Friday on My Mind Read Online Free Page A

was going to find out who was in charge and I was going to warn them in advance. You’ve already met Klein and you probably saw her as some quiet, studious doctor type …’
    ‘I didn’t really –’
    ‘But she isn’t. You say you read about her in the papers.’ He stepped forward and rapped on the desk. ‘I’ll tell youwhat wasn’t in the papers. Did you know that she killed a woman?’
    ‘Killed?’
    ‘Stabbed her to death. Cut her throat.’
    ‘Was she charged?’
    ‘No, it was considered to be self-defence. Klein didn’t even admit to
that
. She said it was done by Dean Reeve, the kidnapper in the Faraday case.’
    Hussein frowned. ‘Dean Reeve? But he died. He hanged himself before the police could get him.’
    ‘Exactly. But this is Frieda Klein we’re talking about. She operates under different rules from the rest of us. She has this bee in her bonnet that Dean Reeve is still alive and it was his identical twin who died. Ridiculous, of course. Also, everyone talks about Klein getting that Faraday boy back and the girl. They don’t mention the other woman Klein got involved and didn’t get rescued.’
    ‘How did Klein get her involved?’
    ‘What?’ Crawford seemed at a loss for a moment. ‘I can’t remember the details. It’s all in the files. She’s been arrested for assault as well. She got into a brawl in a West End restaurant a few years ago.’
    ‘Was she convicted?’
    ‘Charges were not pressed,’ said Crawford, ‘for reasons that were never clear to me.’ He tapped the file. ‘But it’s all in here.’
    ‘Is she still on the payroll?’
    ‘God, no. I saw to that. The last I heard she was up in Suffolk crying rape, hurling accusations around, and the man she accused also ended up being murdered. That’s what I’m trying to tell you, Sarah. Wherever this woman goes, trouble follows and people get killed. The onlyblessing about the last sorry business is that she was up in Suffolk, annoying the police there, rather than down here annoying us.’
    ‘Rape?’ said Hussein. ‘Was she a victim or investigating a rape or what?’
    ‘A bit of both, as far as I could gather. It ended up with two people being murdered, as it generally seems to when Dr Klein is involved.’
    Hussein reached out her hand towards the file and took it. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I want to be clear about this. What is it that we’re talking about here? Are you claiming that this woman is delusional or are you accusing her of something systematic or do you have certain suspicions or … well, what?’
    ‘You’ll be wanting to talk to people, I’m sure, in the course of the investigation. I’m going to put you in touch with a psychological expert that we really do employ, Hal Bradshaw. He shared my reservations about her performance, had something of a run-in with her and his house ended up being burned to the ground. About which, I have to say, he has been remarkably forgiving.’
    ‘Are you suggesting that Frieda Klein is an arsonist as well?’
    Crawford spread his hands in a gesture of helpless innocence. ‘I’m suggesting nothing,’ he said. ‘I’m a simple policeman. I just follow where the evidence leads me, and in this case the evidence suggests that where Frieda Klein goes a trail of chaos follows. What her precise role in this happens to be has always been difficult to pin down. As you will probably discover, Frieda Klein also has some strange associates. How these things happen, I don’t pretend to know, but they happen, and they continue to happen.’
    ‘But when she did work with the force,’ said Hussein, ‘to the extent that she did, who did she deal with?’
    ‘You see, she’s crafty as well. She worked with one of my DCIs, Malcolm Karlsson. He just fell under her spell and she made use of that.’
    ‘“Fell under her spell”? Was there some kind of relationship?’
    Crawford pulled a face. ‘I’m not saying there was and I’m not saying there wasn’t. I