Tara said?’
‘So?’
‘So the bike should still be where she left it. And I’m sure I saw a bike in the headlights as you turned. I’m going for a closer look.’
‘Please yourself,’ Kevin said. ‘Give me a shout if you’re right.’
Sam scrambled out of the car and ran across to the back of the club. The building was a U-shaped single-storey brick structure with all the imagination of a five-year-old’s Lego construction. A wooden fence linked the two arms of the U, forming an enclosed back yard where industrial skips for bottles and rubbish were stowed. The gate stood ajar, and it was through the gap that Sam thought he’d glimpsed a bike.
He slipped inside and saw at once he’d been right. The car headlights had caught the reflective fixtures on the back wheel and mudguard; the bike itself was tucked in behind one of the skips, chained to the fence with a heavy-duty chain. Sam compared it to the one in the photo. It was hard to be sure in the limited light, but he thought they matched. He was about to walk back to the car with the news when he heard a door sigh open then click closed nearby. He heard the snap and flare of a cigarette lighter and risked a peek round the edge of the skip.
In the glow of the cigarette, he could see the hard-faced bitch who’d given him and Kevin their marching orders. Sam glanced back to the car. Kevin was leaning against the head rest. He looked like he was taking a nap. It was just Sam and the woman. He considered for a moment. Sam was always driven by what would produce the best result for Sam. Normally, that didn’t include monstering a witness, because there were usually other people around to testify to his bad behaviour. But out here in the dark, behind a dodgy club, it would be his word against hers. And who was the credible one here? She’d already lied to him and Kevin, so he reckoned he was on solid ground.
Light on his feet, he edged round the skips so that he came up behind the woman. He was close enough to smell the heavy musk of her perfume, cut with the cigarette smoke, and still she was oblivious. Swift and sure, he snaked his arm round her throat and jerked her backwards. She stumbled into him, he shifted his hand over her mouth and with his other hand ripped her cigarette from her fingers. No nasty little burns for him.
She was wriggling and struggling, so he wrapped his other arm round her. ‘See how easy it is?’ he hissed into her ear. ‘You come out for a smoke, and there’s an evil fucker waiting for you. That’s what happened to Leanne. Or something very like that.’ He pushed her away, using a perversion of a dance move to swing her around facing him. His other arm pinned her to the wall.
‘Fucking copper.’ She spat at him but he was fast enough to avoid the gob of spit.
‘You lied to me, bitch,’ he said. ‘I could really hurt you, and nobody would believe you. But that’s not what I want. I just want the truth. I don’t want the bastard who killed Leanne to do the same thing to another woman. I’ve just shown you how easy it is. How very, very vulnerable you are. So what happened on Tuesday night?’
‘You wouldn’t dare lay a finger on me,’ she said. ‘I’ll have you for assault, attempted rape, the lot.’
Sam laughed. ‘Like anyone would believe a slag like you.’ He shifted his weight, straightened his fingers and jabbed his stiff hand under her ribs. She gasped with pain and shock. Sam remembered the secret thrill of being bad and tried not to let it ride him too hard. ‘I don’t want to hurt you – but I will. Tell me about Tuesday night.’
‘It was just like any night. Leanne came on about nine and did a few dances. She left around midnight. That’s all I know.’
‘Not good enough.’ Sam jabbed under the ribs again. ‘There’s more than that. What about the CCTV? You’ve got cameras on the car park. You’ve got cameras all over the club.’
She gave a triumphant sneer. ‘They’re wiped. One of the barmen came in this morning and said the filth were showing photos of Leanne all over town, that she’d been murdered. The owner was in and he told me to wipe the tapes. He didn’t want a murdered tart connected to his nice clean business.’ It sounded like her contempt for her boss was on a par with her contempt for the police.
‘Did you look at the tapes before you wiped them?’
She looked away. A guilty look, Sam thought.
‘What your barman didn’t know, because we haven’t told anybody yet, is that the bastard who killed Leanne wasn’t a beginner. He’s done this before. More than once. And if we don’t get him, you can bet he’ll do it again. And since you’re showing him what easy pickings he can get around here, chances are it’ll be one of your girls.’ Sam gave a jeering smile. ‘Or maybe even you.’
The look she gave him was loaded with hate. ‘I took a quick look at the car park tapes around the time she left. I was curious. If one of our clients had anything to do with it, I wanted to know who it was. For safety’s sake. Whatever you might think, I don’t want my girls hurt.’
Sam eased the pressure on her. ‘And what did you see?’
‘I saw Leanne walk out the back door and across the car park to the far corner. She got into a car and the car drove off.’
Sam wanted to punch the air. Or failing that, punch this bitch for the casual way she’d fucked over the investigation into Leanne’s death. ‘What kind of car? What colour was it?’
‘How the fuck do I know what kind of car? Do I look like Jeremy fucking Clarkson? And the CCTV’s black-and- white. So all I can tell you about the colour is that it wasn’t black and it wasn’t white.’
Now he really wanted to go to town on her. ‘I don’t suppose you saw the driver either?’
‘A white blob. That’s all I saw.’
‘Fucking great.’ Sam didn’t bother hiding his disgust. ‘I don’t suppose you took a note of the number either?’ He stepped away. ‘Thanks for your help. I’ll have a uniform swing by for your statement tomorrow.’
Now for the first time she looked genuinely worried. ‘No way,’ she said. ‘Look, I’ve told you what I know. Don’t fuck it up for me with my boss.’
Sam gave her a considering look. ‘You’re the licensee, right?’
‘Right. So you’ve got my name and address. It’s not like I can do one.’
