'We have two more sightings of her; the next is at the entrance, from when she first came in.'
Louise stood looking around, very much alone, presumably searching for Sharon; this time, she had an empty champagne glass in one hand, her handbag in the other. She returned back into the dark recesses of the club and the film was stopped again.
'Okay last and, I'm sorry to say, least, we've got her passing the bar but not sitting down. This time, she's got what we think is her maroon coat over her arm.'
Louise pushed her way past the crowded bar area; she was jostled and yet ignored. The club had begun to fill up; again, she seemed to be looking for someone: whether Sharon or someone else was impossible to tell.
'So she gets her coat and returns to the bar area, say looking for Sharon, who we know has gone off with her rock-and-roll boy, so what time do you reckon this is?' Langton asked, stifling a yawn.
'Quarter to twelve, maybe eleven-thirty. What we've looked at is running on actual time.'
'I am damned sure she either met her killer in the club or outside it; what about that footage?'
'No go; it was recycled.'
Langton pushed back his chair, pointing to the screen. 'Get that barman in to look at the tape; get anyone you can from the club that night to look at it. Someone might have seen something, though at the rate we are bloody going, I doubt it.'
He rubbed his chin. 'I don't understand it; she's gorgeous, sitting propped up at the bar and we don't get anyone that even remembers her. I'd remember her, wouldn't you?'
He looked at Barolli, who shrugged. Lewis said that he probably would. Langton was just moving when Anna spoke.
'She didn't fit in. Yes she's beautiful, but she's constantly biting her nails and looking around as if she is waiting for someone. Men can detect that needy quality she has; they can also detect, in my opinion, that Louise could be on the game. We know she was when she worked at the B&B.'
'Thank you for that insight, Travis,' Langton said, abruptly.
'I also think whoever it was might have been there told her to get her coat and she was looking for Sharon to say she was going.'
'What makes you say that?'
'At the end of the tape, she has an empty champagne glass. When we saw her earlier on, she was drinking beer. Their prices are high, so I doubt she bought the champagne for herself; as Sharon has said often enough, she was very careful with her money. The handbag, by the way, looks like the one which was sent to the newspaper.'
Langton gave a half-smile. 'Thank you, Travis, good; and this time you go back to the club with Barolli, see what you can come up with. Also put out the description of the clothes she was wearing. Sharon Bilkin had said she was wearing a black dress. She's obviously not, so put the new styles out — who knows, we may get a break.'
Anna was feeling ragged when she got to work the following morning at seven-thirty. She had been unable to sleep; something about the footage had niggled at her for most of the night. It had also occurred to her that if Louise had arranged to meet her lover at the club, there might be a record of the call. As she walked into the Incident Room, Bridget looked up, surprised.
'You're not due in until this afternoon. Aren't you going to Stringfellow's?'
'Yes, but I want to have another look over the footage.'
Bridget pointed to Langton's office. 'He's got it.'
Anna tapped on Langton's office door and waited. He opened the door in his shirtsleeves. He looked as if he had been there all night: he was in need of a shave, and on his desk was a row of coffee beakers lined up next to an overflowing ashtray. Behind him was a TV set, the footage paused.
'Morning. I wanted to look over the CCTV footage,' she said, as he returned to his desk.
'Be my guest,' he said, gesturing to the TV.
Anna drew a hard-backed chair closer to the TV. She told him she'd been unable to sleep, wondering about the phone call she felt Louise might have made. He shook his head.
'No, Lewis checked all the calls from Sharon's land-line. Sharon said she had never seen Louise with a mobile.'
'That doesn't mean she didn't have one,' Anna said.
Langton gave her a hooded look. 'We checked at the dental clinic and no one recalls her using a mobile phone, so it looks like you had a sleepless night for nothing.'
Anna puffed out her cheeks. 'Ah well; would have been too good.'
'I've not slept either.' He lit a cigarette and pointed to the TV. 'I was wondering if we'd got this in the wrong order.'
'Right, that was something I thought of last night.'
He cocked his head on one side.
'We have numerous tapes and they are not time-coded.'
Langton nodded. 'So what do you think?'
'Well, our last shots of her with her coat over her arm and the empty champagne glass could be much earlier.'
'What does that give us?'
'The way she sits at the bar as if waiting, constantly looking around.'
'Yes, and?' He sighed, stubbing out his cigarette.
'It's the way she's dressed; it's as if she is making some kind of statement.'
Anna took the book from her briefcase and showed him a photograph of Elizabeth Short. 'Look at the way she made up her face: white base, deep red lipstick, dark eyeliner.'
'Yes, and?'
'Well, if she was meeting our mystery man, and we go with the Svengali thing, then she made her face up the way he might have wanted it, but her low-cut top and that tiny skirt…'
'Yes, and?' He was impatient, rocking in his chair.
'She knew he would be there.'
Langton nodded, then pushed back his chair and picked up the remote. 'Right, let's look at the footage in the order we think it happened and see if it makes any difference.'
They worked side by side, switching tapes, scrolling through until they saw their victim sitting at the bar, ordering drinks, etcetera. At the end of it, they stared in silence at the frozen image of Louise on the screen.
'So having dicked around for half an hour, what do you think?'
Anna hesitated. 'I think our killer was at the club, and someone must have seen him.'
He nodded, and then checked his watch. 'I'll come to the club with you; now I need a shower, so get some breakfast.'
'I doubt anyone will be there; it's not yet nine.'
Langton opened his office door to be confronted by Lewis who was red in the face.
'We've got another letter.'
A certain girl is going to get the same as LP got if she squeals on me. Catch me if you can.
On the back of the envelope, there was more:
L. Pennel got it. Who's next?
A speeding patrol car took Langton, Anna and the handwritten note directly to the forensic labs to meet a handwriting expert. As they arrived, they received a call from the Incident Room: Dick Reynolds had called; he too had received another note, not handwritten, but using newspaper cut-out letters.
HaVe cHanGed mY mind. YoU wOuld Not hAVe giVeN me a sQuare dEal. Dahlia kIlliNg was JuStiFied.
