Aftermath

“Don’t let me interrupt your lunch,” said A

Banks raised his eyebrows. “And?”

“It’s from your mate Ken Blackstone in Leeds. It seems Lucy Payne’s done a ru

Je

“Local police dropped by her parents’ house this morning just to make sure everything was okay. Turns out her bed hadn’t been slept in.”

“Bloody hell,” said Banks. “Another cock-up.”

“Just thought you’d want to know as soon as possible,” said A

Then she walked out with the same elegant grace she had walked in with, leaving Banks and Je

Mick Blair, the fourth person in the group on the night Lea

Unlike Ian Scott, Mick had never been in trouble with the police, though Banks suspected he might well have been buying drugs from Ian. He had a slightly wasted look about him, not quite all there, and didn’t seem to have much time for personal grooming. When Banks called after his lunch with Je

“What do you want?” Mick asked, turning down the volume and flopping on to the sofa, hands behind his head.

“To talk about Lea

“We’ve already been over that.”

“Let’s go over it again?”

“Why? Have you found out something new?”

“What would there be to find out?”

“I don’t know. I’m just surprised at your coming here, that’s all.”

“Was Lea

“No. It wasn’t like that.”

“She’s an attractive girl. Didn’t you fancy her?”

“Maybe. A bit.”

“But she wasn’t having any of it?”

“It was early days, that’s all.”

“What do you mean?”

“Some girls need a bit of time, a bit of working on. They don’t all just jump into bed with you the first time you meet.”

“And Lea

“Yes.”

“How far had you got?”

“What do you mean?”

“How far? Holding hands? Necking? Tongue or no tongue?” Banks remembered his own adolescent gropings and the various stages you had to pass. After necking usually came touching above the waist, but with clothes on, then under the blouse but over the bra. After that, the bra came off, then it was below the waist, and so on until you got to go all the way. If you were lucky. With some girls it seemed to take forever to move from one stage to another, and some might let you get below the waist but not go all the way. The whole negotiation was a minefield fraught with the danger of being dumped at every turn. Well, at least Lea

“We necked once in a while.”

“What about that Friday night, the thirty-first of March?”

“Nah. We were in a group, like, with Ian and Sarah.”

“You didn’t neck with Lea

“Maybe.”

“Is that a yes or a no?”

“I suppose so.”

“Might you have had a falling-out?”

“What are you getting at?”

Banks scratched the scar beside his right eye. “It’s like this, Mick. I come here to talk to you again, and it seems to bother you, but you don’t ask me if we’ve found Lea

“You’ve talked to Ian?”

“This morning. I’m surprised he didn’t get straight on the phone to you.”

“He can’t have been very worried.”

“Why should he be?”

“I don’t know.”

“The thing is, you see, that you both ought to be asking me if we’ve found Lea

“Why?”

“Why else would I come to talk to you?”

“How should I know?”

“But the fact that you don’t ask makes me wonder if you know something you’re not telling me.”

Mick folded his arms. “I’ve told you everything I know.”

Banks leaned forward and held Mick’s gaze. “Know what? I think you’re lying, Mick. I think you’re all lying.”

“You can’t prove anything.”

“What would I need to prove?”

“That I’m lying. I told you what happened. We went for a drink in the Old-”

“No. What you told us was that you went for coffee after the film.”

“Right. Well…”

“That was lying, wasn’t it, Mick?”

“So what?”

“If you can do it once, you can do it again. In fact, it gets easier the more you practice. What really happened that night, Mick? Why don’t you tell me about it?”

“Nothing happened. I already told you.”

“Did you and Lea

And Mick’s expression told Banks that he did know, but it also told him that he wasn’t going to confess to anything. Not today, at any rate. Banks felt pissed off and culpable at the same time. It was his fault that this line of inquiry hadn’t been properly followed up. So fixated had he become on a serial killer abducting young girls that he had ignored the basics of police work and not pushed hard enough at those in the position to know best what had happened to Lea

“Tell me what happened,” Banks pushed again.

“I’ve told you. I’ve fucking told you!” Mick sat up abruptly. “When we left the Old Ship, Lea

“Ah, so you are curious,” Banks said, standing up. “I’m sure you’ve been following the news. We’ve got the pervert who took and killed those girls – he’s dead, so he can’t tell us anything – but we found no trace of Lea

“Then it must’ve been some other pervert.”

“Come off it, Mick. The odds against one are wild enough, the odds against two are astronomical. No. It comes down to you. You, Ian and Sarah. The last people she was seen with. Now, I’m going to give you time to think about it, Mick, but I’ll be back, you can count on that. Then we’ll have a proper talk. No distractions. In the meantime, stick around. Enjoy the music.”

When Banks left, he paused just long enough at the garden gate to see Mick, silhouetted behind the lace curtains, jump up from the sofa and head over to the telephone.