22nd April
Rachael Walker, aka Mistress Whiplash, poured tea for Joan and me in the lounge of her suburban bungalow.
‘How are you feeling?’ Joan asked her with concern.
‘A lot better now,’ Rachael replied. ‘Are you both from the police too?’
‘No,’ said Joan. ‘I work for MI5, and Mr. Morrison is …’ Joan paused for a moment while she worked out exactly what my status was in the very peculiar place the world had recently become. ‘Mr. Morrison is a consultant with us.’
‘And you’re really not going to have me arrested for what I do here?’ Rachel asked.
‘We would like to make a deal with you, Miss Walker,’ Joan continued. ‘Your business can continue as if nothing had happened. All we ask is that you tell us everything you know about Bishop Hunter. Also, please don’t breathe a word of all this to anyone.’
‘That’s fine,’ she said. ‘I’m so relieved. Strange as it sounds, I’m really fond of my clients. Most seem like really nice people – or I wouldn’t provide services for them. What they like to do in private is nobody’s business but their own. It would break my heart if they lost senior jobs in the Church, military and government on account of me.’
‘The Church, military and government!’ I repeated.
‘It’s best that we know nothing of your other clientele,’ Joan quickly interrupted.
‘This all sounds pretty important,’ Rachel continued, changing the subject. ‘You were here very quickly.’
‘I’m afraid we can’t tell you much about it all, Rachael,’ said Joan, ‘but the bishop’s name is on a special list, held on police computers. If any police matters arise involving him, we immediately take over.’
I removed a picture from my pocket. ‘Is this the man who kidnapped the bishop?’ I passed to her the photograph of Leadbetter.
‘Yes, I’m certain,’ she replied.
‘Did he say anything?’ I continued.
‘He said nothing at all. He wrote those instructions on the whiteboard.’ She pointed to the board on the table in front of us. ‘And he did everything else by gestures. I never heard his voice.’
‘And he had a gun,’ said Joan.
‘It was a Browning 9mm,’ Rachael replied.
Joan raised an eyebrow. ‘You know more about guns than most people,’ she ventured.
‘I don’t know anything about guns,’ Rachael replied. ‘It’s just that some of my military clients like to involve a gun in the scenarios we act out. I have a replica Browning 9mm. I gather that they’ve been standard issue to all military personnel since the Second World War.’
‘That’s right,’ said Joan. ‘There are a lot of them about.’
‘What can you tell us about Bishop Hunter?’ I asked.
Rachael looked a little uneasy.
‘Mr. Morrison means the things that the bishop might have told you about his life,’ Joan clarified. ‘We don’t need to know about the activities you and he engaged in.’
‘I’ve been seeing him for about five years,’ Rachael began. ‘He didn’t talk that much about himself. He seemed to have very conservative beliefs. He sometimes joked that he’d been born three hundred years too late, and he feared that the “true Church”, as he put it, was now in terminal decline. He objected to the changing attitudes of the Church towards women and gay people. I can’t say I could agree with many of his views, but he seemed very sincere.’
‘How did he square all of that with coming to see you?’ I asked
‘I’m not sure. Maybe he tried not to think about it. He said that I was his second biggest secret.’
‘Do you know what his biggest secret might have been?’ asked Joan.
‘I asked him that not long ago, just to tease. I didn’t expect an answer. He said that it was safely buried somewhere in Dorset.’