‘You went to her, too?’
‘I was running out of options.’
‘But she didn’t help?’
‘No way. Same story as the other one. I’m all right, Jack, fuck you. They think they’re better than me, but they’re nothing but a pair of lying bitches.’
‘Why’s that, Kyle?’
Kyle seemed to need a break from his anger. There was a dribble of spittle on his chin, and he wiped it with the back of his hand. He rubbed his face, drank some coffee, scratched his crotch and slumped back in his chair. His attention appeared to have wandered, as if he had lost track of the conversation. Banks wondered if he had just taken his methadone. ‘Man, I don’t know.’
‘You said they were lying bitches. You must have had a reason for saying that.’
‘I don’t remember.’
‘Come on, Kyle. It was only four years ago. Eastvale College. Do you remember Gavin Miller?’
‘That the teacher who kicked me out?’
‘That’s the one.’
‘Ruined my future, man. I was going places.’
‘What were you doing?’
Kyle just gave him a sideways glance. ‘Nothing, man. I wasn’t doing nothing. Just minding my own business.’
‘What did he think you were doing?’
‘Some dumb cunt must have told him I was dealing drugs. I mean, all I did was help a few people out from time to time. You know people who needed stuff. It was just fun, man.’
‘Like roofies or methamphetamine?’
‘Whatever.’
‘Was it Beth or Kayleigh who told on you?’
‘No. They were too into it. They were then, like, before they got all successful. Not the roofies, just the speed and spliffs. Probably snort coke through fifty-quid notes these days, or lick it off the end of some banker’s dick.’ He seemed to like that image, and it set off a fit of laughter that ended in coughing. Banks gave him a few moments to recover.
‘Why do you say someone must have told Gavin Miller that you were selling drugs?’
Again, Kyle seemed to have lost the thread. ‘I can’t remember, man. It’s a long time ago. It was just something he said. I remember thinking, like, this is down to some dumb cunt who got slipped a roofie and got fucked. This was, like, her revenge.’
‘But you don’t know who?’
‘No.’
‘Did you ever wonder about the girls who were given the Rohypnol, Kyle, about what happened to them?’
‘Nah, not really. Never thought much about it. Why?’ He scratched himself again.
‘No reason. Why didn’t any of them come forward?’
‘They probably enjoyed it. I mean, it’s what they want, isn’t it, man? Even if they don’t admit it. Either that or they didn’t remember.’
‘But someone must have remembered something.’
‘So it seems. Who cares?’
‘Do you think it was a girl who’d been raped getting her own back on the person who sold her rapist the drug?’
‘Could be. I don’t know.’
‘Why not take her revenge on the person who raped her?’
‘How should I know? Maybe she did, and you don’t know about it. Maybe she already cut his balls off, and he’s lying dead in a ditch somewhere. Didn’t think about that, did you?’
Well, well, Banks thought. Maybe Kyle had a point there. It was another avenue worth investigating. Not the castration so much as someone else hurt, killed or hospitalised around that time. If the person who had administered the drug had been punished already by his victim, there might be good reasons why the rapist hadn’t wanted the sordid incident to be public knowledge. And if the girl who had been raped remembered who did it, she might well have worked out some sort of private revenge on her assailant that wouldn’t be attributable to her. Shame and guilt were normal reactions to being drugged and raped, no matter how much you tried to tell the victims it wasn’t their fault. And she had used Miller as a tool to get revenge on Kyle, the dealer. Unless...
‘Was it you, Kyle?’ Banks asked.
‘Was what me?’
‘Did you use the Rohypnol on someone yourself?’
‘Why would I do that, man? I didn’t need no Rohypnol.’
Banks filed the possibility away and moved on. ‘Do you remember later, after you’d left Eastvale, Gavin Miller was sacked for sexual misconduct? Both Beth and Kayleigh said he touched them and made inappropriate suggestions.’
‘I remember. I was still crashing at Kayleigh’s place off and on back then. It was that motherfucker Miller, the one who got me kicked out.’
‘That’s right.’
‘So justice was done after all.’
‘Well, Gavin Miller lost his job and a good deal else.’
‘Like I said. Justice.’
‘He was murdered last week, Kyle.’
‘Miller?’
‘That’s right.’
‘Well, fuck me. Who did it?’
‘That’s what we’re trying to find out.’
Kyle looked around, over his shoulder. ‘There are murderers in here, man. You have to be careful. Know what I mean?’
Banks nodded. ‘Do you know who might have wanted to harm Gavin Miller?’
‘Well, I didn’t do it. I was in here.’
‘Did you ever see Gavin Miller after then? Say in the past year or so?’
‘Why?’
‘Maybe he wanted to buy drugs from you? Maybe he wanted to go into business?’
‘Miller? You must be joking, man. No, I never seen him since that day in his office he put it on the line.’
‘Do you think Beth or Kayleigh might be lying about not having seen him?’
‘How do I know? I can’t see why they would lie about it, though, if that’s what they said.’ Kyle paused, clearly thinking about the way the two girls had let him down in his hour of need. ‘You know what? I’m gonna tell you something about those bitches. You ready?’
‘I’m ready,’ said Banks.
‘After Miller told me to stop doing what I was doing or leave town, I don’t know how long after, but we were sitting around in Kayleigh’s flat getting high and—’
‘Who was sitting around?’
‘Us. Beth, Kayleigh and me.’
‘Right. And what happened?’
‘We were talking, like, you know, about what happened, and about what a nerve that guy had and all that. And they were, like, saying how he was always staring at their tits and their arses all the time, like some perv. I mean, that’s wrong, man. Like, a teacher shouldn’t do stuff like that.’
‘It’s not very professional.’
‘That’s the word. Unprofessional. Not that you can blame him. I mean, Kayleigh had a lovely arse, and Beth’s tits... juicy, man, know what I mean?’
‘So you were sitting around, the three of you.’
‘Yeah, just, like, chillin’, listening to music, smoking some weed, and they were all like pissed off about this Miller telling me to leave or he’ll call the pigs and ogling their tits and just dying to cop a feel, so I just said, like, what if he did. They didn’t know what I meant at first, but I told them, you know, it wouldn’t be too hard if one of them sort of offered herself and then yelled rape. Wouldn’t be the first time, man.’
‘So you suggested that one of them should seduce Miller, have sex with him, and then cry rape?’
‘Was that a great plan, or was it not?’
‘What did they say?’
‘Well, we talked about it for a while, you know, had another spliff, and they said they thought that would be too much, like, neither of them wanted to actually fuck the guy. I could dig that. I mean, he was old, man.’
‘So what did you decide?’
‘We talked about it some more, and then we came up with another idea, one where they wouldn’t have to get fucked by him.’
‘And that was?’
‘Exactly what happened. We decided the plan would work best if Kayleigh made a complaint that this Miller had, like, touched her, in his office or something, and come on to her and all, then Beth would come out and say, yeah, he’d done that to her, too, a while ago, but she hadn’t dared talk, but now Kayleigh’s courage had, like, powered her. It was great, man. That’s how much they cared about me then. Not like now.’