Silent Scream (57 page)

‘I’m Anna Travis,’ she said, trying to be pleasant.

‘DI Frank Duggan,’ he said tersely, and then swivelled around to stare at her. ‘You up before the board?’

‘Yes.’

‘Huh.’ He looked disapprovingly at her, and she blushed. ‘Bit young, aren’t you?’

Anna got herself a refill of coffee. ‘Maybe I’m older than I look,’ she said coolly.

Duggan munched on a digestive biscuit, then dipped it into his coffee and sucked it.

‘How was it?’ she asked.

‘Not easy, and I’m not through yet. I have to write up this and then I’ve got to wait to go before the trick cyclists for the next interview.’

Anna knew he was referring to the psychological assessment, but by now she felt that whatever she said to him would get the same blunt response. He opened the file and took out a pen.

‘Not bloody easy,’ he muttered.

‘I didn’t think it would be.’

‘Really? Well, get ready. They’ve got a panel of hard-nosed officers in there, one especially. He didn’t like me, and made it obvious, but there’s a female that’s pleasant. I’d aim at getting her on your side.’

Before Anna could get any further details, a uniformed officer opened the door and looked at her.

‘DI Travis?’

‘Yes.’ She stood up quickly, and he gestured for her to follow him out of the room.

At the end of the corridor, he paused, turning towards her. ‘One moment.’

He knocked and stood in the open doorway. ‘DI Anna Travis.’

There was a long trestle table with a green cloth and three chairs behind it, but only two occupants. Anna sat down on the chair provided opposite them. They introduced themselves: Superintendent Henry Smith and Sheila Cox, a Higher Executive Officer. They were just waiting for the third member of the panel to join them.

Sheila Cox was calm and spoke softly, saying encouragingly how impressed they had been by Anna’s application form. The meeting would be an opportunity for the three of them to assess Anna’s competency in answering questions, and they would be asking her about the case examples she had written up in her application.

‘You will be given a folder, and you will leave the meeting to prepare a fifteen-minute oral presentation on how you would deal with the situation described on the pages inside. Then you’ll be given a written exercise which is a report on how you would deal with that same situation. Is that all clear?’

‘Yes, thank you.’

A small side door opened and Anna’s heart stopped.

‘Detective Chief Superintendent James Langton,’ Miss Cox said, gesturing towards him.

Anna now knew who the hardnosed one was. He gave her barely a glimmer of recognition, merely nodding his head as he took his seat.

‘Sorry to keep you waiting,’ Langton said to the panel, again pointedly ignoring Anna.

Miss Cox waited for him to open his file. She then glanced to her right and received a nod from Superintendent Smith.

‘Right, I think we should begin.’

It was almost an hour later, and Anna felt drained. Both Cox and Smith had questioned her case examples in detail. Langton appeared to be almost bored, leaning back in his chair, clicking his ballpoint pen on and off. He said not a word until she finished discussing her part in her second murder enquiry, and then he remarked abruptly, ‘There was a very worrying leakage to the press during this enquiry. What do you have to say about that?’

Anna explained nervously that, to her knowledge, the leaks had helped garner information that the murder team were able to use to their advantage, especially as the killer was manipulating the press himself.

On every one of Anna’s application cases that had involved her working alongside Langton, he brought up specific areas she knew he had queried at the time and even warned her about. Eventually she was excused to return to the waiting room and prepare for the next session.

‘Shit!’ she muttered as she began to read the folder.
Can you really sleepwalk into a crime
was the heading. The file highlighted the case of a murder which had been committed by a suspect who claimed he had been asleep at the time. It showed how worrying the concept was to the police, how difficult a task they faced to distinguish legitimate sleepwalkers from those using it as an excuse for their behaviour. One expert claimed that sleepwalking, once seen as an eccentric and harmless activity, was rapidly taking on an altogether more sinister aspect. Anna started to make copious notes.

It was almost midday when she was called back into the hot seat to embark on her oral presentation. She was allowed to refer to her notes, but knew it would make a better impression to keep her head up and show confidence.

‘I believe that family history plays an important part in the truth of a suspect’s claim to have been sleepwalking while committing a crime. So if there is a history of sleepwalking in childhood, then it’s possible it can continue into adulthood, but the reality is that it would also require a hereditary disposition. Triggers such as stress, lack of sleep and alcohol can set off a sleepwalking incident, but the controversial element is . . .’ She hesitated. She couldn’t remember what she was going to discuss next. There was a long pause as they waited. She tried to recall some of the most pertinent facts she had just read, but she couldn’t think. Her mind had gone blank.

Langton leaned back in his chair clicking his pen again, while Smith tapped the table with his fingers as if bored.

‘So, Detective Travis, explain to us how you would deal with a perpetrator who had killed his mother and then pleaded sleepwalking as his defence . . .’

It was only 3 p.m. when Anna handed in her written report but it felt much later. She waited to be interviewed by the psychologist. By this time she had consumed too much coffee and felt bloated, and her nerves were ragged.

In the ladies’ room, she washed her face in cold water, but felt no calmer. On the contrary, she was anxious about her performance. She was certain that Langton would be giving her a bad report. He had appeared distracted throughout, and had hardly asked any questions about her presentation. He had made plenty of notes, but whether they had anything to do with the process, she had no idea.

The next session did little to boost Anna’s confidence. The psychologist took so long in between asking her questions, she sensed that there was a hidden agenda. She wondered whether or not his slow delivery was designed to make her more nervous than she already was, or more paranoid because he kept on repeating one specific query.

‘Explain to me what you want to achieve.’

‘Promotion,’ she said rather sharply. ‘That’s why I am here.’

After another lengthy pause, he came up with another question.

‘Can you explain to me why, on numerous past cases, you have been reprimanded for perhaps appearing to be an over-achiever?’

‘I don’t understand your question.’

As he slowly repeated it, Anna knew that Langton had to have given, in his report, details of the times he had reprimanded her regarding her continual habit of working alone. She became so enraged that she clenched her hands into fists.

‘If by over-achieving you mean getting a result in a case, then I still don’t understand your question. I have never, on any case, considered achievement to be an objective. I love my work, I only want to give the best of myself and to gain the best possible result – that is, the arrest of a perpetrator.’

‘Do you think that is what you have done?’ This time, his question came hot on the heels of her last answer.

‘Yes, I believe so.’

‘What about working as a team member? Do you find that difficult?’

‘No.’

‘Can you give me a more expansive answer?’

‘Well, I am here to gain promotion. That would make me a leader of a team, rather than a sheep, and I think that I have all the right qualities for that position.’

‘Do you find it difficult to impart information that you have uncovered to others in your team?’

‘Not at all. If at any time I’ve appeared to be working alone, then it has been purely down to circumstances.’

‘Would you call yourself a risk-taker?’

Anna was getting increasingly angry. ‘Risk to whom? Myself or losing the case? As a police officer one is constantly at risk, and I am prepared to put myself in that position if necessary.’

‘Is that why, in the past, you have not always brought your whereabouts to the attention of your team?’

This was Langton, it had to be. It was a waste of time remaining in the room. She pushed back her chair.

‘I haven’t finished yet, Travis.’

‘Well, I have, sir. I can’t see the point of answering any further questions. I believe the examiners have already made up their minds whether or not I am suitable for promotion.’

‘That is your mistake,’ said the psychologist. ‘I am simply reading through your files. We will not be making any decision regarding promotion until we’ve had time to digest everything that has taken place today.’

She was in two minds whether or not to believe him, and then decided she’d blown it anyway. She stood up and, as a parting shot, suggested that at the next promotional board she would prefer not to have to face someone with whom she had had a close personal relationship.

She missed the psychologist’s look of stunned amazement.

Anna didn’t want to go home; instead she stopped at the station. Mike Lewis greeted her warmly and asked how it had gone.

‘I blew it. I don’t think for one moment Detective Chief Superintendent Langton would have agreed to my promotion, so I walked out.’

‘Well, they’ll let you know in a few weeks’ time.’

‘I already know,’ she snapped and then apologised. ‘Sorry, it’s been a long day, and thanks for being supportive.’

Mike was reassuring, reminding her that it had taken him two attempts. There were so few places available and she was young, she would have plenty of opportunity.

‘Now for some good news.’ He took an envelope out of his pocket, and showed Anna two tickets. ‘We’ve been sent them by the director for a cast and crew screening of
Gaslight
in Leicester Square on Sunday evening.’

‘You are joking.’

‘Nope. It appears they have pulled out all the stops to get it ready, probably on the tailwind of the arrest of Lester James – you know, for the publicity. We’re all going.’

There was a loud gasp from the audience when Amanda Delany made her first appearance. She was so beautiful, and the Victorian costume suited her delicate figure. The wig with its blonde ringlets and coiled bun at the nape of her neck enhanced her bare slim shoulders. She played the frightened heroine in
Gaslight
to perfection.

Mike, sitting next to Anna in the audience, whispered that he had had no idea of just how beautiful she was. It was her beauty that got to them all, yet it was almost impossible to block out the tragic, skeleton-thin victim lying on the gurney. Whether or not the murder became entwined with Amanda’s performance was immaterial; there was still a sense of terrible loss. Amanda Delany was a star; she burned so brightly in front of them all and when the film ended, there was a moment of silence. Then the entire audience rose to their feet to applaud.

Langton must have come in when the movie had started, because Anna saw him at the end of their row. He wasn’t clapping like everyone else but stood quietly, head tilted downwards so Anna couldn’t see the expression on his face. As soon as the applause died down, and everyone began moving out from their seats, Anna went in the opposite direction. Some groups of the crew stayed chatting and laughing, but hurrying out, heads bowed, were the two James brothers, Harry and Tony. Anna was one of the first to leave the cinema and took off up the road to hail a taxi. She stood on the pavement in pouring rain. A taxi pulled up beside her and the passenger door opened.

‘Get in,’ Langton said abruptly.

Anna hesitated and then stepped inside.

‘That was a hideous event,’ he said, as the taxi moved off.

‘Depends. I think the film will be very successful. I was surprised to see you there.’

‘I got your spare ticket.’

She pressed herself back in the seat, and they remained silent. She wondered if he was, like her, trying to think of what to say.

‘I know I won’t get the promotion,’ she finally said quietly.

‘Correct. You’re not ready for it, Anna, but you won’t know officially for a few weeks.’

‘Thanks to you!’

‘Not just my decision.’

‘Bullshit. You really primed that psychologist, and I knew by the questions he was asking that you’d put your oar in.’

He shrugged, and it made her furious.

‘If I’d known you were going to be on the board of examiners, I wouldn’t have even bothered going in for the day. As soon as I saw you, I knew it would be a waste of time.’

‘That depended on you. What you should do is learn from it, and refrain from constantly acting as a one-man band. Until you understand the logistics of teamwork, you will never be a suitable candidate for promotion.’

She glared at him.