Behind Dead Eyes (DC Ian Bradshaw #2) - Howard Linskey Page 0,119

can’t help you with that.’ And Callie walked away.

‘How much do you earn a night, Callie?’ he called after her and she spun back round.

‘What do you mean?’ She looked worried.

‘I’ll bet it’s not that much,’ he said calmly, ‘so I’ll double it,’ he told her, ‘if you come with us now.’

Chapter Forty-One

It took a moment for Callie to make her decision. He could tell she contemplated denying earning money at the cab rank but she must have reasoned he knew all about that, so there wasn’t much point. Offering to double her earnings was the clincher and she told him, ‘Forty quid.’ Tom knew she was lying.

‘I’ll give you fifty.’

‘You said double.’ But she was already getting into the car.

Tom drove them a few miles from town and parked up at the edge of a village in a well-lit side road with neat little houses either side of it. He hoped Callie would feel safe here and be more likely to talk. They both turned to face the girl on the back seat.

‘What about my money?’ Callie demanded as soon as the car stopped moving.

‘Afterwards,’ he said.

‘When you’ve answered our questions,’ Helen told her. ‘That’s only fair.’

‘Fuck fair,’ said Callie.

‘Why was Diane so keen to leave?’ asked Tom.

When Callie didn’t reply, Helen said, ‘All the girls seem to like it in Meadowlands.’

Callie turned back to look at Helen. ‘You got to say that, haven’t you?’ she told the reporter as if it was obvious.

‘In case Dean and the others get angry with you?’

Callie’s silence was answer enough.

‘And if they’re not angry with you,’ Tom said, ‘you get to do pretty much what you want,’ then he decided to risk it, ‘and you can go to the cab rank at night.’

‘Are you a copper or something?’ barked Callie.

‘I told you, Callie. I’m just a reporter who is helping Sandra’s old man find his daughter. I don’t have any interest in the men that own those little businesses.’ He was lying to her about that, for he fully intended to write something about them as soon as he was given the opportunity.

‘They’re my friends.’ Callie was defiant.

‘I know you think they are,’ said Helen, ‘but they are using you, Callie.’

‘Don’t talk wet,’ she told Helen.

‘It’s none of our business,’ Tom told Helen and when she gave him a venomous look he stared right back at her significantly, trying to convey the message that right now this was all about Diane and Sandra Jarvis. ‘Callie’s a big girl. She can do what she wants. Isn’t that right, Callie?’

‘Yeah,’ the girl agreed and she seemed to calm down a little.

‘And if she makes a little money along the way, that’s her business.’

‘It’s not money,’ protested Callie, ‘well, sometimes, but mostly they just give us stuff.’

‘Cigs, booze … that kind of thing.’ Tom was saying it as if this was all above board and perfectly normal, his tone reassuring her.

‘Yeah,’ she said, ‘all boyfriends do that.’ Helen had to restrain herself from telling Callie that this was not how it was supposed to work with a boyfriend but she knew the young girl would clam up again if she tried.

‘It’s not as if you’re the only one,’ said Tom, ‘we know all the girls at Meadowlands do it.’ Callie instinctively avoided that admission but she didn’t contradict him. ‘You do it, they do it, Diane did it. No big deal.’ And he hated himself for saying it. ‘Sounds like an arrangement that suits everyone,’ he concluded. ‘So why did Diane want to leave?’

‘It wasn’t them,’ Callie protested. ‘They treat us alright,’ she said and Helen wondered about a reality where a young girl could actually be made to believe that sex with a multitude of strangers was alright. ‘It was something else.’

‘I know, Callie,’ he said, ‘we figured that out. We know it wasn’t the guys at the taxi rank that Diane told Sandra about. Like you said, it was something else.’ Callie eyed him warily as he spoke. ‘And, whatever it was, it was enough for Sandra to close the door on Diane’s room and sit with her all night while they talked about it. You told us they were both really upset in the morning and a little while after that Diane left for London and Sandra disappeared.’ He gave Callie a moment to take that in. ‘So what was it, Callie? The big secret Diane told Sandra,’ he reached inside his jacket pocket and took out his wallet, ‘the reason she