The Cinderella Killer (24 page)

‘Have you spoken to the police about what you saw?'

Gloria looked puzzled by the question. ‘Why the hell should I do that?'

‘Well, I think if someone's witnessed a murder it's fairly standard practice to report it to the cops.'

‘This wasn't just any murder. This was the murder of Kenny Polizzi.'

‘So what have you been doing since Friday evening?'

‘I've been in my room right here, crying my eyes out. My life ended the moment Kenny was shot.'

‘Yes, I can see it must have been hard for you. And have you thought of doing anything that might make you feel better?'

‘Yes, I've thought of shooting the person who shot Kenny.'

‘You know who he is?'

‘I know what he looks like, but I'd never seen him before that night. I still can't put a name to him. Otherwise I'd have found him by now and killed him.' Again she made this sound a perfectly logical thing to do.

‘Would you mind, Gloria,' asked Charles, ‘just telling me exactly what did happen that Friday night?'

She thought for a moment, then said, ‘Yeah, OK. You might be able to put a name to the bastard who killed Kenny.'

‘So that evening, when did you start stalking—' Her expression showed she didn't like his choice of word, so he quickly corrected himself, ‘… following Kenny?'

‘I waited around the rehearsal room, but he didn't come out at the end of the day like everyone else.'

‘No.' Charles remembered. ‘Kenny had been recording a chat show in London, so he wasn't called for rehearsal.'

‘So, anyway, I then thought he might have gone to his hotel, so I went along to the Grand and waited around the foyer, and sure enough a car delivered him there round eight o'clock. And I felt good because that meant I'd seen him, and I like to see him every day. But I thought I'd hang around just to see if he might come out again. And he did – and I thought of speaking to him, but he had this really angry expression on his face. I know his moods very well and that would not have been a good time to talk to him.'

‘I think he'd just come from a rather stormy encounter with Lilith Greenstone.'

‘Ah, well, that would explain it, Charles. Lilith was never any good for him. The worst of all his wives. I was so mad when I heard he was marrying her. I knew it wouldn't work out.'

‘So did you follow Kenny when he left the Grand?'

‘Yes. He didn't see me. He was talking angrily into his cellphone. I wasn't close enough to hear what he was saying, but I think he was making arrangements to meet someone. And then, kinda midway between the Grand and the pier, this little car draws up alongside him, and Kenny gets into it.'

‘What kind of car was it?'

‘What do I know from cars?'

‘Was it Mint Green?'

‘I don't know about Mint, but it was pale green, yeah.'

Jasmine del Rio's Figaro, it must have been.

‘Were you close enough to see the driver?'

‘Not really, but I got the impression that it was a woman.'

‘Mm. So did they drive off?'

‘No, they stayed right there in the car.'

‘For how long?'

‘Five minutes tops. Then Kenny gets out and slams the door, like he's real pissed about something. And the car drives off, and he makes a call on his cellphone. Then he goes straight to a liquor store and comes out swigging from a vodka bottle. He sits on a bench with that for a while and then he makes a couple more calls on his cellphone. Then he goes into that pub, the one near the rehearsal room.'

‘The Sea Dog.'

‘Right.'

‘And shortly afterwards I join him there.'

‘Yes. Then after a while you both come out, and I don't know where you went, but Kenny heads for the pier. And he goes under the boardwalk and he meets this guy. Shabby, wearing this scruffy light-brown coat.' Vinnie McCree, thought Charles. ‘I'm watching this from the side of a little cafe down there, so I can't hear what they're saying, but they seem to be doing some kind of deal. And the shabby guy goes and next thing Kenny's, like, snorting something out of a paper bag. Then he sits down at the foot of one of the pillars that hold up the pier and makes pretty serious inroads into the vodka bottle.'

‘You still didn't think of going to talk to him then, Gloria?'

‘No, Kenny was not a nice person when he'd been on the booze. He'd said some very hurtful things to me on occasions when he'd been drinking. What's more, down under the boardwalk he'd taken a gun out of his pocket and he was kind of fiddling with it. It wouldn't have been a good time to upset him.'

‘So what happened next?' asked Charles.

‘Well, I was thinking of coming back here, but then I didn't want to leave Kenny there in that state. You know, he might have got mugged or anything. So I wait. And it's getting quite late, no other people down at the beach level and very little traffic on the road above. Just the noise of the waves crashing against the shingle.

‘Then I hear footsteps coming down the stairs from the pier entrance and this very slender blonde girl appears. And Kenny hears her feet on the shingle and he stands up and turns to face her.

‘By now I've managed to get a bit closer and I can hear their words.

‘The girl says: “So, Kenny … have you got something for me?”

‘And he says: “Sure I've got something for you.”

‘And he raises his gun and shoots her in the forehead.'

FIRST BROKER'S MAN: I've got the yaws – it's something chronic.

SECOND BROKER'S MAN: What's yaws?

FIRST BROKER: Well, thank you. Gin and tonic.

‘W
hat did you do?' asked Charles.

‘Do? I stayed put. I wasn't going to let Kenny know I'd witnessed what just happened. He still had the gun, remember.'

‘But what did you think, Gloria? When you saw this man you'd idolized shoot someone in cold blood?'

Kenny Polizzi's Number One Fan shrugged. ‘I'm sure he had his reasons for doing it. The girl was hassling him about something.'

‘It didn't make you think less of him?'

She looked at Charles as if he'd just asked the most peculiar question in the world. ‘No. Of course not.'

‘You didn't think of calling the cops?'

‘Hell, no.'

‘But you'd just witnessed a murder.'

‘Yes, but artists like Kenny Polizzi can't be judged by the same standards as other people.'

Charles had heard that or similar lines on many occasions and they always made his blood boil. But now wasn't the moment to take issue. ‘So what did Kenny do? Just leave the girl's body lying on the shingle?'

‘No, first he made a call on his cellphone, but with the sound of the waves I couldn't hear what he was saying. Then he dragged her up to the steps that led up to the pier entrance. There was a big trash can there. He pushed the body out of sight behind it. Then he just waited, snorting more stuff from the paper bag, working his way down the vodka bottle.'

‘Did he appear to be nervous or panicky?'

‘No. He looked very calm. Anyway, after about ten minutes another man comes to join him.'

‘Someone you recognized?'

Gloria shook her head. ‘Never seen him before.'

‘What did he look like?'

‘Kinda short and round. With hair combed over his bald patch.' It was the description Charles had been anticipating. Gloria went on, ‘So the two of them talk briefly, then Kenny takes the other guy across to where the body is. And, each putting one of the dead girl's arms over their shoulders, they drag her up the steps to street level.

‘I don't want them to see me, so I go up the steps the other side of the boardwalk. Parked outside the pier entrance is this little green car.'

‘The one Kenny sat in earlier?'

‘Yes. Or one identical to it. And there was a scary moment because just as Kenny and the other guy are manhandling the body to the car, a man walking his dog goes past.'

‘How do they explain the body?'

‘No problem as it turns out. The dog-walker says, “Ah. Another young lady had too much at the Atlantis.” I don't know what he meant.'

‘It's the nightclub at the end of the pier.'

‘Oh. Anyway, the guy with the dog goes on, “In my young day women used to maintain their dignity.” And he walks off, and the other two get the girl's body into the car.'

‘Driving seat or passenger?' asked Charles, a vivid image coming to his mind of how he had found Jasmine del Rio's corpse.

‘Passenger seat. Then Kenny and the other guy go back down to the beach.'

‘Do you follow them?'

‘No. I wait at street level. I want to see where the car's going.'

‘Do you have to wait long?'

‘No. The other guy, the guy I don't recognize, he comes up, gets into the green car with the girl's body beside him and drives off.'

‘So did you follow the car?'

‘No, I was on foot.'

‘Then how did you know where he'd left the car?'

‘I had no idea where he—'

‘But you sent me an anonymous text.'

‘I sent you two texts saying you shouldn't take over Kenny's part – that's all.'

Charles Paris's mind was racing with new thoughts, but there were other facts he had to establish first. ‘So, after the car's been driven off, then you go back down to the beach to see Kenny?'

‘Yes. Then I go back down to the beach and find Kenny dead.'

FAIRY GODMOTHER: Now all is clear – so all is fine –
To the meanest intellect.

FIRST BROKER'S MAN: But what about mine?

A
s he left the Danmark B&B, Charles checked his watch. Still not twelve o'clock. Time for a little more investigation before his rehearsal call. Though in fact he was now so caught up in the case, he would have allowed nothing – even his first night as King Lear at the National Theatre – to put him off the chase.

What he had heard from Gloria van der Groot had filled in an enormous number of holes in his reconstruction of the previous Friday night. But there were still important details missing. Details which could only be provided by Kenny Polizzi, Vinnie McCree or Lefty Rubenstein. And of the three, the lawyer had the enormous advantage of still being alive.

Charles rang his cellphone number. And yes, Lefty was at his hotel. And yes, he'd be happy to meet Charles. In the bar, same as on the Sunday.

There were a few more people this time, men and women in business suits drinking coffee, all with ID cards hanging from lanyards round their necks. The hotel was clearly hosting a conference. And all the delegates seemed to be speaking in some lilting Scandinavian language. The Christmas tree was now decorated, but that did little to animate the room.

Lefty was already sitting at a table with the inevitable bottle of Diet Coke in front of him. Because of the conference delegates, there actually was a barmaid in attendance this time. Charles just ordered a double espresso. He wanted to have his wits about him.

‘So what is it, Charles?' asked Lefty. ‘You reckon you've solved Kenny's murder?'

‘I think I could be closer to a solution.'

‘Great. And, as per our agreement, you've come to share your findings with me.'

‘That's pretty much it, yes.'

‘So can I ask if there was something, some big breakthrough, that made it all clear to you?'

‘There was, I suppose. You know we talked about a woman called Gloria van der Groot?'

‘Sure. Kenny's Number One Fan.'

‘She's still here in Eastbourne.'

‘Really? I thought she'd gone back to the States.'

‘Well, she hasn't.'

‘It's no surprise she came here, though. Everywhere Kenny went, Gloria van der Groot was not far behind him. But I think she's harmless. Kenny always said she was harmless.'

‘I wouldn't be completely convinced about that. Within the last couple of hours she's pulled a gun on me.'

‘What'd you done to upset her?'

‘Taken over the part of Baron Hardup. Taken over Kenny's part.'

‘Oh yeah. Well, I guess to someone as unhinged as her that could definitely count as grounds for murder. Congratulations on the fact that she didn't succeed.'

‘Thank you. But Gloria did have some very interesting stuff to tell me about Friday night.'

‘Uh-huh?'

‘She doesn't like being called a stalker, but what she did on Friday amounted to stalking.'

‘You mean she followed him?'

‘Yes.'

‘For how long?'

‘Most of the evening.'

‘Ah.' The reaction was light, but Charles reckoned it signalled a new wariness in Lefty's manner. ‘What did she see?'

‘She saw Kenny get into Jasmine del Rio's car.'

‘This would be early on. Before he took up his pitch under the boardwalk?'

‘Yes.'

‘Presumably Gloria couldn't overhear the conversation Kenny and Jasmine had inside the car?'

‘No. But I have a pretty good idea of what they discussed.'

‘Enlighten me.'

‘Jasmine was blackmailing Kenny. You'd paid her off in LA when she threatened to spill the beans about him screwing her when she was under-age. She reckoned, now their paths had crossed again, there was more money where that came from.'

‘You're right. And her rates had certainly gone up. She was asking for fifty thousand pounds, “for starters”.'

‘And did Kenny ask you to get the money together that evening?'

‘No, no, Charles. Miracle worker I may be, but there are limits. My advice was we play it cool. Set up a meeting for the three of us the next day, work out some kinda compromise. Negotiate.'