Kiss & Die - Lee Weeks [46]
Mann didn’t have any moral high ground to even teeter on. He had paid for sex himself, but only the once. It had been as sexy as taking a crap. Mann liked to please his women. He liked to feel they were both in the same sexed-up space. For him any sex was definitely not better than no sex. He liked to take his time, it gave him pleasure. He didn’t feel like it when there was a meter running. He looked across at Michelle, she was getting more nervous. She looked about to leg it. If Michelle was looking shifty, she had a reason.
He took his drink from the barman and was about to take his first sip when it was almost knocked out of his hands.
‘I do apologize,’ a man next to him spoke. He was English, in his mid-forties, with black curly hair, large light-grey eyes. ‘Let me get you another.’
‘No need.’
The barman handed Mann a napkin to wipe his arm.
‘Please, I insist.’ He signalled to the barman who replaced Mann’s glass with a fresh one. ‘Cheers.’ He raised his glass. ‘My name’s Peter Thorne.’
Mann raised his. ‘Johnny Mann. Thanks for the drink. You passing through?’
‘Yes. Here for three nights then on to the mainland. What about you? You live here?’
Mann nodded. Two girls walked past and gave them the eye. He grinned at Mann. ‘Temptation everywhere you look here. How does a married man cope with it?’
Mann shook his head. The alcohol had reached the spot, he began to feel mellow.
‘I’m not married; I can get tempted all I like.’
‘Clever man. Stay single. I try to be good but it’s a lonely world on the road. I’m away from my family for eight months of the year altogether. I sometimes wonder what I’m doing it for. Like tonight – I ring home,’ he picked up his phone, looked at the screen and then dropped the phone back on the mat, ‘no reply. My wife texts me. She’s out, of course, having fun.’ He shook his head. ‘Don’t get me wrong, she’s entitled to a life. It’s not her fault I have to work so hard.’
‘Yeah, this looks like hard work.’ Mann glanced around the busy bar at the businessmen on expense accounts.
Peter Thorne grinned sheepishly. ‘I suppose you’re right. What do you do?’
‘This and that. Import export. Excuse me.’ Mann looked back at the stage – Michelle was gone. ‘I’ll be back.’ He put his drink on the bar and went after Michelle.
Chapter 31
He caught up with Michelle in the ladies and jammed his foot in the toilet door just as she was shutting it. ‘A word?’
‘Christ, don’t I get any privacy?’ Michelle said, quickly stuffing something back in her bag.
‘Is it my imagination or are you avoiding me? Give me your bag.’
A woman came in to use the bathroom. ‘Sorry love, we’re closed.’ Mann leaned against the door to stop her from entering.
Michelle closed her eyes, took a deep breath and handed him her bag. He tipped the contents out in the sink, took out his pen and started turning over the contents. He flicked out a man’s wallet. He opened it up. There was a driving licence on one side, a space on the other where a photo should have been. Michelle sighed heavily. ‘I never saw that before, I promise, Inspector.’
‘What were you going to do? Wait for him to be busy at the bar and then take a quick trip up to see if he’d left anything interesting in his room?’
‘I don’t know what that’s doing in there, Inspector, I swear.’
Mann put the wallet in his pocket. He picked up a box of Viagra.
‘It’s for the old guys…it helps.’
‘Very thoughtful, Michelle. And this?’ He picked up a bag of meth amphetamine. Underneath were three foil strips of small white pills. He turned it over in his hand. ‘That’s a lot of GHD. You having to knock people out first these days are you, Michelle?’
She rolled her eyes and shook her head. ‘Give me a break, Inspector. Some people get a bit nasty. It calms them down. It doesn’t do them any harm. They think they had a good time.’
Mann shook his head and gave her a scathing look.
‘I have kids to feed.’
‘Your eldest is Lilly, right? I went to her school today. Did you