The Last Dance by Mark Billingham

Author:Mark Billingham [Billingham, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781408726341
Published: 2023-05-24T16:00:00+00:00

THIRTY-THREE

His powers of deduction nicely oiled by Lancashire Bitter and with the Bull’s Head as his own personal incident room, Howard was keen to share his take on the case. ‘I reckon the prostitute was definitely in on it.’

‘You can’t say “prostitute” anymore,’ Mary said.

‘Why not?’

‘I don’t know. Because you can’t.’

‘Yeah, it’s a possibility we’ve been considering,’ Miller said. He’d told Howard as much only an hour or so earlier, before there’d been too much . . . oiling. ‘I think it’s unlikely, though.’

‘Well, I wouldn’t rule it out,’ Howard said. ‘However big and clever a bloke thinks he is, he can always get caught off-guard when there’s nookie involved. So, this woman, who for reasons I still don’t understand I can’t call a prostitute, is very much the ideal candidate, I reckon.’

‘I think Declan’s considered all that,’ Mary said.

‘A sex-decoy!’

Miller smiled. ‘Thanks, Howard.’

‘Maybe that’s not what she’s lying about.’ Mary had not drunk nearly as much as her husband, but she was equally keen to help. ‘I mean she wasn’t exactly honest the first time you interviewed her, was she? So what if she was lying about being there to see Adrian Cutler? I know you showed her a photo and everything, but what if she was there to see the other bloke? The computer man . . .’

‘Barry Shepherd,’ Miller said.

‘Right. Him.’

‘What’s her motive for killing the computer bloke?’ Ruth asked.

‘Well, that’s for Declan to find out, isn’t it? I’m retired. Anyway, I never said she killed him, did I?’

‘Again, it’s a nice idea, Mary.’ Miller had spent most of his time since the dance class had finished pointing out the enormous holes in whatever theory was being offered. He was trying to be as gentle as possible. ‘But we only found Scarlett’s DNA in Cutler’s room. So we can be fairly certain she was never in Barry Shepherd’s room.’

‘Oh,’ Mary said. ‘Well, that’s sorted then.’

‘She was lucky when you think about it,’ Nathan said.

Everyone turned to the youngest member of the group, who was happily necking a bottle of lager. He laid the bottle down and nodded.

‘Scarlett was. I mean, presuming she’s telling the truth, she could have come out of that hotel room and walked smack into the killer. He’d probably have killed her as well.’

Miller thought about that.

‘Maybe the killer was there all the time,’ Gloria said. ‘Waiting for this young woman to finish her business and leave.’

‘Waiting where?’ Miller asked.

‘In the room next door. In Mr Shepherd’s room. I might not have been listening properly, but I don’t think you know for certain that Mr Cutler was shot before Mr Shepherd or if it was the other way round . . . or have I got that wrong?’

‘No.’ Miller put his own beer down. ‘You haven’t.’

Miller knew that, whether or not Gloria was right about the killer hiding, she had inadvertently highlighted something important. All Prisha Acharya had been able to say for certain was that the victims had died within a few minutes of each other, but it had so far been impossible to establish the order in which that had happened.

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