‘Not by me.’
‘Your lovers? Was it the reason that she was mixed up?’
Isaac wasn’t sure where he was going with the conversation, only that Larry and Wendy were busy trying to find the Jane Doe, and Homicide was quiet for once. He needed to get out and about, in the thrust of it. Visiting Gladys Robinson was as good a reason as any.
‘I caught one of them sniffing around, caught him before he did anything.’
‘The others?’
‘She was always that way inclined. Always walking around in her underwear, showing off whatever she had under there. Not much I can tell you, not like me when I was her age.’
‘You were a prostitute?’
‘Not me. I was quality, not a cheap whore who put it on display, not like Janice; meat on a plate, take what you want.’
‘Your opinion of her has changed since she died.’
‘It hasn’t. She took one of my men, an accountant he was, treated me nice, bought me flowers and chocolates every Friday on the way home from work, took me to the cinema and everything.’
‘What happened?’
‘I came home from work, cleaning houses, nothing fancy, but it paid well enough; enough to feed the kids, and Jim, he was a handful, ate like a horse.’
‘You’re getting away from what we’re talking about, Mrs Robinson. Janice?’
Isaac had seen the vodka bottle when he had come in, and even though she had been drinking steadily, judging by her occasional slurring of words, she was coherent.
‘She’s there, in bed with him, only fourteen, younger than Brad’s girlfriend. Can you imagine it, seducing my man in my house, in my bed?’
‘You blamed your daughter?’
‘Who else? Not him, a professional man, educated, treated me well.’
‘She was a child, not able to understand. If she had not resisted, which you are intimating, then she had not received the proper guidance from her parents.’
‘There was only me, not that her father would have done much. He used to look at Janice as she was developing; indecent it was, and I told him so.’
‘His reaction?’
‘He hit me. That’s when Jim, growing up fast, exercising at the gym twice a week, flattened him, sent him packing.’
Isaac had heard the story more than once. The wayward child. If it was male, then crime and joining a gang; a female, and it was prostitution, at first to feed a habit, and then because there was no way back. The family home would not have helped Janice; the drugs and the lifestyle the result of her younger life.
‘Tell me about Tim and Maeve Winston.’ Isaac changed the subject.
‘We went to school together. Maeve lived next door to me, not here, somewhere better.’
‘What was she like?’
‘She liked to read books, not that I could understand why. The teacher we had that last year, he said I’d end up as a cashier at the supermarket if I were lucky.’
‘I thought they were meant to encourage you.’
‘He was. What he had wanted to say was that I’d end up flat on my back for every hard-luck case who had the money, tart that I was.’
‘Tim?’
‘He was as bad as Brad, always wanting to get his leg across.’
‘You?’
‘I was one of them, but Maeve, she was studious, not totally innocent, but innocent enough. Why is it that men want women like me when they’re younger, and then women such as Maeve when they get older?’
‘You said it. When they get older, their brain rules their groin, not the other way around. Brad’s got his head screwed on.’
‘Rose, pretty, I’ll grant you that, but what do you know about her? No virgin, not her, been around the traps a few times.’
Isaac had been willing to give the woman a chance, but it was clear that she was not a fit parent, in that she had failed her daughter, and would Brad if given a chance. Social services needed to be informed and to check out the woman, if they weren’t doing so already.
‘Brad and Rose, any problem for you?’
‘No, why should it be? He’s still young. Why should I care?’
‘Because you’re his mother. Whether you agree or not, it’s still for you to be concerned, to guide if necessary.’
Isaac could see that he was getting nowhere, and that wasn’t the reason to be in the house.
‘Was Maeve told that her future was in the supermarket?’
‘Teacher’s pet, not her. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she…’
‘Stop, sit down and start making sense. If Janice was killed because Brad saw the murderer of the other woman, then it’s not only Rose who’s a possible target, so is your son.’
‘I wouldn’t like that.’
‘We’re in agreement on one thing,’ Isaac said. He sat down opposite the woman. ‘Now, let’s get this straight. Janice was selling herself, not getting a lot of business from what we can see.’
‘Too much of it about these days. Why pay?’
Isaac did not offer a comment, not sure what to say. He’d had his fair share in his day, he knew that, and not once had he resorted to a woman whose phone number was on the internet or, in the past, on a card inside a telephone box.
‘When you weren’t drinking, which isn’t often judging by that bottle of vodka, did you ever see Janice? An honest answer, please.’
‘I kept a watch on her from time to time, not that I could have spoken to her, broke my heart she did.’
‘Don’t give me that sob story. You didn’t care, not much, and you knew that men were abusing her, probably took money off them as well.’
‘My own daughter…’
‘Answer my question.’
‘Okay, I knew she was in that bedsit, and she was doing it tough. She looked old when I saw her dead.’
