Scarlet Women

They went in, and closed the door behind them.

‘What do you want now?’ asked Bobby Jo.

Tony stepped forward. ‘Mrs Carter wants a word with you. Be nice,’ he said.

Bobby Jo’s mouth opened, then shut again. His temper level went down several notches.

‘All right, but can it be quick? Lunchtime trade’s waiting.’

‘Is that what you said to Teresa?’ asked Annie.

‘What?’

‘You know. Teresa.’

‘What?’ He was looking at her as if she’d gone mad.

‘Is that what you said to her: we’ll have to be quick before the lunchtime trade?’ Annie elaborated.

Everything about Bobby Jo was suddenly very still.

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ he said after a beat. ‘You’re crazy.’

Annie stepped forward. She hated the sight of this git. And she couldn’t help wondering if he was the one who had put that grisly little present on her door. She wouldn’t put it past him.

‘No, Bobby Jo, I’m not crazy, but I’ll tell you what, Tony here is. He has the shortest temper, you can’t imagine. People start giving him shit, and whoosh! Off he goes. Flies straight off the handle. Haven’t you got a terrible temper, Tone?’ she asked him.

‘Yeah,’ said Tony. ‘Uncontrollable.’

‘Listen, I don’t know what you’ve heard…’

‘We’ve heard plenty. About how Teresa used to come in here about eleven in the morning, and the door would be closed—but these walls are thin, you know. Paper thin. And people hear things. Things like—I dunno, let’s think—oh yeah. Like you fucking Teresa Walker’s brains out up against the wall here.’

Bobby Jo was gulping, his eyes going from Tony to Annie.

‘It was a one-off,’ he said at last.

‘Like hell,’ said Annie sweetly. ‘You and Teresa were a regular thing, twice, sometimes three times a week. Up against the wall was favourite, ain’t that right?’ She tapped the wall beside her. ‘Very thin, these walls. What, did you pay her?’

Bobby Jo was fidgeting like a caged animal now. Tony moved in closer.

‘Okay!’ Bobby Jo held his hands up. ‘Yeah. All right. You got me. I gave Teresa a quick hump a couple of times a week, is that a crime? I tell you, that girl was hot. And she came on to me, not the other way round. What can I tell you? When Teresa started coming in here and offering it on a plate in exchange for a bonus or two, what was I supposed to do? Turn it down?’

Annie shrugged. ‘Why should you?’

‘Exactly!’ He half smiled, but it quickly faded back to that edgy, uncomfortable look. ‘But serious. Straight up. Can we keep this between ourselves, for God’s sake? If you ever tell anyone I was getting my leg over with Teresa, I’ll deny it flat out.’

Annie stared at him. ‘Why the big secret?’

Bobby Jo’s eyes slipped away from hers.

‘No reason. Just wouldn’t want it getting around, that’s all.’

‘Why, you got a boyfriend too?’

‘No.’ Again with the fidgeting. Annie could see that this was making Bobby Jo extremely uncomfortable.

‘Steady girlfriend then?’

‘No. Yeah. That is…’ he faltered, half grinned. There was a faint sheen of sweat on his brow. ‘Yeah, my girlfriend’s the possessive type. She heard I’d been screwing around, I’d be toast.’

Annie was silent. So was Tony. Bobby Jo’s eyes were darting between them, wondering what was coming next.

Finally Annie spoke. ‘Did Teresa have a red flame tattooed on her inner thigh?’

Bobby Jo stiffened and his eyes met Annie’s. ‘Yeah, she did. Had it done a couple of days before she died. They did it next door. She said it was still sore, when we—’

‘When you fucked her in exchange for a bonus.’

‘Hey, it was a bit of business, that’s all,’ said Bobby Jo with a return to his former self. ‘I gave her kickbacks; she gave me sex. Then she had to go and take advantage, start passing her cards round, I ask you. I found out about the cards just before she got herself done.’

‘Really?’

‘Oh, now hold on,’ he said, half laughing. ‘You think I had anything to do with that? Think again. Sure, I’m sorry for the girl, but she was always pushing her luck, and it couldn’t be a surprise to anyone that she ended up the way she did.’

‘You weren’t so mad over the cards incident that you thought you’d stop her little games once and for all?’ asked Annie. ‘Maybe you got a taste for throttling working girls and you did Val Delacourt too, and Aretha Brown?’

‘Hey, no.’ Bobby Jo’s eyes were desperate now. ‘I didn’t do a thing to Teresa, or those others. I didn’t.’

‘Really?’

‘You have to believe me. I didn’t do nothing.’

‘I know he’s lying about something,’ said Annie to Tony. They’d left Bobby Jo and were now standing on the pavement outside the tattoo parlour.

It was closed again. It was early afternoon, music blaring out from the club next door, girls taking up their places in fetish-club and strip-joint doorways to hook in the punters, big guys enticing people into the smoky depths with offers of free booze and topless bar girls who’d let you lean over the bar and suck their delectable tits. They would also arrange for anything else you fancied sucking in one of the discreet little rooms they had out back, for a price.

Everything had a price.

Again her thoughts turned to Aretha, who had loved money so much. She wondered how that had really sat with Chris, who earned so little in security at the airport. Whether it caused rows between them. Rows that might possibly have tipped over into something worse…But no. Surely not Chris. Never.

She looked around. Women of all descriptions: Asian, Chinese, whatever took your fancy; it was all here for the asking. And rent boys—posh ones for the East End villains who leaned that way, cheeky little Cockneys for the toffs. All human life was here, and it was all on sale.

But Pete Delacourt’s tattoo parlour was still closed. The curtains were still pulled over in the flat upstairs; there was still a light shining dimly through the tatty drapes. They got back in the car and sat there, looking at the little shop. Not a soul moving in there.

‘Did you think Bobby Jo was lying about something, Tone?’ asked Annie.

‘Through his teeth, was my feeling,’ said Tony.

‘Yeah, me too. Get one of the boys to watch him, okay? See where he goes, what he does. And why is that place never open?’ She indicated the tattoo parlour with a nod of her head.

Tony shrugged. ‘Where to?’

‘Head back East, Tone.’

They were passing Victoria Park along Old Ford Road, Annie deep in thought, just gazing out at the people and the traffic rushing past the window, when she saw the huddled figure sitting on the park bench. Looked once. Did a double take. Leaned forward and tapped Tony sharply on the shoulder.

‘Stop the car.’

There was a shit-load of traffic bringing up the rear. Tony clapped on the anchors. Cabbies started doing their nuts, leaning out of their windows and saying was he considering ever learning to drive that bloody car, or was his sole ambition in life to just get it mangled to a pulp? Other drivers honked their horns, indicated, tried to get round the sudden obstruction the black Jaguar had become, as it pulled in to the kerb with a screech of wheels.

‘Wait here,’ said Annie, and shot out of the car and into the park.