Hard Girls (12 page)

Kate was baffled once more. How could no one see or hear anything? ‘What about the people who live in the road? Have they been questioned yet?’

‘The boys are talking to them all now, but if anyone had anything to say, I’m sure we’d have heard about it by now.’

Annie sighed as she looked at the girl’s remains. It was bloody disgraceful, to think he had walked in and out without a sound.

Kate looked at Annie with dark-ringed eyes. Even she was looking old, old and tired. ‘He picks his time and his victims what can I do for you?’en toou attention with care. These girls were all targeted for a specific reason, he has something against them personally.’

Kate examined the room again, looking at the girl’s belongings, hoping against hope they would talk to her, tell her something. ‘He knows when they are at their most vulnerable and he allows himself plenty of time to do his business. He has to have been a regular of some sort, or he had to be watching them for a good while, because he knew exactly when to strike. He knew when he would be safest. No one has heard a car or a motorbike, so I think he walks to his chosen destination. No one notices anyone strange in the area, or wonders what the hell is going on in a house in their street that is being used as a brothel. Is it me, Annie, or am I missing something here? Surely no one can walk in and out of several different locations without someone, somewhere noticing them.’

Annie shrugged, she was wondering the same thing. ‘Maybe he’s just been lucky up to now? Or maybe he looks like part of the surroundings? Either way, Kate, no one seems to have seen him.’

Kate nodded slowly, her eyes staring blankly at the girl’s lifeless form. ‘He knew them, he
had
to have known them. He was familiar with their movements. Which means
they
probably knew him and, if they did, then so must some of the other girls.’

Margaret Dole was very pretty, she had short, dark hair and large, doe-like eyes. Her looks were her downfall in some ways, because they made her look soft, made her seem vulnerable. She had a natural grace, even picking up a coffee cup was done with precision and an inborn gentility.

Margaret, though, was in possession of a brain capacity that staggered the belief of those around her. She was a computer hound; she could hack, track or reroute anything that came her way. She also had a natural affinity for research that had brought her to the attention of her superiors, and she knew it was what would guarantee her getting fast-tracked to promotion. What she didn’t have was a natural affinity with her colleagues, but it didn’t bother her too much.

As she looked through all the information provided by Jennifer James, she knew there was nothing that would be of any use. The files were time-coded, and there was nothing she could see that might stand out as different or strange. Whoever had arranged to see the dead girls had done it by phone, probably text. As the phones were the only things taken, they were relying on the phone companies’ records. So far there was nothing suspicious there either. She would bet it was a pay as you go so, other than the location of where the call was made, they were still none the wiser.

Margaret opened up another file and perused the data available. Frowning, she looked back over the previous five files. Now this was much more interesting, as far as she was concerned. Smiling to herself, she printed off the information that interested her and placed it in her locker. It was her curious nature that had made her want to be a policewoman and it was this same curious nature that was now telling her she had stumbled on to something else entirely. Something that might bring her promotion a step closer.

‘Hello, love, have you got a minute?’

Kate smiled as she heard Desmond Clark’s voice. He was not only Patrick’s brief, but also a friend, and she had known him and his wife for many years.

‘How are you, Des? It’s lovely to hear from you.’

Desmond was quiet for a few moments. taken out her frustrationsedwhogoy‘Look, Kate, this is hard for me, but I have been asked to tell you that Patrick has had all your belongings packed up and he wants to know when it will be a convenient time to have them delivered. He has also asked me to inform you that he has requested that I work out a fair settlement for you given the years you’ve been together. He hopes you will understand that he wishes you the best, and requests that you only contact him through my office.’

Kate was stunned. Not only at Desmond’s words, but also by the way he so casually spoke them. The amiable man she had dined with, who she had spent holidays with, and who she had always regarded as a friend, was now talking to her as if she was no more than a stranger to him, someone to relay his client’s wishes to and then forget about. He was treating her as a problem that needed sorting, and Pat liked his problems sorted as quickly and as painlessly as possible. It was a learning curve, and Kate was sensible enough to learn from it.

She felt the hot flush of humiliation as it washed over her, and she wondered at a man who could so easily wipe away the years of easy friendship and the memories of times gone by. Good times. Times that had been captured on camera and reminisced about on more than one occasion. Des had been a regular visitor, along with his wife and family. Kate assumed that his wife would also be giving her a wide berth now that she was no longer with Patrick.

She swallowed down her anger and shame with difficulty. Then, taking a deep breath, she said steadily, ‘Tell Mr Kelly I will get in touch with
you
about the delivery of my belongings, as you so nicely put it, and you can also inform him that any settlement will need to be looked over by my own legal representatives. It’s not that I don’t trust
you
, Desmond, it’s just that I have an intimate knowledge of how you usually conduct any business dealings that pertain to Mr Kelly.’

‘That’s not fair, Kate.’

Kate could hear the indignation in his voice and it pleased her. ‘What’s fair then, Des? You tell me. Only, from where I’m standing, it seems that the only fairness I see is being directed towards your client, but then, what’s new?’

With that, Kate replaced the phone gently, pleased that she had not given into the temptation to slam it down with all the force she could muster. How dare Patrick try and remove her from his life like an errant mistress! How dare he get his brief to do his dirty work! She was finding it difficult to breathe, so great was her shock and disgust. That Pat could do that to her, and do it without a second’s remorse.

She felt the hot tears of humiliation and tried to force them away, tried to keep her dignity if nothing else. But it was suddenly too much for her. She felt old, old and useless. Patrick had hit her where he knew it would hurt most. He had abandoned her without a second’s thought, had reminded her that she wasn’t a girl any more. She had invested so many years in him, and she knew she would never get that opportunity again.

Kate had always looked down on those women who put a man before everything in their life, who believed that if you didn’t have a man, you had somehow failed. But it was important, she understood that now. It was about not being alone, it was about proving to yourself that you were still attractive, that you had the charm and the personality to be wanted by someone. She realised just how important it was to have someone in your bed waiting to put their arms around you and tell you how great you were. Having someone there to listen to you as you poured out your woes. Having someone to a Kate knew from experiencll at one time or anotherlt dccompany you on holidays and make new memories with. Why had she never appreciated that before now?

She still had her job. She had her reputation and that had always been a big part of her life, of how she perceived herself. Kate was proud of what she had achieved, of how her work had penetrated so many lives. But now, one phone call had revealed her life for what it really was. She was on the wrong side of fifty and she’d been dumped. Pat had erased her from his life, and in a strange way she didn’t blame him. She should have stayed and talked to him, should have known that he would make sure she was protected in any way he could. After all, she wasn’t a real Filth any more, as he had so forcefully pointed out to her. She felt so betrayed, so unwanted, and yet she knew she had brought it on herself. What did she have left in life now that he was gone from her?

The future seemed bleak and frightening, she saw the years ahead as if she was already living them. She could see visits to her daughter Lizzy in New Zealand until she was unable to travel, she saw herself spending her time reading and wondering what might have been. But worse, she saw Patrick Kelly living the life he had lived until she met him. A life of money, skulduggery, and in the company of young women who would remind him that age was only a number.

She should have seen this coming, should have understood that she was putting him second, should have remembered that he was happy for her to do that as long as she assured him it was only temporary, only until she had seen through whatever she was working on. She had walked away from him, not the other way around, and she had forced this situation because of her reaction to his involvement in the girls’ working lives. He had to have known what the flats were being used for, so why didn’t that matter to her any more? Why was she so willing to overlook that if it would bring him back to her? Why was she such a hypocrite where Patrick Kelly was concerned? It wasn’t the first time either. She had overlooked much worse than this over the years. Love could do that to a body, it could make them do things they never believed possible.

Eventually, Kate laid her head on her arms and cried like she hadn’t cried in years. She sobbed out her pain and her anguish, not just for herself, and her life, but also for the young women whose lives had been cut so tragically short, and who she knew made her own problems seem nothing in comparison. But even understanding that didn’t make her feel any better. She wanted Pat, she always had, from the first time she laid eyes on him, and she knew that nothing was going to change that now. Unfortunately.

‘But I can’t see where you are coming from, Pat.’

Patrick swallowed down his annoyance. What was it with people that they always thought they knew better? Why did people he employed to run the businesses he had created, always think they had more of an edge than him?

‘If we open up the casino and the restaurants we can double the take, surely?’

Patrick looked at Danny and forced a smile that told everyone in the room that he was aggravated. Very aggravated. ‘Look, Danny, if we let any Tom, Dick or, in some cases, Danny, down those stairs, we will be just like any other casino or restaurant. We could be Southend, or fucking Canvey Island, use your fucking brains. What we lose out on with the roundabouts, we can more than make up on the swings. You see, a lot of our customers come to us because they ain’t going to run into the bloke who does their garden, or the bloke who frequents their pubs, clubs or chippies. Or, for that matter, the people who work in said what can I do for you?’ft { display: block; font-size: 0.75r b d establishments. Whatever their business happens to be, we ensure that they only rub shoulders with other like-minded individuals and that, I might add, goes for
me
as well. We entertain a lot of people down there who wouldn’t want the general public clocking their movements, if you get my drift. So, if you want to make suggestions in the future, my advice would be to try and think the fuckers through properly first.’

Patrick laughed and looked at Desmond in mock amazement as he continued. ‘Can you imagine the boat-race of some of our more salubrious clientele as they shake hands with their own workforce, especially if said workforce were well oiled on free booze and in possession of a camera phone? I mean, far be it from me to piss on any lucrative fireworks, but I think the casino in question brings in more money through the contacts it attracts, than the actual gambling.’

Danny took the lambasting with good grace. He knew better than to disagree with Patrick in front of anyone. He also knew that, once they were alone, he could put his case across properly and succinctly and that he would get a fair hearing.

Patrick Kelly was a man of contradictions. Danny knew that his interest would now be piqued, and he would listen to the reasoning behind the proposal. He would then digest the information and give a fair response to it. But it was wearing sometimes, even though he knew Patrick could still teach him a good thing or two where business was concerned. Danny could feel himself chafing at the collar, but he also knew that was normal for anyone in his position.

Desmond, however, knew the real reason behind Patrick’s angry tirade and he hoped he saw the error of his ways. Kate was the best thing to have ever happened to him, if he could only see that for himself.

‘What about Bates and his involvement in the first incident?’

Desmond sighed. ‘The other crime scenes are apparently all sterile anyway, cleaned and polished after the event, so we got a pass. It was lucky for us because if the mad cunt had left anything behind, Peter would have been responsible for messing with it first time around. Anyway, we’ve had a swerve so let’s leave it at that. The other deaths are not being seen as anything to do with us or our involvement in the properties. Or any of our partners. In fact, as luck would have it, the girl who died last night was nothing to do with us at all, she was renting off old Maggie, so we can forget about it now. It’s all academic. You’re only on the paperwork, nothing can link you to the businesses personally.’

Patrick digested what had been said then, pouring himself a large brandy he said sarcastically, ‘So, what a stroke of luck for us. The girl who died didn’t die in vain. She inadvertently made sure we were all protected. I think we should find the culprit and shake his hand, maybe give him a night out in the casino, especially now we are letting anyone in.’

‘I never meant it like that, Pat, and you know it. I was just doing what I always do, what I am paid to do, protect you and your business interests. In other words, I watch your fucking arse, and sometimes you know, I have to do and say things I don’t particularly like, but I do it anyway, because that is my job. What I don’t have to do though, is listen to this kind of shit. So, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be on my way.’ With that, Desmond got up and walked from the room.