When the Music's Over

11

It was dark when Gerry turned left near the end of the Strip on to Wytherton Avenue, one of the broader streets that cut through the estate, with cars parked on both sides. There was practically no traffic as she drove deeper into the estate looking for the turn. She found it and parked her Corsa under the only functioning streetlamp on a side street facing the derelict factory, as Jade had suggested.

Before getting out, she glanced in her side and rear-view mirrors to check that there was nobody around. The street was empty and dark and many of the streetlights were out as far back as she could see. These were old houses, not the compact brick council style of the sixties. They were tall, thin terraces built of solid, darker stone, and many of them seemed as deserted as the street itself. Beyond the steep front steps and high-pitched slate roofs, the night sky glowed with the lights of an urban conglomeration that blotted out all the starlight. She could still see the half moon over to her left.

She made sure to put the Krook on the steering wheel and locked the car doors before she left it. She knew that the professional car thieves of today could get around practically any security device, but it scared off the amateurs and encouraged any thief to seek out something easier. She looked over at the abandoned factory as she turned the corner. Beyond the high wire fence with scrolls of barbed wire along its top lay broken pallets and a forklift truck on its side. Weeds were growing through the cracks in the concrete. The factory buildings themselves were dark and forbidding, lit only by pale moonlight, the smashed windows leaving shapes in the remaining glass like mountain peaks or silhouettes resembling rabbit ears, running horses and birds in flight.

Further up the street, where there was even less light, she came to the broken playground. Immediately, she saw exactly what Jade meant. The place lay in shadow, in a small gap between two terraces, but she could see that it had once been a playground for young children. The frames for the swings were still there, as was the base for the seesaw, but there no swings and there was no seesaw. The roundabout had tumbled off its hub and lay at an angle like a crashed carousel, and the monkey puzzle was all twisted out of shape.

The house next door was condemned, the front door and all the windows boarded up. Gerry did as Jade had said and slid the board aside. It was a good thing she managed to stay slim, she thought, slipping through. For a split second she felt a surge of fear rush through her and wondered again if Jade was leading her into a trap. But the fear passed as quickly as it had started, leaving her tingling and wary, but determined. Jade had told her who Mimsy was; Jade was scared and needed help.

Gerry entered the house and called Jade’s name quietly. ‘I’m up here,’ came the familiar voice from the top of the stairs.

The house was pitch dark inside, and Gerry used her mobile phone to light her way. She remembered once as a child playing in some empty houses on the edge of the field across from where she lived, but that was usually in daylight. You had to be careful, she remembered, because the stairs were often rotten, the plaster crumbling and laths weakened. In the dark it was so much more difficult to avoid making a misstep.

‘Turn the light out,’ Jade called down.

Gerry put her mobile in her bag, but not before she had turned on the record function. She knew that she wouldn’t be able to remember everything Jade told her, and there was no way she could make notes in the dark. ‘Jade?’ she whispered. ‘Jade? Where are you?’

‘I’m up here. The stairs are safe. They creak a lot, but they’re safe.’

Gerry made her way carefully up the stairs, her night vision improving as she climbed. Jade was waiting for her at the top. ‘Someone might notice a light,’ she said. ‘There’s not supposed to be anybody here. You parked round the corner like I said, didn’t you?’

‘Yes.’

She led Gerry into what had most likely been one of the bedrooms. ‘We’ll have to sit on the floor unless you want to stand. It’s a bit dirty.’

Gerry sat cross-legged beside her, wondering not for the first time why the hell she had let herself be talked into doing this. But she soon had her answer.

‘I’m sorry about all this cloak-and-dagger stuff,’ Jade said, ‘but I’m really shit scared. They might be watching me. They know I was Mimsy’s best friend. I’m sure they don’t know about this place, though. And it’s not as much of a trap as it looks. There’s passages through the attics. You can get to nearly any house in the block and out the back if you hear anyone coming. Mimsy and me used to go exploring.’

‘Who are “they”?’

‘Did you bring that sarnie?’

Gerry felt around in her bag and brought out the package wrapped in foil. ‘Here,’ she said, handing it over.

Jade ripped off the foil and took a bite, then spoke with her mouth full. ‘What the fuck is this?’

‘It’s Brie and cucumber,’ Gerry said, feeling herself blush. ‘On sourdough bread. Sorry, it was all I had. There’s an apple, too.’

‘Thank heaven for small mercies. Brie and fucking cucumber? Sourdough?’ She continued to munch away on the sandwich despite the disgust and horror in her tone.

‘Who’s “they”?’ Gerry repeated, determined to regain control of the conversation.

‘You must know. Don’t you know?’

Gerry couldn’t see Jade’s expression but gathered from her reply that she was a little surprised by the question. ‘We have our suspicions,’ she said, ‘but as yet we haven’t had any confirmation that we’re right.’

‘Sunny and his mates,’ Jade went on. ‘There’s four of them: Sunny, Faisal, Ismail and Hassan. At least, they’re the ringleaders. There’s lots of others, all over the place, but those are the main ones here, the ones we knew. They’ve stopped now, though, now Mimsy’s dead. When she disappeared they told us to stay away, lie low and say nothing. Everyone’s gone to ground. I think they’re still keeping an eye on us, like I said, or they have people to do it for them. Tariq and his pals. That’s why I asked you to meet me here. I still have to be careful.’

‘Who’s “us”? How many of you are there?’

‘Seven.’ Jade sniffed.

Gerry could hear the sounds of an old empty house, sighs and creaks from tired woodwork. It smelled of urine, dust, crumbled plaster and rotten wood. ‘Why didn’t you talk to us before?’ she said. ‘Then Mimsy wouldn’t have had to die.’

‘I couldn’t. None of us could. After a while you just get to thinking there’s no way out. You give up. It’s easier to do what they say. But then Mimsy got killed and that changed things. She was my best friend,’ Jade said in a hushed and trembling voice. ‘And they killed her. We didn’t know they were going to do that. When it’s your best friend, you have to do something, don’t you?’

‘Who killed her, Jade?’

‘They did. The ones I just mentioned. Or their cousins.’

‘Why? You’d better explain it all.’

‘I don’t know why. Mimsy must have got upset about something they did or wanted to do. She had a temper. And there were... like certain things... things she just wouldn’t do. Sometimes you couldn’t reason with her. Mostly she was fine, but if something set her off she could be a real pain in the arse. Maybe she even threatened to talk or something. I don’t know.’

‘Someone gave her ketamine, Jade. That might have had something to do with it.’

‘Maybe. K can be nasty stuff. I don’t know. All I know is they did it.’

‘How did you get into all this?’

‘You wouldn’t understand,’ Jade said, with an edge of contempt in her tone. ‘You probably had a normal life — nice parents in a nice house who sent you to a nice school and gave you nice meals and nice clothes. It’s not like that for everyone, you know. They were kind, they gave us things, they made us feel like we belonged, told us we were pretty. We chilled with them. It was only later, when we’d gone too far, that things changed. Then there was no way out.’

‘How did it all start?’

‘Me and Mimsy met Sunny and Faisal down at the takeaway on a school lunchtime. Sunny’s the oldest. The ringleader, I suppose. He was friendly. He gave us a free pop and a slice of pizza each and we just, like, chatted. He seemed to understand. He fancied Mimsy, you could tell. No pressure. Not then. Just nice.’

‘What did he seem to understand?’

‘Us. How we felt about things. What a fuck-up our lives were. How nobody cared about us. How bored and alone we felt. All that stuff.’

‘How old were you then?’

‘Fourteen.’

‘And Sunny?’

‘He’s old, more than thirty.’

‘This happened when?’

‘Last summer. I can’t remember exactly when.’

So it had been going on for a year, Gerry thought. ‘What happened next?’

‘Nothing happened, not for a few weeks. We just hung out and talked. Faisal — he’s Sunny’s best friend, the cook — he was there most of the time, and sometimes Ismail from the minicabs or Hassan from the balti would drop by. We thought they were all our friends, like we’d found somewhere we belonged. We’d have a laugh and chill, get wasted and party.’

‘Didn’t you think it was a bit strange, these older men spending their time with you?’

‘I didn’t think about it that way at all. Not at first. It was just somewhere to go, someone we could talk to. Better than those fucking plonkers at school. I think Mimsy was the same. She was a bit nervous at first, but that changed as time went on. Look, I’m not stupid, really I’m not. I thought Faisal really liked me. He was nice. Sometimes we’d go up to Sunny’s flat and watch TV. They didn’t like to be seen too much with us out in the open. Sunny said it was because people wouldn’t understand with them being older and Pakis, like, even though they talk just like us. Sunny’s got one of those big flat-screen TVs with surround sound. It was fantastic. I never got to watch anything like that at home. I loved Strictly and he’d let me come down and watch it. X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent. I love those programmes. Movies, too. With popcorn. We’d have real drinks, too. Vodka and cider or something. That was when it happened.’

‘When you were drunk?’

‘I suppose so. I’d had a bit too much, and the next thing I knew Sunny and Mimsy disappeared in one of the bedrooms and Faisal was... we were... well, it was OK because it was Faisal and he seemed sweet. I know he was older and all that, but I suppose I thought of him as my boyfriend then. And he was a change from those spotty school kids who were always trying to grope me in the corridors. I mean, he really seemed to listen to me. And he made me laugh.’

‘Were you attending school at this time?’

‘Mostly. Yeah. I mean, I think Mimsy was excluded at the time, but even when she wasn’t we wagged it as often as not. But that’s where we found them.’

‘Who?’

‘The other girls. Me and Mimsy would just tell them what a fantastic time we were having and about all the treats and stuff. She could pick out the ones who’d be interested. The ones like me. The ones who were looking for something different. I don’t know how, but it was just like she had a nose for it. She wasn’t ever wrong. The men called her the Honey Monster because she lured other girls in for them. I think they paid her, and maybe it meant she didn’t have to... you know... do it so much. But it didn’t mean she was working for them, like, and happy with it. She didn’t have no choice by then. None of us did.’

‘It’s OK, Jade. I understand.’

‘It’s just that it sounds bad. I don’t want you blaming her or anything, even though she is dead.’

‘Don’t worry about that.’

‘So she brought new girls in. I’d help sometimes. It’s not as if there’s anything else to do around here except hang out at the shopping mall and get chatted up by schoolboys, or by older married blokes who ought to know better. One night Sunny said they were going to chill at his, and we could bring some of our friends if we wanted. Well, they weren’t close friends, or anything like that, just girls we knew at school or from the mall, girls like us, girls who didn’t really feel like they fitted in, that didn’t belong to any gang or clique. Mostly they were bullied and friendless and grateful to us just for talking to them.’

Lonely, vulnerable, Gerry thought. ‘I’ll need their names,’ she said.

‘There was Kirsty, Becca, Mel, Sue and Kath.’

‘Their real names?’

‘Yes. Only Becca’s short for Rebecca, and so on.’

‘Surnames?’

‘No idea. You can find out from school, though. Or the social. They’re all in care, or in foster homes. Will you take care of them? Will you make sure they’re all right? They’re all scared, too.’

‘We’ll do our best, Jade.’ Gerry was grateful for the recorder app on her mobile. Even thinking about what she was doing made her realise what an idiot she was. She could be jeopardising her career. They should be in an interview room at Eastvale, with DI Cabbot and Detective Superintendent Banks present. But would Jade say what she was saying now, here in the dark, in a brightly lit room with two intimidating adults throwing questions at her? Gerry doubted it. Sometimes you had to bend the rules a little to get a result. ‘What happened?’

‘Nothing. Nothing at all. We went up to the flat. They played music — our kind of music, you know, not that Middle Eastern shit — and we had lots to eat — Hassan runs the balti restaurant down the Strip, so he’d brought a whole bunch of food, too, so we had curries and stuff as well as pizza and kebabs and burgers, and lots to drink. Vodka, gin, whisky, cider. We danced. We talked. We laughed. We got kaylied. We got silly. Mel puked. That’s all. And nobody told us to shut up or fuck off or hit us or told us we were too fat or stupid. Faisal and me had already got together, like Mimsy and Sunny. Ismail hooked up with Becca that night. The girls enjoyed themselves so much they started hanging out with us, mostly at Sunny’s. He’s got the nicest flat. The biggest TV and the best music. The guys weren’t like creepy or anything, not like the lads at school. I mean, have you seen the lads around here? Most you could hope for from them was lager from a can down by the canal before they put their hand up your skirt. Sunny and his friends are older. Dead mature.’

‘And generous?’

‘Yeah, I suppose so. At first.’

‘But now you’re scared of them?’

‘Things change.’

‘Didn’t you think they were a bit old for you?’

‘Did you go out with kids your own age when you were young?’

It was the first time anyone had indicated that they felt that Gerry wasn’t young, and it was a strange feeling. Of course she would seem old to Jade. ‘No, she said. ‘I suppose not.’ She could have added that there wasn’t much choice at her boarding school, and that the choice wasn’t only limited in age but also in gender, unless you were foolhardy enough to go for a teacher. But she didn’t. Her first real boyfriend, when she was eighteen and at university, had been in his thirties. He had also been a junior lecturer, though at no time was he ever her teacher.

‘So how did things progress?’

‘They treated us good at first, like real ladies. They weren’t always groping and fumbling and grabbing your tits.’

‘But you did have sex?’

‘Oh, yeah. But it wasn’t, like, all the time.’

‘You enjoyed it?’

‘It was OK.’

Gerry thought she heard a sound from the next room and stiffened.

‘Rats,’ said Jade.

Gerry didn’t think she had ever seen a rat, not in the wild, so to speak. She certainly didn’t want to start now. ‘Was there any conflict between the men you were with and the local boys?’ she asked. ‘Albert Moffat, Paul Warner and the others? Weren’t they jealous?’

‘They didn’t know. I certainly never told any of them and I’m pretty sure Mimsy didn’t. They might have guessed, but I doubt it. We kept a low profile. And we didn’t really hang out with lads like Albert and Paul. They were older and they didn’t want anything to do with us. I mean, Albert’s Mimsy’s big brother and Paul’s even older than him, so we did see them sometimes in the mall or wherever. They never came down to the Strip. Not their sort of people. They don’t like foreigners. Maybe they were too thick to figure out what was happening. I certainly was.’

‘In what way?’

‘Do I have to spell it out?

‘Try, Jade. For me.’

Jade turned silent for a moment, then began hesitantly. ‘Well, it was all right at first, like, being Faisal’s girlfriend and all that. I thought he really liked me. He’d tell me I was pretty and stuff. Me! I mean, Mimsy was really sexy and all, but me?’

Gerry realised she had no idea what Jade looked like. All she knew was a husky whisper on the telephone and a silhouette in the dark sitting beside her now. She said nothing.

‘Sometimes I’d stay at his flat all night,’ Jade went on. ‘He had a smaller place, like, next door to Sunny’s. It was a bit cramped and the wallpaper was peeling, but it was OK. It didn’t smell too bad. He even got me a mobile just so he could text me when I was at school and stuff. It was cool. Ismail owned the minicab office next door and we’d go everywhere in taxis, like real ladies. We even went as far as Newcastle once, for a party with some of their mates. Like they’d do anything for us.’

‘When did things start to change?’

‘Not long. Maybe a month or two since we’d known them. One night I went down and there was just Faisal. It was late, like, after the takeaway had closed. We went up to the flat and there were two other guys there. Faisal said they were cousins of his visiting from Dewsbury. They seemed nice enough. We had a few drinks, like, and I was getting pretty wasted, then Faisal sort of leaned over and said that Namal, that was one of his cousins, liked me. And I could see Namal looking at me and smiling and stuff. And Faisal said it would be nice if I could show him a good time.’

‘How did you react to that?’

‘I nearly fell off my fucking chair laughing, didn’t I?’

‘And what did Faisal say?’

‘He said it was OK, it was like a family thing. It was the way families did things where he was from and there was nothing wrong with it. They shared. It was a mark of respect. Everyone did it.’

‘Did you believe him?’

‘How could I know any different? Besides, I was well wasted. I’d been drinking vodka and taking phets. Then Faisal reminded me of all the stuff he’d given us and said it was just a little thing I could do for him, like returning a favour.’

‘So what happened?’

‘Namal and I went in the bedroom and... well... you know’ She paused for a few moments, being remarkably coy, Gerry thought, given her experiences. Gerry could hear her breathing. ‘It was all right at first. It didn’t hurt all that much.’

‘Then what, Jade?’

‘Then the other one, Kerim, he came in...’

‘You had sex with both of them?’

‘Yes.’ It was a small voice.

‘How did you feel about that?’

‘Feel? I don’t know what you mean. I didn’t feel anything. It’s life, in’it? You don’t get anything for nothing. The day after, Faisal took me shopping in town and bought me some cool trainers. Nikes. Mimsy, too. And Becca, I think. She got a new dress. She must’ve done something well special.’

‘Does that mean they’d performed the same service as you?’

‘Maybe. Yeah. I don’t know. Maybe he just wanted to include them.’

‘Did you tell the other girls what you’d done with Faisal’s cousins?’

‘Mimsy and I talked about it. That’s when she said it had been the same with her. Different blokes, of course. They seem to have a lot of cousins. With her it was some garage owner who’d serviced Ismail’s taxis, she said. A service for a service. We just thought it was the way they were, you know. A different sort of culture. Sunny said it wasn’t unusual or weird to share where they came from.’

‘But they came from Wytherton.’

‘You know what I mean. Besides, not all of them did. Faisal wasn’t born here. He came over later. Both his parents got killed by suicide bombers. And there were others.’

‘Others?’

‘It was like some kind of network. I think some of them might have been illegal.’

‘Were they all Pakistani, the men?’

‘Most of them, but there were one or two white blokes.’

‘Here?’

‘No. Just all over the north-east and down in West Yorkshire. Mostly Dewsbury. Some in Bradford. Like I said, they were linked up with other blokes and other girls like us.’

‘Every night?’

‘Most nights.’

‘OK. What happened after that time with the two men?’

‘After that it got easier. More often. Sometimes Sunny or Faisal needed to pay back a debt or keep someone happy. They’d drive us all over the place. Stockton, Gateshead, Sunderland, Carlisle. Sometimes we had to stay for days and there were lots of blokes, one after the other.’

‘How many men?’

‘I dunno. Some nights, you know, like... you’d stop counting.’

‘That must have been unbearable, Jade.’

‘I dunno. Maybe it hurts a bit at first, but usually you’re so off your face with vodka and weed, or whatever, you don’t feel anything.’

‘All the girls did this?’

‘Eventually. Had to. Yeah.’

‘To be with lots of men for sex?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Always older men?’

‘Yeah. Like businessmen and whatever, but some of them were like, you know, more rough, like they worked in factories or garages and stuff.’

‘Did Faisal take money from the men you went with?’

‘I didn’t ever see him do it, but I’m sure he did.’

‘So they were pimping you, renting you out as prostitutes?’

‘It didn’t seem like that.’ Jade’s voice was a plaintive wail for acceptance. ‘It really didn’t. They always said how we were welcome to everything they’d given us, and kept on giving us — drinks, food, free taxi rides, jewellery sometimes, mobiles, top-ups, and later some coke and phets and weed. Even money. None of us had, like, jobs, or parents that had any money to give us. Maybe we felt what we did, you know, was like a way of paying for it, doing a favour for a friend. I mean, men wanting sex with me was no big deal. They’ve been doing it since I was twelve, including my first foster-father and my stepbrother. I didn’t get a chance to say no to them, either, and they didn’t even pay me for it. Didn’t even offer me a fucking drink. It was the same with Becca and Kath. And Mimsy always had older blokes around her wanting a feel or a quick wank. Even her psychological counsellor from the social fucked her and he was supposed to take care of her.’

‘Was that your present foster-father who raped you?’

‘No. This was in Sunderland. It’s better here. They don’t touch me at all, not even a pat on the shoulder or a hug.’ She snorted. ‘They hardly even talk to me.’

‘So you were just returning a favour for Faisal?’ Gerry said.

‘That’s right. Favours.’

‘Is that why you didn’t go to the authorities? The social services or the police?’

‘Partly. None of us had had an easy time whenever the polis or the social came on the scene. They were bastards. It was like everyone had just given up on us. We knew they’d just blame us, say we’re thick, like retards or something, and we’re sluts and whores and we were doing it for the drinks and drugs and free meals. What did they call it? A “lifestyle choice”. Some fucking lifestyle.’

‘Weren’t you doing it for the drugs and drink?’

‘You don’t know what it was like. At first they just told us not to tell anyone we were hanging out with them because people wouldn’t understand. People didn’t like them because they were Pakis. But later they could be nasty if you didn’t do what they wanted. They’d push you about a bit. Besides, we couldn’t tell anyone by then. We’d done stuff. You couldn’t get away because they knew everything you’d done, like the drugs and the drinking, and they told us we were just slags and that’s all anyone would think if we tried to tell them about what was happening.’ Jade sniffed. The silence felt heavy is the dark musty house. ‘They’d taken pictures of us, too. You know, videos on their mobiles. With other men and stuff. They said they’d put them on the Internet so everyone would see what kind of sluts we are. They knew how to find out your weaknesses and exploit them. I think Mimsy was terrified of her mother finding out. In the end, like I said, you’re in so deep you just get to thinking there’s no way out. You give up. It’s easier to do what they say. Besides, the presents keep coming. But then Mimsy got killed.’

It seemed odd to Gerry that most of the parents didn’t seem to know or care where their daughters were most of the time, or what they were doing, yet Mimsy was terrified of her mother finding out. Things must have been really bad after Sinead found her daughter with that psychological counsellor. ‘What were you most afraid of?’ she asked.

She could hear Jade breathing fast. ‘I don’t mind the dark,’ she said finally, ‘but I can’t stand being locked up in a small dark place. They had somewhere like that in the back of Hassan’s restaurant, an old larder or something. It smelled of bad meat and rancid grease. I’d get panicky there, like I couldn’t breathe, and I’d just want to die. It was like when I was little and they locked me up under the stairs if I misbehaved. My stepmother called it the “Harry Potter Room”. It always made her laugh, that.’

Gerry let a few seconds pass in silence. ‘But you’re talking to me now,’ she said.

‘Yeah. Well, I mean, they went too far, didn’t they? I’d been wanting out for a while, and I thought this is my chance, with Mimsy getting killed and everything falling apart, and I’d better take it. I thought if you knew who they were you could arrest them and put them in jail. And make sure you get their mobiles. And their computers. Smash them all. Then we’ll be safe.’

She showed a remarkable amount of faith in what the police could do, Gerry thought, given her obvious intelligence, and the fact that the police hadn’t done much for her so far. ‘We’ll do our best,’ she said. ‘What about ketamine? Mimsy had been given ketamine.’

‘K? Sunny and Faisal didn’t like that. It was strictly weed and coke for the most part. They wouldn’t have given her it.’

‘So who do you think gave it to Mimsy?’

‘I don’t know. One of the cousins, maybe. They always had different drugs, like E and downers.’

‘The same cousins who slept with you?’

‘No. Like they all had family in Dewsbury or Bradford or Huddersfield. They called them cousins. I don’t know if they were real cousins or not. That’s just what we’d call them. It was that network I told you about. They’d visit and we’d chill. Sometimes they’d bring friends.’

‘Just you and Mimsy or the other girls, too?’

‘The other girls, too. All of us. And the cousins brought girls sometimes. Girls like us from Dewsbury or wherever. They passed us around, drove us all over the place. Then... then Mimsy got killed.’ Gerry could tell Jade was crying now, rubbing her eyes and nose with the back of her hand. She sniffled.

‘Who killed Mimsy, Jade?’

‘I don’t know. I’ve told you I don’t know. I wasn’t there. All I know is that she told me three of Sunny’s cousins were coming down from a job in Newcastle on their way back to Dewsbury that evening and they were all going to stop off for something to eat and have a few drinks and chill. They’d made some sort of deal, and Sunny was getting a cut out of it, something to do with bringing booze and fags and migrants over from Calais. I saw him earlier in the day, and he was all excited about it. He wanted Mimsy and me to come over that night and help entertain them. I couldn’t go. It was my period, and I got pains something cruel, so I stopped at home in my room. Mimsy went, though. Sunny must have said they could take her to Dewsbury with them in the van to see her mates. Mimsy would have gone for that. She’d made friends with some of the girls who came up with them sometimes, see. They were a laugh. However it happened, Mimsy wouldn’t have gone against Sunny. She wouldn’t have dared, temper or not. We’d all learned to do what he said by then. His mood could change, like, quicker than anyone’s.’

‘How do you know it happened that way?’

‘I don’t. Not for sure. I only... I mean, I went in the van once with the some blokes when Faisal asked me to. It was probably the same as with Mimsy.’

Gerry’s heart seemed to shrivel in her chest. She almost didn’t want to ask any more questions, but she had to push herself on. ‘What happened?’

‘Not a lot, really. I didn’t want to go, but Faisal got really nasty about it. He grabbed my shirt by the neck and shook me and said after all they’d done for us. He didn’t hit me, but he said things would get nasty if I didn’t do what I was told. Said it was very important. So I went in the van. There was a mattress in the back. A bit old and dirty, but it did the trick.’

‘So you had sex with the three men?’

‘I don’t know if it was the same three Mimsy was with. I stopped in Dewsbury that night and the next day one of them gave me the money to get a train home.’

‘So what went wrong with Mimsy’s trip?’

‘One of them must have given her the K, like you said. It can make you crazy, that stuff. I only tried it once and I’d never touch it again. Maybe she did something to piss them off. She was beautiful and all, but she could be really gobby, could Mimsy, and they didn’t like that. She was getting worse and all. She was struggling. She said she wouldn’t bring in any more girls. We used to talk about leaving, me and Mimsy. She wanted out, like me, wanted to move on, but she was trapped, just like the rest of us. It was almost like she’d found something else, somewhere else to go, something to do... I don’t know, but she was different.’

‘Did she say anything about this to Sunny?’

‘Maybe. Like I said, she had a mouth on her, did Mimsy. She might have told him she wanted out.’

‘Could he have told the men in the van to punish her? Teach her a lesson?’

‘Maybe. It’d be just like him to get someone else to do it.’

‘Jade, what might the men in the van have done that set Mimsy off?’

‘They’ve might’ve... they liked it, you know, from behind.’

Gerry remembered from the post-mortem that Dr Glendenning had found semen in all Mimsy’s orifices. ‘You mean anal sex?’

‘Mimsy didn’t like that. I mean, nobody likes it, do they, but she really didn’t. Even worse than blow jobs. She told me. She said Sunny tried it once and it hurt like hell. It was one thing she’d never do again.’

‘And these men liked to do that?’

‘The ones I was with did. But like I said, I don’t know if it was the same ones.’

‘Do you know their names?’

‘No. I can’t remember. And I mean I really can’t remember. I don’t even remember if I ever knew.’

Gerry paused. She didn’t want to give away too much information but felt that if she gave a little she might get more out of Jade. ‘As far as we can gather,’ she said, ‘Mimsy was alive when they threw her out of the van on Bradham Lane. Now, maybe it’s as you say and she started acting up, causing trouble when they wanted to do something she didn’t like, and they got angry with her and chucked her out naked on the roadside. But she was still alive after that. She walked back up the road. Not very far, but she walked for about ten or fifteen minutes. She was hurt, but she was alive. Then someone else came from the same direction and... Well, that was where we found her body. Not where they chucked her out of the van, but where the second vehicle stopped. Who do you think was in that vehicle, Jade?’

‘I don’t know!’ said Jade. ‘It could’ve been Sunny, I suppose, if she’d told him she was leaving. Or one of the others. Faisal. Hassan. Ismail. One of the young lads, even. I mean, Ismail’s got all those minicabs. Maybe Sunny told the cousins just to kick her out of the van on a quiet lane when they’d done with her.’

That was a point, Gerry realised. The minicabs. Go over the CCTV footage again — limited as it was to major roads some distance from Bradham Lane — and see if one of Ismail’s minicabs had been cruising there at the right time. They hadn’t spotted one yet, but it was worth another look. ‘But why?’ she asked. ‘Why kill Mimsy? After all, Sunny was the one who sent her in the van to start with.’ Which also meant, Gerry realised, that Sunny knew where she was, who she was with and where she was going.

‘If they thought she was going to talk, maybe,’ Jade said. ‘Like I said, she’d been bitchy a lot lately, mouthy, rebellious, talking back, like she didn’t have to do what they said and they should give her a bit more respect. Sunny didn’t like that. He was always clocking her one.’

‘But you said they didn’t care if you talked, that they thought nobody would believe you, that the police or the social would just think you asked for it.’

‘They cared if we talked because it would put an end to what they had going. That’s all. They weren’t worried about getting arrested or going to jail or anything. They told us all that just so we’d know it wouldn’t do us any good. But it would do them some harm. Spoil their nice little party. And it has.’

‘Did the police know what was going on? Do you think they helped Sunny and the others, or turned a blind eye?’

‘The polis? No way. They hate the Pakis. They’re just scared of being called racists.’

‘So you never had anything to do with policemen on the Strip?’

‘No way.’

‘Nobody ever asked you to have sex with them, or anything?’

‘Like, yuk, no.’

‘OK. So you think Sunny or his mates followed their cousins towards Dewsbury and when Mimsy got kicked out, they killed her?’

‘It must’ve been like that.’

‘Maybe,’ said Gerry. ‘But how did they know the men were going to throw Mimsy out of the van? How did they know she was going to give them so much aggro they’d want to do that?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Jade. ‘Maybe they’d arranged it all in advance with Sunny? The route, throwing Mimsy out. I don’t know. I’ve told you what I know. You’re the copper, you work it out.’

‘Jade, will you come back to Eastvale with me and tell my boss what you’ve just told me?’

But Gerry could sense Jade stiffening and withdrawing into herself. ‘No way,’ she said. ‘No. It’s not safe.’

‘But surely it’s safer than staying around here? We can help you.’

‘As long as they don’t know about this I’ll be fine. Like I said, they’ve shut down shop for now, and I know how to keep my head down. I told you, I’m leaving Wytherton for good. Don’t worry. It might not seem like it, but I can take care of myself.’

‘Where will you go?’

‘I’ve been thinking. I’ve got a brother fostered out down in Leicester. I don’t hardly know him, but it’s flesh and blood, isn’t it?’

‘Yes,’ Gerry said. ‘You’re right about that. It’s flesh and blood.’

‘Look,’ said Jade, ‘I’m sorry to ask and all, but I’m in a jam and I don’t have any money. Do you think you could let us have a few quid, like for food and the train and stuff?’

Gerry didn’t have much, but she examined the contents of her purse with the light from her phone and pulled out three twenty-pound notes. ‘Will that do? Is that OK?’ She turned off the light again.

‘Thanks,’ said Jade, and shoved the notes in her jeans pocket. ‘You’ve got to go now.’

‘Aren’t you coming out with me?’

‘I can’t risk being seen with you. I’ll wait here till you’re gone and leave through one of the other houses. I’ll be fine. Now go.’

‘You’ve got my number?’

Gerry’s eyes had adjusted enough to see Jade nod in the dark, her eyes big and shining in the pale child’s face. She hated to leave her like this, but what Jade had said made sense. Jade was too scared to go public with what she knew, but with what she had told Gerry tonight, what Gerry had recorded on her mobile, they could start to take Sunny and his grooming network down first thing in the morning, or perhaps as soon as she got to her car and phoned DI Cabbot. She knew she had broken protocol and the recording might be useless in court, if it ever came to that, but it was enough to get them started, to show them where to look and who to question. Someone would break. It had to be better than nothing. They could have a go at Sunny and Faisal and the others, for a start. Find the other victims, Becca and the rest. Then they could bring the Dewsbury police in on the action. She gave Jade a friendly pat on the shoulder, then got to her feet and made her way down the creaking stairs.

Gerry felt uneasy about leaving Jade alone in the condemned house, even though the girl had far more street smarts than she did. She moved the board aside and slipped through into the deserted road. Somewhere in the distance a dog barked, and she could hear the sound of a television set a bit closer to hand, no doubt blaring through an open window. Not far away, glass smashed, and Gerry realised it was most likely kids playing around in the derelict factory. Fences and barbed wire wouldn’t stop them finding a way in for very long. Her car was about a hundred yards away, around the corner past the broken playground. She found herself walking fast, head down, holding on to the strap of her shoulder bag tightly, even though there seemed to be nobody around. It was that kind of street. If she’d been wearing high heels, her footsteps would have clicked on the pavement and echoed, but she was wearing trainers, so she moved silently.

When she turned into the street where her car was parked, she didn’t see them at first, but as she approached her little Corsa, four figures — or so she thought — seemed to detach themselves from the shadows into the light and move towards her. Her first thought was to stand and face them down. Surely her warrant card would be protection enough? Then she remembered what had happened to Mimosa, and the things Jade had just told her. Gerry wasn’t much of a fighter, but she was a hell of a runner.

So she turned and ran.

She became immediately aware that they were coming after her, and heard one of them yell out, ‘Hey, Ginger! Stop, bitch. Tariq, you get the car.’ Then she felt a sudden sharp blow high on her shoulder. It almost felled her, and she stumbled and cried out in agony as the pain spread throughout her upper body. She had not thought they were close enough to get her, but one of them had hit her with an iron bar or a baseball bat or some such thing. For a moment, she lost her footing and staggered this way and that, like a newborn lamb, trying desperately to remain on her feet, to keep moving, her centre of balance wavering. If they caught her now she knew she’d be dead.

Somehow, she managed to keep going, get upright and find her footing, her rhythm, again. Now all she had to do was speed up and keep running through the pain that was clouding her vision.

She crossed a main road and still heard them behind her, though she thought they were receding into the distance. She had no idea how many of them were following her. She put on speed again and narrowly dodged a car, felt the draught of it whizzing by. She wasn’t sure if it was them or not. Then she zig-zagged through back alleys and narrow streets of grim terraces until she couldn’t hear anyone behind her any more. Her shoulder throbbed like hell and her breath came in rasping gasps, but she kept going, round a corner, through a ginnel, even jumping a fence at one point. Her old hurdles coach would have been proud of her, she thought. She was almost certain there was no one behind her now, that she’d lost them, but she wouldn’t slow down just yet. She had an idea of where she was, could see another main road ahead at the end of the narrow street she was running on, some shops, cars rushing by. She knew where she wanted to be.

Finally, Gerry crashed through the front doors of Wytherton Police Station and immediately saw three or four officers come to the counter to see what the hell was going on. There was no way she could go any further without the inner door code, but the chase was over. Her pursuers had long since given up. She rested her palms on the counter and took a deep breath. She was aware of the door opening beside her, and just before she fell to the floor, of strong hands grasping her, voices shouting out, and a pain sharp as a knife cutting through her shoulder.

Superintendent Carver arrived about an hour after Gerry, who was wrapped in a blanket drinking her second cup of tea by then. The painkillers from the station’s first aid kit had already kicked in. The police doctor had examined her and said her shoulder blade was most likely cracked, but he didn’t think it was seriously fractured. He improvised a brace and sling, as Gerry insisted she needed to stay and talk to her boss, then made her promise to go to A & E and get X-rayed as soon as she had done so. She knew he was bending the rules by allowing her a little time, and she was grateful. The police bureaucracy could be touchy about insurance and work injury issues. She had also convinced the duty sergeant to send a patrol car to the old house to try to find Jade, though Gerry felt certain she would be long gone by now.

Superintendent Carver was followed after another half hour or so by Banks and DI Cabbot. Gerry had never been so glad to see anyone before. Friendly faces at last. Well, almost. Carver looked as if he’d just swallowed a dog turd, and even Annie’s face seemed hard and unsmiling, but the first thing Banks did was bend over her and ask if she was all right. Gerry could have kissed him. Not that that she fancied him, or anything, but she was just so relieved that someone cared. Whatever kind of idiot he thought she’d behaved like — and she was fast coming to believe that she had been foolish — he was first of all concerned about her welfare.

Carver ushered them into his office, which was a lot messier than Banks’s, piled high with reports and bulging file folders, coffee cup rings all over, an array of framed family photographs on the shelf above the filing cabinets. Gerry was amazed to see that the two children pictured, about six and seven, were almost identical to their father. ‘So what the bloody hell have you lot been up to on my patch now?’ Carver began. He spoke with the pent-up wrath of a man who’s been reining himself in for too long already, not to mention dragged out of his bed, and he was clearly upset that Gerry had refused to talk to him until her SIO arrived.

Gerry first played them the recording, then told her story, avoiding Carver’s eyes and aiming most of her answers towards Banks, who had assumed an impassive expression. Annie appeared to be softening, too, asking for a little clarification here and there, as if Gerry were confirming what she had already suspected.

When Gerry had finished her account of the meeting with Jade and subsequent attack by Tariq’s crew, everyone remained silent for what seemed like a long time, but was probably only about fifteen seconds. Both Carver and Annie had been taking notes. Gerry had already written out the salient features with her good hand while she had been waiting, while it stayed fresh in her memory. Banks had just listened and absorbed. He hadn’t really worked on the case the way Gerry and Annie had — he had his own one to worry about — but he was technically the SIO, and the boss, so she knew that Annie had kept him up to date with developments. She wondered if AC Gervaise knew. If she didn’t by now, she would soon. And ACC McLaughlin. Maybe even the chief constable and police commissioner. Christ, she was in trouble. The only thing that could ameliorate her errors at all were a lot of luck and her actions bringing about a quick solution to the case.

‘Why did you leave her?’ Carver asked. ‘For Christ’s sake, why didn’t you bring her in?’

Just as these words were out of his mouth, the door opened and AC Gervaise and ACC McLaughlin entered. Carver stood to attention and both Banks and Annie got up to greet them. Gerry scanned their expressions for any clue as to her fate but could find nothing.

Well, Gerry thought, she hadn’t expected a medal.

‘I take it you know who the personnel involved in tonight’s fracas are?’ Annie asked Carver.

‘Some of the players. Sunny, Faisal, Ismail and Hassan are part of the Town Street business association, so we’ve met once or twice over local issues. Not that I’d say I know them or anything.’

‘Course not,’ said Annie softly. ‘Or anything about their other activities.’

Carver glared at her. ‘No.’

‘What about the girl, Jade?’ Banks asked. He noticed AC Gervaise put her hand on Annie’s shoulder and give her a look he assumed to say, ‘Cool it.’ Protocol had to be followed, Banks realised. Annie couldn’t be allowed to blow off her feelings at a senior officer in the presence of the assistant chief constable, however forgiving he might be.

‘Could be anyone.’ Carver gave Gerry a glance of rebuke. ‘It’s not as if we have her in custody to check her story.’

‘What was I supposed to do?’ Gerry said. ‘She was scared. She’s told me all she knew. She hadn’t done anything. She was the victim here, or don’t you remember that?’

‘That will do, DC Masterson,’ said Gervaise.

‘Sorry, ma’am,’ said Gerry, wrapping herself deeper in the blanket, despite the heat. It was more a matter of comfort than anything else, like the old nightshirt she liked to cling to when she was a child. ‘She told me on the phone earlier that Jade’s not her real name.’

‘Some of them like nicknames, or soap opera names,’ said Carver. ‘Sadly, not all their parents named them Schuyler, Apple or Chrystal. You say she was involved with Sunny and Faisal and that lot?’

‘She said,’ Banks corrected him. ‘You heard the recording. She was Faisal’s girlfriend, and Mimsy was Sunny’s. At first. They groomed them and the others and pimped them. They were all underage.’

‘That’s what she says,’ Carver snorted.

‘Why?’ said Banks. ‘Do you think she was lying?’

‘All I’m saying is that sometimes these girls know exactly what they’re getting into, though they might not want it to appear that way to others.’

‘She was fourteen years old when it started, for crying out loud.’

‘That doesn’t mean a lot round here.’

‘It means she’s underage and needs to be protected from people like Sunny and his mates.’

‘They’re troublemakers, all of them. If they were going around having sex with older men for money, it was probably because they wanted to. Nobody forced them.’

‘That’s a lie,’ said Gerry. ‘And your men have been protecting the very people who groomed and abused them. Maybe they’ve been getting a nice bonus out of it all? What were Reg and Bill doing last Tuesday night?’

‘That’s enough, DC Masterson,’ said ACC McLaughlin. ‘One more remark like that and I’ll have you off the case. Is that clear?’

‘Yes, sir,’ said Gerry.

‘Anyway,’ McLaughlin said. ‘How do you know the girl didn’t set you up? Lead you into a trap?’

‘I’ve thought about that, sir. It just doesn’t make sense. If Jade was setting me up, why make them wait until after she’s spilled the beans before beating me up or whatever they had in mind? She chose the meeting place. Why not tip them off I’d be arriving there so they could intercept me?’

McLaughlin inclined his head. ‘Good point,’ he said.

‘And if you heard the recording, sir, I think you’d realise she’s genuine. And she’s scared.’

McLaughlin turned to Carver. ‘This is a fruitless line of enquiry. There’s no point in further questioning the moral character of the girl. Leave that for the courts. Detective Superintendent Banks was right. No matter what her motive, she’s underage.’

‘And she’s been abused,’ Annie added.

‘Well, what do you expect me to do about it?’ Carver asked.

‘I wouldn’t have expected anything from you,’ Annie said, ‘but it surprises me you have the gall to ask the question.’

‘Don’t you dare speak that way to a superior officer!’

‘Superior?’ Annie sneered. ‘That’s a laugh. Pull the other one.’

‘Enough, I said,’ McLaughlin snapped, glaring at both Annie and Gerry. ‘I’ve already told you two. Button it before you find yourselves in even more serious trouble than you are already.’

This time Banks gave Annie the ‘calm down’ look. She frowned at him, then subsided in her chair and glowered silently at Carver.

‘Can we get back to the matter in hand, sir?’ Banks said to McLaughlin. ‘I apologise for DI Cabbot’s behaviour. She’s under a lot of strain with this case, as you can imagine. And DC Masterson has just been injured. She has a cracked clavicle.’

‘She shouldn’t be out following up dangerous leads on her own,’ said Carver. ‘Without informing me.’

‘Oh, shut up, Wilf,’ said McLaughlin. ‘Save it for later. Right now we’ve got more important things to do than worrying about covering your arse.’

Carver turned beet red but fell silent.

‘Clearly, I need to listen to the complete recording myself,’ McLaughlin went on, ‘but from what I can gather, we have some serious crimes to deal with here and now and decisive action is required. Given the information and forensics we have so far, I’d say this Sunny and his pals have to be first in line as suspects. Perhaps this Mimsy was going to blow the whistle, and they followed the van with some vague plan in mind. Perhaps it was prearranged that the men in the van would throw her out. We’ll need DNA samples to check against the ones Ms Singh took from the victim. As I see it, from what I’ve heard, there are four actions we should be pursuing immediately. We should be trying to find this girl Jade, we should be bringing Sunny and the rest of his friends in for a serious chat, we should contact West Yorkshire police to locate and bring in the cousins from Dewsbury, and we should be trying to find out who Tariq and the lads who hurt and chased DC Masterson are. In addition, we should also be trying to identify the girls Jade mentioned to DC Masterson and bring them in, too. Bring the school head teacher back from holidays if need be. Or try the social again. But that can wait until tomorrow. And it should be done carefully. They’re victims. They’re to be treated with respect and gentleness.’ He shot Carver a glance. ‘It’s no good banging their doors down in the middle of the night and dragging them off. Now, seeing as I am of senior rank here and Detective Superintendent Banks is SIO, all that’s down to us. As you’ll all be busy building cases for the next while, I’ll talk to the CPS about charges. I don’t know to what extent you want to help, or intend to help, Superintendent Carver. From what I can gather you haven’t done a hell of a lot so far except stand in the way of our investigation. I can have men sent in from elsewhere if you’re short of personnel—’

‘I’ve already got a patrol car out looking for this Jade,’ Carver grunted. ‘And I’ll see what we can do about Tariq and his mates. I think I know who they are. I suggest your team visit Sunny and the others and take them away with you to Eastvale for questioning. If you can do it discreetly, so much the better. I’m already getting the sense that people here know there’s something going on around the estate tonight, and the mood could quickly get nasty. There’s also been stories in the press, hints, as I’m sure you know. Links between your victim and the Asian community. Albert Moffat had a few things to say after his interview, it appears. None of this helps. I wouldn’t want you to be here when the riots start.’

McLaughlin gave him a hard glance. ‘Riots are nothing new to me, Wilf,’ he said, ‘but I take your point.’ He looked towards Banks, Annie and AC Gervaise. ‘Are we all agreed?’

They nodded.

‘Right, AC Gervaise,’ McLaughlin said, ‘will you inform Eastvale HQ to make sure the interview rooms are clear and ready as we’re expecting some VIP guests in the near future, while I get on to County HQ and request a few reinforcements.’

‘I’ll get right on it,’ said Gervaise.

‘And Detective Superintendent Banks and DI Cabbot here can go and wake up this Sunny character. We’ll send patrol cars to pick up his mates, just so they don’t get a whiff of what’s happening and try to scarper.’

‘What about me?’ said Carver.

‘Perhaps you could find out what Reg and Bill were doing on Tuesday night?’ said McLaughlin. ‘And until you do, I’d suggest you keep them off active duty.’

In a way, it wasn’t too difficult to be discreet at three o’clock in the morning when Banks and Annie knocked on the door to Sunny’s flat beside the kebab and pizza takeaway. At the same time, other teams of two officers were taking in Ismail, Faisal and Hassan. It would have been a lot worse if they had had to use the big red knocker, which lay in the boot of their car. But the door was opened by a dishevelled and curious Sunny, wearing black silk pyjamas, who immediately tried to shut the door again when he saw who was there. It didn’t work. Banks already had his foot in and a simple push with his shoulder was all it took.

‘What’s up, Sunny?’ Annie said. ‘Expecting someone else? At this time of night? Tariq not reported back yet?’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. You can’t do this.’

‘We’re trying to find a girl called Jade,’ Banks said. ‘And we have reason to believe she might be here.’

‘There’s nobody else here.’

‘Mind if we have a look?’ Annie shouldered her way past him and climbed the stairs.

Sunny turned. ‘Wait! You can’t just—’

But Banks prodded him and started walking up behind him, and he had no choice but to follow Annie or turn and fight. ‘It’s a missing girl,’ Banks explained, ‘and we fear she may be in danger. There’s also been a serious assault on a police officer. That gives us every right to search for her wherever we see fit.’

‘I have rights, too, you know. I want my lawyer.’

‘We’ll sort that out later. First we need to find out whether she’s here and if she’s been hurt.’

Annie had switched on all the lights and flooded the place. It was so bright that Sunny shielded his eyes.

‘I’ll keep our friend company while you have a look around,’ Banks said, and gently shoved Sunny down into an armchair. The living room was sparsely decorated, just a few framed prints on the yellow walls, mostly charcoal or watercolour drawings, a large flat-screen TV set and a state-of-the-art stereo system. The smells of the takeaway shop below hung about the place: garlic, stale, cooking oil, old meat. There were stains on the wallpaper, which was coming away from the wall at the ceiling, and on the beige carpet.

‘Nice,’ said Banks. ‘Music fan, are you?’

Sunny didn’t reply. Banks flipped through the CDs and found an assortment of eighties to noughties dance compilations — the kind of monotonous machine-generated rhythm tracks you usually find in double jewel-cases on the wall at HMV for £1.99 or thereabouts. There were also a fair number of country and western compilations and CDs, which surprised him. Among the DVDs were several porn titles and a lot of action films, mostly Asian martial arts stuff. Banks had never heard of any of them, but it was easy enough to see what they were from their covers. No Bollywood.

‘I’d say your technology exceeds your taste,’ he said. ‘I’ll bet your neighbours love you.’

Sunny just snorted.

Banks picked up one of the dance party CDs. ‘This is the sort of music young girls like,’ he said. ‘Girls who take a bit of E and dance for hours. Girls who don’t like Justin Bieber and One Direction.’

Annie came out of the final room, the bathroom. ‘Nothing.’

‘I told you,’ said Sunny, jumping to his feet. ‘Now you can go and leave me in peace.’

‘Where is she?’ Annie asked. ‘Where’s Jade? What have you done with her?’

‘I don’t know anything about any Jade.’

‘And Mimosa,’ Annie said, pushing her face closer to his. ‘I don’t suppose you know anything about her either, do you?’

‘Stop it,’ said Sunny, backing away. ‘You can’t do this to me. This is intimidation, it’s—’

‘Get dressed, Sunny,’ said Banks.

‘What?’

‘I said get dressed. You’re coming with us.’

Sunny sat down and folded his arms. ‘You can’t make me.’

Banks took Sunny by the arm and cautioned him: ‘ “You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention, when questioned, something you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.” Do you understand, Sunny?’

Sunny grunted.

‘I take it that’s a yes?’

‘Yes.’

‘Excellent. Now we know where we stand.’ Banks led Sunny slowly into the bedroom, which was dominated by a queen-sized bed covered with black silk sheets and black sateen duvet. Even the pillowcases were black. Sunny didn’t resist, but he complained all the way, mostly about everything being due to the colour of his skin.

‘Just get dressed and stop bellyaching, Sunny.’

Sunny changed into a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. As he did so, Banks poked around the drawers in a desultory way, but found nothing of interest, just a box of condoms and some lubricating jelly in the bedside table. In the wardrobe, however, he found a rack of women’s clothing — dresses, tops, skirts. Mimsy’s, he guessed. The stuff she wouldn’t dare take home. Some of them bore expensive designer labels. On a shoe rack at the bottom were Nike trainers and high heels beside a box of expensive tights and sleek sexy underwear. Agent Provocateur stuff. The search team could do a more thorough job later, when they had a warrant and when Sunny was in custody.

‘What’s all this, Sunny?’ Banks asked. ‘Either you get off on wearing women’s clothing or this belongs to someone else.’

Sunny said nothing.

‘Expecting Mimsy back, are you? Or are they for the next one?’

Sunny fastened the belt on his jeans, still silent.

‘They look expensive. I suppose that’s why you couldn’t bear to part with them, is it? If it had been me, I’d have got rid of them right after I killed the girl.’

‘I didn’t kill anyone! I want a solicitor,’ Sunny said. ‘I’m entitled to a solicitor.’

They went back into the living room.

‘A solicitor will be assigned to you when we get to the station. Don’t worry, Sunny. We’ll be doing everything by the book. We don’t want you slipping out of our grasp on a technicality over all this, do we? In the meantime, I’ve already told you that you don’t have to say anything. Your solicitor will probably advise you to cooperate with us.’

‘How long is this going to take? I have a business to run.’

‘We can’t guarantee you’ll be back in time to open up, especially if you want the lunchtime trade. I’d put a note on the door, if I were you. And make sure you lock up behind you and take your keys and wallet.’ He held his hand out. ‘We’ll be taking the mobile for forensic examination. We’ll take good care of all your stuff for you while you’re in the cell.’

‘Cell?’ said Sunny, handing over his mobile.

‘That’s what usually happens when we take people into custody. Annie?’ Banks had noticed that Annie was standing by the wall studying the drawings. He knew her father was an artist and that she had grown up in an artists’ colony in Cornwall — she even painted, herself — but this was hardly the time. ‘Come on. We have to go.’

‘Just a minute,’ she said, pointing to a drawing of two elderly Asian men standing on a street corner talking. ‘What do you think of this?’

‘Very nice. Now, come on.’

‘It’s one of Mimsy’s.’

‘What?’

‘Mimosa Moffat. She happened to be a very accomplished artist — at drawings and sketches, anyway. I had a good look at her work in her room on Southam Terrace, and I’m telling you, this is hers.’

Banks turned to Sunny, who just shrugged. Annie took out her mobile and took photographs of all the artwork. ‘I’ll let the search team know we’d like them all bagged,’ she said. ‘They’ll probably have her prints on them somewhere. I’m not an expert, I admit, but anyone who’d seen her work before would recognise it immediately.’

‘I’ll take your word for it,’ said Banks. ‘Now, come on, Sunny, hurry up, your car’s waiting.’

Sunny hurriedly wrote out a notice to stick on the door of the takeaway, then picked up his jacket and checked the pockets for his essentials. Annie put the handcuffs on him, and she and Banks sandwiched him on the way down the stairs. Out in the street, the neons and sodium lights looked fuzzy in the heat haze. Next door, Banks saw two uniformed officers putting Ismail and Faisal in a patrol car to deliver them to Eastvale. A small crowd had gathered across the street, even at such a late hour. The police had been as discreet as they could, but there was no doubt word was getting around. The feeling of tension in the air was as palpable as the heat and Banks was glad to get in the back of the car with Sunny and let Annie drive to Eastvale.