'Clever bugger!'
Naylor gave a shout and Sharon turned and saw them, no more than a couple of big kids, standing there in shirtsleeves, grinning. She wished she had stopped for a shower now, changed; aware of her sports shirt sticking to her, the sour-sweet smell of her own sweat.
'Called in at the station, said you might be here,' Divine said.
Day off. '
'Win?' Naylor asked.
'Not exactly.'
'This bloke copped it in the hotel,' Divine said.
'You heard about it?'
She nodded.
'Witness made an ID…' Naylor said, taking over. 'Waiter, works in the hotel restaurant' ' She's a torn,' Divine said, interrupting.
'Local?'
'So it seems.'
Name? '
'Kinoulton. Marlene.'
Sharon wished they weren't having this conversation out there, cars driving in and out of the tennis centre behind them. Sweat growing cold.
'Know her?' Divine asked.
'I've not been here long enough to know all the girls.'
'But this one, this Marlene?'
I might. ' They waited.
'You know the girl I contacted you about? Doris. The one said she might have something interesting to tell me, about the night that man was knifed near the Alfreton Road? Well, turns out, as far as Marlene Kinoulton's got a best friend, she's it.'
Divine grinned across at Naylor and Naylor winked back: at long last they might be getting somewhere.
Resnick had taken McKimber back through the evening in low gear, beginning to end.
'Never occurred to me at first that she was on the game. Never cottoned on. I thought, I suppose, nothing special, even so, not going to let themselves get turned into a knocking shop. But then I thought, yes, well, why not? Where all the money is, isn't it, after all? Blokes with time on their hands, money to spend.'
'So, as far as you were concerned, at the beginning, it was what?
Just a casual chat? '
'Well, no, not exactly. Way she was coming on to me, right off like, knew it was more than that. But, well, like I say, I suppose I thought I'd clicked, you know. Pulled.'
'And when did she make it clear that wasn't exactly the case?'
'When we got to the room.'
'Once you were inside?'
'No. I was just, like, about to use the key. One of them bits of plastic, not really a key at all. She leaned past me, hand against the door.
'You know this isn't your birthday, don't you?' That's what she said. ' He looked over towards Resnick.
'She was there, then, wasn't she? What was I supposed to do?'
'What kind of a woman would you have said she was?' Resnick asked.
'Based on that first part of the evening.'
'Woman? She was a tart, wasn't she?'
'Yes, but before you knew that. I mean, was she pleasant, well-spoken? How did she come across?'
McKimber shrugged.
'Just sort of normal, you know.'
'Intelligent? Bright?'
'Bright enough to know she had my balls in her pocket' ' But, aside from what you've already said, were you surprised to find out she was apparently a prostitute? '
'Surprised?' McKimber shook his head.
'One way or another, they all are. I mean, that's the way it works. If you can get someone to pay for it, why give it away?'
Resnick showed him six sets of photographs, six different women, all similar, all with dark hair.
'Look,' McKimber said, 'you're wasting your time. I've already been through this. '
'Humour me,' Resnick said.
'Let's try again. Just these few.'
McKimber lit another cigarette. A good minute before he answered, Resnick could see that he'd stopped really looking.
'I'm sorry,'
McKimber said.
'It isn't any good.'
'You're quite sure.'
'Yes, I said. The only one…'
'Go on.'
'The only one it just might possibly be…'
'Yes?'
McKimber transferred the cigarette to his mouth and jabbed a finger 'That one. That's the only one, if you told me I had to pick out one of these, had to, that's the only one comes close. Only one that's near.' And he picked out, not Marlene Kinoulton, but the woman in the set of photographs immediately above her, gazing into the camera with a slight squint.
Divine and Naylor had driven Sharon Gamett back to her flat and waited while she had cleaned up and changed into tan leggings, a purple T-shirt, black cotton jacket. Together, Naylor driving, they trawled the red-light district looking for Marlene Kinoulton and her friend 146 Doris Duke. Nowhere to be seen. None of the girls out working claimed to have seen them for several days. A week. Sheffield, try Sheffield.
Leeds.
'Sorry,' Sharon said eventually.
'We're wasting our time. We'd be better trying again later tonight. Late.'
'Fair enough,' Divine said and Naylor pulled in towards the kerb.
'I might have a problem,' Naylor said.
'With later. I'm supposed to be off round Debbie's mum's. She's got this relation over from Canada. Nephew or something. Having a bit of a celebration.'
'Sounds,' Divine said with a smirk, 'like the kind of thing you wouldn't miss for the world. '
'Yes, well. I'll see what I can do.'
Sharon opened the car door.
'Half ten in the Arboretum then, okay?'
'Get there first,' Divine grinned, 'and mine's a pint of Kimberley. '
'You wish! I'm the one doing you a favour, remember? And mine's a Bacardi and Coke. Large. Ten thirty, right?'
Divine watched as Sharon walked away.
'Second thoughts, why don't you go hobnobbing with the in-laws after all. Leave this to me.'
'Thought you were being faithful this month?' Naylor said.
'One-woman man.'
'Yeah, so I am,' Divine grinned, grabbing his crotch. 'It's just this that doesn't understand.'
Twenty-seven
