that bit of warmth.
The sound of a car engine approaching made the girl stand back from the edge of the kerb. A large white car turned the corner from Sauchiehall Street into Blythswood Street and approached the place where Lily stood, the lamplight above her reflected in the puddles. She watched it intently. At first she thought he was going to stop, ask her for a price, but as the car slowed down, Lily saw the driver simply looking at her, his mouth partly open, revealing his teeth.
Lily shivered, all imaginary fires suddenly spent.
His eyes were upon her, dark and menacing, as though she had made him angry, and Lily took another step back, waiting and wondering. Was he playing some sort of sex game, perhaps? The other girls had told her so many lurid stories of punters’ bizarre sexual tastes that she was prepared for anything.
But then the car moved away and disappeared along a lane that ran between the backs of the office blocks. Lily watched the red tail lights as it travelled the length of the lane. So, no takers for Lily this time, she thought, turning away and shrugging off a dull disappointment.
She did not hear the car door close nor see the man emerge from the car at the far end of the lane, but some sixth sense made her look towards the darkened place behind her.
The man was coming back again and she could see his huge form like a dark shadow as he approached her, fists bunched against that massive body as though he were coming to pick her up and carry her off like some fairy tale ogre.
Lily shivered suddenly but waited nonetheless, watching the man coming nearer and nearer, transfixed by the very sight of him.
He was almost upon her when Lily noticed the fabric twisting between his hands and that look of utter malevolence in his eyes.
In a split second of understanding the girl knew just what he intended.
As the sound of a heavy vehicle approached them Lily turned and ran.
CHAPTER 33
It was the first morning that Professor Brightman had felt any warmth from the morning sun as he crossed Kelvingrove Park and headed towards the university. Tilting his head upwards, Solly enjoyed the brightness and his heart lifted as he paused. Smiling to himself, he walked on, glancing at the base of the trees. His smile broadened as he caught sight of clumps of snowdrops and the first tentative buds of yellow crocus. He might still have to wrap his long striped scarf around his neck, but these first signs of spring meant that the long nights of winter were nearing their end.
His smile faded as though a dark cloud had blotted out the sun when he thought of the cases that Lorimer had entrusted to his care. Would that they were also at an end, he thought. Much still needed to be done to create a proper profile of each of the killers; a woman, he believed, who had shot dead three men and some psychotic person, almost certainly male, who had dispatched these street women to their deaths. His disquiet following that visit to the west end sauna had continued late into the night; the fear those two women in Govan had revealed and the angry dismissal he had received yesterday spoke volumes about the person or persons behind that organisation. It was well known, of course, that saunas tended to be fronts for nothing more than brothels and the police had little time to make raids on such establishments unless there was something seriously criminal going on behind the scenes. Helen James had spoken about the saunas as though they were places of safety for her street women and so they probably were, but there was something wrong with those two particular establishments.
The psychology professor had tried Googling the name, Andie’s, but had come up with nothing more than a list of retail outlets and restaurants. It was, he felt, time to hand over the investigation to police officers who could make searches into companies and the like. Besides, hadn’t he been smartly warned off? Told that if the police wanted to see the owner they would have to come in person? Solly gave a sigh. Lorimer had plenty on his plate right now and an additional detail like the psychologist’s unease might prove quite unwelcome. Yet something, perhaps his own fright at the treatment he had received yesterday, made Solly decide to contact his friend