Spider - Michael Morley [76]
‘Okay,’ she said, finally deciding how she was going to open the discussion. ‘Some years back, I went to England and attended some courses at Scotland Yard and at a place in the country called Brams Hall…’
‘Bramshill,’ interrupted Jack. ‘It’s called Bramshill, not Hall, and it’s the location of the National Police Staff College run by the Association of Chief Police Officers. I guess you were there as part of your profiling training?’
‘Yes, that’s right,’ said Orsetta, a little irritated at being corrected.
‘It was ACPO that launched offender profiling in the UK. They had to nurture it through the regional forces for years. The Bramshill course is probably the best in the world – outside Quantico, of course.’
‘Of course,’ said Orsetta. ‘Well, when I was there, at Bramshill,’ she continued, ‘apart from the training, I learned a very important English saying.’
‘Which is what?’ asked Jack, intrigued as to what point she might eventually get round to making.
Orsetta spoke slowly, making sure the strange English expression came out right. ‘We are all avoiding talking about the elephant in the room.’
‘We’re all what?’ said Jack, wearing a smile as broad as his shoulders.
‘We’re avoiding talking about the biggest, most obvious thing. We’re pretending it’s not there,’ explained Orsetta.
‘Well, I’m sorry,’ said Jack, ‘but you’ve lost me. To be truthful though, most of those Brit sayings are lost on me. There’s many a slip twixt cup and lip, pride before a fall, shutting the barn door after the horse has bolted, crying over spilt milk – they talk in damn riddles half the time.’ He could see from the look on her face that she was in no mood for levity. ‘Apologies. You had a serious point; we’re avoiding the obvious, the big thing that’s staring us in the face. So what’s that? What’s the big thing?’
She chewed her lip, and then spat out what was on her mind. ‘You, Jack, you’re the big thing. You are the elephant.’
‘Come again?’
‘I’ve heard you and Massimo talking about how BRK is taunting the police, and how even the FBI reports refer to it. But what if it’s more personal than that? What if it’s Jack King that BRK is taunting?’
Jack shot her a dismissive look. ‘Not worth putting in the frame. I don’t see it. Why on earth should he fixate on me?’ He paused for a second, searching for possibilities. ‘Nope, I really don’t see it. Over the years, there were seven senior investigating officers heading that enquiry, I don’t think I did anything different from any of them.’ He let out a sigh. ‘I certainly didn’t get any closer to catching him. Have you got something specific in your mind?’
Orsetta hadn’t, it was only a feeling, but she’d learned not to ignore her instincts when they kept nagging away as this one was doing. ‘I don’t know. I can’t get away from thinking that you’re the only thing linking BRK, Italy and the USA. Maybe you’ve somehow come to represent the police, or some government authority for him, and he has to destroy you to get revenge for something that was done to him. Perhaps you’ve come to symbolize an injustice against him, or someone he loved.’ The explanation had come out much weaker than she’d intended, but she didn’t know how to put it any better, and now she could see that Jack was looking at her as if she were some police academy first-termer who was hopelessly out of her depth. ‘Look,’ she added quickly, ‘he killed when you were in the States, now he’s killing while you’re in Italy. Is that just a coincidence?’
Jack’s sharp stare of disapproval disappeared. Simplicity was something that always appealed to him, and like all detectives, he didn’t believe in pure coincidences. As a seasoned profiler, he knew there had to be a good reason to discount anything. ‘BRK was killing long before I was drafted into the case. I only worked his files for about five years and PROFILER, the FBI computer system, links murders to him a good twelve years