magazines. It was on Beeston Road, not far from Elland Road, where Leeds United played, and it was run, Hatchley said, by a man called Mario Nelson, who, as his name suggested, had an Italian mother and an English father.
It was immediately clear to Susan that Mario took after his father. She knew there were blond-haired Italians in the north of the country, but they didn’t look as downright Nordic as Mario. Tall, slim, wearing a white smock, he looked far too elegant to be running a shop. In his early fifties, Susan guessed, he was handsome in a Robert Redford sort of way, and he looked as if he would be more comfortable being interviewed on a film set than unpacking a box of mushroom soup, which is what he was doing when they entered. When he saw Hatchley, a look of caution came to his ice-blue eyes. There was nobody else in the shop.
“Mario, old mate,” said Hatchley. “Long time no see.”
“Not long enough for me,” muttered Mario, putting the box aside. “What can I do for you?”
“No need to be so surly. How’s business?” Hatchley took out a cigarette and lit up.
“There’s no smoking in here.”
Hatchley ignored him. “I asked how’s business?”
Mario stared at him for a moment, then broke off eye contact. “Fair to middling.”
“Doing much special trade?”
“Don’t know what you mean. Look, if you’ve just come to chat, I’m a busy man.”
Hatchley looked exaggeratedly around the shop. “Doesn’t look that way to me, Mario.”
“There’s more to running a shop than serving customers.”
“Well, soon as you’ve answered our questions, you can get back to it.” He described the man in the balaclava. “Ever seen anyone like that in here? Is he on your list?”
“It’s a bit of a vague description.”
“True, but concentrate on the eyes. They’d just about come up to your chin. Poor misguided bloke has an appetite for shaved pussy magazines, and I know you supply them.”
“You’ve never proved that.”
“Come off it! The only reason you’re still in business is that you’ve done me a few favors over the years. Remember that. You’re a filth-peddler. You know I don’t like filth-peddlers, Mario. You know I rank them a bit below a dollop of dog-shit on my shoe.”
Hatchley made some very interesting distinctions, Susan thought, some delicate moral judgments. Simple display of naked flesh was fine with him, obviously, but anything more was pornographic. Bit of a puritan, really, when it came down to it.
She watched Mario shift from foot to foot, and she saw something in his eyes other than wariness; she saw that he recognized Hatchley’s description, or thought he did. Hatchley noticed it, too. And she saw fear.
Hatchley dropped his cigarette on the floor and ground it out. “Susan,” he said, “would you go put up the ‘Closed’ sign, please?”
“You can’t do that,” said Mario, coming out from behind the counter and moving to stop Susan. Hatchley got in the way. He was about the same height and two stones heavier. Mario stopped. Susan went to the door and turned the sign over.
“Might as well drop the latch and pull the blinds down, too,” said Hatchley, “seeing as it’s such a quiet time.”
Susan did as he said.
“Right.” Hatchley turned to face Mario. “What’s his name?”
“Whose name? I don’t know what you’re on about.”
“We’re not gormless, Susan and I. We’re detectives. That means we detect. And I detect that you’re lying. What’s his name?”
Mario looked pale. Beads of sweat formed on his brow. Susan almost felt sorry for him. Almost. “Honest, Mr. Hatchley, I don’t know what you mean,” he said. “I run an honest business here. I-”
But before he could finish, Hatchley had grabbed him by the lapels of his shop-coat and pushed him against the shelves. A jar of instant coffee fell to the floor and smashed; tins dropped and rolled all over; a packet of spaghetti noodles burst open.
“Watch what you’re doing!” Mario cried. “That stuff costs money.”
Hatchley pushed him up harder against the shelving, twisting the lapels. Mario’s face turned red. Susan was worried he was going to have a heart attack or something. She wished she hadn’t become part of this. Gristhorpe would find out, she knew, and she would be thrown off the force in shame. Outside, she heard somebody rattle the door. Do something, her inner voice screamed. “Sir,” she said levelly. “Maybe Mr. Nelson wants to tell us something, and he’s having difficulty speaking.”
Hatchley looked at Nelson and relaxed his grasp. “Is that so, Mario?”
Mario nodded as best he could under the circumstances. Hatchley let him go. A jar of pickled onions rolled off the shelf and smashed, infusing the air with the acrid smell of vinegar.
“Who is he?” asked Hatchley.
Mario massaged his throat and gasped for breath. “You… shouldn’t… have… done… that,” he wheezed. “Could have k-k-killed me. Weak heart. I c-c-could report you.”
“But we both know you won’t, don’t we? Imagine trying to run an honest business with the local police breathing down your neck day and night. Come on, give us the name, Mario.”
“I… I don’t know his name. J-just that he’s been in occasionally.”
“For your under-the-counter stuff? Shaved pussies?”
Mario nodded.
Hatchley shook his head. “I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes,” he said, “but you’re lying again. After all this.” He reached out for Mario’s lapels.
“No!” Mario jumped back, dislodging a few more tins from the shelf. A bottle of gin fell and smashed. He put his hands out. “No!”
“Come on, then,” said Hatchley. “Give.”
“Jameson. Mr. Jameson. That’s all I know,” said Mario, still rubbing his throat.
“I want his address, too. He’s on one of your paper routes, isn’t he? I’ll bet one of your lads delivers his papers, maybe with a special color supplement on Sundays, eh? Come on.”
“No. I don’t know.”
“Be reasonable, Mario. It’s no skin off your nose, is it? And it’ll put you in good stead with the local bobbies. What’s his address?”
Mario paused a moment, then went behind the counter and looked in the ledger where he kept the addresses for newspaper deliveries. “ Forty-seven Bridgeport Road,” he said. “But you won’t find him there.”
“Oh?”
“Canceled his papers.”
“How long for?”
“Three weeks.”
“Since when?”
“Last Friday.”
“Where’s he gone?”
“I’ve no idea, have I? Off on his holidays, maybe.”
“Don’t come the clever bugger with me.”
“I’m not. Honest.”
“Is that all you know?” Hatchley moved forward and Mario backed off.
“I swear it. We’re not mates or anything. He’s just a customer. And do me a favor – when you do find him, don’t tell him you found out from me.”
“Scared of him?”
“He’s got a bit of a reputation for scrapping, that’s all. When he’s had a few, like. I don’t think he’d take kindly.”
