Soho Killers

Book 0: The DCI Banham Series

by Linda Regan

Genres: Crime Fiction

Synopsis

The second in the hard-hitting DCI Banham series by acclaimed actress Linda Regan. When a group of young women working in London?s sex trade become involved in a murder investigation, they come up with a story which results in the wrong person being convicted. Now, twenty years later, that person is out of jail ? and somebody has started killing the women involved in the case. With the threat of blackmail hanging over them, the remaining women arrange a meeting ? but it?s anyone?s guess if they will all make it there alive? Stymied by the complex relationships between the people in the case, DCI Banham is perplexed ? and his personal life isn?t offering any respite, for he?s rapidly falling for his deputy, Sergeant Grainger ? a woman who does not want to mix her private and professional lives.

Release date: August 13, 2016

Publisher: Accent Press

Print pages: 273

Sample

NEARLY TWENTY YEARS AGO…

Shaheen lifted nervous fingers and touched the throbbing, delicate area under her left eye. The flesh was puffy, and its normal light brown colour had a mauve sheen. By tomorrow she’d have a whopper. But this is nothing, she thought, glancing in the mirror at the other five girls who were happily dressing behind her. A much bigger problem faced them all, and it was because of her.

She released the hook on the black and red lace suspender belt and peeled the sweaty black fishnet stockings down her shapely brown legs, leaving only the red satin G-string that was the uniform of the Scarlet Pussy Club strippers.

She tossed the stockings toward the grubby white plastic washing basket that overflowed in the corner. They missed. Susan, standing stark naked by the basket, picked them up and threw them in.

Shaheen smiled a ‘thank you’. In the mirror she watched Olivia and Katie, sitting together as always, on a flimsy wooden bench. They were both tall, stunning blondes with perfect bodies. Shaheen could see why Ahmed had chosen to use them as a double lesbian act. As solo strippers they were naturally sexy and scintillating, and the punters loved them; but the money-grabbing, perverted bastard was shrewd enough to know that together they would pack his seedy club to capacity. Not that they were lesbians – not even close.

Olivia’s enormous bosom welled over the edge of the strawberry pink boob tube she was now wearing. Katie was dressed in an almost identical top, in pastel blue, and although her boobs were not large, they were in proportion to her tiny little waist and snug bottom.

The other three girls were all naked and sharing the single towel Ahmed provided. They took turns to wipe the sweat from their overheated bodies before clambering into their street clothes. Shaheen knew they were all looking forward to being paid and having Sunday off before another week of hard work and degradation began.

None of them had any idea.

She dabbed brown powder over her bruised and aching eye, then reached for her short white rah-rah skirt and broderie anglaise top. She despised herself for what she was doing. She liked the girls, and they were kind to her and seemed to accept her. She didn’t think badly of them, but she’d had a different upbringing and she was still a virgin. Now Ahmed was going to take it out on them, and they didn’t deserve it. They needed their jobs here a lot more than she did.

Shaheen’s parents had been good to her, put food in her mouth and given her a good education; they were even willing to pay for her to go to college. So why had she been so stupid? They had shown her love, and she had repaid them by running from their suffocating ways to work in a Soho strip club. Three of these girls were students, trying to work their way through college. They needed their wages. They’d had to learn to strip in a way that turned the punters on, and made them pant all the way to the bar to purchase the overpriced drinks – and give in to Ahmed’s disgusting sexual demands. Shaheen was a virgin, and because he needed a brown-skinned girl, she had been excused the sex.

Or so she thought. Now Ahmed had gone back on his word. He had told her the only pay she would get if he didn’t get his perks was another black eye, and this one really hurt. But worse still, he had said the other girls wouldn’t get their wages if she didn’t give in to him. The money wasn’t important to her; she could walk out and go home to her parents. But the girls had been kind to her, and she didn’t want to drop them in it like that. She just didn’t know what to do.

‘Thank the Lord it’s Saturday,’ Theresa said in her soft Dublin accent, flinging her nun’s costume in the washing basket. ‘Money in my purse, and a day in bed.’

Shaheen wanted to cry. How could she tell them it wasn’t going to happen?

Kim was standing nude in the middle of the room, using the grubby towel to wipe the sweat that ran from the edge of her short brown hair down her long slender back.

‘It’s like an oven in here,’ she said, fanning herself with the towel. ‘Shall I open the window and risk the stale curry from the gents’ urinal next door?’

Theresa was now sitting on the floor, wearing nothing but her red uniform G-string and zipping scuffed red boots over her skinny, freckled legs. She tossed her mane of red hair out of her face. ‘Go on, the smell of my feet is probably worse,’ she joked.

Susan bent forward, and her heavily peroxided, waist-length hair nearly touched the floor as she pulled a nylon brush through it. At twenty-one, Susan was the oldest of the girls. She had been stripping all her working life, and had become a mother-figure to the others, guiding and protecting them. She lifted her head and grinned. ‘I thought I could smell cheese.’

The other girls laughed, but Shaheen couldn’t.

‘What’s wrong, love?’ Susan asked her. ‘You’re not yourself tonight.’

She shook her head, but suddenly everything was too much. Covering her mouth with her hand, she burst into tears.

Kim moved from the window and rubbed Shaheen gently on the back. ‘What is it?’

‘I didn’t do the sex bit for Ahmed,’ Shaheen said. ‘He said as long as I stripped all the way and the punters liked me, he’d let me off because I’m a virgin.’

‘The punters love you,’ Susan said, slipping an arm round her.

Their concern made her feel worse. ‘Well, he’s gone back on his word. He hit me again when I pushed him away.’ She gingerly stroked her swollen eye, and started to cry again. ‘I don’t know how to do a blow job, I’m a virgin,’ she sobbed.

‘Perverted bastard,’ Susan said. ‘I never fuckin’ gave him a blow job. That’s a wind-up.’

The room went quiet.

After a few seconds Katie said, ‘Olivia and I had to.’

‘He made us,’ Olivia agreed.

‘I said I wanted to earn enough to go to drama school,’ Katie told them, ‘and Olivia said she needed quick money to go to college too, to be a lawyer. Ahmed said it boiled down to the same thing – we both wanted to tell lies for a living. He said we’d be great as a double act. Then he said we had to prove ourselves and do the full lesbian job, as a sort of private audition, just for him.’

Olivia giggled with embarrassment.

‘He knows we aren’t really lesbians,’ Katie said. ‘He is a perv, though. He was getting his rocks off while we did it.’

Shaheen noticed Kim blush and look at the floor.

Olivia nodded. ‘He was wanking while we were pretending to have it off. We couldn’t stop giggling. We only agreed because we needed the job so desperately.’

‘He shoved a big dildo up me,’ Katie added. ‘It really hurt.’

Olivia winced and nodded.

The room fell silent again. Shaheen felt even worse.

Kim said, ‘He wanted me to give him a blow job but I told him I was gay. I said I desperately needed money to go to ballet school and do a choreography course. So he made me masturbate to ballet music.’ She shrugged. ‘I did it. I stripped off and spread my legs over a chair.’ She flicked an embarrassed glance to Olivia and Katie. ‘I thought it was quite funny, till he stuck a rubber penis up my back passage and called me Dusty Springfield.’

Shaheen was shocked. Suddenly she wanted to run home to her parents. But she was determined not to let these girls down.

‘Filthy fucker,’ Susan spat.

Theresa’s pale, freckled face suddenly turned pink. Against the red of her hair, Shaheen thought she looked like a Belisha beacon. ‘I did the full works,’ she admitted in a whisper. ‘The electric bill was way overdue, and me mam’s off licence was refusing to give us any more on tick. Life with me mam without gin is unthinkable, so I just did it. Then the next night he made me give him a blow job. It was stinky and floppy and I’d rather not remember it, if it’s all the same to you.’

Theresa slipped a cotton dress over her thin, freckled body, bare apart from the red satin G-string. As she reached behind her to pull the zip up, she said quietly, ‘If you don’t know how to do one, wait till someone you love shows you, that’s my advice.’

Olivia smiled. ‘You’ve met that someone now.’

‘Good for you,’ Katie added.

Theresa blushed scarlet again, looking at Olivia. ‘You don’t mind me having him, do you?’

Olivia shook her head. ‘If he makes you happy, I’m delighted. It’s the least you deserve.’

‘He’s great,’ Theresa said dreamily. ‘I’m really glad you ditched him for Fat Kenneth.’

Olivia pulled a white blouse around her shoulders and over the pink boob tube. ‘Brian’s too nice for me,’ she said.

‘That’s not true,’ Katie protested. ‘You deserve someone nice too.’

‘I can’t cope with nice people,’ Olivia said. ‘Anyway, Fat Kenneth is quite nice really.’ She leaned in to the mirror to check the mascara around her wide violet eyes wasn’t smudged, then gave Shaheen a saucy smile. ‘He’s also stinking filthy rich. That’s a big turn-on for me. So you’re very welcome to nice Brian, Theresa.’

‘Sensible girl,’ Susan said.

‘I’m going to make my own money,’ Katie said. ‘That’s the only reason I’m doing this crap. I’m going to be a famous film star. Then I’ll love ’em and leave ’em, until I meet Mr Right. Then I’ll marry for love.’

The atmosphere had lightened again, and Shaheen felt another surge of guilt. ‘Ahmed’s making threats,’ she blurted out.

‘He’s always making threats.’ Kim had been tying the strings of Shaheen’s wraparound bodice; she stopped as she caught the other girl’s eye. ‘What do you mean?’ she asked warily.

‘Money threats,’ Shaheen said weakly.

The girls exchanged glances. ‘Why didn’t you say so before?’ Susan said, an edge creeping into her voice.

‘What threats, exactly?’ Kim asked.

‘He says if I don’t let him have my virginity, he … he won’t pay any of you either. I … I’m sorry. I didn’t want to make trouble.’

Five sets of eyes burned into her. Theresa shouted, ‘I’ve got to have that money tonight. Mam owes over two hundred pounds to different off-licences, and we’ve no food for the weekend, and …’

‘Oh, ’e’ll fucking pay us.’ Susan’s tone was steely. ‘We’ve earned it, and we ain’t going to beg that fucker for nothing.’

At first Shaheen had been shocked by Susan’s constant use of the F-word; before coming to the club she had barely heard it twice in her life, but now she heard it a few dozen times every night. It had taken some getting used to, but she had grown to like Susan, and trust her, as they all did.

Katie looked up from her seat on the bench. ‘I’ll remember this,’ she said. ‘When I’m a famous actress, I’ll use it for my motivation. How it felt to be afraid and desperate for the money I worked all week for in a poxy Soho strip club.’

Olivia looked surprised. ‘I don’t think you should ever admit you did it. This is the pits.’

‘I’m not ashamed,’ Kim said. ‘It’s all a form of art.’

Susan’s dirty laugh was famous. ‘A blow job on Ahmed Abdullah ain’t fucking art!’

‘Don’t remind me,’ Theresa said with a giggle. ‘It was like a mouldy chipolata sausage, and I thought he’d never come.’ ‘We’ve all more than earned our wages,’ Susan declared. ‘’E ain’t pulling that one.’

‘Didn’t you have to do anything for him?’ Shaheen asked.

Susan picked up the G-strings and oddments of clothing that littered the floor and threw them into the wash basket. ‘I used to be ’is bit on the side. I used to lie there and think of the money. I’m too old for ’im now, but that suits me fine.’ She turned back to face them, looking first at Olivia, then at Theresa. ‘You don’t think this has got anything to do with Theresa and Brian, do you?’

Theresa frowned. ‘Why should it have? He didn’t say anything when Olivia was with Brian.’

Shaheen shook her head vehemently. ‘No, it’s all because of me. He said he’d withhold all our money until I did it with him.’ Her hand went back to her cheek. ‘I’m so sorry.’

‘That’s it, then.’ Katie picked up her satchel bag. ‘I’m going to confront him. Who’s coming?’

‘Me.’ Olivia grabbed her small holdall.

Susan raised a hand. ‘Let’s all go. There’s just one of him and six of us. Brian, too, if we have to.’

Theresa nodded. ‘I’ve got to have my money tonight. If he refuses, we’ll take him hostage and just grab it. He keeps it in his top drawer. It’s ours, we’ve earned it – it wouldn’t be stealing.’ She looked at Shaheen and shook her head sadly. ‘I don’t know why you don’t just go home to your parents. We all need our wages; you don’t.’

Shaheen started to cry again. ‘But I do. I need to stand on my own two feet, I really do.’

‘If you needed it like we do, you’d have agreed to Ahmed’s terms and humiliated yourself like we’ve all had to,’ said Olivia with a touch of acid.

‘To get enough money to make something of our lives,’ Katie added.

‘Or even just to pay our way out of poverty,’ Theresa added quietly.

Shaheen looked at the floor. Her eye hurt even more as tears flowed out of it.

‘Don’t let’s argue,’ Kim pleaded. ‘Susan’s right, we’ve earned it, and we’re six against one. Let’s stick together and go and get it. I want to go home.’

‘Is all the washing in?’ Susan asked in her motherly tone. ‘Check you’ve initialled your G-strings, then we know we won’t get anyone else’s.’

‘I wash my own,’ Shaheen said. ‘At least then I know they’re clean.’

‘And he hasn’t been sniffing them,’ said Theresa with a snort of laughter.

They walked two by two along the narrow corridor, Shaheen behind the other girls. She still felt dreadful; this was all her fault.

‘I’m glad you’re OK about me and Brian,’ she heard Theresa say over Olivia’s shoulder.

‘Oh, that was just a fling,’ Olivia answered. ‘He always fancied you, but you used to dash off to look after your mum. And Ken’s more my type.’

‘Sports car, and rich parents,’ Theresa giggled.

‘And he’s already at law school, so we’ve got lots in common.’

‘You’ve a good future after going through all this shit,’ Theresa said. ‘Enjoy it, and don’t settle down until you’re really ready.’

‘I’ll be ready,’ Olivia answered with a little laugh. ‘If he’s rich enough.’

‘You won’t need to marry,’ Katie chipped in. ‘You’ll make it for yourself. The richest lawyers are the ones with no scruples.’

‘Suits me,’ Olivia laughed.

‘She’ll be a great lawyer,’ Kim said. ‘She’s got it all – brains and beauty.’

‘I haven’t got anything,’ Katie said. ‘That’s why I want to be an actress – so I can pretend to be somebody else.’

‘What?’ exclaimed Kim. ‘You have the face of an angel and a beautiful figure. Every man who comes to the club is in love with you.’

‘And every woman,’ Olivia teased.

Listening to their banter, Shaheen longed to be one of the crowd. Whatever their backgrounds, they cared for and supported each other. All she had done was make their tough lives tougher. There was only one thing she could do: offer to give Ahmed what he wanted. She opened her mouth to speak, but Susan put a finger to her lips to quieten them all. They were outside Ahmed’s office door.

Susan flung it open and marched inside. ‘We’ve come to get our money,’ she said.

The other girls followed her in and stood in a line behind her. Ahmed was sitting in his black leather chair, counting a pile of grubby notes on the desk in front of him. He swiftly put the notes away in the top drawer, locked the drawer and pocketed the key, then lifted a glass of brandy and took a large sip. His dark eyes swept along the line of girls, coming to rest on Shaheen.

‘Tell her to fulfil her contract and I’ll pay you,’ he said, waving the glass in her direction.

Susan took a deep breath. ‘You gave her the job ’cause you needed a brown-skinned stripper …’

‘I did.’ He lifted the glass again. ‘But I taste all the girls.’

‘We’re strippers, not whores,’ Kim said sourly.

‘Same thing. Call it manager’s perks. Those are my rules. Either she gives out or no one gets paid. Choice is hers.’

Tears stung Shaheen’s eyes again. This was all her fault. She felt Kim’s arm slide around her.

‘Why do you stroke her?’ Ahmed’s voice was silky. ‘Ah, is it because she is also a lesbian?’

‘She’s upset, Ahmed.’ Susan’s tone was placating.

‘So she should be. She’s let you all down.’

‘No!’ Olivia shouted. ‘It’s you – you’ve let us all down.’

His ugly mouth twisted with amusement; he was obviously enjoying the power he had over them.

‘Yes,’ Katie butted in. ‘You said …’

‘I’ll do it with you.’ Shaheen was acutely aware of the tremble in her voice, but she braved it out. ‘As long as you promise to pay them. Theresa needs it to pay the gas bill and…’

But Ahmed wasn’t listening. He stood up, moved swiftly round the desk and grabbed her. She gagged as his mouth bruised hers, then shrieked as he lowered his head to her cleavage and bit her. He reached up behind him and pressed a switch; a video recorder mounted on the wall clicked on. Then he was unbuckling his belt and pulling his zip down. ‘Come on then,’ he invited. ‘Anyone want to join in?’

Olivia looked at Katie in horror. ‘That’s a camera. He videoed us all. When we did it with him. When we performed for him. Didn’t you? Didn’t you!’ she yelled at Ahmed.

‘Of course.’ He slid his hand up and down his swollen dick. ‘Hey, let’s have a party.’

Shaheen tried to back away but he grabbed her by both arms. She clenched her teeth, too terrified to scream.

Kim forced her way between them. ‘Leave her alone,’ she shouted.

Olivia pushed her aside and backed Ahmed towards the wall. ‘Where are they?’ she snarled. ‘I want those tapes. We’ll have a life after this – I’m not having mine wrecked by some sleazy pervert.’

Shaheen was sobbing hysterically. Ahmed pushed Olivia and sent her flying, then seized Shaheen and pulled her towards him. ‘Never mind her, darling.’ He put her hand on his swollen dick. ‘Here, feel. That’s just for you.’

Shaheen let out a loud shriek, and Kim intervened again. She was taller than Ahmed, slim and muscular, and in good shape from her dance training. She elbowed him in the ribs and pushed him sideways, winding him a little. ‘Leave her alone!’ she yelled again. ‘That’s rape!’

‘That cupboard,’ Susan shouted to Katie and Olivia. ‘All ’is private stuff’s in there.’

Ahmed was forcing Shaheen back against the wall. Susan waded in to help Kim pull him off; he flailed at them and pulled her towards him, but was distracted as Olivia and Katie opened the cupboard and began to fling its contents on the floor. ‘Oi, you two! Pack it in!’ he shouted.

Shaheen slumped against the wall as Susan followed Ahmed across the room.

‘There’s whips and handcuffs and God knows what in here,’ she exclaimed.

‘And videos!’ That was Olivia. ‘They’ve got our names on them. The bastard’s even labelled them.’

Something fell to the floor with a loud clatter, then Shaheen watched in horror as Ahmed reached over the girls’ heads and grabbed a whip from a high shelf. She held her breath – but he only cracked it against the floor to get their attention.

He cracked it again, and this time it landed on Kim’s back. Kim gasped with shock, then grabbed the glass from his desk and waved it close to his greasy face. ‘Come on then, big man,’ she goaded. ‘You gonna take me on?’

He grabbed her wrist and twisted it viciously. The glass dropped and smashed on the floor. At the same moment his trousers slipped and fell below his knees, exposing shabby blue Y-fronts. Shaheen felt her sobs turn to hysterical laughter, and the other girls joined in.

He dropped the whip, turned back to Shaheen and pushed her against the wall again. She froze rigid as he pressed himself against her and reached down into his underpants. ‘You’ll like this,’ he said with a leer. ‘You and I will have some fun and all the nice girlies will get their money. Everyone goes home happy.’

She felt him fumble with her waistband, then her skirt slipped down her legs to the floor. Only the red G-string remained; one tug on the leather ribbon and it fell to the floor too, leaving her exposed for whatever vileness he had in mind. ‘What a lovely pussy,’ he said pawing at her.

Shaheen started yelling. It seemed to arouse him even more, and he pushed his erection against her.

‘Kick him, Shaheen,’ Olivia shouted.

Susan was on the desk, reaching for the video recorder. ‘Quick,’ she called to Olivia and Katie, who were scrabbling on the floor. ‘Find your tapes, quick as you can, or he’ll bloody . . .