Play Dead (D.I. Kim Stone, #4)(55)

Just the words leaving her mouth was enough to convince Kim of the futility of this exercise. The woman’s expression only confirmed her thoughts. Jean must see hundreds of faces every day. Multiply that by two or three years and Kim was looking for one face out of more than a hundred thousand. But the pound coins had to mean something.

‘Love, I’m not being funny but—’

Kim let the endearment pass and continued anyway. ‘He would have been in his mid-fifties, dark hair, a bit on the heavy side.’

Jean began to shake her head and handed a clutch of pound coins without speaking to a gangly lad who appeared to her right. She placed the note in a separate zip pocket on her pouch.

Bryant stepped forwards. ‘May have been named Alan, Charlie, Edward, Geoffrey, Ivor, Jack, Lester … ’

Kim stole a glance at her colleague as Jean frowned. ‘Hang on a minute,’ she said. ‘Did you say Ivor?’

Bryant nodded. It wasn’t a common name around these parts.

‘We used to have a bloke named Ivor come in here a lot. Used to sit and play the OXO machines for hours. Anything he won he put straight back in.’ Her eyes widened in surprise. ‘He bought a raffle ticket for whisky every week. Not for the other stuff but always for the bottle of Bell’s. Won it a fair few times as well,’ she said, nodding. ‘He hasn’t been in for years though. We assumed he got banged up for something.’

‘Why would you think that?’ Kim asked, frowning. She wasn’t sure that was the immediate conclusion with the loss of every customer.

‘Oh, no reason,’ she said, colouring, but Kim didn’t believe her.

‘That’s not true,’ Kim said. ‘Please, Jean, anything you can tell us would be greatly appreciated. We really need to find out more about this man.’

She hesitated and then sighed. ‘Hang on, I’ll be back in a minute,’ she said before walking away.

‘Jesus, guv, Woody was right when he said you can make something out of nothing,’ Bryant said, once Jean was out of earshot.

‘You weren’t too bad yourself,’ she observed. ‘I can’t believe you managed to memorise all those names.’

‘I assume you don’t keep me around for my good looks, although—’

‘This is Rita,’ Jean said, presenting a woman of similar size to herself but with a shock of deep red hair. She too wore a blue overall and a money belt.

‘Do you remember that bloke you had a bit of trouble with, Ivor the whisky bloke?’

Rita nodded and looked suspiciously at her and Bryant.

‘It’s all right, tell ’em, they’re police,’ Jean urged.

Rita looked doubtful but Jean nudged her. ‘Go on, it might be connected.’

Kim’s interest was piqued.

‘He was a big guy – overweight I mean. Not tall. A bit creepy, but you just get used to that in here. Don’t get me wrong, there’s some lovely folks that come in here and—’

‘But Ivor…’ Kim said, steering her back.

‘Well, we get kids in here now and again,’ she said, looking at Jean. ‘We do everything to stop ’em, but they ignore the signs on the door, and we get ’em out as quick as we see ’em, eh, Jean?’

Kim wasn’t interested in a bit of underage gambling on fruit machines.

‘I understand, it must be difficult,’ Kim said. ‘Now about Ivor?’

‘A while back, must be a couple of years now, I had a group of girls in and I hadn’t spotted ’em until one of ’em came over and said that Ivor had touched her mate.’

‘What did you do?’

‘Well, I couldn’t call the police… she didn’t want to make a complaint and, well, she shouldn’t have been here in the first place.’

So neither the girl or this woman had wanted to get into any trouble.

‘What about Ivor?’

‘I told him to get out and not to come back,’ she said, nodding, convinced that she’d taken the correct course of action.

‘And did he come back?’ Kim asked.

She shook her head. ‘Nah, and I never saw his mate again either.’

Kim’s heartbeat quickened. If Ivor was their man Bob, then his friend could be their first lead.





Forty-Eight





‘Okay, Stace, get me everything you can for the guy on the list named Ivor. It’s a bit thin, but there’s a chance this could be our guy.’

‘On it, boss,’ Stacey replied.

‘And while you’re at it, he had a mate named Larry something. Don’t know if he might also be listed with any of the clinics. They may have met there, and if we can find him he may be able to help.’

‘Got it,’ Stacey said before Kim ended the call.

‘What do you make of Rita’s story?’ Bryant asked as he drove towards Stourbridge. On the other side lay Stourton and the home of Jemima Lowe’s ex head teacher.

Kim shrugged in response. ‘Could have been a harmless misunderstanding and I’ve got Stacey barking up the completely wrong tree… but right now it’s the only tree we’ve got and for a guy with no form of identity I think every move forwards is going to be a leap of faith.’