“About two years now. There’s not much else to do around here.”
“Ever thought of moving to the big city?”
Kelly looked at her father and said, “No.”
“Nice place to work, is it, the Cross Keys?”
“It’s all right.”
“Good spot to meet lads?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Oh, come on, Kelly. You’re a barmaid. You must meet lots of lads, get chatted up a lot, nice-looking girl like you.”
She blushed at that, and the ghost of a smile crossed her face, Templeton noticed. Maybe he was in with a chance after all. As Calvin Soames looked on, the frown deepened on his forehead in a series of lines down to the bridge of his nose.
“Do they tell you their troubles?” Templeton went on. “How their wives don’t understand them and they’re wasted on the jobs they’re doing?”
Kelly shrugged. “Sometimes,” she said. “When it’s quiet.”
“What do you do for fun?”
“Dunno. Go out with my mates, I suppose.”
“But where do you go? There’s not exactly a lot for a young girl to do around here, is there? It can’t be very exciting.”
“There’s Eastvale.”
“Oh, yes. I’m sure you enjoy a Saturday night out in Eastvale with the lads, listening to dirty jokes, getting bladdered and puking your guts up with the rest of them around the market cross. No, I mean, a girl like you, there must be something better, something more. Surely?”
“There’s dances sometimes, and bands,” Kelly said.
“Who do you like?”
“Dunno.”
“Come on, you must have a favorite.”
She shifted in her chair. “I dunno, really. Keane. Maybe.”
“Ah, Keane.”
“You know them?”
“I’ve heard them,” said Templeton. “Nick Barber was really into bands, wasn’t he?”
Kelly seemed to tense up again. “He said he liked music,” she said.
“Didn’t he say he could get you into all the best concerts down in London?”
“I don’t think so. I’ve never been to London.”
Templeton felt Winsome’s gaze boring into the side of his head. Her legs were crossed, and one of them was twitching. She clearly didn’t like the way he was drawing the interview out, postponing the moment of glory. But he was enjoying himself. He closed in for the kill.
“Did Nick Barber promise to take you there?”
“No.” Kelly shook her head, panic showing on her face. “Why would he do that?”
“Gratitude, perhaps?”
Calvin Soames’s face darkened. “What are you saying, man?”
Templeton ignored him. “Well, Kelly?”
“I don’t know what you’re on about. I only talked to him at the bar when he ordered his drink. He was nice, polite. That’s all.”
“Oh, come off it, Kelly,” said Templeton. “We happen to know that you slept with him on two occasions.”
“What-” Calvin Soames tried to get to his feet but Templeton gently pushed him back down. “Please stay where you are, Mr. Soames.”
“What’s this all about?” Soames demanded. “What’s going on?”
“Wednesday evening and Friday afternoon,” Templeton went on. “A bit of afternoon delight. Beats the dentist’s any day, I’d say.”
Kelly was crying now and her father was fast turning purple with fury. “Is this true, Kelly?” he asked. “Is what he’s saying true?”
Kelly buried her face in her hands. “I feel sick,” she said between her fingers.
“Is this true?” her father demanded.
“Yes! All right, damn you, yes!” she said, glaring at Templeton. Then she turned to her father. “He fucked me, Daddy. I let him fuck me. I
“You whoring slut!” Soames raised his hand to slap her but Winsome grabbed it first. “Not a good idea, Mr. Soames,” she said.
Templeton looked at Soames. “Are you telling me you didn’t already know this, Mr. Soames?” he said.
Soames bared his teeth. “If I’d’ve known I’d have…”
“You’d have what?” Templeton asked, shoving his face close to Soames’s. “Beat up your daughter? Killed Nick Barber?”
“What?”
“You heard me. Is that what you did? You found out what Kelly had been doing, and you waited until she was back working behind the bar, then you made an excuse to leave the pub for a few minutes. You went to see Barber. What happened? Did he laugh at you? Did he tell you how good she was? Or did he say she meant nothing to him, just another shag? Was the bed still warm from their lovemaking? You hit him over the head with a poker. Maybe you didn’t mean to kill him. Maybe something just snapped inside you. It happens. But there he was, dead on the floor. Is that how it happened, Calvin? If you tell us now it’ll go better for you. I’m sure a judge and jury will understand a father’s righteous anger.”
Kelly lurched over to the sink and just made it in time. Winsome held her shoulders as the girl heaved.
“Well?” said Templeton. “Am I right?”
Soames deflated into a sad, defeated old man, all the anger drained out of him. “No,” he said, without inflection. “I didn’t kill anyone. I had no idea…” He looked at Kelly bent over the sink, tears in his eyes. “Not till now. She’s no better than her mother was,” he added bitterly.
Nobody said anything for a while. Kelly finished vomiting and Winsome poured her a glass of water. They sat down at the table again. Her father wouldn’t look at her. Finally, Templeton got to his feet. “Well, Mr. Soames,” he said. “If you change your mind, you know where to get in touch with us. And in the meantime, as they say in the movies, don’t leave town.” He pointed at Kelly. “Nor you, young lady.”
But nobody was looking at him, or paying attention. They were all lost in their own worlds of misery, pain and betrayal. That would pass, though, Templeton knew, and he’d see Kelly Soames again under better circumstances, he was certain of it.
Outside at the car, dodging the puddles and mud as best he could, Templeton turned to Winsome, rubbed his hands together and said, “Well, I think that went pretty well. What do you think, Winsome? Do you think he knew?”
Banks had a great deal of information to digest, he thought as he parked down by the Co-Op store at the inner harbor and walked toward the shops and restaurants of West Cliff. He passed a reconstruction of the yellow-and- black HMS
Thinking back on what Keith Enderby had just told him, he realized he would have been living in Notting Hill at around the same time as Linda Lofthouse and Tania Hutchison. He was sure he would have remembered seeing someone as beautiful as Tania, even though she wasn’t famous then, but he couldn’t. There were, he remembered, a lot of beautiful young women in colorful clothes around at the time, and he had met his fair share of them.
But Tania and Linda would have moved in very different circles. Banks didn’t know anyone in a band, for a start;
