The woman with the Porcelain Neck Part 2

This is part 2 of the WOman with the Porcelain neck read part 1 here 

I headed over to Cupcakes, at the appointed hour.  Even with the sun shining it was a drab and desperate place. I didn’t want to go in but I had no choice. Hristov was all smiles, but Santa and the barman eyed me with suspicion. Hristov had sorted out an office for me to use and one by one the girls trooped in. They all had a hollow look in their eyes, it wasn’t that they didn’t care about Louisa, it was just that it was a hazard of the job. This time it was her, next time it might be any of them, that’s life. Their stories were the same, Louisa was a nice girl, she was uncomplaining, no she hadn’t been having an affair with Hristov and no she hadn’t talked about running away. Their stories were too similar for comfort, but I didn’t get the feeling that they were lying to me, hiding something maybe, but lying no. All of them said I should talk to Santa. Said he was a nasty piece of work. He often tried to make it with the girls and wouldn’t take no as an answer. He wasn’t adverse to a slap or two either. Maybe this time he’d taken it one step to far.
Santa was defensive, his body language alone told me he was not about to cooperate.
‘What can you tell me about the girl?’ I asked.
‘What do you already know?’ He said.
‘Where were you on the night she disappeared.’
‘How am I supposed to know?’ He countered.
‘Listen buddy,’ I snapped, ‘I’m the one asking the questions. Mr Georgiev assured me you’d cooperate, so I suggest you stop playing the tough guy.’ He looked at me nonplussed.
‘Do you ever dally with the girls’ I asked.
‘Hey, I work in a sweet shop, of course I suck on a lollipop or two.’

Jeez the guy was creepy. I wanted to slap him but took a deep breath instead.
‘Do you ever slap them around?’
‘A girl steps out of line, she deserves a slap.’ He said coolly.
‘They’re humans not animals.’ I spat back.
Santa laughed. It took all my willpower to keep my fists down. This man was the pits.

‘You ever sleep with the missing girl?’
‘I don’t sleep with them Mr Archer, I fuck them.’
‘Listen’ I said getting up close and personal, ‘what you do when you are alone is up to you, but when you are talking to me you show women some respect. And it’s Mr Stanley. You understand.’
Santa sneered in my face.
‘Get the hell out of here.’ I said.
‘Listen Mr Stanley.’ he said as he was leaving. ‘Girls disappear from here all the time, they usually end up dead, I wouldn’t hold out any hope of finding that whore alive.’
I was thankful that scumbag was out of my sight before I did something I might regret.
The barman was next and he could not have been more different to Santa. He was charming, he answered all my questions and gave more info than anyone else. But although he gave answers, he didn’t actaully have any.

I sat in Parker’s nursing a drink. So many questions so few answers. A girl can’t just simply disappear into thin air, somebody knew something but no one was telling. If so many girls disappeared, why was Hristov so concerned about this one? Why was Santa so defensive? Why was the barman so polite? I signalled to Parker I wanted another drink. As soon as he put it on the table it dawned on me. I’d been focussed on what they were saying not the how. I needed to talk to the barman again and quickly.

For part three click here