‘Bloody liberty this, and I’m losin’ money being here,’ she said in a strong Scouse accent.
Reid snapped at her that their priority was trying to trace a missing teenager. He told Lane to wait a few minutes, as he wanted to speak to the forensic scientist in charge.
‘’Ang on a mo, you’se bizzies saying we just ’ang out in the corridor, do we?’ she snapped back, hands on her hips while switching her head from side to side.
Reid drew her close by the collar of her faux fur jacket. ‘I didn’t get your name, sweetheart.’
‘Joyce, and I ain’t your sweetheart or anyone else’s.’
‘Just behave yourself. You’re lucky not to have been arrested, so the quicker you help us the quicker you’ll be out of here and back on the streets to ply your trade, so look at this as a good public relations exercise.’
Fighting to keep his temper, Reid went into the lab, where an equally belligerent scientist was tapping his wristwatch, ready to confront him.
‘It’s almost six and I’ve been on duty here since eight thirty, so I hope this is not going to be a long drawn-out game show. I have been ready since after lunch and there have been repeated phone calls back and forth to Richmond interrupting me. This is not the only case I am working on, DI Reid.’
‘Sorry, you are…?’
‘Andrew Bracken, filling in for Pete Jenkins who’s out at a crime scene?’
‘Just show me the items and we’ll get on with it.’
Bracken led Reid to a trestle table where the stained ladies’ underwear had been tagged and laid out. Each pair of panties was pinned to display it in an easily identifiable way.
‘Okay, I believe you have two girls waiting outside. Let them come in so we can get this over and done with,’ sighed Bracken. ‘I will take a DNA mouth swab as well for profiling and comparison.’
‘How much will that cost?’ Reid asked.
‘Your job, if you don’t follow correct procedure. What we are doing just now is already highly irregular, but I understand your need for quick answers to assist your investigation in finding out what has happened to Amy Fulford.’
Lane led in Joyce and Tanya.
‘Okay, ladies, move along the table and if you recognize any item as belonging to you, please do not touch it but just point and state that it is yours,’ Bracken said.
The ringtone of Reid’s mobile began to sound and he stepped outside to take the call. It was Burrows in a state of some agitation, informing him that Marcus Fulford had joined his wife in the waiting room, Justine Hyde was due to arrive at any moment and Gail Summers was in reception. Reid attempted to calm her, suggesting that she offer them tea or coffee, and pointing out there was a vending machine near reception. He was about to go back into the lab when DC Wey appeared.
‘Not missed anything, have I?’
‘Stop wasting time, Takeaway – what did you get from the art dealer?’
Wey flipped open his notebook. ‘The dealer, a Philip Salver, aged fifty-eight, denied ever kerb crawling, and when told he was caught on CCTV said he’d only stopped to ask directions. He’d been to a private gallery exhibition and was actually going to pick up his wife, who was dining with friends-’
‘Just get to the point, for Christ’s sake,’ Reid said in a raised voice.
‘When I suggested his wife might like to see the CCTV he changed his tune and said it was the first time he’d ever kerb crawled.’ Wey rolled his eyes and continued to read from his notes. ‘Salver said he drove round the block three times and because the girl never moved he assumed she was a hooker so he pulled over and stopped then-’
‘Did Amy say anything?’ Reid interrupted impatiently.
‘According to Salver she leaned in and said, “What do you want?”, and seeing how young she looked and the school uniform, he panicked and drove off.’
‘So she wasn’t soliciting, and didn’t say anything that intimated that was the case,’ Reid remarked.
Wey shrugged his shoulders. ‘That depends on how you interpret the phrase “what do you want?”, plus she was standing around for a while. Looking at the video, Salver was parked up beside Amy for at least a minute, so a lot more could have been said that he won’t admit to and really we can never prove.’
Before Reid could react, Lane came out of the lab with Joyce and Tanya, who had both given DNA swabs, but weren’t happy about it.
Joyce took up her swaggering hands-on-hips stance. ‘Bloody cheek, sticking that horrible thing in our mouths.’
‘You’d think she’d be used to it in her trade,’ Wey whispered to Reid, who was not amused.
‘What you say, Bruce Lee?’ Joyce asked.
‘My name is DC Wey and I was just wondering if you recognized any of the underwear.’
‘One pair, yeah, but I never left a bleedin’ punter without me kecks unless he was paying for them. All I knows is some blokes offer me extra cash to keep me knickers. They’re usually sickos who like to wear or sniff them.’
‘Has this man ever bought any?’ Reid asked, showing her a photograph of Marcus.
‘Looks familiar… What’s his name?’
‘I’m not at liberty to say.’
‘Well that’s not much use, is it?’
‘What about you, Tanya?’ Lane asked.
‘Nyet.’
Joyce laughed loudly. ‘She doesn’t understand or speak much English apart from hand-, blow- or full job and cash up front.’
‘Get them out of here,’ Reid snapped and the girls were led off. Wey watched them walking down the corridor and couldn’t help laughing at the way Joyce turned to give the finger.
‘Cheeky cows,’ Wey said with a grin.
‘Just go into the lab and wait for me there,’ said Reid with gritted teeth. He waited in the corridor as Justine Hyde was brought in from reception by Lane, after he had ordered a taxi for the belligerent tarts. Justine was carrying an overnight bag and a holdall bulging with all her hairdressing equipment. She apologized to Reid for not being available earlier, but she had been at a hairdressing event and had come straight from the station.
‘I am training with the salon, you see, and so I sort of double up doin’ reception work as well as being trained and it was a really good opportunity – it was all about colouring and highlights and-’
Reid interrupted her eager to get on. ‘Lane, take Miss Hyde into the lab. I’ll be in the waiting room when you’re finished.’ As Reid moved off, he could hear Lane saying that he was sorry for the inconvenience and thanking Justine profusely for her time.
Justine followed the sergeant into the lab and he helpfully took her overnight bag and put it down, along with her holdall of rollers and dryers.
‘It’s very simple: we have a selection of female underwear and we are trying to identify who it belongs to. Please point but don’t touch if you recognize anything belonging to you, and try to recall when it was last in your possession.’
Justine said she couldn’t wear nylon, but was able to state that a pair of lace and cotton panties belonged to her, as it matched a brassiere she bought from Marks and Spencer. On being asked if she knew how the panties came to be at the flat, she said that sometimes she stayed the weekend at Marcus’s and when she did she took a change of clothing, so probably left them in his room without realizing. When asked how they could have got in Amy’s room, she suggested Amy might have washed and used them.
Justine agreed to a mouth swab, which made her even more nervous, but Lane was very reassuring as the forensic scientist Andrew Bracken did his work. As he placed the swab into the test tube Bracken was noticeably less irritable, now almost enjoying himself.
‘Is that it?’ Justine asked, and Lane smiled, picking up her case and holdall.
‘Let me get you a taxi, Miss Hyde.’
She hesitated, and asked if they had found Amy, as she didn’t quite understand why she had been brought in and wondered if it was something to do with her relationship with Marcus.