Cold as Ice

Chapter 44

Next morning, Carter pushed open the door of ‘The Exotic Pet Shop’ on Caledonian Road and was pleasantly surprised. He had been dreading setting foot inside any place that had things that scuttled or slid, but the woman sitting on a stool behind the counter to his right smiled and he instantly felt better. She was pretty, with feline eyes and a mane of black hair that started as a loose bun on the top of her head and then tumbled down till it reached her waist. She had long false eyelashes and pouting pink lips. She looked like she’d stepped out of a Sixties girl band in a leopard-print mini-dress.

‘Hi. My name is Detective Inspector Dan Carter.’ He showed his warrant card. ‘I need some information.’ She didn’t seem to object. ‘What’s your name?’

‘Silky.’

From the corner of his eye Carter spied movement. Stacks of boxes containing jumping insects, labelled ‘crickets’, ‘locusts’. Silky kept her eyes on Carter as he bent low to look at the insects.

‘Funny type of pet. Not so scary as I imagined.’

‘They’re just food for the others.’

Carter stood and took a step towards Silky, who had a tattoo of a snake running up her arm and flicking its forked tongue into the crevice of her neck.

‘Who eats those then?’ Carter smiled, embarrassed at his mistake but at the same time wondering if Silky was wearing knickers; somehow he didn’t think so.

‘The spiders.’ She sat back on her stool. ‘Is it a spider you were interested in?’

Carter tipped his head to one side, swivelled on his heels and shrugged.

‘Possibly. Actually I need some information about some of these pets.’ She didn’t seem to object. He glanced around the shop at the tanks and cages.

‘Do you have a favourite?’

‘Yes. That’s easy,’ she answered as she got out of her seat, eased down her dress from where it had lodged at the top her thighs and swivelled her hips around the side of the cash desk as she appeared by his side. ‘I’m a tarantula type of girl.’ She walked over to the wall full of glass containers. Carter followed her and stood eye to eye with a six-inch-wide, hairy spider. He stepped back.

‘Are they venomous?’

She smiled, amused. ‘All spiders are venomous. Some more than others.’

Carter tried not to shiver. He was worse than Cabrina when it came to spiders. He was going to have to stop being a wimp about it if he didn’t want Archie to be the same.

‘Have you ever been bitten?’

The woman nodded. ‘A few times.’

‘But some spiders can kill?’

‘Of course. I keep a stock of anti-venom in my fridge.’

He moved away from the spiders.

‘What about for snakes?’ They moved on to the far end of the small shop and a large tank with a coal-black snake inside.

‘Snakes eat mice, rabbits – small mammals of some kind. It depends on the size of the snake.’

‘Do they eat them live?’ Carter bent to peer in at the snake.

‘No. Not any more. Well, not unless you have a snake that won’t feed otherwise. They are farmed, killed humanely and we sell them frozen.’

‘Do you have regular clients?’

‘Yes. We have our regulars. Once you buy one pet you tend to want more and the same people come in to buy feed for them.’

‘Do you have a newsletter that people can subscribe to on your website?’

‘We notify people of offers – that kind of thing.’

‘Can I get a copy of the list of subscribers for that?’

She shrugged. ‘I don’t see why not. It’s not a private thing.’

Carter bent down to look at the snake sliding its underbelly up the glass as it slid up towards the top of the tank.

‘I bet you know all the real spider and snake enthusiasts around North London?’

‘We tend to know one another, yeah. People need advice, that kind of thing. We keep in touch.’

‘Do you think you know everyone around the area who has a large snake?’

She thought about it and shrugged again. ‘That’s a hard one. I doubt it. Someone could source their food from someone other than me, like online. They could be self-sufficient and breed their own insects. If they bought a snake from me then I keep a record.’

A young woman passed them as she came from a door at the back of the shop.

‘Just going downstairs – mind the till for me, Barb,’ she said as she passed.

‘Okay, no probs.’

She turned to Carter: ‘Would you like to see a big snake?’

‘Love to.’

She led the way through the door and down the stairs that turned sharply around to the left. Downstairs they walked into a small hot room with a massive tank running the length of it. Inside was a snake that fitted it.

‘Jesus! How big is that thing?’

‘That is Lulu and she’s about sixteen feet.’

‘How much does she weigh?’

‘About nine stone.’

Carter walked over to the tank and came level with the curled snake.

‘She’s a python,’ said Silky. ‘I’ve had her for ten years but she’s just too big for me to have at my house now.’

He shook his head, impressed. ‘Yeah – I bet. Do you handle her?’

‘Sure, I get her out most days. Except when she’s hungry – like most women she gets bad-tempered then.’

‘And how often does she get hungry?’

‘Once a month.’

‘Then what? Half a dozen rabbits?’

‘Just one.’

‘If she eats that then she won’t eat again?’

‘Not for a month.’

‘She won’t bother to kill?’

‘No. I mean I still wouldn’t handle her alone. Once she coiled around your neck, you wouldn’t be able to get her off. She might not even be looking to eat you, just to defend herself or to feel stable, just to get a hold on something.’

‘Could she eat you?’

‘Lulu?’ Carter nodded. ‘I’d be too big for her but she could eat a baby, a small child. In the wild they have been known to eat people. They can grow to fifty feet and can weigh one hundred and thirty-five kilos.’

‘Would she eat another snake?’

‘No. But a decapitated snake can bite itself. A snake’s body can go on moving for hours.’

‘Jesus – that’s evil.’

She laughed. It was beginning to feel uncomfortably warm and small in the room. They seemed to be standing awfully close. He looked at his watch.

‘Thanks so much for your help – if I can have that list now.’

‘Yeah, sure.’ She led the way back up the stairs and stopped halfway. She caught Carter staring at her bum. ‘Do you want to give me your number? I can ring you if I think of anything else you ought to know about spiders or snakes. Maybe you could buy me a drink sometime and I’d let you pick my brains?’ He followed her back to the counter.

‘I’d love to but police business, rules and all that – you understand.’

She cocked her head to one side and smiled. ‘I understand. She’s a lucky woman.’