Team Spirit (Special Crime Unit Book 1) (19 page)

‘Is
he in the frame, then?’

‘He
was there all right. But he won’t cop to the rape - not as long as he knows
we’ve no forensic. That character Camberwell dug up.’

‘Bayliss?’

‘Yeah.
Pegley got twitchy when I mentioned him. Since he now thinks I’m going to fit
him up for the whole series, my money’s on him naming Bayliss as the second
man. What?’ he frowned. Anne was staring at him oddly.

‘So,’
she scowled, ‘in exchange for shopping Bayliss, Pegley gets off scot free on
the rape?’

‘The
price of justice.’

She
sighed. ‘Well, I’m off out of here in a couple of days, so it’s not going to be
me that has to tell Miranda Beckett if he does.’

‘Quite,’
Zoltan said. He looked at his watch, then around the room at the tables piled
high with evidence. He said, ‘Are you busy?’

Anne
shrugged. ‘Just killing time, awaiting instructions.’

‘Jasmin’s
flaked out down in the canteen,’ Zoltan said. ‘Think you could revive her to a
sufficient level of consciousness to stuff her in the car and take her home?’

‘Sure.’

In
the doorway she collided with a uniformed sergeant. ‘DI Schneider about?’

Anne
looked back to where Zoltan was standing, dialling on his phone. ‘You’re on,’
she called to him.

He opened the door
to see Pegley and Baker looking up at him expectantly. He took his seat in
silence and, making no move to turn the recorder back on, folded his arms and
waited.

‘My
client,’ the solicitor said after a few tense moments, ‘is willing to make a
statement explaining his part in the, er, events leading up to his coming into
possession of the flute.’

Slowly
and deliberately, Zoltan nodded.

‘In
exchange,’ Baker struggled on, ‘he would like an assurance that you’ll take
the, er, the mitigating circumstances into consideration.’

‘Assurances
of any kind,’ Zoltan said levelly, ‘aren’t up to me. What I’m able to recommend
to the CPS in the way of reduced charges will depend on what Mr Pegley has to
tell me.’

‘Darren?’
Baker said.

Pegley
nodded, tired.

Zoltan
switched on the machine, said the necessary and launched in. ‘OK, Darren, who
assaulted Miranda Hargreaves? You or Michael Bayliss?’

Pegley
looked surprised and affronted. He turned to Baker. ‘You didn’t tell me he was
gonna ask that straight off!’

‘Mr
Baker isn’t privy to my interview techniques,’ Zoltan said, ‘so spare him the
grief. All right, let’s go back a bit. How do you know Bayliss?’

‘Ain’t
seen him for years.’

Zoltan
let it pass. ‘You’ve known him how long?’

‘Since
school.’

‘You
used to live in Croydon?’

‘Addiscombe.
I moved to Camberwell with me mum when her and me dad split up.’

‘When
was that?’

‘Just
after GCSEs.’

Zoltan
doubted Pegley had ever got near a GCSE, but he dropped the question as
irrelevant. ‘So at the time this incident took place, you were living with your
mum in Camberwell?’

‘Yeah.’

‘OK,
Darren,’ Zoltan nodded at him encouragingly. ‘Do you now admit that you and
Michael Bayliss broke into 2 Langley Park Road, Sutton, on the date in
question?’

‘We
was there.’

‘Was
that the first time you’d done a job with him?’

As
if for confirmation Pegley glanced at Baker, who shook his head.

Zoltan
said, ‘Who decided to break into that particular house?’

‘Nobody
really. We was just driving round, looking for somewhere worth doing.’

‘So
you just happened on 2 Langley Park Road because it looked promising?’

‘Yeah,
s’pose.’

‘Why
did it look promising?’

‘
I
can’t remember, can I?’

‘Did
the house have any features that made it attractive as a burglary target?
Unsecured doors or windows, for example?’

‘Can’t
remember.’

‘So,
however, you break in. You’re inside. What happened?’

‘We’re
in this front room, right? It’s dark. I thought the place was empty, but
there’s this light coming from a partition. Mike seen it too, and he goes,
“Somebody in there, let’s see who it is, might be some pussy.” So he goes out
in the hall and tries to get in the room, but it’s locked. I wanted to get the
fuck out, but Mike’s like, “Let’s try and get this thing open.”’

‘Meaning
the partition?’

‘Yeah.’

‘How
come,’ Zoltan asked slowly, ‘he was so keen? For all he knew it could’ve been a
man behind there.’

‘I
dunno. I was bricking it, expecting somebody to come flying in any minute. I
s’pose he figured if it’d been a bloke, he’d’ve come to see what was going on.
Or at least shouted out.’

Zoltan
frowned. According to Miranda Hargreaves, she
had
called out. Implausible though
it seemed, was Pegley being crafty, knowing that continuing to break through
after hearing a woman cry out might, to a jury’s mind, constitute proof of
intent? More likely, had Baker coached him in what to say? Or was it simply a
gap in his memory, five years on?

‘Go
on,’ he said tersely.

‘Well,
it was locked, but it was pretty flimsy so we managed to force it.’

‘You
and Bayliss?’ Zoltan slipped in, innocently.

‘Yeah.’
Baker had raised a warning hand, but his client hadn’t seen it. ‘We got it open
just enough to squeeze through, and there’s this bird - girl - woman - crouched
on the floor, trying to hide under the bed or summink. Mike tells her to give
him the key, turns to me and he goes, “She’s all yours while I go and check out
the rest of the house.”’

This,
in Miranda Hargreaves’s account, was the point at which Bayliss had incited
Pegley to rape her.

‘What
did you take that to mean?’

In
spite of himself, Zoltan was impressed. Pegley didn’t even need Baker’s
prompting as he shrugged and said, ‘Keep her quiet, I s’pose.’

‘Keep
her quiet?’

‘Yeah.’

‘And
did she?’

‘What?’

‘Keep
quiet.’

‘I
reckon.’

‘You
reckon?’

‘Probably
too fucking scared not to.’

‘So
you knew she was scared?’

‘Yeah.
Wouldn’t you be?’

‘That’s
encouraging, Darren,’ Zoltan said, smiling his crocodile smile. ‘I only wish
more villains realised they scared people. Might make some of them think twice.
Anyway,’ he said briskly, drawing himself back to the point, ‘Bayliss left the
room?’

‘Right.’

‘By
the way, did you wear masks, balaclavas, anything to conceal your identity?’

‘No,
never.’ Pegley said it as if it were a matter of pride.

‘So
this young woman could see your faces?’

‘No.
Mike had the light off soon as we got in there.’

‘I
see,’ Zoltan said. ‘Hardly conducive to keeping her quiet, I wouldn’t have
thought. A young woman alone in a dark room with a burglar.’

‘I
never touched her.’

‘Is
that so?’

‘I
never fucking touched her.’

‘So
she did keep quiet?’

‘Yeah.’

‘How
did you achieve this?’

‘I
told her to.’

‘You
told her to what?’

‘Keep
quiet.’

‘You
just told her to and she did?’

‘Yeah.’

‘You
didn’t threaten her?’

‘No.’

‘Slap
her around a bit?’

‘No,
I never.’

‘Or
else what?’

Pegley
looked at him blankly.

‘Come
on, Darren. “Keep quiet.” “Yes, Mr Burglar.” She may not have been able to see
your face, but she could make out enough to know you were a squeaky, spotty
seventeen year old. Hardly inspire dread even now, do you, Darren?’

‘No,
but Mike Bayliss does. I mean did. I dunno what he’s like now, but back then he
used to scare the crap out of me, even.’

Zoltan
stared at him, thinking, all right, sunshine. Let’s listen to your edited
version for a while, see how deep you can wade. ‘What happened when he came
back?’

Pegley
swallowed, hesitated.

‘He
did come back?’ A sardonic flicker of Zoltan’s eyes. ‘Your story does rather
seem to depend on it.’

‘Yeah,
he fucking come back,’ Pegley said tartly.

‘After
how long?’

‘I
dunno. Few minutes.’

‘And
what happened?’

‘He
has a look round, right, and finds this flute. And he goes, “Watch this.” And
he’s like sticking it in her.’

‘In
her?’

‘You
know.’ Pegley squirmed. In almost a whisper, he added, ‘Up her vagina.’ He
uttered the term as if he had never used it before, which Zoltan reckoned might
well be the case. No doubt he habitually employed a shorter word.

‘So,’
Zoltan said, ‘Bayliss went out of the room, came back and sexually assaulted
Miss Hargreaves with the flute. Is that right?’

‘Yeah.’

‘So
are you saying now the rape never took place?’

‘No.’

‘How
long was Bayliss out of the room?’

‘Not
long. Five minutes, tops.’

‘So
he left you alone with that girl for five minutes and nothing happened?’

‘I
told you.’

‘She
didn’t scream for help? Plead with you not to hurt her?’

‘No.’

‘She
didn’t offer her body in return for not hurting her?’

‘No.’

‘You
both just waited around for Bayliss to come back?’

Pegley
nodded.

‘So
when did she get naked?’

‘You
what?’

‘You
told me that all you did while Bayliss was out of the room was sit and wait.
How, then, did he have such easy access to her genitalia when he came back if she
was still fully clothed?’

‘He
made her take her kit off.’

‘Then
why didn’t you say that?’

‘What
d’you – ?’

‘You
told me Bayliss came back into the room and inserted the flute into Miss
Hargreaves’ vagina. Not a word about rendering her at least partially
unclothed, which would seem to be an essential part of the process.’

‘Well,
‘s obvious, innit?’

‘Darren,’
Zoltan said heavily, after a carefully calculated pause, ‘in the eyes of the
law, for it to have been rape there has to have been penetration of the vagina
with the penis. Anything else constitutes either attempted rape or indecent
assault.’ He shrugged, smiling coldly. ‘Stupid, but there it is. Be sure of
this, Darren: Miranda Hargreaves
was
raped. Brutally, painfully. Or are you telling me she
lied about that?’

Pegley
stared at his hands, which gripped the edge of the table.

‘Why
would she, Darren? Why would she go through the humiliation of telling us in
excruciating detail about the assault with the flute, which you’ve just
corroborated, and then lie about being raped?’

Still
he said nothing.

‘Don’t
get me wrong, you’ve been very helpful so far. Your account of what happened
does tally remarkably well with Miss Hargreaves’, considering how long it’s
been. But it does differ in a couple of important respects. Maybe it’s your
memory. People do get selective memories when they’ve something to hide.’ He
flicked the briefest of sideways glances towards Baker, letting him know he was
well aware of what had gone on while he and his client had been conferring
privately. ‘But Miranda didn’t ever forget what happened. When you two broke
into her room - she says - she started crying and pleading with you. Bayliss
shut her up by giving her a good hiding.
That
is the point at which he
forced her to strip and invited
you
to have your way with her while
he
went on a tour of the house.
Is that what happened, Darren?’

‘No
comment.’

‘You
not remembering the beating worries me somewhat. What worries me more is
Miranda’s account of what you did while Bayliss was gone.’

‘No
comment.’

‘I
didn’t ask for your comment,’ Zoltan snapped. ‘“Have your way with her” you
took to mean rape her. Which you did. And then when Bayliss came back and found
you raping her, he chewed you out for jumping the gun, and took
his
turn using the flute. With a
foreign object that wouldn’t leave any genetic trace. Is that right?’