I could see that, as well. But there's another p'rhaps and I reckon you and I know what it is, Mr. Jossie."
"No." He sounded a little hoarse. This was good, Barbara thought.
"Yes," she said. "P'rhaps she had a reason for being there. P'rhaps she knew Jemima Hastings."
"No."
"She didn't? Or you can't believe she did?"
He said nothing.
Barbara took out her card, wrote her mobile number on the back, and slid it across the table towards him. "I want to talk to Gina," she said. "I want you to ring me when she gets home."
Chapter Twenty-Nine
ISABELLE HAD REMAINED AT ST. THOMAS' HOSPITAL FOR MOST of the afternoon, excavating for information in the twisted passageways that comprised the mind of Yukio Matsumoto when she wasn't sparring with his solicitor and making promises that she was not remotely authorised to make. The result was that, by the end of the day, she had a disjointed scenario of what had happened in Abney Park Cemetery along with two e-fits. She also had twelve voice messages on her mobile.
Hillier's office had rung three times, which wasn't good. Stephenson Deacon's office had rung twice, which was just as bad. She skipped those five messages plus two from Dorothea Harriman and one from her ex-husband. That left her with messages from John Stewart, Thomas Lynley, and Barbara Havers. She listened to Lynley's. He'd phoned twice, once about the British Museum, once about Barbara Havers. Although she took note of the fact that the sound of the inspector's well-bred baritone was vaguely comforting, Isabelle paid scant attention to the messages. For unrelated to the fact of his messages was the additional fact that her insides felt as if they wanted to become her outsides, and while she knew very well that there was one quick way to settle both her stomach and her nerves, she did not intend to employ it.
She drove back to Victoria Street. On the way she phoned Dorothea Harriman and told her to have the team in the incident room for her return. Harriman tried to bring up the subject of AC Hillier - as Isabelle reckoned she might - but Isabelle cut her off with, "Yes, yes, I know.
I've heard from him as well. But first things first." She rang off before Harriman told her the obvious: that in Hillier's head first things first meant attending to Sir David's desires. Well, that couldn't matter at the moment. She had to meet with her team, and that took priority.
They were assembled when she arrived. She said, "Right," as she walked into the room,
"we've got e-fits on two individuals who were in the cemetery and seen by Yukio Matsumoto.
Dorothea's running them through the copier, so you'll each have one shortly." She went over what Matsumoto had told her about that day in Abney Park Cemetery: Jemima's actions, the two men he'd seen and where he had seen them, and Yukio's attempt to help Jemima upon finding her wounded in the chapel annex. "Obviously, he made the wound worse when he removed the weapon," she said. "She would have died anyway, but removing the weapon hastened things. It also got him drenched in her blood."
"What about his hair in her hand?" It was Philip Hale who asked the question.
"He doesn't remember her reaching up to him, but she may have done."
"And he may be lying," John Stewart noted.
"Having talked to him - "
"Sod talking to him." Stewart threw a balled-up piece of paper onto his desk. "Why didn't he phone the police? Go for help?"
"He's a paranoid schizophrenic, John," Isabelle said. "I don't think we can expect rational behaviour from him."
"But we can expect usable e-fits?"
Isabelle clocked the restless movement among those gathered in the room. Stewart's tone was, as usual, bordering on snide. He was going to have to be sorted out eventually.
Harriman entered the room, the stack of duplicated e-fits in hand. She murmured to Isabelle that AC Hillier's office had phoned again, apparently with the knowledge that Acting Superintendent Ardery was now in the building. Should she ... ?
She was in a meeting, Isabelle told her. Tell the assistant commissioner she would get to him in good time.
Dorothea looked as if that way lies madness was the response on the tip of her tongue, but she scurried off as well as she could scurry on her ridiculous high heels.
Isabelle handed out the e-fits. She'd already anticipated the reactions she was going to get once the officers looked at what Yukio Matsumoto had come