Lee Weeks - Kiss and Die

‘What were you going to do? Wait for him to be busy at the bar and then take a quick trip up to see if he’d left anything interesting in his room?’

‘I don’t know what that’s doing in there, Inspector, I swear.’

Mann put the wallet in his pocket. He picked up a box of Viagra.

‘It’s for the old guys…it helps.’

‘Very thoughtful, Michelle. And this?’ He picked up a bag of meth amphetamine. Underneath were three foil strips of small white pills. He turned it over in his hand. ‘That’s a lot of GHD. You having to knock people out first these days are you, Michelle?’

She rolled her eyes and shook her head. ‘Give me a break, Inspector. Some people get a bit nasty. It calms them down. It doesn’t do them any harm. They think they had a good time.’

Mann shook his head and gave her a scathing look.

‘I have kids to feed.’

‘Your eldest is Lilly, right? I went to her school today. Did you know she was a budding young Triad? If she hasn’t already, it won’t be long before she takes the oath and then there’s no going back. A young girl was murdered. Is that what you want for Lilly?’

She slumped back to rest her bottom on the basin and sighed heavily, closing her eyes for a few seconds. ‘I don’t know what she gets up to any more. I tried my best. I honestly did, but she is nothing but trouble. I wash my hands of her. Night after night she’s out, I don’t know where. Rizal says he can’t keep an eye on her. He’s busy with the other children and the business and Rizal and Lilly don’t get on – they fight all the time. If you can teach her some manners, go ahead.’

‘How’s the stall going? You making money?’

In the harsh make-up mirror Mann could see how spent she looked. Her eyes were dark and puffy.

‘It’s okay, I make the food before I come to work. Rizal sells it-’

‘Or he gets a girl to sell it whilst he plays dice with his friends and then takes all the money, right?’

Michelle nodded but rolled her eyes and shrugged.

‘You’re a mug, Michelle. He’s more of a pimp than a partner. I thought you would have learnt your lesson by now. You don’t make it easy on yourself’

‘I know. I know.’ She shook her head and turned back to check her make-up in the mirror. ‘Ah well. It’s my fate, huh? It’s the way of the world. I must have been something very bad in my last life, huh?’ She shook her head. ‘Have a heart, Inspector. I know you’ve helped me out now and again and I appreciate it.’ She tilted her head to one side and smiled at Mann.

‘I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll make a deal with you, Michelle. I’ll keep an eye on Lilly and do what I can, if you start being a proper mother to her and look after her, keep her off the streets. If you don’t, I’ll charge you with stealing from the hotel guests and you’ll be back to singing in the slums of Manila.’

Michelle began shovelling her belongings back into her handbag.

‘You are very kind to me, Inspector.’ She stopped, mid-lipstick application. ‘You are a good man. Are you married yet?’

Mann took that as his cue to leave. ‘Sorry. I’d love to talk about my private life but I have to go. Remember, I’ll be keeping an eye on Lilly for you, Michelle, but get a grip on your life before it’s too late. You have a lot to offer the right person, don’t put up with shit and get clean so you can think straight.’

Michelle had switched off. Her eyes were on the bag of ice. He knew she was just waiting for him to leave before having a quick snort – enough to see her through the next hour or two.

On the way out, Mann passed Peter Thorne. ‘Remember,’ Mann picked up his drink and downed it, ‘regret’s a bastard to live with.’ Peter Thorne blinked rapidly, his eyes magnified by his glasses. ‘Take care.’

‘What can you tell me about this guest?’ Mann showed the receptionist his badge and the ID card he’d found in the wallet he’d taken from Michelle.

She tapped away on the PC. ‘Mr Max Kosmos. American engineer. He has been with us for three nights and is due to check out tomorrow. He is a regular customer of ours.’

‘Do you know where he is right now?’

‘I rang his room an hour ago but got no reply. He missed a reservation he made for dinner in the restaurant here.’

‘What’s the room number?’

‘One sixteen, on the sixteenth floor.’

‘Is this key going to work?’ Mann took out the key from Max Kosmos’s wallet and handed it to her. She fed it into the key holder.

‘Yes, sir. That’s the one he has been using. He has two keys issued to him.’

Mann took the elevator to the sixteenth floor. He looked down the corridor: turquoise carpet, dried flowers in brass bowls on three-legged tables. He looked back to the door. The ‘Do not disturb’ sign was still hanging from the doorknob. A newspaper was propped up against the wall. The trolley of fresh linen was halted where it had been waiting to change the sheets in the nearby rooms.

Mann knocked. ‘Mr Kosmos. Security. I need a word.’

No reply.

Mann knocked harder. He waited. Still no reply. He slipped the card key in and out and the lock light turned from red to green. He turned the handle and pushed the heavy door open just enough to see that another room key was already in the power slot just inside the door. Someone was home. He slid Delilah from his boot and pushed the door open further. The room was lit by a sidelight. To the left of the door the bathroom light was on. The room was silent except for the air con. It was cold.

Mann held the door open with his foot whilst he stood for a few minutes in the doorway. Even though Mann couldn’t see it, he smelt it. The first rule of a crime scene: take in everything, let your senses register it all. Now he smelt it the way connoisseurs smell wine, the overtones of blood, the undertones of butchery and death. This was a big room – plush. He couldn’t see the bed. The television was on low in the background, it was an English channel, BBC World News. Mann stepped further inside the room. The door sprang closed with a click behind him. To his right was a wardrobe, desk and minibar. There were a couple of used glasses, whisky miniatures and small can of Coke. A half-drunk bottle of champagne was further along the desk. Just where Ruby had left it.

‘Oooh, champagne.’ Ruby picked up the bottle in the top of the fridge. ‘For me?’ she pouted.

‘You must be joking. It cost more than you. Put it back.’ Max Kosmos laughed hard at his own joke.

Ruby pretended to laugh with him. She squeezed his arm. ‘You got great physique. What you weigh, two hundred twenty pounds?’

‘Two hundred and twenty-five pounds of pure beef, baby.’ He laughed.

Ruby smiled as she turned her back to him. She stuck her bottom in the air and hitched up her dress a little to distract him as she reached inside the small fridge to get his drink out. She turned to look at him over her shoulder, made sure his eyes were glued to her rising skirt whilst she stirred the sedative into his drink. She would start with a small amount; she only wanted to make him tired enough so that she could tie him up. She didn’t want to knock him out so that he wouldn’t feel the pain. She poured herself a small shot of gin and a lot of orange.

‘Here, big man.’ She handed him the drink and clanked her glass against his. ‘Down in one, yes?’ She needed to make him drink it fast. She watched him drink it down and she swallowed hers in one gulp and then she poured him another.

‘Cheers.’

She clashed her glass against his. She could see his lips were wet, she smelt his sweat beneath his aftershave. She knew what he’d be thinking: he could handle his drink, and that it wouldn’t be him who was drunk. He would think he was being clever and that he knew these Asian women. They took some loosening up. A few drinks and she’d be legless with her arse in the air. He could be in for a good night. Cheap too: he could probably get away without paying her. After all, who was she going to complain to? She was nobody and he was Mr International Businessman.