61
March 2016
Sapphire had arranged to meet Skinner in the pub so they could go and search for Amber together. It seemed to her that looking for Amber was all she ever did these days but, nevertheless, she knew it was important to find her.
She had already asked Moira whether she had seen anything of Amber or whether she had a phone number for her, but Moira knew nothing. And, like Sapphire, she hadn’t seen anything of Angie either, so there was no chance of checking whether Angie might have Amber’s phone number.
As her meeting time with Skinner was still half an hour away, she was surprised when he turned up, panting, and looking more jittery than ever.
He came straight over and, when he reached her, it was apparent straightaway that there was something troubling him. ‘For fuck’s sake, Saph, I’ve been trying to get hold of you. What the fuck’s wrong with your phone?’
Sapphire took her mobile out and examined it. ‘Shit! I didn’t realise the battery’s flat. I need to charge it up as soon as possible. There might be clients trying to get hold of me. Anyway, what’s the problem?’
Skinner sat down and stared pointedly at her. ‘I’ve just heard some bad news, Saph.’
She could see his lips twitching in that characteristic way of his, and her heart started racing. ‘What is it, Skinner?’
‘There’s another girl been killed, and she’s been strangled the same as Cora.’
‘Shit! No. Who is it? Do you know?’
‘Not yet, no, but I’m worried it might be your mate, especially after he’d been looking for her.’
‘Fuck! Don’t say that, Skinner.’
‘Have you not heard anything from her yet?’
Sapphire’s face clouded over. ‘No.’ She took a gulp of her drink, deciding to leave the rest. ‘C’mon, we need to go. We need to ask around on the beat, see if anyone’s seen Amber.’
‘But what if they haven’t?’
Sapphire didn’t want to dwell on the possible outcome of that. ‘We need to know for sure whether it was Amber. Maybe someone knows.’
They left the pub and arrived at the red-light district a few minutes later after dashing through the streets of the city centre. Sapphire looked up the road, which was lined with street girls. It looked like a busy night.
‘You take that side and I’ll take this,’ she told Skinner. ‘Then we’ll meet at the end and take the side streets together. If you find out anything in the meantime, let me know.’
‘Yeah, sure,’ said Skinner who raced across the road and made his way towards the first prostitute.
Sapphire didn’t have any luck with the first three women she spoke to. They either didn’t know Amber by name or hadn’t seen her, and they didn’t know who the dead girl was either, only that she had been strangled. But Sapphire noticed the last woman she spoke to eying her suspiciously and she had a feeling there was something she wasn’t telling her, so she persevered with a fourth one.
A tall peroxide blonde, she knew Amber by name as soon as Sapphire mentioned her. ‘You as well?’ she asked.
‘What d’you mean?’ asked Sapphire.
‘Well, you’re not the only one who’s been looking for her. Kev Pike’s been looking for her too, and it’s not the first time. He seems pretty keen to get his hands on her if you ask me. In fact, last time I saw Amber, I warned her he’d been looking for her.’
‘Shit!’ said Sapphire. ‘I’m really worried about her especially after hearing about that girl who got strangled. Have you heard about it?’
‘Oh yeah, but it’s not her.’
‘How d’you know?’
‘A friend of a friend found her body and called the cops. It was in the early hours of this morning. They’re saying it’s a Romanian girl – Elena I think she’s called.’
‘Shit!’ Sapphire repeated.
‘What? Do you know her?’
Sapphire glanced over the road to where Skinner was deep in conversation with another girl some distance ahead. ‘Yeah, a bit. But my mate over there knows her better. He’ll be gutted.’
‘Sorry,’ said the peroxide blonde. Then she lowered her voice and asked, ‘You don’t think Kev Pike had anything to do with it, do you? I’ve heard he’s got a bad reputation, but don’t say I told you that.’
Sapphire could see that the girls on this beat were nervous. It wasn’t surprising after the second killing in a few months. But she was more concerned about the news she had just heard. She turned and looked at Skinner again and waited for a car to pass so she could cross the road. Almost forgetting to thank the girl, she swiftly spun round. ‘Thanks. Take care.’
Then she shouted Skinner’s name and ran towards him. Her haste put him on his guard. ‘Have you found out summat?’
Sapphire took a moment to get her breath back. ‘Yeah, but it’s not Amber.’ She put her hand on his arm. ‘I’m really sorry, Skinner, but they’re saying it’s a Romanian girl called Elena.’
‘Fuck, no! Why?’
‘I dunno. I’m sorry.’
When he burst into tears, she put her arms around him. Giving him a chance to recover from the shock of his friend’s death, she held him for a few seconds before a thought occurred to her, and she pulled away.
‘Shit! They found her this morning, Skinner.’ Skinner stared at her dumbfounded till she elucidated. ‘That means she was probably killed last night after she left us. You don’t think she caught up with Kev outside the Rose and Crown, do you?’
Skinner sniffed back his tears. ‘Fuck! She could have done.’
‘Yeah, and if she did catch up with him, she might have wound him up. I mean, she was a bit pissed off when she left us, wasn’t she?’
‘Shit, yeah. What if she
