Page 58 of The Hallmarked Man
‘Know wha’ I fort ’e was? Stripogram. Fake tan an’ fuckin’ abs… I said to Mand, ’e’s a fuckin’ stripogram an’ ’e don’ wanna admit it.’
‘Clint, don’ do that,’ said Mandy sharply. Her son was trying to pull a plate off the top of the chest of drawers. When he showed signs of grizzling, she distracted him with a third biscuit. Daz, who was idly scratching his belly, said,
‘’E come down ’ere one time, Wright.’
‘Did he? Why?’ asked Robin.
‘Wan’ed to buy a bit of dope. We was ’avin’ a takeaway, an’ ’e ’ad a bit wiv us.’
‘Can you remember anything you talked about?’
‘’E said ’is girlfriend was gonna join ’im. Come an’ live wiv ’im, upstairs.’
‘Did he tell you his girlfriend’s name?’ asked Robin.
‘Nah,’ said Daz.
‘Rita, woz it?’ said Mandy vaguely.
‘Oh yeah, maybe,’ said Daz, although Robin had the impression he couldn’t remember. ‘An’ the gun fing,’ he said to Mandy, ‘remember?’
‘What gun thing was this?’ asked Robin, while Strike’s pen sped up.
‘We woz watchin’John Wickwhile we was ’avin’ the Chinese,’ said Daz, ‘an’ he said someone weren’ ’olding their fuckin’ gun properly. Tryna be the ’ard man, see?’
‘No, that Rita fing…’ said Mandy, frowning. ‘Tha’ was when ’e was proper fuckin’ stoned… Rita Linda or somefing. Asked if we knew ’er. Remember?’ she said to Daz.
‘He asked if you knew someone called Rita Linda?’ said Robin.
‘Yeah… woz it Rita Linda? I fink ’e said… didn’ ’e say ’e knew what’appenedto ’er?’ she said, appealing to her boyfriend again. ‘An’ din’ ’e say we’d see it on the news?’
‘Dunno,’ said Daz, still scratching his navel.
‘Itwozsomefing like Rita Linda.’ Mandy ran the names together: ‘Ritalinda.’
‘Ritalin-da,’ said Daz. ‘Hahaha.’
‘He said he knew what had happened to Rita Linda?’ said Robin. ‘And it would be on the news?’
‘Yeah, somefing like… an’ ’e dropped ’is doob tube, remember, Daz? An’ ’e told you it was a fuckin’ blood sample, like you was gonna nick it off ’im.’
‘I don’t understand, sorry,’ said Robin. ‘He dropped what?’
‘’Is doob tube.Youknow, where you keep your stash. Fell outta ’is pocket when he stood up. Daz went to pick it up for ’im an’ Wright grabs it away, an’ Daz says, “all right, I wasn’t gonna fuckin’ take it,” an’ Wright says, “wouldn’t be no use to you, it’s my blood sample.”’ Mandy cackled. ‘Blood sample! Was it fuck.’
‘Did he say why he was carrying a blood sample around with him?’ asked Robin.
‘Yeah, said ’e was gonna ’and it in at the doctors, an’ then ’e left.’
‘You saw the tube clearly, did you? It was definitely full of cannabis?’
‘Yeah,’ said Mandy, but then, ‘musta bin. ’E fort Daz was gonna nick ’is blow or why’d ’e be so weird about it?’
‘’E was a bit of a fuckin’ weirdo,’ said Daz. ‘Mind, when it come out, on the news, I says to Mand, “tha’s what the fuckin’ mason fing was.” ’E asked me what I fort of the masons. Sounded like ’e was finking of joining,’ said Daz, now idly examining half a joint left in an ashtray on top of the fridge. ‘Fuckin’ masons,’ he said, with a guffaw.
‘But when you heard he’d been killed in a masonic shop—’
‘Yeah, I knew why ’e’d asked. Fuckin’ masons,’ Daz said again, no longer smiling. ‘S’not funny, really, is it?’ he said, as though everyone else had been laughing.
