy hasn’t said that this Dian
a
i
s
Tess, has he?’ She asked, avoiding his eyes.

His brow jerked up. ‘Jesus, you must have an interesting sex life,’ he said, ‘if you can spring to that as a possibility. But no. I think even in his present state he would have remembered to mention that small fact. Unless he’s got a good reason to keep it secret,’ he added thoughtfully.

‘He doesn’t say much about Diana at all, except enigmatic mythical stuff we can barely understand. The faces of the goddess and that sort of crap. But we will have to talk to Tess, Jude, especially in light of your last suggestion. I just wanted to warn you.’

Her whole cool lady prosecutor’s demeanour seemed to be blurring in front of him, and he wondered uneasily if she was going to burst into tears. Instead she offered him a precarious smile. ‘Thanks, Mick. You’re a pal,’ she said.

‘That’s what everyone says,’ he muttered. ‘Listen, I’d like to see her myself, informally, first. And before the police get to her, too. Will she be home tonight?’

‘As far as I know. Come round after dinner. I’ll ring you if she’s not there.’ She spoke stiffly, now, through a barely open mouth, obviously holding herself together until he left.

He stood up. ‘I’m sorry. This is turning into a mess for all of us.’

‘No, it’s all right. I’m really grateful, Mick. That ... I don’t know, that our friendship means enough to you to come here and ... and ... She buried her face in her hands and he took a half step towards her, then stopped, watching her.

‘I’m all right. Come round tonight.’ She raised her head slightly and her eyes were wide and unseeing behind her spread fingers.

He went through her assistant’s area and out to the lifts. Then he came back as far as the door. ‘She might like a cup of tea or something,’ he said to the young woman.

She gave him a friendly glance. ‘OK.’

Back in the corridor, he pressed the lift button
.
She’
s
no
t
bee
n
feelin
g
to
o
wel
l
fo
r
a
whil
e
, he thought
.
No
t
i
f
sh
e
ca
n
lea
p
t
o
th
e
conclusio
n
tha
t
Tes
s
coul
d
actuall
y
b
e
thi
s
Dian
a
perso
n.
Jesu
s
. He was still shaking his head as he stepped into the elevator.

*

‘I don’t know anything about it. Why won’t you believe me?’ Tess stood defiantly in the kitchen, her arms crossed beneath her breasts, glaring at Judith.

‘Because you lie to me all the time. Haven’t you heard about the little boy who cried wolf? How can I tell whether this is the one rare time you might be telling me the truth?’ Judith sat at the table, upright and rigid, as if she was interviewing a hostile witness.

‘I do not rent a flat anywhere. Not in Elizabeth Bay, not anywhere. I live here, with you. I don’t understand any of this.’

‘Neither do I.’ Judith leant back slightly in her chair. ‘Tess, Mick put himself on the line today, telling me about it in advance. If you’re mixed up somehow with Paddy in this, he’s put their whole defence in jeopardy by not going through the proper channels. He did it out of mateship. He knew I’d have time to talk to you, that we’d both have time to get your story straight. Don’t waste it.’

‘Open your fucking ears, Jude.’ Angry colour was rising in her normally pale cheeks. ‘There isn’t a story for me to get straight. I don’t know anyone called Diana — at least I don’t think I do. I have never in my life signed the lease on a flat anywhere near there. I have seen Paddy only once a year for the past ten years, at the picnics. I’m not going to say it again.’ She sat down abruptly and gave a violent shrug. ‘I don’t know what any of it means. You and Mick seem to have decided I’m guilty, anyway, of whatever it is. What’s the point in arguing?’

‘There’s no point,’ Judith said tiredly. ‘Just keep lying. You’ll probably only get accessory before the fact.’

‘The fact of fucking what? I tell you something, Jude, I don’t believe Paddy killed those kids, either. I’ve been thinking about it for days, since we heard. It doesn’t ring true at all, mad as he is. Don’t you remember what he was like? How he’d turn to jelly at any sort of confrontation — how he’d avoid any sort of physical contact at all, with anyone? The way he’d look at Tom and Rosa’s kids when they were babies? Don’t you remember the stuff he told us about his own childhood? How he’d insist that people could rise above it? Jesus, he convinced me, at least.’

‘Did he?’

‘Oh, OK.’ She made a wry, acknowledging face. ‘I know I’m a mess. But I’ve managed a sort of life, and I still have hope that it’ll get better. I’ve never done anything about it — never let Paddy know what I feel — but a part of me has always been grateful to him for all that soul-searching he used to make us do. The AOKs and all that. I always think things could be worse for me. I could be in a straitjacket. I could be incapable of any sort of committed relationship at all, instead of almost half capable, the way I am.’

‘Oh, my darling ...’ Judith began to visibly relax. ‘But if you’re telling the truth, then what’s going on?’

Tess gave an elaborate, exasperated shrug
.
‘I do
n’t
fuckin
g
kno
w.’
They sat staring away from each other in silence for a long while, the unspoken suspicions and resentment almost tangible between them.

*

‘Sharon, it’s Rosa, is Mick there, please?’

‘No, sorry, he’s gone round to talk to Judith and Tess. Something to do with Paddy, I suppose, though he doesn’t tell me anything.’ She couldn’t keep the real resentment out of her voice, as well as a half-questioning note, as if Rosa might be able to tell her what was going on.

‘Can I leave him a message?’

‘Sure, hang on, I’ll get a pen.’

‘No, no need. It’s nothing you need to write down.’ Sharon could hear the anxiety in her voice now. ‘It’s Tom. You haven’t seen him, have you? Or ... has Mick seen him?’

‘I don’t know. I don’t think so — not since Saturday, anyway. He said something about Tom giving him a ring on Sunday, but he didn’t, as far as I’m aware. But, as I say, we’re not communicating much — especially if Paddy’s involved.’ She thought. ‘Isn’t Tom at the motel? Mick said he’d moved back there.’

‘They haven’t seen him since Sunday morning. Sharon, he turned up here on Sunday and hardly said a word to me. He took the kids to the zoo and McDonald’s and dropped them back without coming in. He said he’d ring me that night and explain, but he hasn’t, and now it’s Wednesday and I can’t find him anywhere.’

‘Have you tried the university?’