‘She’s scared.’
‘Scared of what?’
‘Them. She says Kaylee’s dead, and they’ll come after her next.’
Hart put a hand on her arm and felt her trembling lightly. ‘I think you’d better come with me,’ she said. ‘We’ll have a little ride to the station and have a chat where it’s quiet.’
They put her in the ‘soft room’ and brought her tea and sandwiches, but she still looked like Marie Antoinette on the way to the guillotine. When she’d finished the sandwiches, Slider interviewed her himself, hoping she would respond to fatherliness, with Hart on the side for familiarity.
‘So you know what happened to Kaylee?’ he asked.
‘I wasn’t there,’ she said. ‘I didn’t go any more.’
‘Didn’t go where any more?’
‘To the parties. I didn’t want to do that stuff any more. Anita told me I got to get out and get clean.’
‘Who’s Anita?’
‘Anita. At the house,’ she said, as if everyone ought to know who she was.
Hart intervened. ‘Is that that lady, the caretaker where you live?’
‘Yeah. She looks after us. This woman I met in a caff one night, she put me on to her when she found I didn’t have anywhere to crash. Anita said I could have the room and she’d get me a job as well, but I had to clean up my act. No drugs, no drinking, and keep away from men. Otherwise, she said, next thing they’d be finding me in a skip. Well, I didn’t want to do that stuff any more, anyway. Not after Tyler.’
Slider heard the name with relief, and an ache of sadness. On the plus side, they at last had evidence there was a connection between Tyler and Kaylee. The negative side was the nature of the connection.
‘Tyler went to the parties as well?’ he asked carefully.
‘Yeah. We were mates at the home. Shannon got her in. She got me in, too. But she was cool with me leaving. She said she understood. She said as long as I kept my mouth shut it’d be cool. But then she come round the house Saturday night – well, it was Sunday morning by then. She rung me up from downstairs and I went down and let her in. And she told me Kaylee was dead, and they’d be after her next. So she had to go on the run. She had a couple of hours’ sleep in my bed, and then she went.’
‘Where did she go?’ Slider asked.
‘I don’t know.’ Her eyes were wide. ‘Honest. She said it was better if I didn’t know, and I don’t. She said she was going into hiding, and she’d ring me sometime. She rung me today to ask if there’d been anything in the news about Kaylee, and that was it. I don’t know where she is, I swear.’
‘Who are these people who are after her?’ Slider asked. Her answer was so low he couldn’t catch it. ‘What did you say?’
‘Golden Eagle,’ she said, still almost in a whisper. She shuddered. ‘All of them.’
Slider reached for the file and took out the photograph of Peloponnos. ‘Is this Golden Eagle?’ he asked, handing it to her.
She took it with cringing fingers, as though it might be able to see her, like a two-way TV screen. Then her face cleared. ‘No, that’s not him.’
‘Do you know that man?’
‘Yeah. Otter, I think his name is.’
‘Otter?’ Hart almost snorted.
Slider threw her a quelling look. All the good names must have been taken – with a vengeance. Otter! ‘How do you know him?’ he asked. ‘Where have you seen him before?’
‘At the parties.’ She put the picture down. ‘He was there the night Tyler died. I never went again after that. I didn’t fancy it any more.’
‘I think you’d better tell us about the parties,’ Slider said calmly. ‘Take your time, start at the beginning. Would you like some more tea?’
She looked at him almost shyly. ‘Can I have hot chocolate?’
She was so young, he thought. It would break your heart.
The parties were regular happenings at this big house, belonging to this rich bloke, and all these other rich blokes came.
‘I think they were, like, business people,’ Jessica said. ‘But they all used these names, like Cobra and Panther and that. You never heard their real names. They were ever so hot on security and that. You couldn’t take a mobile phone in, in case you took photographs. You had to leave your handbag downstairs when you arrived, and they, like, frisked you to make sure you hadn’t got a camera or a bug or anything. That was all to stop anyone knowing who anyone was. But Shannon, she said she recognized some of them. She’s, like, really smart.’
‘And what happened at these parties?’ Slider asked.
Jessica shrugged. ‘Just the usual. Music and dancing and that. There was lots of drink, and charlie and weed. E as well – I never did that. And Viagra for the older blokes. And sex.’
‘That was where you came in, was it, babes?’ Hart asked.
‘Yeah. That’s what Shannon said when she got me in. You go along and there’s lots to drink and fancy nibbles, and shedloads of drugs, and you have sex with these rich blokes, and at the end you get paid an’ all. Paid for partying! Like, she said, it’s win-win.’
‘What sort of sex?’ Hart asked.
‘Well, some of ’em wanted, like, weird stuff, but mostly they just wanted to, like, shag. You never had to do nothing you didn’t want. But like Shannon said, once you got in the party mood, you didn’t care anyway. They were great parties. Like, I’d’ve gone without the money.’
‘How much did they pay you?’ Slider asked. A great rage was churning in his stomach, but it was part of the job to conceal that. He sounded merely pleasantly interested.
Jessica was blossoming under the atmosphere. She was not just willing to talk, she was eager. No one had ever taken so much interest in her before. Slider had got her details from the care home beforehand. It was the usual story. No idea who her real father was. Mother had taken up with a series of ‘stepfathers’, with the last one of whom she had been killed in a car crash on the M1 late at night, both of them drunk. Jessica, then ten years old, had been taken into care, until the system spewed her out and left her to cope on her own in a careless world.
‘How much did they pay you?’
‘A hundred pounds for the night,’ she said proudly. ‘You got that when you left. But sometimes one of the blokes would give you something as well. Like, a tip. I made two-fifty one night when I done a threesome with these two blokes. And all the drink and charlie you wanted. The only thing was you couldn’t talk about it to anyone. They were real strict about that. Shannon said if anyone found out anything from me I’d be dropped, right off. But she said—’ her lip trembled a bit – ‘she said they might come after me as well.’
‘Come after you?’ Slider asked. ‘You mean, hurt you?’
She nodded. ‘That’s what Shannon’s afraid of. I dunno what she did, but she’s really scared.’
‘Because of Kaylee dying?’ Slider tried.
‘I dunno. She never said. She just said, “Kaylee’s dead, and they’ll come after me next.”’
‘Did she say how Kaylee died?’ She shook her head. ‘Didn’t you ask?’
‘I didn’t wanna know. Shannon said right at the beginning, just enjoy yourself and keep your mouth shut. If you recognize anybody, never let on. The less you know the better.’
The hot chocolate arrived, and Slider let her sip it while he marshalled his questions.
‘This big house,’ he said. ‘Where is it? Can you take us there?’
She looked scared. ‘I couldn’t. I don’t wanna go back there.’
‘We’ll take care of you. You don’t need to worry.’
‘I dunno where it is. See, they pick you up in a car and drive you there. You can’t really see, sitting in the back. I never really looked, anyway.’
‘All the girls are picked up in the same car?’
‘I think there’s several,’ she said vaguely. Obviously she was not curious about the arrangements.
‘Tell me about the night Tyler died,’ Slider said.<
br />
Her eyes grew moist. ‘She was my mate, back at the home. She was a laugh, always up for it. I miss her.’
‘What happened that night?’
‘I don’t know. I never see anything. I was up on the roof with a couple of blokes. Like, there was this great roof terrace where the party was, and downstairs in the house were all the bedrooms where you went to have sex. Tyler was in one of the rooms. The first I knew was when all the blokes and girls who’d been downstairs came out on the terrace. Some of ’em were, like, still putting their clothes on, and Golden Eagle sort of made an announcement asking everyone to stay up there until he said. And he asked one of the blokes, I think it was Cobra, to go downstairs with him. And after about half an hour they came back up and said everything’s cool, carry on partying. But the next day Shannon rung me up and said Tyler’d had a heart attack while she was doing it with this bloke, she said Cheetah, and she died. But I was never to say anything about it. She said Tyler had probably done too much charlie – that can give you a heart attack. So that’s when I decided to give it up. I didn’t want to end up like Tyler.’
‘So Golden Eagle was the big boss, was he?’ Slider asked.
She seemed to shrink a little at the name. ‘I think it was his house. I dunno if he arranged everything.’
‘Do you know who he is?’ She shook her head. ‘If you know, you can tell us now. You don’t need to keep it secret any more. We’ll take care of you. They can’t touch you now.’
‘I don’t know who he is,’ she said in a whisper.
‘You didn’t recognize him from anywhere?’ She shook her head. ‘If I showed you some photographs, do you think you could pick him out?’
‘I dunno,’ she said. ‘Can I go now? I got to get back to work, or I’ll lose my job.’
‘I think you’ll have to stay with us a little bit longer,’ Slider said. ‘But we’ll have a word with your boss and make it all right.’
‘Babes, you’re lucky,’ Hart intervened. ‘You’re here with us, you’re safe. Think about Shannon, out there on her own. We gotta get her in, before someone else gets to her. You must have some idea where she’s gone.’
‘I don’t know. She said it was better if I didn’t.’
Hart gave Jessica her card. ‘When she rings again, tell her to call me. Tell her I can take care of her. She’s not safe out there on her own. She’s gotta come in.’
Connolly was waiting for him upstairs. ‘I don’t know if it’s good news or bad,’ she said, ‘but it seems your man did go to the opera on Saturday night.’
Slider sat down wearily, ‘Tell me.’
‘I got onto this couple that had the next two seats. The female said she noticed him when he came in, because he was late and they all had to get up to let him past. She thought he must be a real opera lover because he was on his own, and most people go in couples or groups. But then she changed her mind because he was fidgeting all through like a flea on a shovel, and kept looking at his watch. She ended up wanting to lamp him. And at the end, they were all shuffling to the exit one behind the other, the way you do, and he was trying to shove his way through, and she thought how rude he was. Then when they got out on the pavement he was trying to wave down a taxi, and she thought, good luck with that, me boyo – or words to that effect.’
‘So he was at the opera,’ Slider said. ‘They start at – what – seven thirty?’
‘And the opera’s about two hours long, so allowing for the interval and getting out at the end—’
‘He’d be on the street about ten o’clock.’
‘Not too late for partying.’
‘And if he took a taxi—’
‘Way ahead of you, boss. I’ve put the word out, and circulated his picture.’
‘Get everyone together,’ Slider said. ‘I need to update you all.’
FIFTEEN
Noli Me Tangere
There was a thoughtful silence, and then Fathom said, ‘I don’t get it. Why all the secrecy – false names and warning the girls not to talk? It’s not illegal to have parties.’
‘The drugs are illegal,’ Swilley pointed out. ‘And the one thing they don’t want is publicity.’
‘And let’s not forget,’ said Slider, ‘that Tyler was underage.’
‘That’s prob’ly why they panicked and dumped her,’ Hart said. ‘Which is also a crime.’
‘And that’s where all their troubles began,’ said Atherton. ‘Kaylee was also underage, and was also dumped. They’ve started to repeat their effects, like all criminals. That’s where they fall down.’
‘But they’d’ve got away with it,’ said Mackay, ‘if they hadn’t done Kaylee. They did get away with it. Nobody was investigating Tyler, and nobody’d connected her with them.’
‘So what happened to Kaylee?’ Fathom asked. ‘I mean, we still don’t really know how she died – or even if she was at the party.’
‘What a pity Georgie’s dead, so we can’t ask him,’ said Atherton. ‘And by the way, why did he kill himself?’
‘What I don’t understand is why Shannon thinks they’ll be after her,’ said Swilley. ‘Why was it her fault?’
‘Plenty of questions,’ Slider said. ‘What we want is answers.’
‘Well, this party business makes sense of one thing that was puzzling me,’ Atherton said. ‘Georgie’s list of names, the one marked “donors”. I thought at first the dates beside the names were the dates he’d approached them for a donation, or maybe the date they’d made one. But then I did a bit of work with the calendar, and it turns out the dates are all Saturdays.’
‘I should have noticed that,’ Slider said.
‘One of the dates was the 10th of January, and I remembered it was the presumed date Tyler died. And I knew that was a Saturday. That’s what made me check. So now I’m wondering if there was a connection with the parties. Maybe they were potential donors that he hoped to meet there and put the bite on.’
Hart snorted. ‘Bite? From an Otter?’
‘Otters have sharp teeth. You wouldn’t chuckle if you were a salmon.’
‘Don’t forget,’ Slider said, ‘we haven’t established that the parties Jessica’s talking about are the same parties that went on in Marler’s house.’
‘She mentions the roof terrace,’ Atherton pointed out. ‘I think you’re being over cautious.’
‘With a high-profile suspect, you have to anticipate every caveat,’ Slider said. ‘There are other houses with roof terraces. And unless Jessica IDs him as Golden Eagle, we’ve no firm connection with Marler at all.’
‘We really need to find Shannon,’ said Hart. ‘She’s the link.’
‘Go back to her sister,’ Slider said. ‘Find out if there are any friends she might go to, or relatives. Impress on her that Shannon would be safer with us. And let’s see if Jessica can give us the names of any other girls who went to these parties.’
Connolly used Atherton’s ‘donor’ list and scoured the internet for images of them to present to Jessica, to see if she would pick any of them out. She found images of about half a dozen of them that were good enough. To the mix was added the best photo they had of Marler, plus a few random unconnected people, so that any future possible defence counsel couldn’t say it was rigged.
Seated between Hart and Connolly, Jessica went through the whole lot without picking out anybody. ‘Come on, girl,’ Hart said. ‘Have another look. You must recognize somebody.’
‘I don’t remember. It was a long time ago,’ she said.
‘Not that long. Three months.’
‘There was, like, party lights, and smoke and everything. You couldn’t really see.’ She seemed close to tears.
‘Just have another look. Take your time.’
‘Don’t be scared,’ Connolly added. ‘These people can’t hurt you.’
‘S’right, babes,’ Hart agreed. ‘They just say stuff to sound big. They can’t really do anything. Go on, have another look.’
Jessica leafed thro
ugh again, more slowly this time, but her expression was one of frozen fear. She didn’t pick out Marler – but then she also didn’t ‘recognize’ a TV presenter and show host who was virtually a household name. She did hesitate over an eminent heart surgeon, and eventually came back to him, staring but saying nothing.
‘You know that bloke, love?’ Hart asked.
‘I dunno. I think it might be Cobra – like, the one Golden Eagle took downstairs to see Tyler.’ She looked up with fearful eyes. ‘But I dunno for sure. Can I go now? I got to get back to work.’
Afterwards, reporting to Slider, Hart said, ‘I can’t be sure she was really recognising him, or she thought we wouldn’t let her go unless she picked at least one out. But if he’s a doctor, it’d make sense Marler taking him downstairs to look at Tyler when she collapsed.’
Slider nodded thoughtfully. ‘And there’s the rod of Asclepius,’ he said.
‘You what, guv?’
‘The staff with the snake wound round it. The symbol of medicine. A doctor might well choose a snake as his familiar.’
Hart gave up on that one. ‘Well, it gives us someone else to pump, anyway. What about Jessica, guv?’
‘Take her home. Make it all right with her boss. Urge her again to make Shannon get in touch with us – you know what to do.’
‘Yeah, OK,’ said Hart. ‘I’ll have a word wiv that Anita, too. She’s a tough-looking cow, but whatever she says, I reckon she looks out for her girls.’
Slider thought of a North Kensington version of Mama Morton and shuddered.
Porson sighed. ‘Every time you think you’ve come up with something, it goes off like a damp squid.’
Damp squid? Slider thought. No wonder they thought something smelled fishy. He enumerated. ‘We know Marler had parties. We know he used the roof terrace. We’ve got Mrs Havelock Symonds for that. And now we’ve got Jessica describing parties in a big house with a roof terrace. And saying Tyler Vance died at one of them.’
‘She won’t ID the house and she won’t ID Marler,’ said Porson. ‘And, frankly, she’s not a credulous witness. A girl like that? The sort of counsel Marler could afford would turn her inside out. You know that.’ He looked at Slider sadly. ‘I wish you’d never got started on this. You could have left Kaylee Adams as a hit-and-run. Nobody missed her.’
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