Jack in the Box Read Online Free PDF Page A

Dublin. Hung out at the Iron Duke, in Soho.’
    Soho. The word held different meanings for different people, but to a police officer, it meant only one thing: in the West End, and within walking distance of the theatre district, Soho had been the centre of London’s sex industry for over two hundred years. Von was old enough to remember the prostitutes packing the streets, and the cards in private windows and phone boxes advertising French lessons. Although the streets were largelycleared of prostitution by the 1950s, it thrived behind closed doors, fronted by the clip joints and massage parlours which sprang up a decade later. Since the eighties, there’d been a degree of tightening-up of licensing, but the unregulated selling of sex, by both men and women, was still widespread.
    Von took a forkful of pasta. ‘It was the Duke’s landlord who identified the boys’ bodies. Suggests they were well known there.’
    ‘Aye, the Duke’s a popular place for picking up rent boys. The entire street’s full of sex clubs and knocking shops.’ Steve handed her a photo. ‘This is Gilly McIlvanny, the first one. Gilly’s short for Gilead. He was sixteen.’
    The photo, taken from the waist up, was of a thin boy in a smart brown school blazer, cream shirt and striped tie. Gilly McIlvanny had wide blue eyes and a smile so big that Von could feel its warmth through the paper. A mop of red hair topped a face covered in large odd-shaped freckles.
    ‘And this was taken after he died.’ Steve handed her another photograph. ‘You might want to stop eating.’
    Von felt her stomach lurch as she stared at the white face, with its lidless pulpy eyes. ‘Address in London?’ she said quietly.
    ‘Lived in squats. And that’s where he was killed, a squat in the Covent Garden area, round the corner from the tube station.’
    ‘Not a place you’d expect to find a squat.’
    ‘The area’s been redeveloped long since but, in 1985, the place was riddled with derelict buildings. Gilly’s was used by several boys. His attacker blinded him with a piece of glass, then used it on the Jack in the Box. Here’s a close-up of the doll.’
    She studied the photograph. ‘It’s the same model as the one in Quincey’s room. So how was Gilly strangled?’
    ‘With string. Look at this enlargement. You can see it still round his neck.’ He winced. ‘Christ, those eyes.’
    ‘Who found the body?’
    ‘Another rent boy and his client. The next day. Gilly was lying in front of a mirror with his pants down. The client took fright and ran off but the rent boy called the police.’
    Von picked at her tuna bake, no longer hungry. ‘Did they find anything useful?’
    ‘The place was dusted and several sets of prints, mainly partials, were found. But the doll had been wiped clean. The post-mortem showed Gilly had been penetrated anally. No semen, though. And no condom was found, except ones that were weeks old.’
    She ran a hand over her face. ‘Okay, victim number two.’
    ‘Charlo Heggarty. This photo was supplied by his boyfriend, Jimmy Porteous. Porteous was also his pimp. Charlo was the only one of the boys to work through one.’
    Charlo Heggarty stared out sullenly, his dark hair swept back from his forehead in a silky pony-tail. His features were delicate, the nose small and thin, the mouth almost invisible. He wore black goth-style clothes, studded with razor-blades and pieces of metal.
    ‘Jesus, Steve, they’re so young.’
    ‘Charlo lived with Porteous. Took his clients back to their flat.’
    ‘Where was Porteous when it happened?’
    ‘Out of town with a cast-iron alibi. He discovered Charlo’s body a week later.’
    ‘A week?’ She glanced up sharply. ‘None of the neighbours noticed a smell?’
    ‘If they did, they didn’t report it. Porteous found Charlo fully clothed, but with his trousers and pants down, like Gilly. He was lying in front of the bedroom mirror. No condom was found. The killer had used Charlo’s belt for