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“Any idea what she did for a living?”
“I think we all pretty much know what she did to earn money.”
Gardener realized what she meant about ‘socializing’. He and Reilly were pretty much spot on. “Go on.”
“Far be it from me to cast judgment. I’m sure we’ve all done things we’re not proud of, and I’ve no wish to see what happened to her happen to anyone. But he who lives by the sword will die by it.”
Very fitting, thought Gardener. “Are you intimating she was a prostitute?”
“Very much so. Visitors at all hours. I’ve seen her take as many as six men a night back there.”
Interesting, thought Gardener. If you were that good at the game, you could make a lot of tax-free money. Maybe his partner had been right about the pimp controlling her and keeping it all.
“Did you recognize any of them?”
“One or two.”
“Did you see any of those men there tonight?”
“No.”
“Okay. We’ll need names and addresses. When I’ve finished interviewing, I’ll leave Patrick to collect that information from you. When did you last see her alive?”
“This morning, about ten o’clock. She was hanging out some washing, mainly her smalls, and when I say small, I’m not exaggerating. You should have seen them.”
Gardener decided he probably shouldn’t. “Did you speak to her?”
“No. I saw her through my kitchen window.”
“What time did she take the laundry in?”
“Not really sure,” said Beryl Potts. “Friend of mine popped round for a cuppa about two o’clock. I don’t think it was still on the line then.”
“Can you describe how you found her, the events that led up to it?”
The woman relaxed, leaned back in her chair. Her eyes grew vacant. Gardener could tell she was reliving the scene in next-door’s kitchen.
“Well. It’s Saturday night, see, and I usually go out to the social club a few streets away. It’s a good club, one of the few surviving in this area. Always have a turn on, and the bingo. I enjoy a game of bingo, but I go mostly for the company.”
“What time did you leave the house?”
“Eight o’clock?”
“See anything unusual, then?”
“No,” she shook her head. “I locked my front door, turned right at the end of the path and went off around the corner. But I looked over at her house. Her front door was closed, and I couldn’t hear any music. Certainly not that awful row that was playing when I found her.”
“There was no car outside her house?”
“No.”
“So, you went off to the club for a night out. See any people on the streets you didn’t recognize?”
She thought, and she hadn’t. She’d met up with her friend around the corner and they’d strolled to the club together, which had taken them about twenty minutes.
“What time did you come back?”
She glanced at her watch, something Gardener often found amusing when he asked a question relating to time.
