Kevin Brooks - Dance of Ghosts

I took out an almost full packet, slipped a?20 note inside, and gave it to her.

‘Where do I find this Tasha?’ I said.

Lizzie nodded in the direction of the tunnel. ‘Her on the left, the blonde.’

From a distance, Tasha looked like a perfectly ordinary — if slightly underdressed — fifteen-year-old girl, and I suppose that was the intention. But up close, she didn’t look quite so young. She was heavily made-up — pink lipstick, black eyeliner — and her blonde hair was dyed, the roots showing through. She was wearing a faded denim jacket over a sheer black miniskirt and a low-cut top, with black stockings and knee-length high-heeled boots. Beneath the make-up, her once-pretty face was tired and gaunt. She was chewing gum and chain-smoking cigarettes.

She didn’t say anything when I went up to her, she just looked at me — like she couldn’t give a fuck — and took a hard drag on her cigarette. I told her who I was and what I was doing, and I asked her if she remembered Anna Gerrish.

‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘I remember Anna.’

‘Was she a friend of yours?’

‘No.’

I nodded. ‘Lizzie told me that you talked to her sometimes.’

‘So?’

‘What did you talk about?’

A car cruised past, a Vauxhall Astra, the driver checking out Tasha. Tasha stared back, her eyes a mixture of expectation and contempt, but the car didn’t stop. She turned back to me. ‘Why should I tell you anything?’

I shrugged. ‘For money?’

‘How much?’

‘That depends on what you know.’

She snapped her gum. ‘I already lost thirty quid from the guy in the Astra. He would have stopped if you weren’t here.’

‘Thirty quid?’ I said, surprised it was so low.

‘Twenty-five then,’ said Tasha, misreading my reaction. ‘Whatever … I can’t spend all night talking to you, I’ve got a living to make.’

I took out my wallet and passed her three?10 notes. ‘There’s more,’ I said as she took them from me, ‘if you tell me what you remember about Anna.’

Tasha tucked the notes away in the top pocket of her denim jacket. ‘We didn’t talk about anything really,’ she said. ‘I mean, I don’t even know why she spoke to me. She never talked to any of the others. She was kind of cold, you know … like she was always a million miles away.’ I waited while Tasha dropped her cigarette to the ground and lit another. ‘I only spoke to her twice, as far as I can remember,’ she went on. ‘The first time she told me all this crap about being a model, which I don’t think even she believed, and the second time …’ Tasha paused, trying to remember. ‘I don’t know … I think it might have been something about her old man, but this was about five or six weeks ago when there was a lot of really good gear around and I think we were both pretty wasted at the time …’

‘Do you remember what she said about her father?’

Tasha shrugged. Just the usual shit, probably … you know, the same old Daddy-used-to-fuck-me story. I’ve heard it so many times now that I just kind of blank out whenever I hear it …’ She looked at me. ‘Have you lost something?’

I was patting my pockets, looking for my cigarettes, but then I remembered that I’d given them to Lizzie. ‘You couldn’t spare a cigarette, could you?’ I said to Tasha.

She smiled as she offered me her packet. ‘You’re supposed to be paying me .’

It was a nice smile.

I lit up and said, ‘Can you remember anything about the night Anna disappeared? It was about a month ago, a Monday — ’

‘Yeah,’ Tasha said. ‘I know what day it was.’

I looked at her, unable to keep the surprise from my eyes.

‘What?’ she said. ‘You think I’m lying?’

‘No, of course not. It’s just … well, none of the other girls could remember that far back.’

‘I’m not one of the other girls, am I?’

I nodded. ‘Do you mind me asking why you remember that night in particular? I mean, no offence, but I’d imagine that one night down here is pretty much the same as any other night.’

‘It was the guy in the car,’ Tasha said. ‘That’s why I remember that night. This guy … I don’t know, there was just something about him. At first I just thought he was one of those punters who want to pick up a girl, but when they get down here they can’t go through with it, like they’re too scared to actually do it, you know? So they just end up driving round looking at us, then they probably go home and have a wank. But this guy … well, he kept coming down, almost every night for about two weeks, and as far as I know he never actually stopped for any of us, he just drove around having a good look … but I didn’t get the feeling that he was scared of anything. In fact, if anything, it was the opposite … there was something really fucking scary about him .’

‘How do you mean?’ I asked.

‘Well, he just had that look, you know … like the whole world meant absolutely nothing to him. Do you know what I mean? He was one of those ice-cold fuckers who don’t give a shit about anything or anyone.’

‘And you saw him that night?’

‘Yeah, he picked up Anna.’

‘Are you sure ?’

‘Yeah,’ Tasha nodded. ‘Hundred per cent. I saw her getting in his car. I mean, it was the first time this guy had ever stopped … that’s why I remember it.’ She waved her cigarette hand towards the far end of the tunnel. ‘Anna usually worked down there … there’s a little lay-by just past the tunnel. I suppose she thought it was a handy place for the punters to stop. Anyway, that night, I saw this guy’s car coming up London Road, and he did his usual thing — slowing down and giving us all the eye — and then he just drove past, as usual. But then, when he got to the lay-by, I saw him pull in.’

‘And Anna was there that night?’

‘Yeah … she hadn’t been there all that long, maybe half an hour or so …’

‘What time was this?’

‘Pretty late, about two-ish, something like that. Anna worked at The Wyvern … she didn’t finish there until one.’

‘Did you see her getting into the car?’

‘Sort of …’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Look,’ Tasha said, taking my arm and positioning me so that I was looking down towards the end of the tunnel. ‘The lay-by’s half hidden by the end of the bridge … see what I mean? If a car’s parked close to the pavement, all you can see from here is the driver’s side.’

I nodded. ‘So if someone gets into the passenger seat, you can’t actually see them doing it?’

‘Right … but Anna was definitely there, and I saw this guy leaning across to open the passenger door, and when he drove off, there was definitely someone in the passenger seat.’

‘But you couldn’t say for certain that it was Anna?’

‘No. But when I checked the lay-by a few minutes later, she wasn’t there.’

She lit another cigarette, and offered one to me.

‘Thanks,’ I said, accepting a light from her too. ‘This man … he drove off away from the bridge, not back this way?’

‘Yeah, that’s why I couldn’t see who was in the passenger seat.’

I looked down the tunnel, trying to remember where the road led to. ‘Have you told anyone else about this?’ I asked Tasha. ‘The police, newspapers …’

She shook her head. ‘No one’s asked me.’

‘The police haven’t talked to you at all?’

‘Not to me, no. I don’t know about the other girls …’

‘Why would the police talk to the other girls but not you?’

‘I don’t know … I mean, they probably wouldn’t. I was just saying, that’s all.’