‘What did she tell you about Curtis X’s source of income?’
‘A string of businesses, she said, but she also discovered that she had hooked up with a blagger, a serious one, and she suspected that the businesses were there to hide some other activities. She was beginning to wonder what she had gotten herself into — it was about then she vanished.’
Merry Flint scowled at Meadows, Ainsclough and Swannell. ‘You can make this go away?’
‘We can,’ Swannell replied softly, ‘if Mr Meadows agrees.’
‘I agree. I really want the two supermarket workers who are taking the stuff out. I am not really bothered about the out of work doleys who are taking a meagre slice. It’s always better to collar the thieves rather than the receivers. So, yes, I agree.’
‘But whether we do make it go away or not is another matter.’ Ainsclough also spoke softly. He enjoyed working with Swannell; he had found that both men had a tacit understanding that the whisper is louder than the shout. ‘As you told us, Merry, you’re under a suspended sentence, so if we charge you then inside you go, you do bird. Again.’
‘So it’s scratchy backy time?’
‘Dare say that’s one way of putting it — you scratch our back and we will scratch yours. Help us, we help you. You work for yourself or you work against yourself.’
Merry Flint scowled again. She was, observed Ainsclough, a lighter skinned black girl, possibly of mixed race, but by her loud clothing and beads and bangles she had clearly embraced West Indian culture. However, her speech pattern, apart from the very occasional exclamation, was pure London street-speak. ‘So what does the Old Bill need to know?’
‘This Old Bill needs to know about the assault the other night, in the alley.’ Ainsclough indicated himself and Swannell.
‘And this Old Bill wants the S.P. on the supermarket. All of it.’
‘So, this Bill first. .’ Ainsclough leaned forward, ‘the other night. . start singing.’
‘I was Lee Marvin — hadn’t eaten proper for a day or two — so I was skip-divin’ in the evening just after it got dark. These two guys turned into the alley. I sat back between the two skips — I was opposite them but they didn’t see me. . comes in handy being black sometimes. Thought they was the Old Bill at first — looked the part: tall and fit. . Then I saw they had a little geezer with them, and the little guy went on the deck like about ninety miles an hour. He was clucking. . desperate. . he was pleading, man, pleading so bad. I didn’t see no tools, but the two geezers didn’t need them, they just stuck the boot in again and again. One bad old kicking he got. . the little guy.’
‘Would you recognize them again?’ Swannell asked.
‘No. . it was dark.’ Merry Flint shook her head. ‘They were both honkies. . both snowdrops. . tall and fit. . vicious. Don’t know how handy they’d be in a level skirmish, but they don’t show no mercy to the little guy, no, man, no mercy. . no mercy at all. He got a slap alright. . no mercy.’
‘Beards?’
‘No.’
‘So they were both clean-shaven?’
‘Yes, clean-shaved.’
‘Did they say anything?’ Ainsclough asked.
‘Not a lot.’
‘What then? What did you hear?’
‘Not much, but I reckoned they belonged to a firm, it wasn’t personal to them.’
‘Why do you say that?’
‘Well, they were kickin’ this little guy and then one said, “That’s enough. . that’ll do”, something like that, and the other geezer, he said, “The boss wants it done proper”.’
‘I see, “the boss”?’
‘Yes, so that’s what got me thinking that they was part of a firm.’
‘Fair enough. . carry on.’
‘So the first geezer says, “It’s done, he’s not getting up”, but the second guy just goes on kicking and kicking and kicking. . bouncing the little guy’s head off the wall like it was a toy ball.’
‘Local accents?’
‘Yeah, it was a London team alright, but not posh London; it was Canning Town not Swiss Cottage.’
‘Understood. What else? Anything else you heard?’
‘Well, the first one, he just stopped. .’
‘Stopped?’
‘Yes, he was not a happy camper. He helped the other guy put the little guy down, and he put the boot in a few times but the other guy he went at it mental, like. . like he was possessed. It was then that the first guy just stood still. All the time folk was walking past the end of the alley and no one noticed what was going down. . dark and raining. Then the first geezer-’
‘The one who was just watching by this time?’
‘Yes. He said to the second geezer, “It’s done, Rusher. That’s it. We need to clear the pitch”.’
‘“Rusher”?’ Swannell repeated. ‘He called the second geezer “Rusher”?’
‘Yes, I heard it bell-like, “Rusher”, that’s what he called him. “Rusher”.’
‘OK, then what?’
‘Well, then I suppose Rusher got the first geezer’s drift and he stopped putting the wellie in. Then the first geezer, he said, “Let’s clear the pitch and get these dugs burned”.’
‘OK.’
‘But you know, I think when he said that he was giving the Rusher character a reason to want to leave, like he had had enough of the aggro and didn’t want no more.’
‘Interesting.’ Swannell tapped his notepad with the tip of his ballpoint.
‘So it was like they watch
‘So they left it at that?’ Swannell asked.
‘Yeah, they just walked out the alley, calm as you please, like two regular geezers lookin’ for a pub on the way home.’
‘So what did you do?’
‘Legged it, darlin’, legged it until I found a phone box, phoned three nines and, like a daft cow, I told ’em my name.’ She glanced at the ceiling. ‘I mean, how many Merry Flints with form what live in North West Six. .? Told ’em what I’d seen and where. . then, like. . soon, like, he was at the door of my flat.’ She pointed to Meadows. ‘If I hadn’t given my name, I wouldn’t have been rumbled and pulled. I’m not a grass. I seen what they do to grasses. You know what it means to “cut the grass”?’
‘I can guess.’
‘I heard about a brass that grassed on her pimp. . carried her into the hospital with half her face hanging off, the other half was left lying in the road. So this will make the receiving go away?’
Swannell and Ainsclough glanced at each other. Swannell said, ‘Yes, so far as these two Bills from New Scotland Yard are concerned. It can be made to go away.’ He and Ainsclough stood.
‘But this Old Bill still wants information,’ Meadows said, ‘so stay put while I escort these two gentlemen out of the nick.’
Merry Flint folded her arms tightly in front of her and stared indignantly at the floor.
Penny Yewdall gently replaced the telephone handset. ‘I just love the Welsh accent, so musical.’ She smiled across the desks at Frankie Brunnie.
‘Isn’t it? I know what you mean. . and the least pleasant accent? Birmingham? Yorkshire?’
‘Depends what you’re at home with, but the Welsh accent. . Anyway, that was the Glamorgan police — Mr and Mrs Davies are travelling to London today to identify their daughter.’
‘She has been identified, surely?’
‘Yes. . I mean, to view the body. That’s what I meant. Help with closure, and they might be able to tell us something — shed a little light — though I hold out little hope.’
