Within twenty minutes after his exchange with Nkata, Lynley received the message from Vivienne Yang. They returned to the interview room, where Lynley once again engaged the tape to record their interview, formally reminding Dr. Weatherall that she was still under caution.
He said, “As we’ve established on your own word, the sculpture depicted in the photograph taken in the home of your patient Leylo is the one you gave to her.”
“I said the sculpture in the picture is very like, Detective Lynley. I have no way of knowing if it’s the actual one that I gave her.”
“Are you suggesting that she has another identical to it? Or that she bought another somewhere in order to have a matched pair?”
“I’m not suggesting anything. I’m merely saying that what’s depicted in the picture is very like what I gave to her. You yourself can see that the midpoint of the photo isn’t perfectly sharp. And the background of it is merely shapes.”
“Hmmm. Yes. That’s largely why I sent my sergeant to have a look at the piece himself. He’s confirmed that it’s Standing Warrior. He’s also confirmed it was once in the possession of Teo Bontempi.”
“That’s absurd. He has no way of confirming that, and you know it.”
Lynley said, “I’m afraid that’s not the case. The statue’s on its way to forensics, and what will come of that is something we won’t necessarily know for a few days. A few weeks, even, depending upon the laboratory’s workload. However, there’s another way that the sculpture can be placed inside Teo Bontempi’s flat. It was a gift from her estranged husband, and when he returned to the flat, he saw that it was missing.”
“You and I both know that she could well have rid herself of it. She could have given it away as a gift. She could have tossed it in the rubbish. There are dozens of explanations, Detective. And even if it was missing as you say, you can hardly claim that the piece missing from the woman’s flat somehow ended up in the hands of one of my patients.”
“And yet it did.” Havers was tapping her pencil against her pad, and her tone was impatient. “It made a direct journey from Streatham to Deptford, and it was in your possession nearly all the way.”
“I don’t see how—”
“It was number ten,” Lynley cut in.
“What?”
“Standing Warrior is a limited edition of fifteen bronze sculptures, Dr. Weatherall. Ross Carver—that’s Teo Bontempi’s husband—bought edition number ten of the twelve that have been sold from a gallery in Peckham. The artist numbered it when she signed her name. She does this, apparently, on the bottom of her pieces, so unless you looked for it, you wouldn’t know it’s there.”
The surgeon said nothing at this. Vivienne Yang folded her hands on the table. Voices came from the corridor. Above their heads, the whir of the building’s ventilation system sent a sudden blast of icy air into the room.
Lynley said, “So far, Mercy Hart has been holding her tongue, but you can’t expect her to do that much longer no matter what you’re paying her, which I expect is quite a bit. When we go to Bronzefield Prison to have another word with her—”
Dr. Weatherall’s glance sharpened when Lynley said Bronzefield Prison, but she still didn’t speak.
“—there’s a very good chance she’ll explain your association with the Kingsland High Street clinic once we tell her you’re in custody.”
“I have no further comment,” Dr. Weatherall said.
“You don’t need to comment at this point, do you?” Havers asked her. “Aside from that tenth copy of Standing Warrior—which is going to make things bloody difficult for you—and aside from Mercy Hart’s decision to loosen her lips—which is going to happen once she learns you’ve been arrested and charged—we’ve got the phone calls you made to Teo Bontempi after she confronted you on the day the clinic was raided. The first of those calls was made that very evening. And all the rest lead directly up to the night she was attacked.”
“When you phoned Teo, you were trying to persuade her not to report you,” Lynley said.
“Report me for what? Helping mutilated women become whole again? Has that become illegal, Detective?”
“We thought at first it was Mercy Hart doing the cutting on little girls and using the name Easter Lange. But it wasn’t, was it? It was you and you were on your way there—to the clinic—when Teo Bontempi in her African clothing saw you. I expect she was shocked at first, trying to work out what you were doing in that part of town. But it didn’t take long for her to reach the only conclusion possible. It was where you performed medicalised FGM.”