Dead To Me - [21]

‘Taxi?’ came the answer. Janet could hear from where she was standing.

‘Bingo,’ Gill mouthed. She handed the receiver to Janet so she could get details from the dispatcher and locate the driver who had picked up Lisa.

When she came off the phone, Gill nodded: ‘Put Kevin out of his misery.’

Janet looked, Do I have to? Kevin still working his way through the directory – T for taxi.

‘Be nice,’ Gill warned. ‘What about cell site location?’

‘Later today, maybe first thing tomorrow,’ Janet said. ‘Right, I’m off to see a man about a cab.’

‘Rachel still out?’ Gill looked at her watch.

‘Still with the personal advisor,’ Janet guessed.

‘If she’s done, take her with you,’ Gill said.

Oh, bloody marvellous. Gill was determined to force them together at every opportunity. Janet phoned Rachel: ‘Where are you?’ Hoping she’d be busy.

‘On my way back,’ Rachel said, an edge to her voice, as though she thought Janet didn’t trust her.

‘Meet me at Speedy Cabs.’

‘We got the taxi!’ Rachel suddenly alive and excited.

11

SPEEDY CABS OPERATED out of a railway arch close to the canal in Ardwick. Either side were a welding outfit and a pallets store. Janet wondered if the curved roof caused a headache for the pallets firm, space they paid for and couldn’t use, not ideally suited to the square shape of the stock.

Rachel was there already having a fag by the railings. ‘Kevin came through?’ She sounded surprised.

Janet shook her head. ‘’Fraid not. Cell-phone provider.’

Rachel dropped her cig and ground it out. They crossed the cobbled street to the front of the archway, went in through a steel door that led in turn to the dispatcher’s office and a small rest area where a couple of drivers were having lunch. The telly in the corner was showing a rerun of the latest Manchester derby.

‘Ladies,’ said the dispatcher.

Janet and Rachel showed their warrant cards.

‘Kasim will be back any minute,’ he said. Then ‘Yes!’ to the screen as a shot bounced off the crossbar. ‘Up the Blues,’ he said, sniffing out their affiliation. A city of two teams. Sporting rivalry passed down from one generation to the next.

Rachel shrugged. ‘Whatever.’

Disappointed, he looked at Janet. ‘Me neither,’ she said. Ade used to follow Oldham Athletic, a suicide mission if ever there was one; went to a few matches when he was younger. Janet never fancied it.

They heard a car trundle over the cobbles and a cab pulled up in front of the office.

‘Kasim,’ the man confirmed.

‘Thanks, we’ll talk outside,’ Janet said. More privacy there.

Kasim was curious, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. He had done that thing with his eyebrows, Janet noticed, lines cut through. Looked as though his hand slipped shaving. She didn’t get it. I’m getting old, she thought. The taxi drivers look younger every day.

‘She the girl that was murdered?’ Kasim asked them when they told him what they were there for.

‘That’s right,’ Janet said. ‘You picked her up, when?’

‘Just after one.’

‘Where from?’

‘Shudehill, near the Printworks,’ he said.

‘Where did you drop her?’

‘Fairland Avenue.’

‘She was on her own?’ Janet said.

‘Yeah.’

‘Dispatch says she’s a regular fare?’

He shrugged. ‘We’re reliable. People stick with you if they know you’re gonna turn up.’

‘Did she say anything?’

‘No, just, maybe the weather?’ Like he was guessing. Janet didn’t want guesses.

‘Can you remember what she was wearing?’ Rachel said.

He exhaled noisily, indicating that was a really hard task. ‘To be honest’ – he shook his head – ‘don’t even notice what the girlfriend’s wearing half the time.’

‘Anything about the trip, about the girl? How was she?’ said Janet.

‘Quiet,’ he ventured.

An unmemorable passenger had turned out to be front-page news, but Kasim had no juicy story to dine off. He could barely remember the fare.

‘What time did you drop her?’ Janet said.

He considered, rubbing his chin with one hand. ‘Maybe quarter past one, no later.’

‘She make or receive any calls?’ Rachel said.

‘A couple. I think her phone went.’

‘And what was she saying?’

‘Sorry. You zone out, you know? Eye on the road, the traffic. Nothing sticks.’ He gave a shrug.

If Kasim’s timing was accurate, and he wouldn’t be far out, given the relatively short distance of the journey, then the calls between Sean and Lisa and Denise and Lisa would have taken place while she was on the way home.

There wasn’t much more they could learn from Kasim, but he had given them a last sighting.

‘We know she was still alive at quarter past one and that she was dead by half three. That’s a pretty tight window,’ said Janet once they were back at the station, eating sandwiches from the deli. Janet was ravenous, had gone for a double-decker BLT and a flapjack.

Rachel didn’t answer. Janet turned to look at her. She was staring into space, miles away. Dolly daydream now, thought Janet. Wonder what she has to daydream about?

Suddenly Rachel said, ‘Why get a cab? Any number of buses go up that way, and she was opposite the bus station. She’s on the dole. Why get a cab?’

Janet swallowed her mouthful. ‘Lazy, feckless, spending her benefits on taxis. Only cost her four or five quid, anyway.’