Peter Robinson - When the Music's Over

‘I doubt I’ll sleep much,’ said Gerry, ‘but home sounds nice.’

‘So what do you reckon?’

‘There are a few things that interest me,’ said Gerry, tucking a strand of hair behind her ears and leaning forward. ‘First off, ever since I talked to Jade I’ve been trying to imagine what Mimosa was like. It’s not easy to put a picture together.’

‘Nothing I’ve heard convinces me she had any more brains than a feral cat. I’m not trying to make any excuses for what happened, but she was out for what she could get, she sounds manipulative, and she was a druggie.’

‘But she was vulnerable, open to being manipulated by Sunny and his gang.’

‘True enough. But remember what Jade told you on the recording. Mimosa was queen bee, or whatever they called her. She got paid for luring girls in.’

‘But they made her do it.’

‘Maybe so. I’m just saying she was no saint, that’s all. If it hadn’t been this, she’d have got herself into trouble some other way.’

‘So you’d have written her off, like the social workers and the Wytherton police? You think she was just some estate slut looking for an easy ride?’

‘Gerry, where’s this coming from? I mean nothing of the sort. All I’m saying is that, on my reading, Mimosa was a troubled personality, and headstrong, gobby, as everyone said. Some people are just destined for trouble of one sort or another. I’m not saying it was her fault she had a fucked-up life.’

‘She might have made something of herself,’ Gerry said, ‘if she’d had some more cultured influence in her life, like Paul Warner, for example, she could have broken out.’

‘Paul Warner? Come off it, Gerry, you don’t fancy him, do you?’

Gerry blushed. ‘No. But you can’t deny he speaks well and he’s educated. He seemed to like her. I know she was too young for him, but I’m just using him as an example.’

‘So all she needed was the right man in her life? Paul Warner? He dropped out of university after his first year and he’s a racist. Would you want that sort of influence on your daughter?’

‘Well, not the racism, no, but... Oh, never mind.’

‘It’s part of the package.’

Gerry remained silent a moment sipping on her drink, then she said, ‘Well, she could draw. She had artistic talent. She could have developed that, gone to college.’

‘True enough. But just because you can draw doesn’t mean you’ve got ability in any other department. Believe me, I’ve known a few artists in my time, and I could tell you a story or two. There’s absolutely no connection whatsoever between art and personal morality. Or art and emotional intelligence. Quite the opposite, mostly. You just have to study the lives of the great artists to see that.’ Annie took a sip of her beer. ‘We’ll have another go at Albert tomorrow, see if we can break him.’

‘Albert’s not that bright,’ said Gerry. ‘Can you really see him pretending to get drunk, then slipping out while Paul Warner’s genuinely passed out in his flat, then driving the car, following the van and killing Mimosa?’

‘I can see him losing it with her,’ said Annie, ‘but you’re right, I can’t see the rest. Still, we shouldn’t mistake cunning for intelligence.’

‘Nobody noticed anything suspicious in his room when we searched the Moffat house.’

‘We didn’t know what we were looking for then. Now we’ve got his clothes and shoes in for forensic analysis.’

‘Albert knows we’re bound to find his prints in the car.’

‘He can explain that,’ said Annie. ‘But he wouldn’t be able to explain blood on his shoes as easily. And there’s another thing.’

‘What?’

‘That phone call I made after the interview, when you left to go to the loo?’

‘Yes?’

‘I called Superintendent Carver. Gave him a chance to redeem himself. I asked him nicely to put a watch on Paul Warner. If he dashes back home and starts acting strangely, then we’ll have an idea he might be covering for his mate. And we’ll have Mimosa’s personal belongings in our hands tomorrow, don’t forget.’

‘And what if we’re wrong? What’s the alternative to Albert? Lenny Thornton? Sinead Moffat?’

‘You’ve forgotten Johnny,’ she said. ‘Maybe his inertia is just as fake as Albert’s alibi?’

Gerry laughed. ‘I don’t think so. Sunny or one of his mates could have done it, remember, no matter what they say. They’ve got no real alibis. The only problem there is that we can’t find any vehicle on the CCTV associated with them.’

‘We can check the footage again,’ said Gerry. ‘Doug did a good job checking up on Jim Nuttall. What about him?’

‘Don’t think so,’ said Annie. ‘He’s not connected with any of the players here, as far as we know, except with Albert Moffat. Besides, Albert’s admitted he was driving on Tuesday and Wednesday and that the car was parked behind Warner’s flat all night Tuesday. Somebody else could have taken it, I suppose, and left it back there later. But I think Nuttall was just working the black-market economy, that’s all, avoiding paying taxes, not to mention a proper wage. We can let the girls have a look at him when they’re OK to do it, see if they recognise him from any of their assignments. Jade did say some of the men involved were white, didn’t she?’

‘Yes.’

‘Then it wouldn’t be a bad idea to dig a bit deeper, just for the sake of thoroughness, but I don’t see Jim Nuttall as our killer.’

‘So we’re looking at Albert or Paul for it?’

‘I think so,’ said Annie. ‘And right now I’m leaning more towards Paul. He’s smart. Don’t forget, he’s the one who alibied Albert, but in doing so, perhaps more importantly, he alibied himself. He must have known that. Probably thought we wouldn’t see it, that he put one over on us. He’s arrogant enough. If you ask me, Albert genuinely doesn’t have a clue what happened. He was pissed out of his mind and, whatever else he is, he loved his sister. If Paul Warner was the one who was faking it, there’s no reason he couldn’t have slipped out in the van. He’d have more sense than to use his own car, even if he was only planning on beating up Sunny. And he knew Nuttall’s van was there.’

‘But why? What’s his motive? And how did he know about Mimosa? How did he know she was going to Dewsbury, or that she would come walking back up the lane?’

‘He didn’t. He can’t have. Only somebody in with Sunny and his cousins could have known that, if it was arranged in advance. But the CCTV seems to have ruled that out. It’s true we don’t have a motive yet, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one, just that we haven’t thought of it. And maybe the Dewsbury trip is the wrong thing to be worrying about.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Paul Warner’s not going to admit that he knew about Mimsy and Sunny, is he, or about what was going on with the girls, the grooming. But we know that Albert knew, and what if Albert, in his cups, told Warner earlier that Tuesday night and was so pissed he doesn’t remember?’

‘Doesn’t help us much, does it? There was still no motive. And Albert can’t have known about the Dewsbury trip, surely?’

‘Not that we know of, though maybe he did. Again, we don’t have the full picture. But as I said, maybe we’ve been worrying too much about the Dewsbury trip. What if Paul Warner really did have a thing for Mimsy?’

‘We’ve no evidence of that. Look at the age diff—’

‘Despite that. What difference does age make? Sunny’s in his forties. We know she was drawn to older men, even abused by them. We’re forgetting that although Mimsy was a child in some ways, she was a fully grown woman in others, attractive, with a nice figure, available, or so it might have seemed. Apparently, she oozed sex. Warner said he thought she was mature for her age the first time we talked to him. She also liked to hang out helping him and Albert on jobs. Maybe something happened. Maybe he got an eyeful when she went up the ladder one day and he liked what he saw? They had to be left alone together at some point. Maybe she flirted a bit with Warner, or more — again, no excuse or motive for what happened, but maybe it’s part of the cause, and it wouldn’t be against what we know of her nature. And there was something you said earlier, about maybe if Mimosa had a cultured person to help her break out, someone like Paul Warner.’