That was the revenge element of Torn Cross's game with Penny Burgess.
Chapter 19
But someone else was going to be angry too. When he read tonight's paper, the killer was going to be more than a little put out.
Torn Cross stubbed out his cigarette and slurped from his mug of tea.
He folded his paper and placed it on the table in front of him and stared out of the cafe window. He lit another cigarette. He'd set out to provoke the Queer Killer. Provoked, he'd start to get careless, to make mistakes. And when Stevie McConnell did that, Torn Cross would be ready and waiting. He'd show those sorry bastards in command how to catch a killer.
Tony was back in the office by ten to three. Even so, he wasn't early enough to beat Carol.
"Inspector Jordan's here," Claire said as soon as he opened the outer office door. She gestured with her head towards his office.
"She's in there waiting. I told her you'd be back."
Tony's responding smile was strained. As he gripped the door handle, he clenched his eyes tightly and took a deep breath. Nailing what he hoped was a welcoming smile on his face. Tony opened the door and stepped into his office.
At the sound of the door, Carol turned away from the window she'd been staring out of and gave him a cool, appraising look. Tony closed the door behind him and leaned against it.
"You look like a man who's just stepped in a puddle that's deeper than his shoe," Carol remarked.
That's an improvement, then," Tony said with more than a trace of irony.
"Usually I feel like I've stepped in a puddle that's deeper than my head."
Carol took a step towards him. She'd rehearsed what she was going to say.
"There's no need to feel like that with me. Last night ... well, you were less than candid and I misread the signals. So can we please forget the whole thing and concentrate on what's important between us?"
"Which is?" Tony sounded impersonal as a therapist, his question conversational rather than challenging.
"Working together to nail this killer."
Tony pushed himself away from the door and made for the safety of his seat, careful to keep the desk between them at all times.
"That's fine by me." He gave a crooked smile.
"Believe me, I'm far better at professional relationships than the other kind. Think of it as a lucky escape."
Carol walked round to the opposite side of the desk and pulled up a chair. She crossed her trouser-clad legs and folded her hands in her lap.
"So let's have a look at this profile."
"We don't have to behave as if we're strangers," Tony said quietly.
"I respect you, and I admire the way you're so open to learning new aspects of the job. Look, before ... before what happened last night, we seemed to be moving towards a friendship that went beyond work.
Was that such a bad thing? Couldn't we settle for that? "
Carol shrugged.
"It's not easy making friends after you've exposed your weaknesses."
"I don't think showing someone you're attracted to them is necessarily a weakness."
"I feel foolish," Carol said, not quite sure why she was opening up like this.
"I had no right to expect anything from you. Now, I'm angry with myself."
"And with me too, I expect," Tony said. This was proving less traumatic than he had imagined. His counselling techniques hadn't rusted over from lack of use, he thought with relief.
"Mostly with myself," Carol said.
"But I can deal with that. The important thing for me is that we get the job done."
The too. It's pretty rare for me to find a police officer who seems to have a grasp of what I'm trying to do. " He picked up the papers on his desk.
"Carol ... This isn't about you, you know. It's about me. I have problems of my own that I need to deal with."
Carol stared at him long and hard. He felt a quick twitch of panic as he realized he could not read her eyes. He had no idea what she was feeling.
"I hear what you're saying," she replied, her voice cold.
"Speaking of problems," she added, 'haven't we got some work to do? "
Carol sat alone in Tony's office with his profile of the serial killer. He had left her to read it while he worked next door with his secretary, catching up on the correspondence that had piled up since Brandon had hijacked him only a handful of days before. She couldn't remember ever having been