That made her think. “How did you get this number?”
“Jonny has contacts.”
The line went quiet again, but I thought I could hear her breathing. It certainly wasn’t mine. I hadn’t taken a breath in ten minutes. “Where?”
Colette recited the address. “Two o’clock.” “Tell him he gets five minutes. And tell him I owe him nothing.” “Two o’clock. Don’t be late, Sheila.” Ouch. Colette couldn’t resist the last kick, could she? I suppose she thought of herself as the honest whore of the two. But at least the first part of the plan was underway. Now there was another call to make: one that should be easier, now I had the bait.
Mary took me round to the flat, her tiny figure nipping ahead of me like a sprite in the swirling fog. It was real Jack the Ripper weather. I only hoped the pair I’d summoned would be able to find their way through. Mary darted down the narrow street, her little clogs sounding on the cobbles. Brick house fronts sagged and curved, and the windows were tiny and multi-paned, like an Elstree film-set for Great Expectations. She stopped at a door, opened it and led me up the stairs.
The house had been broken into four bedsitters. Number three had its own door.
We went in and I found the usual dreary one room with a single bed and basic cooking facilities. The floor was bare boards. A scrap of mangy carpet lay in front of the bed. A one-bar electric fire sat dormant in the hearth. Like my own flat, there was a second door in one of the walls. Mary unlocked it and I walked into number two. We tested it. Mary stayed in three and closed the connecting door. Then she spoke. She didn’t have to shout: “You hear OK, Danny?”
“Loud and clear, Mary.” The walls were as thick as the skin on a rice pudding.
You’d have to hope your neighbour didn’t snore. Or given its likely purpose, that they weren’t screamers. But it was perfect for my purposes. It was a quarter to two. Mary left me in number two and gave me the key to the connecting door. I locked it. I also had the key to number three, which Mary left on the latch.
I pulled up the room’s only chair and lit a fag to calm my frayed nerves.
Whatever happened next door was going to be interesting. I waited.
I was on my third smoke. She was the first to arrive. The sound of those footsteps echoed in my heart. I wanted to rush through the door and shake her. I heard her pause, then push on the door of number three. She waited to see if she was alone, then walked carefully in. She stopped in the middle of the floor. I could see her eyeing the place up. There was a click: she’d switched on the fire. Then a scrape as she pulled up the chair. I heard her lighter flick and a deep suck and blow as she pulled on her cigarette. I followed suit, but quietly.
We both waited, hunched on our chairs, with a wall between us.
We heard his steps, heavy and slow. He was wary or tired. Her heart would be racing. I wanted to shield her, and suddenly regretted not taking a gun from Mary. He paused at the top then came forward to stand outside her door. I could hear his laboured breathing, like a man with emphysema.
There was a huge crash. He’d kicked the door open. I was on my feet. She must have been too. This was a mistake. His violence was uncontrollable. Stillness fell.
“Well, well, well. What a pleasant surprise. Have you been waiting for me?”
Wilson’s coarse voice carried loud and clear through the wall. She must have been terrified. And yet she managed, “What are you doing here?” with a steely hauteur that told me she did know him, and that she placed him somewhere near the earthworm on the evolutionary scale.
“I think I’m the one that usually asks questions. Are you really saying you weren’t expecting me? That you didn’t want to see me again?”
I imagined him licking his already wet lips.
“You pig! I never wanted to see you as long as I lived!” Her chair scraped and the angle of her voice altered, higher up. I knew she was now on her feet.
“That’s funny. My message from Jonny said there was a new girl here. That I should try her out. You’re not new. And I’ve tried you. But I don’t mind another go.” The door slammed. She was trapped in the room. “See, you’ve even put the fire on for us. We can get comfortable.” I heard the sound of a coat being tugged off and thrown to the ground.
“I’d rather die, you swine! I’m out of all that business!”
“Oh, I don’t think so. It’s the sort of business you don’t ever really get out of. It leaves a mark. For life. You’re as bent as your boyfriend.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Who do you think told me about you the last time? Who put me on to your dirty ways?”
“I don’t believe you, you bastard!” she screamed. “He wouldn’t do that!”
“Sweetheart, I’ve seen every filthy, twisted thing in the book. More than even you could think of. Or any of your fast set. I’m no longer amazed at what people get up to. How they get their fun. And here you are, back for more.”
Kate’s voice was tearful now. “Don’t. Please don’t. Can’t you see this is a setup? Why are we both here? Think, damn you!” she cried desperately.
It seemed to stop him. I could almost hear his brain cogs meshing. “All right, let’s you and me sit and have a little think, shall we. Then we can get back to business. I’ll sit here.” I heard the bed creaking and straining. “You sit there. Now then, why are you here if it’s not to turn some tricks?”
She was desperate. “I got a message. From Jonny Crane.”
“Jonny himself?”
“No. Some little tramp. But she must have been from Jonny. She called me… she called me Sheila. The name I used.”
“I know the name. I remember the name. But so would a lot of men… Sheila. It needn’t have been Jonny.”
“Oh Christ! This is too, too horrible. I can’t stand it!” I heard her feet making for the door, but Wilson’s size was deceptive, as I knew only too well.
He slammed into the door before she’d half opened it.
“Let’s sit down, shall we?” It was an order. I heard the first sob, and hated myself for doing this to her. No good saying she asked for it.
“Shut up. How did you get this message?”
She sniffed. “Phone. This morning.”
“Did Jonny have your address? Your real address?”
“No, of course not.” She blew her nose. She had guts.
“So who else would know you were coming here? Think, woman. Tony? Once more for luck, eh?”
“No!” Her voice dropped. “Nobody knew. Besides he’s been out all day.”
“Doing what?”
“He’s out stalking that crazy man, McRae.”
“Tony’s a busy boy. When you see him, tell him ta.”
“For what?”
“The tip-off.”
“About what?”
“He said McRae phoned him to boast about the latest killing. After your little drinks party with him. And that’s where we found the gun with his prints.
Lovely. Didn’t Tony mention?”
“Yes. Yes, of course.”
“There’s a thought. Could McRae have set this up?”
“How could he know… about this… and Jonny and… things? It’s impossible.”
“He’s a tenacious little bastard. Devious…” His voice trailed away. Then I heard him move. I had just a fraction of a second to jump back and sent my chair clattering to the floor.
Then Wilson smashed through the connecting door.
He sailed on past me, bellowing and tripping over the chair and crashing down in a flurry of flailing limbs and splintering wood. Olй! His head hit the boards and the noise seemed to go on echoing forever. Then I realised Kate was screaming.
“Belt up!” I shouted.
