by Sabina Manea
‘Yeah, the one you bagged up.’
‘A Vietnamese girl at the party had one too. So that means Darius had been to Medusa. Either him, or Marie, or both.’
Carliss’s eyes widened. ‘Wow. That is something. But what’s it got to do with anything?’
‘I don’t know. But it’s not to be dismissed. We need to try to get some more information out of the Vietnamese girls, see if any of them have seen him or Marie there.’
‘Agreed. Don’t think you’re off the hook for your little escapade though. I’m still angry with you,’ replied the inspector.
‘I know, and I’m sorry I didn’t run it past you. I knew you’d nix it, and I couldn’t have that.’
‘Damn right I would have done,’ said Carliss. ‘Go and talk to the girls. And don’t hide things from me again. I don’t want you putting yourself in danger like that, Lucia. I…’ He stopped in mid-flow as he thought better of it. He’d gone back to the professional persona, but she’d already glimpsed what he was trying to keep under wraps.
Chapter 35
Trish’s nail bar was as busy as ever, with a healthy flow of lunchtime customers keen to treat themselves to a small pleasure in the middle of the day. Trinh and Lucia walked in and were greeted warmly by Trish herself.
‘Hi, Trish. Tien around today?’ said Trinh.
‘Hiya. Yes, she’s just on her break. I’d try to catch her now if I were you. We’re mad busy today,’ replied Trish. ‘Dare I ask what this is about?’
‘No point telling you what we don’t know,’ Trinh said. ‘But we’re on the case of your missing girls. Let me try to get to the bottom of it first, and then we’ll fill you in.’
‘I’m trusting you, babe,’ said Trish with a weary smile. ‘I just want this to be over, that’s all.’
‘We’re closer to it than ever before,’ said Lucia with considerably more confidence than she’d managed to show previously.
At the back of the salon, Tien loitered uneasily with a cup of coffee, suddenly aware that Trinh and Lucia were making a beeline for her.
‘Hi, Tien. Thanks for talking to me the other day and showing me your visa application,’ Trinh began. ‘Let’s go and sit in the office. I could do with some help,’ she added with a little nod.
They had the girl cornered, so she’d have to talk, reasoned Lucia. Now wasn’t the time for beating around the bush. They’d have to push as hard as they could.
Tien stepped into the office with visible reluctance, but she looked resigned to her fate. ‘What is it?’
‘There’s a man we’re trying to place. He comes to the bar in Soho. Medusa, you know what I’m talking about. Don’t tell me you haven’t heard of it or been there. We know that’s where the girls go when they leave the salon and never come back. You’re not in any trouble. We just need to know that they’re safe, and we’ll leave them alone. There’s no law against working in a bar, after all.’
Trinh was going straight in for the kill, no holds barred. She had her serious copper face on and wasn’t going to be dissuaded.
Tien’s eyes widened as she was about to protest, but then she thought better of it. The blunt approach worked. She sat down on a chair and sighed as she fidgeted with her hands in her lap. ‘Medusa, yes. How do you know about it?’
‘That’s of no importance. Have you been there?’ repeated Trinh.
‘I’ve been a few times,’ Tien said. ‘I worked there clearing tables for a bit, but then they said I’m not pretty enough for a job. I’m telling you this because you know everything, no? But you can’t arrest me. I haven’t done anything wrong,’ she added aggressively.
‘No, you haven’t done anything wrong,’ Lucia reassured her. ‘What we need to know is if you’ve ever seen a man or a woman at Medusa called Darius Major and Marie Cassel. You might not know them by their real names, or you might not know their names at all.’
‘Here are some pictures of them,’ added Trinh as she pulled out her tablet and pushed it in Tien’s direction.
Tien’s face lit up with unmistakable recognition, and it was now too late to deny knowledge. ‘Yes, I’ve seen them. I don’t know their names. But this man, with the big hair, I saw him twice. Always sitting at the front, so he could see the dancing better. And the girl, yes, I’m sure I saw her too, once. She works there.’
‘What do you mean, she works there?’ asked Lucia incredulously.
‘She was all dressed up, sitting at tables, talking to the men, drinking with them. You know, like the girls do.’ Tien suddenly sat up straight. ‘Actually, they saw each other. You say they’re a couple, yes? Well, I don’t think they expected to see each other there.’
‘Why do you say that?’ asked Trinh.
‘I didn’t think much of it at the time. So many people come and go. But now I remember. I was clearing tables in the middle of the room. She went over to his table at the front and nearly sat down, but then didn’t. It was noisy, so I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but the light is brighter next to the stage, so I could see her face. She looked angry. They were talking for a bit, and then she just disappeared out of the door at the back. I couldn’t see his face; he had his back to me.’
‘You’re absolutely sure about this? And that it was those two?’ asked Lucia.
‘Very sure.’ Tien sounded out of breath, and before Lucia could ask anything else, she piped up again. ‘Oh, and I saw something else. After the girl left, someone walked past the table where this Darius was sat. I think the person was a man, from the clothes and the way he walked. The clothes were baggy, and this person had a hoodie on. I couldn’t see his face. Darius looked up and stopped the man. They didn’t really talk; the man looked like he was shaking his head and walked off quite fast. He went out of the same door as the girl. Now I think of it, I remember it because it was a bit odd. I left shortly after, and as I walked out, the man with the hoodie was standing outside smoking a cigarette.’
‘Did you see his face?’ asked Trinh.
‘No, sorry. The hoodie was pulled right up.’
‘Anything that stood out? Any distinguishing features?’ pressed Lucia.
Tien thought for a moment. ‘He lifted his hand up with the cigarette. He had a ring. A funny sort of ring, on his little finger. Like a big, shiny ring. I had never seen one like it. And on that finger.’
‘Can you describe it a bit more?’ asked Trinh.
‘I can draw it, that would be easier.’ Tien grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil off a shelf in the corner of the room and busied herself with them for a minute or two. ‘Here.’
Lucia stared at the drawing, and the memory she had forgotten suddenly came back.
Chapter 36
As soon as they’d left Trish’s salon and were safely out of earshot, Lucia made Trinh sit on a bench and launched into sharing with her the crucial snippet that had come to light.
After listening without interrupting, Trinh finally said, ‘Genevieve quizzed Tien about what sort of work she’d been doing, so they could fill in the visa application. Tien trusted Genevieve. It’s lonely being in a foreign country with no family, no friends apart from the other girls at the salon. She told Genevieve she’d been clearing tables at Medusa, but begged Genevieve not to tell immigration, for obvious reasons. And Genevieve, true to form, got on her moral high horse and wanted to know all about the bar: who runs it, what kind of punters go there, what sort of work the girls are pushed into. From one thing to another, Tien ends up mentioning the man with the ring. She told us as much. Genevieve asks her to describe the ring. And it dawns on Genevieve, just like it dawned on you, that she knows him.’
* * *
Lucia and Carliss stood outside the biggest interview room at Kentish Town police station.
‘What do you think this is going to achieve?’ asked Carliss. ‘Are you expecting a teary confession? The bastard will stop answering our questions and call his hotshot lawyer as soon as we open our mouths.’
‘What alternative have
we got? Those Vietnamese girls aren’t going to utter a word. They’re too scared of Lorenzo and his heavies,’ replied Lucia with an uncharacteristically weary sigh.
She knew they’d been backed into a corner. What she and Nina had uncovered in the Trebeck Street flat was of little evidential use. For all intents and purposes, it was a party attended by male and female guests, nothing more. And Medusa itself was, on the surface, a legitimate business venture, properly licensed. Lorenzo Giallo wasn’t so daft as to run an overtly illegal racket. And all the so-called evidence they had and that pointed – clearly, in Lucia’s mind – to the killer of Genevieve Taylor, Darius Major and Marie Cassel was both weak and circumstantial. Tien had point blank refused to step forward and give a statement on the man with the ring whom she had seen in the bar. Lorenzo Giallo was no more likely to indulge the filth by offering up any information. As for the person that Lucia and Carliss were about to speak to, well, that remained to be seen. Lucia hoped against hope that he might have a shred of humanity or regret left in him. It wasn’t like her to take such a desperate punt, but they had no other option.
Carliss walked in first, followed closely by Lucia. They greeted the person on the other side of the table and sat down.
‘Mr da Carrara, thank you for being so kind as to come to the station to help with our enquiries. We just have a few questions that we would really appreciate your help with,’ began Carliss in a neutral tone. He was more than happy to delegate the bulk of the impending drama to Lucia.
Edoardo da Carrara was dressed to the nines, as usual, this time in an exquisitely cut suit. He was evidently seeking to both impress and gain the upper hand. A neatly folded pocket square reflected one of the accent colours of his tie. The expression on his handsome face suggested that both the location and the nature of the encounter about to take place were substantially beneath him. He parted his lips in a snarl and said, ‘Of course. I’m happy to help.’
Lucia twisted a pen around her fingers, which she eventually laid down precisely parallel to her closed notebook. She raised her gaze to look Edoardo directly in the eye. The corner of his mouth lifted into a disdainful smile, as it had on the occasion of their previous interaction. If anything, he looked amused.
Lucia spoke calmly and clearly, like she would have done back in her legal days when she was about to rip a particularly detested opponent to shreds. ‘Mr da Carrara, we are now in a position to formulate a theory about the deaths of Genevieve Taylor, Darius Major and Marie Cassel. You were close to Genevieve and also fairly well acquainted with the other two victims. We therefore thought it only fair that we should share this theory with you.’
Edoardo da Carrara’s smile widened into a feline grin. His hands rested on his lap. He was giving nothing away. ‘Oh, yes? That sounds interesting. I’d very much like to hear your theory.’ The last word he spoke with unmasked derision.
Undeterred, Lucia decided there was no way back. She had to get this out, irrespective of how the interviewee would react. After all, he wasn’t under caution, and was not obliged to humour them in any way. She felt she had nothing to lose at this stage.
Lucia continued, ‘I’m going to tell the story chronologically if I may. Please feel free to interrupt or ask any questions.’
‘I’m all ears,’ Edoardo said.
‘On the evening of Thursday the 18th of March, Genevieve Taylor arrives home from work around six. Unknown to her, Darius Major has followed her home and is spying on her from the street.’
Edoardo’s composure gave way a little, though the smirk was still etched into his face. ‘Hold on. What do you mean, he’s spying on her?’
‘He was infatuated with her, that was common knowledge. You knew that too. He often kept an eye on her, in the hope that she would reciprocate,’ replied Lucia, watching her opponent like a hawk.
‘Yes, I suppose that adds up.’ Edoardo had shut down again, though a quick shuffle in the chair indicated he might not be as unperturbed as he was when the detectives first walked into the room.
Lucia continued, ‘Around six-thirty, Marie Cassel arrives and is let into Genevieve’s house. They have an argument over Darius, where Marie tells Genevieve to keep away from her man. Marie leaves by the front door, just as she arrived, and is seen by Darius. He confronts her, and she admits she went to give Genevieve a piece of her mind. They leave.’
‘Wow. That’s quite a scene,’ remarked Edoardo as he crossed his arms on his chest. ‘Those two were bad news, I always knew it. I do feel sorry they’re dead, of course,’ he added, rather nonchalantly.
It was time for Edoardo to finally get his comeuppance, and Lucia was savouring the anticipation. She tapped a finger on the table and crossed her legs, seemingly deep in thought. Out of the corner of her eye she watched Edoardo, who sat stock-still, waiting for the next move. It was like playing chess. She could sense waves of passive aggression seething under his calm exterior.
At last, Lucia said, ‘We haven’t got to the best bit yet.’ She left it at that and waited.
‘Really? What’s that?’ asked Edoardo in a completely level voice, so measured that it could only be fabricated.
‘Darius and Marie have left. But there’s a third person who turns up,’ said Lucia, as deadpan as she could.
Edoardo said nothing.
Lucia smiled like a well-fed cat as she delivered the next line. ‘You.’
She could see that, despite his best efforts, a muscle was twitching at the corner of Edoardo’s left eye. He must have wanted to rub it into stillness, but he didn’t dare move his arms. The rest of his face was frozen.
Lucia carried on, ‘At seven or thereabouts, you make an appearance at Genevieve’s house. But you don’t use the front door. You’re not stupid. You go round the back, and you let yourself in. Whether the door’s open, or you have a key, or she just lets you in, I don’t know, but that doesn’t really matter. Genevieve suspects nothing. You might have arranged to meet, or it could be an impromptu visit. You’re a couple, after all, and spending an evening together is what couples do.’
As she spoke out the last sentence, Lucia was aware that Carliss was looking in her direction. She didn’t turn around to face him. Now was not the time for distractions, she admonished herself as she tried to focus her mind back to Edoardo.
‘You and Genevieve are drinking cocktails,’ Lucia continued. ‘You’ve brought some of the pre-mixed stuff, and you’ve procured some strong sleeping pills. You lace her drink with them; enough to knock her out. Eventually, the combination of booze and drugs does the job. You put her in the bath and leave her there to drown. Shall I carry on, or do you want to take over?’
‘No, I’m happy to listen. You’re spinning a pretty fantastical yarn,’ replied Edoardo sarcastically. The twitch had gone, and his handsome features had ossified into a blank determination that wasn’t boding particularly well for a teary confession.
Still, Lucia figured it was worth ploughing on till the bitter end. ‘You leave the flat later that evening via the back door. Any CCTV on the street would only pick up a figure in dark clothing, as it would have done when you left your house in Hertford Street.’
Edoardo uncrossed his arms and gave Lucia a slow clap. ‘Well done. What a tale. What next? Are you going to tell me I killed Darius and Marie too?’
He’s got a nerve fighting me like this, thought Lucia, not without some frustration. She had hoped to break him, though she still had some ammunition left: the details of where he went wrong.
‘Of course you killed them. And I’ll tell you how. You stalked them to make sure they were both at home. You knew they spent most evenings together at Darius’s flat, so it wasn’t that difficult to pick a day when you could strike. That location backing onto Parliament Hill is perfect. No CCTV, and nobody’s likely to be roaming the park late at night. You snuck in through an open window, as the flat’s on the ground floor. You know Darius has a handgun that he keeps in the bedside drawer; he’s bragged about it to everyo
ne at the literary salon. He and Marie are probably downstairs, in the sitting room. You creep upstairs, look for the gun, find it, then take them by surprise. You march them up to the bedroom and you kill them both. You make sure it looks like Darius shot Marie and then himself. No prints on the gun apart from his, as you’d be wearing gloves. If any neighbours hear the shots, they’ll call the police, but by then you’d be on your way.’
Edoardo wasn’t taking the bait. If anything, he looked bored. He tapped his fingers on the table and fished his phone out of his pocket. He fidgeted with it for a while and placed it down in front of him. When he finally looked up at the detectives, he said, ‘What a load of bollocks. You’ve got zero evidence to back any of it up, and you know it. And why would I possibly want to kill any of them?’
As previously agreed with Lucia, DCI Carliss took over. There was no need to get to motive just yet. First, they had one more shot at rattling Edoardo. ‘Mr da Carrara, we know you did it because you slipped up.’
‘Oh, yes?’ Edoardo leaned forward slightly, looking a touch more interested all of a sudden.
Carliss’s blue eyes crinkled at the corners. It was his turn to affect a sardonic smile, and he looked like he was really enjoying himself. ‘Oh yes. You didn’t know about Genevieve’s water allergy. She wouldn’t have topped herself in the bath, not with the skin reaction she would have had. No amount of booze and pills could take the edge off that, not while she was still conscious, anyway. And the glass she was drinking from. You put it on the bathroom floor, but you didn’t compute that it was in the wrong place. She couldn’t have reached to place it there while in the bath. If she’d put it down before she got into the water, she’d be more likely to leave it on the windowsill, or on top of the bathroom cabinet. And why crush the pills into the glass? If she’d been minded to top herself, she would have swallowed them. The sleeping pills weren’t prescription either, which led us to suspect she hadn’t got them herself. Why would she not go to her GP if she had trouble sleeping? And would she really be taking both industrial-strength downers and antihistamines?’