5
We were sitting to one side of the bar. I had my back to the other men in the room but could still feel the waves of hate, radiating out from them. I’d decided to talk to Marcus one-on-one. So far the day, the case, had been one loose thread after another, and it was time to twist them together into something more tangible.
Collier was eating peanuts by the fistful, chewing with his mouth wide open.
His breath made my eyes water.
‘We’ve been trying to get hold of you,’ I said.
‘Oh?’
‘Oh. Why haven’t you been turning in for work?’
‘I have.’
‘Not according to the officer on the door.’
He chewed thoughtfully and shrugged. ‘Saw the filth, didn’t I? Didn’t know what it meant so I left ’em to it. I know jack shit about all this.’
‘As a general rule of thumb, someone who bolts at the sight of the law usually has something to hide.’ He took another fistful of peanuts and sucked them out of his hand. ‘So it makes me wonder what your story is.’
‘I’m a fucking eccentric millionaire,’ he said. ‘If I’m found out it’ll disrupt my charity work …’
‘Your shift finished at 8 p.m. on Saturday?’ He nodded. ‘What did you do after?’
‘Came home.’ I could see peanuts and beer mashed up in his mouth. ‘Came here.’
‘It’ll hurt your case when I testify that the owner said he didn’t know you, said you hadn’t been in.’
He swallowed. ‘What case?’
‘A man’s dead.’
‘Ali?’
‘What makes you say that?’
He shrugged. ‘Only person I ever see there …’
‘I’m wondering whether I believe that.’ He didn’t say anything. ‘What do you think of Ali?’
‘Depends if he’s been murdered or not …’
‘Not.’
‘He’s an officious little prick.’
‘You mean he does his job?’
‘And the whole world’s gotta know it. They pay him more than me, y’know?’
‘I heard something like that. When you can’t be trusted to go round flushing toilets, you need to take a look at yourself, Marcus.’
‘He’s a jobsworth.’
‘Someone agrees with you. They smashed his head in with a fire extinguisher the other night.’
‘Hang on, you said—’
‘He’s alive, in hospital. We also found the body of an unidentified man, though. Did you see or hear anything unusual during your day shift?’
‘Naw,’ he said, avoiding my eyes.
‘That’s a yes, then. Have you ever let other people into the Palace, Marcus?’
‘No comment.’
‘Another yes. Look, I haven’t arrested you yet. If I had, you’d have already perjured yourself. Think.’
‘Fuck off. Why don’t you?’ He drew himself up, raised his voice for the benefit of the room. ‘Go on, arrest me.’
I swept his peanuts off the table and looked at him for a minute, letting him sink back into his chair.
‘I haven’t arrested you yet because you interest me so little. Because I thought you could give me some information before I went on to the next place. But the more questions you avoid, the more interested I get.’
He didn’t say anything.
I took out my phone and called Dispatch. Told them who I was and that I’d found Marcus Collier, a man wanted in connection with the events at the Palace. He frowned. I gave them the address, hung up and resumed our conversation. ‘I haven’t arrested you because I don’t think you’ve got the balls or the brains to kill someone. I think you’re hiding something else. Probably the sort of thing we could usually let go. You’ve probably been let go all your life. You’ve put it down to skill or charm, but I’m here to tell you that you’re chronically bereft of both those things.’
He folded his arms, smirked, sniffed.
‘The truth is that you’ve just never been near anything important before. Now you are, and now you’ll talk. Whether I give you a slap on the wrist or a decade in Strangeways, I will never think of you again. So you’ve got until that squad car arrives to take the easy way out.’
He didn’t move, but the smirk was gone.
I searched inside my pockets for the condom I’d found in his flat and dropped it on to the table. ‘Do you recognize this?’
‘Nope.’
‘What if I were to tell you it was found on your property?’ He frowned. ‘The door was open.’
He sat, fuming. ‘I bought it. So what?’
‘They’re not for sale. Try again.’
‘I dunno. Some girl.’
With one finger I dragged his glass to my side of the table.
‘Not done with that,’ he said.
I poured his pint into the carpet. ‘I’m taking this, with your fingerprints, to compare against those found on a used condom wrapper in the closed-down hotel you’re supposed to be guarding.’ There was a hardening of the jaw. ‘When I match them, and I will—’
‘Wait a minute, look, I was here last night.’
‘That’s not what the barman just said.’
‘Yeah, but he was covering—’
‘Either way, it’s a there-and-then-gone-again alibi from the scum of the earth.’ He started to speak but I cut him off. ‘Alongside this baggy of coke found in your possession, you start to look like the perfect fit for a dead man no one can explain.’
‘That’s not even mine, you can’t—’
‘I can do anything I set my mind to. Jail time isn’t a threat any more, it’s a promise. Do you know what happens to skinheads inside? They get used as prison pockets.’ I saw the question in his face and went on. ‘It’s where the real bangers hide shanks, drugs, burner phones. It’s your arse, Marcus,’ I said, getting up. ‘You’d better keep the condom.’
‘Hang on …’
I opened the door.
‘Hang on.’
I turned. ‘You had your chance. You decided to waste my time. Now I’ll waste a few years of yours. You’re right, you don’t know anything.’
‘Slags,’ he said, quietly. The whole room was watching us now.
‘What?’
He stood, took a step closer. ‘Slags. Girls. I was rentin’ a room out for ’em in the Palace.’
‘When?’
‘A few times.’ He shrugged, looked at the floor. ‘Been at it for months …’
I sat back down at our table and directed him to do the same. ‘How many girls?’
‘I dunno …’ he said. I looked at him. ‘I don’t. A few. Different ones. The pimps keep ’em on tour, shift ’em round towns so punters don’t get bored. Started out just some locals, girls from under the bridge. Word got out …’
‘When?’
‘Durin’ the daytime. In my shifts. Bit of cash in hand …’
‘And what, you took a cut?’
‘I was always in the building with ’em, though. It’s nothing to do with anyone in there last night. I wasn’t handin’ out keys.’
‘Which room were you using?’
He didn’t say anything.
‘That squad car must be getting close by now …’
‘Different ones,’ he said. ‘Third floor.’
‘Why the third floor?’
‘The lift’s fucked.’ He shrugged. ‘That’s the only floor it goes to …’ It was such a banal, lazy explanation that I knew it was true.
‘The intruder I saw was on the third floor,’ I said. He closed his eyes. ‘Did you have a girl there on Saturday by any chance?’
‘She left before I did.’
‘Or she liked the spot and wedged open a fire door. Went back once you’d gone. Who was she?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘You might have started out hiring the space, but I think you were sampling the goods as well.’
‘Naw …’
‘So your fingerprint just fell on that condom?’
‘You don’t know it’s mine.’
‘But you don’t know it’s not.’
He didn’t move.
‘Tell me what the girl looked like.’
‘Just some girl. Slagged up. Red hair.’
‘How old?’
‘I dunno, twenties?’
‘Where did you meet her?’
‘She came to the door one day …’
‘All right, Marcus. Outside.’
Collier got to his feet, leered over my shoulder at the other men in the bar and turned for the door. I followed him outside to the car park, where uniform were arriving. When he saw them he stopped so suddenly that I almost walked into him.
‘Listen,’ he said, turning. ‘Listen …’
‘I’m listening.’
‘Cherry,’ he said. ‘The girl’s name’s Cherry.’