Donna Joy Usher - Chanel 01 - Cocoa and Chanel (14 page)

‘His wardrobe lady left.’

‘So you’ll be making the costumes?’

‘I’ll be handling the show side of things so Bruce can concentrate on the marketing.’ She wrestled the zipper on her last bag shut and stood up.

‘When do you leave?’

The words were just out of my mouth when there was a knock on my door.

‘Oh that’ll be the moving man,’ she said.

‘Why do you need a moving man?’

She flitted over to the front door and opened it. Joe, the landlord, was standing in the door, shirt half unbuttoned, gold chains visible. He had made a special effort with his dark hair, slicking it up and back. My fingers itched to style it properly.

He had a bunch of flowers in one hand which he handed to Mum and said, ‘I’ve come to welcome you to your new home.’

‘I didn’t get any flowers,’ I complained.

‘They’re lovely,’ Mum said, ignoring me. She buried her face in them and giggled.

I sighed as I picked up a couple of her bags. Mum grabbed the others, but Joe relieved her of hers before she made it out the front door. Joe and I lugged her stuff up another floor to her apartment, while Mum flirted unabashedly. I had to admit she was good. If my performance whenever Roger was around was anything to go by I should have been taking notes.

Giggle, bat your eyelids, look at said conquest through those eyelashes and giggle again. For some reason I didn’t think I’d pull that off with Roger; especially not while he was on pethadeine.

I could tell that Joe was going to hang around for a while so I went back downstairs, grabbed Cocoa’s lead and took him to the park.

Bruce was waiting.

‘How’s the case going?’ he asked.

‘So not broken,’ I said. ‘Roger’s either asleep or on drugs. I can’t get a serious word out of him. How’s Bianca going?’ Since Lizette had been killed most of the hookers had decided it was time to take some annual leave. Bianca had decided it was time to give it up for good and had taken a barmaid position.

‘Surprisingly good. She’s efficient and in her words, she don’t take shit from nobody.’

‘The perfect barmaid.’

‘She’s been asking when you’re coming in again. Seems to have taken quite a shine to you.’

‘Tell her I’m on days off on Thursday. I’ll come that night.’

‘You should come early and check out the new routine your Mammy’s teaching the girls.’

‘What’s it like?’

‘That would ruin the surprise.’

Great.
Another surprise involving my Mum. I wasn’t sure how many more of them I could take.

***

Roger was looking more lucid when I got there the next afternoon.

‘No pethadeine?’ I said, viewing his arm.

‘They took the drip out this morning. Shame,’ he said.

‘You seemed to be enjoying yourself.’

He grinned. ‘Apart from the pain and suffering and all that, I’ve been having a grand old time. Best holiday I’ve had in years.’

‘Lucky you,’ I said, taking a seat on the end of his bed. ‘We need to talk.’

‘The case?’

‘Yep.’

‘You heard they found evidence of arson?’

I nodded my head. ‘And that the tobacconist died?’

‘Poor bastard,’ he said.

‘Did you get any names from him?’

‘He gave me two,’ he said. ‘But neither of them matches the DNA on the butts.’

‘They were all the same?’

He nodded. ‘All smoked by the same person, but they’re not currently on the register.’

‘So that’s that,’ I said, disappointment flooding through me.

He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. ‘We have the DNA.’

‘It’s weird,’ I said, ‘there haven’t been any more killings since the fire.’

He looked thoughtful for a few moments before saying, ‘We drove him underground.’

‘Drove who where?’

‘The killer. He knew we were on to him, so he destroyed the trail and vanished. Reminds me of a case we had in London.’

‘You caught a serial killer in London?’

‘No. We never caught him.’ He scratched the stubble on his face. ‘Well not while I was there. They may have caught him since.’

‘What happened?’

‘Pretty similar details, someone targeting prostitutes. Every time we got close to the bastard he disappeared, only to reactivate later in another part of London.’ He looked off into the distance, his blue eyes pensive. ‘We chased him for years.’

‘God I hope we get this one soon,’ I said. I looked at my watch. I was meant to be meeting Bruce in half an hour. ‘Got to go,’ I said, standing up.

He grabbed my hand and ran his thumb over my palm. I could feel little shivers of pleasure expanding all the way down to my fingertips. ‘Thanks for visiting,’ he said.

I didn’t know if I was ever going to get used to his face. It wasn’t classically handsome, but it was the most attractive face I knew. When he smiled it was like summer and ice-cream and chocolate all mixed up together. Nobody else had ever had that effect on me.

No problem,’ I mumbled. I was enjoying the feeling of him stroking my hand
way
too much. I detached before it would look too sad and headed towards the corridor.

‘Hey Bun,’ he called out.

I paused and looked over my shoulder.

‘I haven’t forgotten,’ he said. And then he closed his eyes.

***

The stage was different when I got to Dazzle that Thursday. There were long silver poles extending from the floor to the ceiling. Mum stood in front of one talking to the girls. As I watched she grasped it with her hands and flipped upside down. She did the splits with one leg either side of the pole before flicking back to the ground.

‘That’s called the Hello Boys,’ Bruce informed me as he handed me a cocktail.

A mob of drag queens doing a Hello Boys?
Good Grief.

‘This audience is going to get far more than they’ve bargained for.’ I looked at the drink. ‘I could need something stronger.’

He grinned and whisked it off, returning it a few moments later. I took a sip and nodded. It might almost be strong enough to erase the memory of my mother pole dancing.

‘Hey superwoman,’ Bianca said.

‘I’m no superwoman,’ I said, smiling at her. She had toned her outfit down just a little; and a mean
just
a little. The black and pink Dazzle T-shirt looked like it had shrunk in the wash, showing an expanse of smooth chocolate belly before the obligatory black pants began. There was a pink crystal hanging from the piercing at her navel.

She placed her index finger on her chin and peered at me. ‘You’re right,’ she said. ‘I’m getting more of a cat woman vibe from you. You know, with the slashed black pants and the cute little mask. You’d look sexy as hell in that outfit.’

‘I’ll keep that in mind next time I have a date.’ That, of course, made me think of Roger. I took another long sip of my cocktail.

‘You got boy problems?’

‘I’ve got
man
problems,’ I said. I could feel the alcohol searing through my arteries. It felt really good.

‘Is it that blonde cop with the sexy accent and the biteable arse?’

‘That’s the one.’

She took a seat next to me at the bar. ‘I bet he’s a fine ride.’

‘
Bianca
,’ I said, swatting at her with one hand.

‘You can tell me,’ she said. ‘Sex is…was my business.’

‘How’s this working out for you?’ I asked.

‘It’s nice to have the regular income,’ she said.

I wasn’t sure if I was mature enough to have this conversation. The alcohol in my brain thought differently.

‘Surely there have to be some other advantages,’ I said.

‘Well, it will be nice not to be cold in winter,’ she said. ‘It’s a long time between clients in winter.’

‘What about…you know,’ I said.

‘I know what?’

‘Well isn’t it nice not to have to sleep with strangers?’ I can’t believe I actually said it. Part of me was gasping at my audacity but the other part was totally into this conversation.

‘It wasn’t all bad,’ she said. ‘I kind of got my regulars you know. And if you don’t think about it, when you’re with a regular, you could be on a date. Except you get paid at the end, and you don’t have to cook them dinner every night.’ She grinned at me.

‘Geez, when you put it like that it’s better than having a boyfriend.’

‘Nah, there’s some nasty shit too.’

Even the interested part of me agreed that it didn’t want to know the details of the nasty shit.

‘Will you go back to it,’ I said, ‘once we’ve caught the killer?’

She looked thoughtful as she pulled on the end of her thick black ponytail. ‘I don’t think so,’ she said. ‘I want different things now. When I started turning tricks it was the easiest way to make money. I’d like to study you know.’ She tugged some more on her hair. ‘And I’d like to get married and have a family one day.’

The girls up on stage were in the process of clambering up the pole. I could hear Mum’s voice counting in time with her clapping. ‘And one and two and three … no no Bernadette. It’s climb and climb and dying swan.’

‘Dying swan?’ I mouthed at Bianca.

She hopped off the stool. ‘A mob of drag queens performing a dying swan on a pole? One less thing I have to see before I die.’

Bruce flicked her on the bottom with a tea towel. ‘Get back to work,’ he said.

She winked at me and sashayed off to the kitchen.

Mum called a break and came over to join me at the bar. I hadn’t seen much of her since she’d moved out, and even though I wouldn’t admit it to her, I’d missed her.

‘Pole dancing?’ I said, taking another pull on my straw.

‘It’s a bit like falling off a bike,’ she said.

‘Don’t you mean like riding a bike?’

‘No, like falling off one; it hurts every time you do it.’ She brayed out a laugh and hit me on the shoulder. Unfortunately she chose the arm holding my drink.

I mopped it off the front of my dress with a serviette and then said, ‘How’s Joe going?’

‘He’s fun,’ she said, smiling widely.

‘I so don’t want to know what that means.’ Sadly, I was far more comfortable talking to Bianca about her profession than I was talking to my Mum about her sex life. ‘You changed your hair colour,’ I said.

‘Don’t you like it?’

‘It’s red. What’s not to like. I just want to know why I didn’t do it.’

‘Well to be honest,’ she said, ‘I didn’t think you wanted to do that sort of thing any more.’

‘Why ever not?’

‘Well you’re an important police officer now.’

I snorted some cocktail out of my mouth. ‘Important police officer?’ I said. ‘I’m a bee’s dick from having to go back to hairdressing.’

It was only a matter of time really. If I could drum up two formal warnings in my first six weeks without even trying, I was never going to make it to a year. I had been pinning my hopes on helping catch the Cross killer. I thought if that happened then maybe Ramy would forget about my prior convictions. Those hopes had been destroyed along with the tobacconist’s shop.

‘When’s the competition?’ I asked her.

‘Next Friday night. Can you come?’

I counted forward on my fingers. I’d be on days off. ‘Wouldn’t miss it for the world,’ I said.

***

Helping a band of drag queens train for a pole dancing routine was not something I would have normally signed up for, but Mum had turned on the I-sacrificed-everything-to-raise-you charm and guilted me into it. The old Lorraine would never have done that, but this was the new Lorraine we were talking about, so all bets were off.

Pole dancing was both easier and harder than I had expected. The girls were starting to master their routine, which was good as it was only a couple of days till the competition.

I was having a water break when I realised I had missed a call from Roger.

‘Bun,’ he said, when I called him back. ‘Good news, they’re releasing me.’

‘Outstayed your welcome?’

‘They were worried the nurses were becoming too attached.’

That was probably true. I’d witnessed at least two different nurses flirting and giggling helplessly when they were in his room.

‘Anyway I was wondering if you could give me a lift home,’ he said. ‘Unless you’re doing something important.’

I looked over at the stage where Ronnie was stuck upside down on a pole. She clung to it with her arms and legs while Mum tried to talk her down. ‘Not anymore,’ I said, picking up my handbag.

‘I’ll wait for you outside the entrance,’ he said.

‘Sure you don’t want me to come up and help you?’

‘I’ll be right.’

‘Give me half an hour,’ I said, calculating how long it would take me to walk home and get the car.

It was dark in the car park so I didn’t see the mess on the windscreen till I was seated in the car. Blood was smeared all over the glass, as if someone had used a bloody cloth to wash it. Bits of dark fur clung to the blood and a black shape lay on the bonnet. Dead. Ice walked down my spine and I couldn’t move. I stared at the shape, fear and anguish bubbling up inside.