THE JAIRUS INTERVIEW
Ex-DCI Jairus entered the interview room smelling of booze, and obviously hadn’t shaved in a while. He slumped down in a chair and stared at me.
MY: When we first met you, DCI Jairus, you were suffering from PTSD after you killed Carl Murphy in self defence….
J: Yeah, is there a question there or what?
MY: Yes. I hadn’t finished. Are you OK now? Have you got over it?
J: Are you my mother now? You don’t get over killing someone…you just learn to deal with it. I’ve learnt to deal with it. I don’t like talking about Murphy anyway. Leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It was self defence, or don’t you bother to read the papers?
MY: All right. Let’s move on. They say you have an excellence clearance rate…but have you actually arrested anyone? Brought them in to face trial? A lot of people seem to die around you.
(Jairus stares at me for a while. I’m unnerved).
Jairus: Yeah, I have. Plenty. It all depends how they want to come…quietly or kicking or screaming. To me ‘clearance’ means getting the bastards off the street.
MY: But they have rights too…
Jairus: They? They? You mean the thugs? The psychos? All the serial killers I’ve tracked down? Like I said, my job is to get them off the streets…
MY: You’ve nearly found yourself ‘off the streets’ too, haven’t you?
Jairus: Yeah, nearly. Last time I was set up. I can only guess that I upset someone somewhere. I’ll find out who one day. Like I said, I’m still a free man.
MY: But without your warrant card… Pending an investigation…
Jairus: I’ll be back. They can’t keep me down for long. I’ll find a way. I’m looking into the future, not the past. I think it was F. Scott Fitzgerald who said “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past”…
MY: What about Cathy Durbridge?
(Another hard, cold stare)
Jairus: What about her?
MY: Well, you’ve got quite a fiery relationship…let’s not forget she was your alibi for the night Raymond Crow disappeared…
Jairus: Yeah, because that’s where I was…look, I don’t want to talk about Cathy…we’re friends…that’s all.
MY: Do you think you’ll ever see her again?
Jairus: I don’t know…look, I’ve had enough of this. I’m out. But watch this space. I’ll back at work soon enough…
At that point Jairus stormed out of the interview. I saw him later necking vodka at the hotel bar like there was no tomorrow.
But he’ll be back in JAIRUS’ SACRIFICE later this year.