A Lesser Evil - Lesley Pearse [190]
‘I’ll tell you how it really fuckin’ was. I’ve been’aving card parties on Fridays fer years, famous for it I was cos the stakes was always high and there was usually a few birds an’ all. Then about a year ago Jack Trueman comes along and cos’e’s got those clubs an’ all up West, Molly thinks he’s the dog’s bollocks. It don’t take’er long to work out what’e likes, and that’e’ll pay well fer it. I told’er the first time she brought a young bird back, barely fifteen she were, that this was big trouble, and soon’e’d be wanting’em younger still. But she wouldn’t bloody well listen. Between the two of’em, they’d got me by the short and curlies.’
Alfie ranted on for some ten minutes about how he tried to get the card parties back to how they used to be, but Trueman had only to wave a handful of notes at Molly and she’d jump to get whatever he wanted.
Roper felt this was probably true, but guessed Alfie had almost certainly done some criminal work for Trueman too, which made it impossible for him to complain or back off when Trueman began bringing other men with the same tastes with him for these evenings.
Alfie explained in his uniquely crude manner that Trueman and his mates liked one kid to share between them, because the watching was as stimulating to them as the actual sex. They didn’t care whether it was boys or girls, as long as they were young. Molly provided them.
The youngsters, according to Alfie, were often runaways, attracted to London’s bright lights. Molly found them roaming around Soho and befriended them, offering them a bath, a meal and a bed for the night.
Roper could well imagine what a plausible mother figure Molly could be when she put her mind to it. In the past she’d almost convinced him that she was a kindly, rather naive woman. Mike, Alfie’s nephew, had also said he thought she was ‘right nice’ when he first went to live there.
Alfie said how she usually found a kid on a Thursday, made a fuss of him or her, even gave them new clothes, and then when Friday came she told them there would be a party that night. Before anyone arrived she’d give them a few drinks to relax them, and more often than not the kids thought the first overtures from one of the guests, someone taking them on their knee or giving them a cuddle, was just affection. At that point Molly would give them a drink laced with a few drops of sedative. Alfie claimed he had no idea what this was, all he knew was that she got the stuff from someone up in Soho.
‘There was a lad one night, they buggered him one after the other till’e was bleedin’,’ Alfie said indignantly. ‘I couldn’t stand it and I sez that’s the end. But Trueman,’e picked up a knife and said he’d cut off me cock and stick it in me mouth if I caused him any trouble. ’E meant it an’ all. I got to’ear that anyone who crossed’im ended up disappearing.’
‘You mean like John Bolton ended up in the river?’ Wallis asked.
‘’E what?’ Alfie exclaimed.
‘You didn’t know?’ Roper said, well aware that Alfie was kept in isolation for most of the time for his own safety, therefore unlikely to hear any gossip or news. ‘Well, I suppose you wouldn’t hear in here. Sunday week it happened. They say he was about to grass up Trueman.’
To Roper’s surprise Alfie looked genuinely upset. ‘John were a good bloke, known’im all me life,’ he said, his lip quivering. ‘’E told me I were gettin’ in over me’ead with Trueman. Too right I was, look where I am now!’
‘But he introduced Trueman to you, didn’t he?’ Roper asked.
‘Naw, whoever told you that? It were some bloke Molly knew what brought Trueman round.’
‘But Bolton was seen going into your house with Trueman.’
‘Once’e did, John’ad done some job fer Trueman and John dropped’im off at mine. I asked John to come in fer a drink fer old times’ sake.’E didn’t stay long though.’
Roper felt this was true because John Bolton had said something similar when he was pulled in for routine questioning after Angela’s death. He explained that he had hung around with Alfie as a kid and had