A Suitable Vengeance (Inspector Lynley, #4)(97)

“Dad phoned to tell me you were on your way. Tommy, are you all right? Dad said there’s still been no sign of Peter.”

Lynley’s response was to say her name like a sigh. He drew her to him. “What a mess this weekend’s been for you. I’m sorry, Deb.”

“It’s all right. It’s nothing.”

St. James looked past them. The sign concierge on a nearby door was done in calligraphy, he noted. But the hand was inexpert and the dot above the i had blurred and become a part of the second c. He examined this, considered this—each letter, each detail—keeping his eyes fastened to the sign until Deborah spoke.

“Helen’s waiting up above.” She moved with Lynley towards the lift.

They found Lady Helen on the telephone in Deborah’s flat. She was saying nothing, merely listening, and from her look in his direction and the expression on her face when she replaced the receiver, St. James realised whom she had been trying to reach.

“Sidney?” he asked her.

“I can’t find her, Simon. Her agency gave me a list of names, friends of hers. But no one’s heard a word. I just tried her flat again. Nothing. I’ve phoned your mother as well, but there’s no answer there. Shall I keep trying her?”

Cold prickling ran its way down St. James’ spine. “No. She’ll only worry.”

Lady Helen spoke again. “I’ve begun to think about Justin Brooke’s death.”

She didn’t need to say more. St. James’ own thoughts had made that same leap forward the moment she had told him that his sister had still not turned up. Again, he cursed himself for allowing Sidney to leave Cornwall alone. If she had walked into danger, if she was hurt in any way…He felt the fingers of his right hand dig into his palm. He forced them to relax.

“Has Tina Cogin returned?”

“Not yet.”

“Then perhaps we ought to make certain about the key.” He looked at Lynley. “Have you brought them?”

“Brought them?” Lady Helen asked blankly.

“Harry Cambrey’s managed to get us Mick’s set of keys from Boscowan,” Lynley explained. “We wanted to see if one of them might unlock Tina’s door.”

He kept them in suspense only as long as it took to get to the next flat, to insert and turn the proper key in the lock. He swung the door open. They walked inside.

“All right. He had his own key,” Lady Helen said. “But, really, Tommy, where does that get us? It can’t be a surprise. We already knew he’d been here. Deborah told us that. So all we know beyond that fact is that he was special enough to Tina Cogin to merit a key to her door.”

“It changes the nature of their relationship, Helen. This obviously isn’t a call girl and her client. Prostitutes don’t generally give out their keys.”

From his position near the tiny kitchen, St. James was scrutinising the room. Its furnishings were expensive, but they told little about the inhabitant. And there were no personal objects on display: no photographs, no mementoes, no collection of any kind. Indeed, the entire bed-sitting-room had the look of having been put together by a decorator for a hotel. He walked to the desk.

The red light of the answering machine was blinking, indicating a message. He pushed the button. A man’s voice said, “Colin Sage. I’m phoning about the advert,” and he gave a number for a return call. A second message was much the same. St. James wrote down the numbers and gave them to Lady Helen.

“An advertisement?” she asked. “That can’t be how she makes her arrangements.”

“You said there was a savings book?” St. James replied.

Deborah came to his side. “Here,” she said. “There’s this as well.”

From a drawer she took both the savings book and a manila folder. He looked at the latter first, frowning down at the neatly typed list of names and addresses. Mostly London. The furthest was Brighton. Behind him, he heard Lynley going through the chest of drawers.

“What is this?” Meditatively, St. James asked the question of himself, but Deborah replied.

“We thought of clients at first. But of course, that can’t be. There are women on the list. And even if there weren’t any women at all, it’s hard to imagine anyone managing to…” She hesitated. St. James looked up. Her cheeks had coloured.

“Service this many men?” he asked.

“Well, of course, she’s indicated on the tab that they’re just prospects, hasn’t she? So at first we thought that she was using the list to…before we actually opened up the file and saw…I mean, how exactly would a prostitute build up a clientele? Through word of mouth?” Her colour deepened. “Lord. Is that a dreadful sort of pun?”

He chuckled at the question. “What did you imagine she was doing with this list, sending out brochures?”

Deborah gave a rueful laugh. “I’m so hopeless at this sort of thing, aren’t I? A hundred clues shrieking to be noticed and I can’t make sense of a single one.”

“I thought you’d decided she wasn’t a prostitute. I thought we’d all decided that.”

“It’s just something about the way she talked and her appearance.”

“Perhaps we can let go of whatever her appearance might have suggested,” Lynley said.