To Kill For by Phillip Hunter Page B

to fix Cole up for a fall, tried to take over his firm, him and Marriot. He’s still got a load of Cole’s heroin.’
    She took it well. She was taking it all well. I had to give her that. She said, ‘I knew when I saw him it must be bad. I haven’t seen him in five, six years. I thought I was free of him. Then he turns up one night, a couple of weeks ago. Him and this bloke. Mike.’
    â€˜Mike?’
    â€˜Some old friend of Kenny’s.’
    I thought about the second man in the car at Lee Valley, the one who’d run from my sights.
    â€˜What’s Mike’s surname?’
    â€˜Glazer.’
    â€˜You know where he lives?’
    She shook her head, her lips tightening in a frown.
    â€˜And I don’t want to know. About either of them. I made a mistake years back, with Kenny. I was young and stupid. He was flash, throwing the cash about. I always knew he wasn’t legit, but I never thought he was so… so vile, you know? I think I didn’t want to know. I thought I was going to live in a mansion. Look at me.’
    â€˜You don’t know where Paget is?’
    â€˜No. I don’t.’
    Paget was going to be hard to find, but I might have more luck if I went after this Glazer. If, that was, Glazer was the second man.
    â€˜You got a photo of Glazer?’
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜He’s average height, stocky, shaved head?’
    â€˜He’s fat and bald, yes.’
    So, I had him. The other man. Paget’s accomplice. I looked at the pictures of the kids on the wall. If Paget had family, he might be vulnerable.
    â€˜These kids, are they yours and Paget’s?’
    â€˜No.’ She snapped the word at me, using it like a weapon, and her eyes sparked anger. She’d come alive for a moment, then the fury seeped away. ‘No, they’re not his. I met someone else. He had a couple of grown-up children. He… he’s gone .’ She tilted her head at the photos. ‘They’re the closest I’ve got to a family, and they’re not even mine. They never visit. They just send photos. Every time one of them has a new kid, they send a photo.’
    â€˜Got any ideas where I could find him? Glazer?’
    â€˜I don’t know anything about his life. He only came here because he was with Kenny. Kenny only came here because he wanted somewhere to stay for a while.’
    â€˜Have you got anything of theirs? Any old address books? Photos? Letters? Anything like that.’
    â€˜I’ve got nothing of theirs. Nothing.’
    â€˜There was another man, with Glazer. Young, black.’
    She nodded.
    â€˜Saw him once or twice. Don’t know him. Eric, something. Or Derek, yeah, Derek. Friend of Mike’s. They never talked about things in front of me. They were hardly ever here.’
    â€˜Where’d they go?’
    â€˜Oh, shit. I don’t know.’
    She sighed and her head lolled backwards and rested on the cushions behind her.
    â€˜Ah, Christ,’ she said. ‘What a mess.’
    She stared up at the ceiling, searching it for something, trying to see where everything had gone wrong. We listened to Browne snore. I felt tired, my head was fuzzy. I wanted to find a dark room and lie down. I wanted to stop.
    â€˜Thank you,’ she said to the ceiling.
    â€˜What for?’
    â€˜For what you did.’
    â€˜I didn’t do anything.’
    She didn’t hear me. She wasn’t listening.
    â€˜Must’ve been shock or something,’ she said. ‘Didn’t mean to take so many pills.’
    It was as good an excuse as any.
    â€˜Where do you think Paget went?’
    â€˜I don’t know. And I don’t care.’
    â€˜Give me something,’ I said. ‘Anything.’
    She looked back at me, and there was new fear in her face, like she’d just woken and was seeing me for the first time, seeing this hulking danger, lurking, waiting to strike. She pulled back, curling her