‘Yeah, right, I heard you. Anyone checked him out yet?’
‘Yep — Barolli. Turns out he’s a dirty cop. Fifteen years with Vice. “Enforced retirement”.’
‘OK. Get everything you can on him. Then we’ll call the old sod back.’ Langton paused by Anna’s empty desk.
‘Where’s Travis?’
Barolli looked up. ‘With Lewis. They’ve had no luck finding our gravel-voiced tart yet; they’re still trawling around Soho. You want me to call them back in?’ ‘No,’ he growled, retiring to his own office.
It was almost six o’clock; Anna and DS Lewis were standing outside a small, dingy cafe near King’s Cross station. It was a known haunt for pimps and hookers, especially on a rainy night. The two detectives had spent hours stopping known street girls on every corner of Soho. They had also walked through the main train stations, but again their questions met with no luck. With the only description being ‘a gravelly voice, male or female’, there was not a lot to go on. It was worse than looking for a needle in a haystack. Lewis called it quits. They would both fill in their report the following morning at the station. Lewis went for the bus, but Anna decided that she would take the tube home.
She spotted the tube station and headed down the escalator. Her feet ached like hell and she was exhausted. Coming up the escalator was a tall, rangy woman with thick, black, curly hair. She wore a tight red leather skirt, a leather jacket with studs and a low-cut vest. She was carrying a big bulging shoulder bag and talking animatedly to a short, plump, blonde woman.
‘I said, “For a tenner, I wouldn’t light your cigarette!” The cheeky sod! So then he says’
Anna turned. She was certain it was ‘the voice’. She stepped off the down escalator and jumped on to the one going upwards. At the top, she glimpsed the red leather skirt disappearing; the woman was walking away on strappy, red high-heels.
Outside the station Red Leather was nowhere to be seen. Frustrated, Anna checked the taxi rank, then returned to the station, but she’d lost her. She sighed, then noticed a sign for the ladies’ toilets. Red Leather’s dressing room?
Inside, the plump blonde was at the mirror, outlining her lips with gloss. A toilet flushed. Anna checked her make-up.
The blonde called out to her friend, ‘My mum said she wanted me to pay her the going rate. I said to her, that’s a bit much!’
Red Leather exited a cubicle and tottered over to the washbasin.
‘Mmm,’ she said.
‘I mean, these bleedin’ childminders are getting twenty quid an hour, you know?’
‘Mmm.’
Anna washed her hands. Her back was to the two women, but she could see them both in the wall of mirrors above the sinks. They finished their make-up, frizzed up their hair. The blonde never stopped talking, while the woman in red leather, whom Anna was desperate to hear, still didn’t say a word.
‘Tarra, then. See you Monday.’ The blonde walked out. Anna crossed to the hand-dryer wafting her hands, playing for time. Her heart quickened as Red Leather washed her hands, shook the water from them and turned to Anna.
‘Those things take a hell of a time, don’t they? I mean, they should just provide paper towels.’
Anna was certain it was the same voice. Red Leather clicked over to an empty cubicle and withdrew reams of toilet paper. The prostitute returned to the mirror, drying her hands.
Trying to sound casual, Anna walked over and said, ‘Tell me something. You called Queen’s Park police station, didn’t you, and said you had information about Melissa Stephens.’
Red Leather looked up sharply. ‘So what? I said all I knew.’ She sidestepped Anna. ‘There’s nothing more. Excuse me.’
‘I would like to talk to you,’ said Anna, astonished she was right.
Red Leather stood licking her lips at the mirror. ‘Well hard luck, sweetheart. I’ve done my good-citizen shit. How in Christ’s name did you find me?’
‘You have a very unusual voice.’
‘Yeah. Comes from a punter stepping on it, squashed me larynx. Tarra.’
As Red Leather walked to the door, Anna hurried after her. ‘Could I just have ten minutes, please?’
Red Leather’s hand was on the door. ‘I felt sorry for the little girl, right? I told them all I saw. I’m not gonna walk out with you. In that suit, those shoes, you got Vice Squad virtually stamped on your forehead. It’d bring me a lot of grief.’
‘I’m not with Vice.’
‘Sweetheart, I don’t give a shit if you’re with the Royal Ballet.’
Red Leather walked out, Anna hot on her heels. ‘I’m with the murder team. Look, don’t make me arrest you.’
Red Leather stopped and snarled, ‘On what fucking charge?’
‘Couldn’t we just have a coffee?’
‘Jesus Christ!’
‘I’ll pay you for your time,’ Anna said.
‘Fifty quid. Go back inside the toilets. I’m not being seen out here with you.’
‘You go in first,’ said Anna, sure that otherwise she would walk away the moment her back was turned.
Red Leather sighed noisily and returned to the ladies. Anna followed her.
When Langton finally put in the call to Spain, Southwood’s answering machine was on.
Moira had her coat on ready to leave. ‘All I know, gov, is he was a bent cop. Real piece of work. I was still in uniform; it was that long ago. We called him the Groper.’
‘You think this information he’s got could be for real?’
‘I dunno. It’s not like he called straight away; it’s been weeks. And he kept on about a reward.’
Langton smiled ruefully and told Moira she could go home. He knew he would have to take the call seriously, but his budget was tight. A trip to Spain was the last thing he needed in the report book, especially if it was a waste of time. When he tried the number again, the machine was still on. Depressed, he hung up.
It was almost nine o’clock: the skeleton night shift was on duty. Langton stood in the centre of the room. They hadn’t had a break for weeks. It seemed the case was drying up. Anna burst into the room, her face flushed.
‘Oh, good, you’re still here.’
Langton smiled. ‘I’m thinking of moving in.’
She took off her coat. ‘I found the witness.’
‘What?’
‘At King’s Cross station. One reason we had no luck is that she’s a weekender; gets the train in from Leeds every Friday, leaves on the Monday. She’s not a transsexual, by the way, she’s female, but one of her punters’ She had to gasp to catch her breath; she was so excited.