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CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

N ina had just left a slack-jawed Robert back at her flat. She huffed, frustrated not at him but at the woman who’d hurt him. According to Daisy and Billy, Anne had been manipulative, especially with Robert. Of course, he needed a minute or a day to process a connection between Anne and Jonas. Nina had used that reason and dogged persistence on him and then hiked up High Street to the St Mungo mural alone.

Her lungs worked overtime, trying to suck in air.

A few tourists were taking pictures of the mural – this place never lacked someone who’d wandered beyond the typical tourist spots in the city.

Biting the inside of her lip, Nina stood there on the pavement, on the exact spot where the biker had attempted to collide with them, just one store down from where the lockers were. Unlike last time, there was no black SUV with tinted windows hanging around.

Either that car had been a false lead or they’d grown weary of waiting and left.

Nina strode up to the locker shop and pushed through the door. The loudspeakers crackled out some old tunes, the lyrics unintelligible.

The man behind the till looked up, his eyes so droopy, he might’ve been asleep. ‘You alright?’

Nina nodded, turning around to see what they sold.

On the first row of shelves sat sweets, chocolates, packets of crisps and water bottles. On the back, a coloured cabinet held a row of vapes, batteries, magazines and tourist memorabilia. A sign on the back wall pointed to the lockers.

Nina picked up a packet of salt and vinegar crisps and approached the counter. ‘If I wanted a locker, what’s the price?’

The man scratched his short beard. Between the shaggy hair covering his face and that loose jumper hanging off him, she could barely decipher any identifying attributes – no eye colour, no height, weight, nothing except for those clothes. However, when he smacked a laminated leaflet on the counter, Nina did catch sight of his bony fingers sparkling with a few silver rings. Unfortunately, just like him, the leaflet appeared illegible – the plastic had bent and creased, tearing the paper underneath.

He tapped the leaflet. ‘The prices are on there.’

Nina had no clue what the average cost for a locker was. She peered at the page and found a barely visible pricing chart. According to it, the tiniest box lockers started at a tenner for a week. It seemed a bit much considering you could force the locks open with a little push. They could hardly charge this much for no security, could they?

Nina angled the sheet. The entire thing was done up in ochre, a picture of the lockers on the bottom right. The store’s address was on the top, alongside a five-star testimonial.

‘How do I pay?’

The lad shrugged. ‘Advance now, and in cash at the end of the tenure.’

Nina slid the leaflet over to him. ‘Can I pay now by card?’

A shake of the head was all the answer she got.

After a while, Nina nodded. ‘Is it cash only then?’

Once again, he tapped at something on the bottom of the leaflet. Nina hunched over the paper, trying to see what he pointed at.

In white lettering at the bottom of the sheet, in a font barely visible to the naked eye, was written ‘all transactions in cash only’.

Ah. ‘Thank you. But what happens if I don’t come back at the end of my tenure?’

This inspired a smile on the lad’s face. ‘We open the locker and sell whatever’s in it.’ He pointed to the items on the shelves behind him. ‘Want anything?’

If Anne had a locker here full of her things and hadn’t returned to pay at the end of her locker’s tenure, could they have emptied it and sold them?

Nina’s heart began to race. ‘Can you just sell things?’

‘It’s in our T&Cs.’

Frowning, Nina once again tried to locate the fine print. ‘I can’t see anything.’

He shrugged. ‘It’s faded.’

Still, she flashed him a brilliant smile. ‘Well, I’ll remember to pay up at the end of each period. Don’t want strangers owning my things. Still, I’m going to look at what you’ve got.’

She shuffled further into the shop until the lad’s shoulders no longer blocked her view of the shelves. The items on display ranged from a single-eyed doll to a black box stacked with old photographs. Nina caught sight of some vintage books, clothes, a pouch, a wallet, a stamp collection… The one thing she couldn’t find were papers or files of any kind.

‘What do you do with things that are perishable?’

‘That’s not allowed. We don’t want spiders or flies using our lockers.’ With a flourish, he pointed to the bin. ‘But if an eejit sneaks something in, we bin it.’

‘What about personal documents?’

Once again, the lad pointed to the bin.

Nina frowned. ‘What if they’re important documents?’

‘We’re running a business, not a charity.’

The man was too unsociable to be working in a shop and manning a till. No wonder the place had no customers.

Nina would give him another chance. If Anne had a locker here, whatever was in there had to be pertinent to the murders.

Nina shoved a hand into her pocket and pulled out a wad of cash. She flashed the orange note on top… not a tenner or a twenty but the newly minted ￡50 with King Charles emblazoned upon it. The lad’s eyes brightened – then dimmed when she shoved the cash back into her pocket and produced a fiver.

She slapped the note on the desk. ‘I suppose I’ll take these crisps, since you can’t be more helpful.’

Immediately, his hands went up, and a smile bloomed on his face. ‘No need to say that. You didn’t ask me for help.’

‘I asked you about food and documents.’

The lad picked up the crisp packet and scanned it. Then he sighed. ‘I didn’t lie. The boss is very touchy about people “overstaying their welcome”. If someone is overdue and we don’t clear up the locker, he takes the dues from our pay cheque.’

‘And he pays you in cash, so you can’t prove he’s done that.’ Chances were this lad had no employment contract with his boss either. So there was no law that could save him.

He nodded. ‘He fleeces us as it is.’

‘So, are all the lockers full?’

‘Aye, me and Ed were discussing how that’s the case, you know. The man never advertises or anything, but the lockers are always full.’

Nina set the fiver on the counter, then added a tenner to it. ‘And?’

‘We’re not to lease out specific lockers. It’s like they’re reserved, but no one accesses them – ever.’

Another fiver joined the pile. He might’ve been a right prick at the start, but surely this would lead her somewhere. ‘Can you tell me which ones are reserved?’

‘Why?’

Nina tapped the growing pile of money on the counter. ‘I’m not paying you to ask questions. Tell me.’

The man shook his head. ‘I don’t want him to catch us. He has cameras everywhere. I’ll lose my job if he finds out I’m telling you anything. He doesn’t like us being snoopy.’

Nina wanted answers, but she wasn’t going to cost this lad his job. Besides, if he stayed on and she needed him for more answers in the future, she could hit him up again.

‘Okay, let’s talk about something else. The documents. Did you bin any recently?’

The lad’s eyes flicked to the camera. ‘Are you going to get something else?’

Nina picked up a stack of tabloid newspapers and smacked them on the counter, right above the cash. She pulled the fiver she’d offered out of the pile. ‘If you’re going to be like that.’

‘Sorry! He doesn’t like us talking to customers either.’

‘Sounds like a right bastard. Now about those documents – did you bin any in the last few months?’

‘No, he didn’t,’ a raspy voice said from behind Nina. ‘But I picked some up.’

Nina froze. Oh shite! That was a voice she recognised and had hoped to never hear again.