‘Sit down,’ Ruby said, as Billy paced the room. His hair was greasy, his eyes intense. This was a man who was experiencing pain. Sweat rolled off his body, dampening his clothes, each movement drawing out the sweet tang of body odour. Not that he would have noticed; he was too busy trying to focus on his missing girlfriend.
‘I can’t believe that after everything I told her she went out on the job. What was she thinking?’ Ruby said, standing over Billy as he rocked in the hard plastic chair.
It was of great relief that the interview room was free. The last thing she wanted was to bring him inside the realms of the police station, where he would see his own face staring back at him from the prolific offender posters on the walls. With a history of petty offences a mile long, he was no stranger to the custody suite.
‘She listened to you, she really did, said she was gonna get help,’ Billy said. Eyes wide, he was barely blinking as he relayed Sharon’s last movements. ‘But she was clucking bad, we both was, so she went for one more job with someone she knew.’
Someone she knew? She had warned Sharon about Doctor Tanner. So who was the mystery client? ‘Go on,’ she said.
‘She called him, set it all up. But she’s not come home. She knew how worried I was. Something’s happened to her, I know it.’ Billy clenched handfuls of his short stubby hair as he bent over in agony. His eyes were wild as he rose up, pain and concern stabbing him in equal measures. ‘Please. You’ve got to find her.’ His words were laced with spittle, landing on the small desk between them. He was going cold turkey and it was hitting him hard.
But Ruby had little sympathy for the man who sent his girlfriend into danger so that he could score. ‘Pity you weren’t so concerned when she was with you. It doesn’t look like you’ve done a lot to stop her, does it?’ She placed her hands on her hips as if talking to an errant child. ‘How could you let her out there? What sort of boyfriend are you?’
Billy wiped his nose with the back of his hand, smearing his fingers in slime. ‘You don’t know what she’s like. Once she gets somefink into her head there’s no stopping her. She just needed one last fix so that we could sleep through the night. And it wasn’t as if she didn’t know him.’
‘Who?’ Ruby said, sick of hearing his excuses. Her hands itched with the need to grab him by the scruff of the neck and squeeze the information from his scrawny throat. ‘Who was her punter?’
‘I don’t know,’ Billy said. ‘They don’t give their real names most of the time. She said she’d be an hour, tops. Promised she’d ring the minute she came out. But that was yesterday. I’ve been searching the streets all night. I thought maybe she went to the dealers, but they’ve not seen her either.’
‘And you’ve tried calling her phone?’ Ruby said, a familiar knot in her shoulders making itself known as her body tensed.
Billy looked at her miserably, tears welling in his red-rimmed eyes. ‘Yeah,’ he sniffed. ‘It’s turned off, and her punter’s number is off the hook.’
Ruby froze, wondering if she had heard him correctly. ‘Hang on a minute. You’ve got the number of the client that booked her?’
‘Yeah, I thought I said. She’s got two phones. Her private one that I call her on, and the other one that she takes bookings with. She left the booking phone in the flat. I’ve got the number here.’
Ruby stared in disbelief. ‘The whole time we’ve been talking, and you’ve had the number all along?’
‘Yeah, but I don’t have the address or nothing. Here, see for yourself.’ He handed over the phone: a small white diamanté-studded Nokia. Ruby peered through the cracked screen, pressing the buttons as she brought up the list of calls. She clicked on the call timed at one o’clock in the morning. ‘This is a landline,’ she said.
Billy nodded. ‘She leaves it with me when she doesn’t want to take no more calls. I should have come sooner, but I didn’t want to get her into trouble.’
Ruby’s brain was whirring as she worked out the next course of action. ‘When you say Sharon’s phone is turned off. . .’
‘Well, not switched off. It rings out and goes to answer machine. She keeps it on silent, so I thought maybe she didn’t hear it at first.’
‘Good, that’s good,’ Ruby said. ‘We can triangulate her phone and trace the address of the landline – see if they match. I need you to stay here. I’ll get an officer to take a quick statement and book this evidence.’
‘But I. . .’
‘You want to find her, don’t you?’ Ruby said, in no mood for excuses. She raised the phone. ‘This is good. As soon as I hear anything, I’ll let you know. Do you understand?’
Billy nodded dumbly, tears gathering in the corners of his eyes.
Ruby sighed, a small pang of sympathy making itself known. ‘Go to the medical centre when you’re done here, get a prescription. You’ll need to keep a clear head. If you hear from Sharon, let us know straightaway, alright? No waiting around.’ She shuffled in a back pocket for a weathered card, along with some loose change.
Nathan had pressed some cash into the palm of her hand before she left for work, telling her to get a round of drinks in for her shift. She guessed he had checked her wallet, seeing nothing but a twenty-pence piece and an Oyster card inside. It was the same Oyster card that was magically topped up every month online. Such actions were typical of Nathan and, although she hated taking his money, she had appreciated his help today.
‘Here,’ she said, handing the business card and change over. Billy may have had a phone but, like most of the drug users she knew, his credit was probably low. ‘Call me if anything happens.’
As Ruby sped up the stairs to her office, her heart skipped a beat. It was an alien emotion when it came to this case: hope. If this was a landline then there was a small chance they had the killer’s address. Did the doctor have an accomplice? And could they reach Sharon in time?