The thin girl kept her head bowed as she approached them. ‘You want me to do anything else, boss?’
Kate took in her appearance: long, luminous red hair hanging down past her shoulder blades, but shaved on the right-hand side. The strappy top, fully exposing the range of tattoos weaving into each other down both sides of each skinny arm. Her brown eyes were thick with eyeliner, and she had a ring hanging from between her nostrils, and one through her bottom lip.
‘Unless the detective here wants to be tagged, you can get yourself off for lunch.’
‘Actually,’ Kate blurted, ‘I do. Ten per cent discount, right?’
The owner pulled an unconvinced grimace. ‘Seriously?’
Kate unbuttoned her coat and rested it on the chair next to Laura. ‘Why not? But I want her to do it.’
He frowned. ‘She’s still learning.’
Kate scowled. ‘I’ll take the chance. I’d rather not have a man touching my skin. You understand, right?’
He rolled his eyes. ‘Have it your way,’ he said, before turning and disappearing back behind the curtain, pulling it across as he went.
Keeping her head low, the girl moved to the barber-style chair closest to them. ‘Did you have something in particular you wanted doing?’
Kate passed her the picture. ‘How about something like this? I know it’s only part of the image, but you know what it is, don’t you?’
The girl’s eyes widened and she fired a look at the closed curtain. ‘Why would you want something like that?’
‘So, you recognise it, then?’
The girl began to speak, before stopping herself. ‘I-I-I don’t think you were being serious about getting a tattoo. So, if you’re done, I’ll go for my lunch.’
Kate reached for the girl’s arm. ‘Please, don’t go.’ Kate unbuttoned her blouse and lowered it to expose her shoulders, before climbing onto the chair. ‘Please? The woman who had this tattoo removed is dead, and I am desperately trying to identify who she is so I can catch the guy who killed her. You were the one my colleague spoke to, right?’
The girl nodded sheepishly as she shuffled her tools on the work top.
Kate lowered her voice. ‘You said on the phone it was your boss who removed it?’
The girl nodded, glancing anxiously back at the curtain again.
‘It’s okay,’ Kate assured her, gesturing for Freeborn to check the boss wasn’t eavesdropping nearby. He ducked behind the curtain.
‘We’re alone now,’ Kate said. ‘Do you know who the woman was?’
The girl shook her head silently.
‘So, you didn’t recognise her?’
Another shake of the head. ‘Have you decided what you want done yet?’
Kate reopened the binder and began to flip the pages, finally pointing at one of them. ‘Is this going to hurt?’
A thin smile finally broke across the girl’s face. ‘You’ll survive.’
Kate closed her eyes and tried to shut out the urge to leave, as the girl began to stencil the design onto Kate’s right shoulder. ‘What can you tell me about the image that was removed?’ Kate asked through gritted teeth.
The girl sighed. ‘It’s a tag that my boss puts on women who are sent here, but this was the first time I’d ever known someone come to have it removed. She looked so frightened, and was sweating, like she was ill or in pain or something. At first, the boss said he wouldn’t remove it, but then he called the guy who he does the work for, who must have agreed, because the next thing I know the woman is in the chair and he’s charging up the laser.’
‘You didn’t catch her name, I suppose?’
‘Sorry. It was late on Monday, and he told me to leave them to it and go home.’
‘Can you describe her to me?’
‘Pretty, maybe in her early twenties. Long fair hair, slim, small feet – I remember she had the most amazing stilettos, red and glittery – and her accent was foreign.’
‘Foreign how?’ Kate grimaced as the tattoo gun buzzed into life.
‘Polish or Russian, I think. Not from around here.’
‘Did she say why she wanted the tattoo removing?’
‘Not that I heard. I only saw her for a couple of minutes before I went home. Sorry.’
‘You described the tattoo as a sort of tag: who sends these women here to receive it?’
The girl didn’t answer, suddenly focusing intently on Kate’s shoulder.
‘You won’t get in any trouble, I promise,’ Kate encouraged as the needle made contact sending a jolt down her spine.
‘You don’t understand what you’re asking of me,’ the girl replied, her voice so much quieter now.
‘I don’t want you to say anything you aren’t comfortable with, but I promise I won’t reveal where the information came from. You can trust me.’
Kate gritted her teeth as she felt another sudden jolt of pain. She couldn’t determine whether it was par for the course, or whether the girl had pressed harder deliberately.
‘This man who brands these women, is he a pimp? Or a drug dealer?’
‘I don’t know for certain, but…’ the girl began, as the needle continued to spike Kate’s skin, ‘given how these women dress – high heels, short skirts and tons of makeup – I think you can probably figure that out for yourself.’
‘I see you didn’t chicken out then,’ the owner’s voice boomed as he suddenly reappeared from behind the curtain. ‘Guess I underestimated you.’
Kate saw him grinning at her in the mirror, but there was no sign of Freeborn. ‘People have been underestimating me all my life,’ Kate glared back, grinding her teeth to stop the pain from showing; she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.
His jaw bounced as he chewed his gum. ‘I bet they have. Mind if I sit and watch while she finishes? I want to make sure you get a proper job done.’
Kate could see the panic in the girl’s eyes as she continued to move the needle along the outline she’d drawn. Kate calmly watched the owner as he sat down in the seat Freeborn had earlier vacated. Whatever happened from here, she’d got all the information the girl was going to be able to give.
* * *
Twenty minutes later, Kate climbed back into the car where Freeborn was waiting. ‘What happened to you?’
Freeborn offered an apologetic look. ‘When I went through the curtain, I saw the back door had been left open, so I waited there to see if the owner would come back, but there was no sign, so I stepped out. The next thing I know, the door’s pulled closed and I couldn’t get back in.’ Freeborn pulled an empathetic face. ‘Does it hurt?’
Kate pressed her hand against the fresh bandage just below her right shoulder. ‘Not a word of this to anyone.’
Freeborn mimed locking her lips. ‘What did the girl tell you?’
Kate tentatively pulled the seat belt around herself. ‘The tattoo is a symbol, like a brand, and means our victim was probably a prostitute, or part of a group operating in the city’s red-light district. You’d better get us back to the station. I’ll need to feed this new information up the line.’
15
Straightening her shoulders as much as the dressing would allow, Kate rapped twice on the supe’s door, and waited for him to call her in.
‘Sir,’ she said, as she closed the door and then stood behind the two chairs that faced his desk.
DSI Williams lowered the pen he’d been writing with and sat back in his chair. ‘Ah, Kate, you have an update for me?’
She nodded, waiting for him to ask her to sit, but it became clear this was to be a quick meeting. She continued, ‘It’s not about Daisy Emerson, though. I have reason to believe that the foot we found at St Bartholomew’s belonged to a prostitute working in a group, possibly out of the red-light district in St Mary’s.’
‘And?’
‘And I thought you’d want to engage with the Organised Crime Team.’
The penny dropped. ‘You mean DI Hendrix’s unit.’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘You could have taken this direct to Hendrix without running it past me.’
Kate knew this already, but in light of previous run-ins with the SIO for Organised Crime, she’d thought it best to invoke a mediator first. Not that she would say as much to the supe, though she was sure he’d figured that out for himself.