but now lying on the carpet with her hair matted with her own vomit — she was snoring loudly and so was safe. She would wake soon, feeling frail and cold, and would have such a mess to clean, but all the learned advice said that this was the correct approach. She will not fight the drink unless she wakes up lying in the mess she, and she alone, has created. He walked out of the house, locking the door behind him.
Cold caring. Very cold. Very caring.
Ainsclough and Brunnie walked into the offices of WLM Rents on Fernhead Road, Kilburn. The premises were exactly as Brunnie recalled them from the previous day, but the helpful and, in Brunnie’s eyes, slightly sycophantic J.J. Dunwoodie was absent. Instead, a hard-faced blonde of about twenty-five summers sat in the chair he had occupied. She was dressed in black, was very slender, and had eyes of such steel-cold blue that Ainsclough felt a chill run down his spine. Brunnie, alarmed and worried, glanced at the top of the filing cabinets and saw a green, not a red, watering can beside the row of potted plants. He experienced a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.
‘Mr Dunwoodie,’ Brunnie asked, ‘is he here?’
‘Who wants him?’ The woman, immaculately dressed, sat back in her chair, filing her brightly varnished fingernails. Her thin fingers were bedecked with rings; her wrists were encircled by expensive looking bracelets which rattled softly as she worked the file over her nails, occasionally stopping to admire her work. A strong cloud of scent rose from her and reached the officers. She didn’t look up as she replied to Brunnie’s question.
‘Police.’
‘You have ID?’ Again, she didn’t take her eyes off her fingernails.
Ainsclough and Brunnie showed their ID cards and, still without looking up, the woman said, ‘OK.’ Then she added, ‘Mr Dunwoodie don’t work here no more, do he?’
‘We don’t know. Doesn’t he?’ Brunnie snarled.
‘No, he don’t. Not since last night he don’t. I’m in charge here now. . well, until Mr Pilcher can get a new office manager. I just answer the phone and take messages and if someone comes in looking for a place to rent. I take their name and contact details, and tell them someone will be in touch, but that’s only if they’re kosher, like all respectable and that, ’cos if they’re not kosher they don’t rent, not from here anyway. It’s a very responsible job. We don’t rent to no toerags, though.’
‘Seems so,’ Ainsclough replied drily. ‘So who are you?’
‘Felicity Skidmore.’
‘So why don’t you tell us your real name?’
The young woman glanced up and glared at Brunnie, though she said nothing.
‘We need to speak to Mr Dunwoodie.’
The woman admired her nails once again. ‘Well, I can’t help you, because he’s not here, is he?’
‘Home address?’
‘Don’t ask me, darling.’
‘You might not know it, but it’ll be filed away. Every employer has his workers’ home addresses on file.’
‘Maybe, but I wouldn’t know where it is. . have a look.’ She inclined her head towards the bank of filing cabinets.
Ainsclough glanced at the cabinets. He knew it would be a waste of time to look through their contents.
Felicity Skidmore, clearly satisfied, placed her nail file in a large black handbag. ‘Look, darling, I just got receptionist skills, nothing more. I got no office skills; don’t know nothing about filing or word-processing, nothing. I usually work in another office for Mr Pilcher, don’t I, and this morning he hands me the keys and tells me to drive over here and open up for him, and tells me what to do. . answer the phone, take details of the kosher ones and turn the toerags away — but diplomatic like, he don’t want his windows put through at night. Just say to them there ain’t nowhere to rent.’
‘A responsible job, as you say.’
Brunnie asked, ‘Where do you normally work?’
‘What’s that got to do with you?’ Felicity Skidmore flushed with indignation. ‘Bang out of order is that question. Bang out of order.’
Ainsclough smiled to himself. The legendary East End dislike of the police was emerging from Felicity Skidmore. Blagger, he thought. If Felicity Skidmore is not a blagger herself, then she’s a blagger’s tart or the daughter of a blagger. Definitely on the other side of the fence.
‘It’s got a lot to do with us,’ Brunnie replied. ‘It’s got so much to do with us that you could be looking at porridge for obstruction. This is a murder investigation.’ Brunnie paused. ‘And pretty girls like you are very popular in Holloway. You get traded between the butch dykes for an ounce of tobacco, and you don’t get any say in the matter.’
‘No say at all,’ added Ainsclough. ‘If we run you in, we’ll do an automatic check for any outstanding warrants and take your dabs to see if we know you under another name. We have plenty of room in the cells. You can even have one to yourself, but you won’t get that luxury in Holloway. Mind you, you probably already know that.’
‘I’ve never been inside!’
‘Yet,’ Brunnie replied calmly, ‘but obstruction in a murder investigation will guarantee the clanging of the door behind little you.’
Felicity Skidmore sighed and folded her arms. ‘Continental Imports and Exports.’
‘Continental Imports and Exports?’ Brunnie repeated.
‘That’s what I said.’
‘What does that outfit import and export?’
‘Furniture.’
‘Furniture?’
‘Yeah, like beds and wardrobes, and tables and chairs, and chests of drawers and that. . furniture. What with the European Community, people are buying houses in Frogland and islands in the old Med. . even in Eastern Europe, and they want their furniture with them. . And the foreigners, they buy in the UK, and they bring their old furniture with them. So Mr Pilcher, he provides a removal service.’
Brunnie and Ainsclough glanced at each other and smiled. ‘Furniture,’ Brunnie said.
‘Furniture,’Ainsclough echoed.
‘Well, I ain’t seen nothing but furniture going in and out. It’s not my fault I’m a looker. I just answer the old dog and bone and set the place off right. I do that at Continental and Mr Pilcher sent me here today to do the same thing.’
‘And turning the toerags away.’
‘Yeah, that too, but nicely with it. I get that responsibility.’
‘So where is Continental Imports and Exports based?’
‘Down the Mile End Road. Can’t miss it. Near the old junction with Cambridge Heath Road. Big sign. Black letters on yellow background.’
‘Did you know Mr Dunwoodie?’
‘Nope. It’s just the name of the geezer who sat here until yesterday; I don’t know no more than that, so help me. I don’t know nothing about him or why he isn’t here today, but I get a change of scenery and that’s as good as a rest, so they say.’
‘So what’s in the back room?’
‘Dunno. Wasn’t told and I didn’t ask. Them that’s asks no questions, gets told no lies.’ She smiled at Brunnie. ‘It’s safer that way, me old china, a lot safer. I wasn’t given the key anyway. So if you want to know what’s in there, and if you want to know where J.J. Dunwoodie is, you’ll have to ask Mr Pilcher, won’t you? If he phones, I’ll tell him the Old Bill was here. He’ll want to know.’
‘You do that.’
Walking away from the offices of WLM Rents, Ainsclough said, ‘“Me old china”? Never did work that one out.’
Brunnie fished in his coat pocket for his car keys. ‘China plate — mate. Me old china plate — mate.’
Joseph Halkier seemed to Vicary to shrink into his armchair. He nodded slowly and gently, and then said, ‘Thank you for calling on me and telling me in person. It’s good of you, I appreciate it. I thought you might send a uniformed constable, you see, so thank you. The DNA was a match. I knew it would be.’
‘No thanks are necessary, I assure you.’
