Wexford 17 - Road Rage by Ruth Rendell

Author:Ruth Rendell [Rendell, Ruth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-09-07T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

"If they didn't speak," he asked her, 'how did they find out who you all were?"

There were dark smudges under her eyes and lines round her mouth he didn't think had been there before. But the shaking had stopped. Her thin hands lay calm in her lap. And her voice was steady.

"After the Struthers were brought in Tattoo came back and gave us each a bit of paper. They were torn-off scraps of a lined writing pad. He didn't say anything, but as I've said, none of them ever did.

''Kitty Struther was lying on the bed crying and moaning that she wanted to go away on her holiday. It was bizarre. There we were in that awful situation and she kept whining about her holiday that had been mined. Tattoo just put her bit of paper beside her, but her husband picked it up and filled it in for her.

"It just said, "name", which we took to mean they wanted our names. Owen Struther said they were criminals and terrorists, and he wasn't doing anything to gratify criminals, but when Roxane told him how they'd hit her she had a great bruise on the side of her face by that time he did it all the same. He said he'd compromise for his wife's sake. We all wrote our names down and after a while Tattoo came back and collected them."

"You didn't tell him who you were?"

She looked at him inquiringly.

"I wrote down Dora Wexford, if that's what you mean. Oh, I see. I didn't say I was married to you. I suppose I thought they'd know that but no, maybe not."

How many people would recognise his name? Not all that many.

True, in the past he had several times appeared on television in connection with previous cases, to appeal for witnesses, for help from the public, but no one remembers the names of policemen in these broadcasts, or of those who get their pictures in the papers.

"Remember they never spoke to us, Reg," she said.

"And on the whole we didn't speak to them much. Well, Roxane spoke to them. And the first time they brought us food Kitty said thank you and that made Roxane laugh, only Tattoo got hold of her by the shoulders and shook her till she stopped. But the rest of us hardly said a word to them. I don't think they ever knew the investigating officer was my husband."

They did by Friday afternoon, he thought, they found out, and that's why they let her go. It was too much for them, the idea of having his wife among the hostages, a hassle they could do without. It must have come as a shock to them. Besides, releasing her was a sure way of getting their message to him. But how had they found out?

"You've said how Tattoo struck Roxane Masood when she tried to attack him and Rubber Face, right? Why didn't he or they strike Kitty Struther?"

Dora considered.

"Kitty didn't attack him, she only screamed and yelled.

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