Too Close For Comfort Read Online Free PDF Page B

two independent witnesses who’ve seen you with this woman on
a number of occasions.”
    Wendy
interjected, “Guv… I don’t think that's…”
    “They’re lying!
You’re lying! I’ve never seen her in my life – I swear!”
    “Listen to me,
Connors. I’ve got a routine for dealing with shits like you. I ask
three polite questions and then it gets nasty. You’ve had two. What
do you know about Ella Barrington and Maria Preston?”
    Tom paused for
a moment.
    “They were
prostitutes, weren’t they? I mean, I saw it on the news. Look, I’d
been seeing a girl for a little while. Her name was Gabriella
Poulson. She was… one of them.”
    “A prostitute?”
Wendy asked.
    Tom Connors
looked uneasy at the mention of the word.
    “Yeah. One of
them. I went to her a few months back and started to get involved.
Far too involved.
    “You mean you
fell in love with her?”
    “Sort of. I
guess. I couldn’t see enough of her. I started to see her every
night and I’d buy her presents – jewellery and stuff.”
    “Did that not
get a bit expensive? I was under the impression you worked in a
video rental shop.”
    “I do. I had
some money saved up and I worked extra hours. It’s strange, the
things you do for… y’know…”
    Wendy nodded
sympathetically.
    “I
understand.”
    “Look, I wanna
get something off my chest. When I started to fall for Gabriella it
began to dawn on me just what she was.”
    “What do you
mean, Tom?”
    “The fact that
she was… one of them. It seemed to matter more and more all the
time. One night she came over to mine. She had clearly been to
another bloke’s house just before. Her lipstick was smudged and her
underwear was skew-whiff. It felt like she had no respect for me
and I just lost it.”
    “You hit
her?”
    “Yeah. I hit
her.”
    Culverhouse
leaned forward onto the interview desk, poised like an eagle
stalking his prey.
    “And what
happened?”
    “Well I didn’t
kill her if that’s what you mean. She didn’t say a word. Just
calmly packed up and left. It didn’t strike me as being the first
time it’d happened, if you get where I'm coming from. But listen,
I’ve never seen any of those other two women before in my life. I
swear.”
    “OK Tom. We’re
going to need to check a few things with this Gabriella Poulson. Do
you have any contact details for her?”
    “Not on me. She
lives in digs on the Marshwood estate. Opposite the petrol station.
Number 4a.”
    “Right. I think
we'd better go and corroborate your story. We'll keep you in a cell
until we've backed the story up.”
    “No! You can't
keep me in here! Anyway, how can she back my story up if she's
dead? What happens then?”
    “Then you've
got some explaining to do, Mr Connors.”
     
    The Marshwood
estate was notorious in Mildenheath. Gang culture had gripped the
estate and cab drivers would no longer enter the estate for fear of
being attacked by feral youths. The estate used to be served by two
bus routes – the 34 and 62, but the local bus company had amended
the routes to circumvent the estate entirely. To most, it seemed as
though the Marshwood estate was cut off from the rest of
Mildenheath entirely, like a cancerous growth.
    It was four
o’clock in the afternoon when Wendy and Culverhouse pulled into the
estate in their unmarked car. Entering the estate in a marked
vehicle was completely out of the question. Two back-up officers
sat on the edge of the estate in another unmarked car.
    “A date?”
    “Yeah, with a
guy I bumped into in the pub the other night. He’s an
accountant.”
    “An accountant?
Right.”
    “Is there a
problem?”
    “No, no
problem. Just make sure you keep your attention focused solely on
the case, Knight. I don’t want any lovey-dovey bullshit out of you
until we’ve found our man. There's only one person I want getting
nailed at the moment, and it ain't you.”
    They made their
way towards the block of flats opposite the petrol station. It was
fortunate that Tom