A few days later they were still not much further on with the case when Cross received a call from a woman named Karen. She turned out to be the tiny little bird of a girl Cross had spoken to at Danny Stokes’s dry cleaner’s. She wanted to meet. At first Cross thought Ottey should go, as Karen might be more relaxed with her, but Ottey disagreed. Karen had reached out to Cross; she would be expecting him. He should go and take Mackenzie with him.
They met her at a small café near Temple Meads station. She was just as nervous as when Cross had first seen her. Her nails were bitten to the quick. She had dark bags under her eyes and was way too skinny for it to be healthy. Cross volunteered to get the beverages to give Karen a chance to talk to Mackenzie alone. When he returned he noticed that she only looked at Mackenzie when she spoke.
‘Are you an addict, Karen?’ Mackenzie asked.
‘Yes. Recovering addict,’ she said, by way of correction.
‘I’m sorry, “recovering”. Are any other employees at the dry cleaner’s?’ Mackenzie asked.
‘Yes. He always has a few working for him. It’s his thing. He pretends, makes out, it’s his way of giving back, but it’s all about him trying to take whatever he can,’ Karen said quietly.
‘How did you get the gig?’ asked Mackenzie.
‘Through Hopewell, but they’ve stopped sending girls now.’
‘Why?’ asked Mackenzie.
‘Because Flick told them what was going on. Then when she decided to go to the tribunal, obviously they had to stop.’
‘Did you know Flick when she worked there?’ Mackenzie asked.
‘Yes. Then after she left she often came over with Daisy at the end of the shift to talk to us.’
‘What did Stokes think about that?’ asked Cross.
‘He hated it. Would always come out and tell her to go away. Even called you lot out once,’ said Karen. ‘Then her lawyers told her she should stop coming round as it could be made to look bad in court.’
‘Has Stokes made any sexual advances towards you?’ Cross asked.
There was a momentary pause. Cross thought she was weighing up how much to tell them. She wanted to talk, obviously, as she’d called them. But when it actually came down to it she was unsure of how much to impart.
‘Yes,’ she said quietly.
‘What happened?’ Mackenzie asked gently.
‘He asked me to work late. Earn some overtime. I thought it was odd I was the only one there, but I needed the money and didn’t want to piss him off,’ she began. ‘He came down to where I was working and started talking to me in a really friendly way. Said he’d had his eye on me since I’d arrived. He started touching himself through his trousers. You know, on his crotch, and saying stuff. I asked him to stop, but he wouldn’t. So I said I’d leave. He carried on for a bit and then I suppose he gave up, but he didn’t touch me that time.’
‘What do you mean, “that time”?’ asked Mackenzie.
‘He’s always doing it. You’re asked up to his office and…’ Her voice faded. ‘But I need the job. What else can I do? I got nicked for solicitation a couple of years back. I’m not proud of it. It was needs must. So who’s going to give me a job now? It’s like a vicious circle. Now I’m clean and I need a wage,’ she went on.
‘That’s understandable,’ Mackenzie tried to reassure her.
‘Because he knows I was on the game – for only two months, mind you; that doesn’t make me a prostitute, does it? – he keeps asking for a freebie. Then when I say no he gets angry. I really want to get out of there.’
‘What’s the worst thing he’s done to you?’ asked Mackenzie.
‘He gets his knob out in the office when he talks to you. Just looks at you and rubs it. It’s disgusting.’
‘Why did you want to talk to us?’ asked Cross, who was convinced she was holding the worst of it back.
‘Is it true someone killed Flick?’ she asked.
‘Yes,’ said Cross.
‘And you think he did it?’
‘He’s certainly a person of interest,’ was as much as Cross would say.
‘Well, what if it was him?’ she asked.
‘Why would you think he killed her?’ asked Cross.
‘We’re still working for him. What if he did it again?’ she said, not answering the question.
‘Firstly, we don’t know it was him, but you’re right to be concerned. However, I think it unlikely, and I hope this may be of some comfort, that he would be stupid enough to do it again to an employee or ex-employee, as he would be drawing attention to himself. But again – why do you think it might have been him?’ Cross persisted.
‘Because he’s always offering us drugs. He knows why we were at Hopewell. It’s disgusting. He employs us to give us another chance, he says, then he tries to get us to use. He offers us drugs to have sex with him. I don’t know which is worse. Using again or doing it with him.’
‘Did he offer you drugs?’ Cross asked.
‘After I’d said no a few times, yes,’ she said.
‘Kudos for not taking them, Karen. That must’ve been really hard,’ said Mackenzie.
‘Not really. I saw what happened to Angie. She couldn’t resist it in the end. Then when he’d had enough of her, he sacked her. Said she was using again and had become unreliable. Which was true, but whose fault was that? He said he had a strict no drugs policy. It’s a joke.’
‘Do you think Angie would talk to us?’ Mackenzie asked.
‘Probably not. But I can ask her.’
‘You still see her?’ Cross asked.
‘Now and again. She comes round because she wants money. Screams through the window at Stokes. He gives her money sometimes, which is stupid, because she only comes back for more.’
‘Do you know where she lives?’ asked Mackenzie.
‘Not anymore. She got kicked out,’ she said sadly.
Mackenzie gave her a card and wrote her mobile number on it. ‘Call me if she comes back to your work, will you?’
‘Do you think that’s what he did with Flick? Gave her drugs?’ Karen asked.
‘Difficult to say,’ said Mackenzie.
‘The old man’s lovely – it doesn’t make any sense he had a bastard kid like him. I reckon he knows what’s going on and doesn’t like it.’
‘Why do you think that?’ asked Cross.
‘They have big rows up in the office. All the time. And it’s not about the business.’
*
‘She’s not telling us everything,’ said Cross, once he and Mackenzie were back in the car.
‘Yeah, I thought so too, but if we pressed she might clam up altogether,’ she replied.
‘Correct,’ Cross affirmed.