Page 249 of The Hallmarked Man
‘Won it off him.’
The young man turned his key in the lock, which was stiff.
‘How did you win it?’ asked Strike.
‘Poker,’ said the other, as the door opened.
‘You wouldn’t happen to be one of the people who were playing poker overnight with Todd on the night of June the seventeenth to eighteenth last year?’
The young man looked taken aback and not a little wary at this question.
‘I’m a private detective,’ said Strike, pulling out a card. ‘I’m investigating a murder. Did you have to talk to the police about Todd? Confirm an alibi?’
‘Yeah,’ said the young man.
‘He was definitely playing cards with you that night?’
‘Yeah,’ said the other.
‘Until what time?’
‘Four. He wanted to keep the game going. Wasn’t even winning.’
‘When did you last see Todd?’
‘I dunno… week, maybe? Why’re so many people after him?’
‘There’s been someone else?’ said Strike. ‘Apart from me and the police?’
‘Yeah. ’Nother guy came looking.’
‘When?’
‘Dunno,’ said the young man vaguely. ‘Wednesday?’
‘White guy?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Curly hair?’ said Strike.
‘I don’t know,’ said the kitchen worker. ‘He was wearing a hat.’
‘Wasn’t wearing sunglasses indoors, by any chance?’
‘Yeah,’ said the young man, mildly surprised by what he clearly thought was a lucky guess.
‘Did you talk to him?’
‘Yeah. He was banging on Todd’s door. I was trying to sleep. I went outside and said, “Todd’s gone. Fuck off making that noise.” He said, “where’s Todd gone?” I said, “I don’t know, but he owes me fifty quid.” He said, “you’ll never see that”, and he left.’
Strike pulled out his wallet and extracted five tenners.
‘Your help could be very valuable to me,’ he said. ‘Can you remember anything else about the man who came looking for him? Facial features? Build? Clothing? Accent?’
Eyes on the tenners, the young man said,
‘He wasn’t as big as you.’
