Larry did not need to call for a team. He was more than capable of conducting a detailed search. He checked the bathrooms of the house, the bedrooms, even Howard’s. After thirty minutes he returned. ‘All clear,’ he said.
Isaac was in the other room talking to Howard, Archie’s younger brother. ‘I’ll let Archie know,’ Howard said.
Larry noticed that Howard had smartened himself up and he had shaved. ‘I’ve an appointment with a bank,’ Howard said. ‘I’ve already told DCI Cook. I’ve been offered a contract to write an anti-hacking program for them.’
‘Your expertise?’
‘If you can hack as well as I can, you can also put in place the safeguards. It’s big money for me. I may even move out of here, buy my own place.’
‘This house is magnificent,’ Isaac said.
‘It’s time to go. Archie can be a pain in the rear end, and Abigail, she turns her nose up when I bring a woman back with me.’
‘She seems broadminded.’
‘She is, but she disapproves that it’s always a different one.’
‘What’s the problem with Archie?’ Isaac asked.
‘He had a touch of the prostate, can’t get it up.’
‘Incapable of maintaining an erection?’
‘That’s why he’s grumpy. The man’s in his forties, at his peak, and he’s finished. All he’s got is his work and a miserable attitude. Me, I’m at my best. Plenty of money, plenty of women.’
Isaac and Larry knew that if Archie could not consummate a sexual relationship, then he was not guilty of murdering Helen Langdon and James Holden. Gwendoline had made it clear that the man she had been with had had sexual intercourse with her.
***
Barry Knox sat in the office at Dixey’s. It was two in the afternoon, and the place was quiet, apart from a cleaner out the front sweeping the floor and another polishing the pole in the centre of the stage. Behind the bar, the barman checked everything was ready, placing last-minute orders to the alcohol supplier. Around the back, in the dressing room, none of the women were present; most wouldn’t be in the club until after seven in the evening.
Isaac and Larry walked through the club. The new doorman did not need to check their identification; he knew them on sight. They knew him, as well, having already checked him out back at the police station. Doug Maybury had served two years for the violent beating of a man, and for extortion.
‘Not again,’ Knox said when Isaac and Larry entered his office. ‘I’m innocent of any crime. If I didn’t know better, I’d say this was victimisation.’
‘It’s not. Mr Knox, how are you with weapons?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Can you fire a gun?’
‘I was in the army, corporal. I know how to shoot. Does that make me a murderer? If it does, there are plenty of others with weapons training.’
‘We’re not interested in any others, only you. Did you visit a prostitute by the name of Gwendoline last night?’
‘Why would I? This place is awash with willing females.’
‘You told us last time that you’d upgraded the women, and they weren’t available, not even to you.’
‘Even so, a prostitute. Look at me, a man in the prime of life. Why would I go paying a woman for something I can get for free?’
‘Can you?’ Isaac said. ‘There’s not many women who’d like the manager of a strip club, let alone a murderer.’
‘Are you accusing me?’
‘Slater and his receptionist.’
‘What about them?’ Knox said. Both of the police officers looked for signs of nervousness in the man.
‘Can I use your toilet?’ Larry said.
‘There’s one out in the club.’
‘There’s one in here.’
‘It’s not working, doesn’t flush properly.’
Larry ignored the man and opened the door to Knox’s private bathroom. Inside he found a shower, a sink, and a toilet. He opened the cabinet above the sink. He then returned to where Isaac and Knox were. ‘How long have you been using aftershave?’ he said.
‘Not often. Supposedly the one you saw in there is full of pheromones, drives the women wild.’
‘Does it?’
‘It’s just advertising.’
‘The man who used the services of a prostitute last night – the woman was a friend of Daisy, a flatmate of another murdered woman, and she remembers the smell of your aftershave. You were also with her on the night Helen Langdon and James Holden were murdered. Mr Knox, I put it to you that you are the murderer of Helen Langdon, James Holden, Daisy and another prostitute.’
‘I’ve killed no one. I’m innocent,’ Knox protested.
‘Who paid you? Was it Archie Adamant? We know his father was involved with this club. We know that Aberman was killed on his instruction. Are you willing to go to jail without telling us the truth? Adamant, we can’t pin anything on him. We need your testimony.’
Isaac knew that Homicide had enough to arrest Knox, not enough to ensure a conviction. Geraldine would prove to be an unreliable witness, and the smell of an aftershave that was not difficult to purchase would not convict the man.
‘Mr Knox, with your testimony, we will arrest Archie Adamant.’
‘He’s not the father.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘Gerald Adamant, there was a real bastard, fooled everyone, even me.’
‘Was he the person who gave the instruction for Aberman to be killed by Ugly Pete?’
‘Gus told me. Adamant was a secretive man. Aberman, he’s got the dirt on him, using it as leverage against the money owing. I didn’t know, not for a long time, and then Gus, he’s in a strange mood, wants to talk.’
‘He told
