The NCA investigator was clearly infuriated. He rubbed a hand across his mouth before turning away towards the window. Bliss took a beat to compose himself. Then he switched his attention to Parkinson once again. ‘Sorry about that, Nicola. Can’t get the staff these days. Which reminds me… where were you with remembering our girl, Honey?’
She stared him down before teasing out a sigh. ‘I think I know the name. Not sure about the girl. What did she do? Get caught hooking? If that’s the case, we’ll fire her immediately.’
‘No. Afraid not. Sorry. She got caught being dead. Strangled to death, to be precise. Sometime yesterday. Found her body way out at the chalk pits outside Cambridge. Any idea why she would be over there?’
‘If she’s one of our escorts, she might have been with a client.’
‘That was precisely our line of thinking. I was hoping you could tell us who, where, and when.’
Parkinson tightened her gaze. A smile teased her lips. ‘Oh, I’m so sorry. You know I can’t give out confidential information relating to our clients, Inspector. Not unless you have one of those pesky warrants.’
Bliss played along. ‘I know you’re not supposed to, Nicola. And we both care about you and your legit business being squeaky clean. All I’m saying is, couldn’t you help us out this one time? We’re not looking to throw the cuffs on anyone. We’re talking about a murdered young woman, most likely one of your own. Surely you can bend the rules a little bit to help us out.’
‘Sorry. No can do. If I bent the rules for you, I’d have to do it for everyone who needed a favour. It wouldn’t be right.’
So far he’d been happy to go along to get along, but her flippancy was getting under Bliss’s skin. ‘Not right? Being murdered isn’t right, either. Even a hard-faced cow like you can see that, surely? How about this: you bring her records up on screen, then take yourself off to the loo for five minutes. Your lad can step out, too, if he likes. That sound any better?’
Parkinson put her head back as if considering his suggestion, but after a moment or two she slowly shook it. ‘Nope. I can’t risk it. You know how it is.’
‘For crying out loud!’ Ashton snapped, swivelling hard and squeezing his fists tight. ‘This is fucking ridiculous! I’ve never heard anything like it before. Arrest this bitch and throw her into a holding cell. Don’t let her walk all over you. It’s embarrassing.’
This time Bliss didn’t have to wade in. Instead, Chandler moved to stand between Ashton and Nicola. ‘Shut the fuck up, Glen! In fact, get the fuck out.’ She pointed towards the door. ‘Go on. Go! Go and sit in the car. Play with some crayons or something. Whatever pleases your tiny mind. Just fuck off out of here.’
Ashton stared down at her with round, wide eyes. ‘You can’t be serious. Are you yanking my chain?’
‘Don’t talk so daft. I wouldn’t yank your chain if it was the last one on earth.’
Bliss laughed. He couldn’t help himself; Chandler in full flow was an impressive sight. ‘I’d do as she says if I were you, Glen. You’d be better off feeding your balls into a bacon slicer than taking on our Penny when she’s in this frame of mind.’
A seething coil of fury, Glen Ashton stormed out of the office. Seconds later, the house reverberated to the sound of the front door slamming.
‘He doesn’t play nicely with others, does he?’ Parkinson said. ‘I take it he’s not one of yours, Inspector?’
‘NCA,’ Bliss said, as if that explained everything.
She nodded as if it did, too. ‘I’m sorry you’ve had a wasted trip,’ she said. ‘I’m also sorry to hear about Honey. I genuinely don’t know her. She’s not one of our low-rent girls, otherwise she’d have been in and out of here a time or two.’
‘You’re sorry, but you won’t tell us anything?’ Chandler said, unable to hide her disgust.
‘I can’t.’ Parkinson sat up straight, as if commanding an office of respect. ‘You had to have known that coming in.’
Bliss caught his partner’s eye and gave her the nod to continue. He liked it when a flame was lit beneath her.
Chandler gave it some thought. ‘All right,’ she said eventually. ‘I know we’re not going to get a client’s name from you. But there is something you can give us – something that means I won’t have to send in our clean-up crew to hassle you and the girls for the next five nights in a row.’
‘I’m listening,’ Parkinson said.
‘I don’t think it’s breaching any sort of confidentiality if you at least tell us whether Honey was booked out in Cambridge yesterday. No need to mention precisely where or who with.’
‘That’s it?’
‘That’s it.’
‘And then you’ll bugger off?’
‘And then we’ll bugger off.’
With a huff that was more for show than due to genuine annoyance, Parkinson leaned forward and started typing on her open laptop. She made a few clicks with the mouse, scrolling down a page. When she looked up, Bliss thought he saw a look of genuine relief. ‘As it happens, we do have a girl by the name of Honey. But she was not booked out in Cambridge yesterday.’
‘That had better be the truth, Nicola,’ Chandler said. ‘I mean it. I’m done fucking around with you.’
‘It is. And for what it’s worth, she wasn’t booked out at all yesterday. In fact, she’s not worked for us in almost two weeks.’
‘Is that unusual?’ Bliss asked. He’d noted a momentary frown flicker across the
