Throwaways Read Free

describe my thoughts towards him. He’d taken so much from me.
    “We should talk to the women who work the same streets as they do,” I said. “Maybe they’ll know something.” Tommy didn’t look so sure, so I carried on. “It wasn’t like those women workedas city bankers. They were mixing with sordid little men who can only get their rocks off with a woman they paid to go down an alleyway for a quick fumble. Pathetic bastards.”
    Tommy grinned. “Christ, Nancy you’re pretty judgemental about the punters.”
    The vein in my forehead throbbed. “And, I shouldn’t be? Don’t you read the papers? These punters couldn’t care less that they’re fuelling those women’s addictions. Or that they’re no better than rapists because they have sex with girls who’ve been sex trafficked; many of them kids.”
    Tommy held up his hand in surrender. “Fair enough. But, we’ll need to tread carefully. They’ll already be jittery; I don’t want a stiletto heel through my skull.”
    “We could always offer money for information,” I said. “That might get them to tell us things that they wouldn’t tell the cops.”
    Tommy sucked in his cheeks. “Nah. These women are scared shitless. It’d be better if…”
    He paused mid-sentence.
    “If what?”
    I hated it when he clammed up like this.
    There was an awkward moment as he stared off into the distance, flexing his arm until it cracked. Eventually he said, “Nah, you couldn’t do that.”
    Reaching over, I pinched his arm. He didn’t flinch, but then with biceps like his it probably hadn’t registered.
    He swallowed and this time he met my gaze. “They’d be more likely to talk to you if you were one of them.”
    He was right. “Okay. Let’s do it.”
    Seeing his serious expression, I couldn’t risk a jibe. I needed something to lighten the atmosphere, because the thought of walking the same streets as a murdered woman sickened me. “Crikey, a few months into our relationship and you’re already pimping me out. Should I be worried?”
    Now he smiled, but it quickly faded. “Obviously it’d be as alast resort,” said Tommy, his mouth tight, “You wouldn’t have to actually turn tricks. Just act like you are. Put on a show. Make yourself believable. We need the other girls to see you as one of them, so they’ll confide in you and tell you where to find Kim.”
    Shit
. The full implication of what I’d agreed to do started to sink in, and my stomach felt like I’d swallowed a lump of lead. “What am I meant to say if a punter comes over and rolls down the window?”
    “Tell them you have a regular appointment to keep with a cop. That’ll scare them off.”
    Tommy had an answer for everything.
    “But, you going on the streets is a last resort, Nancy. You know that even with me nearby, it’s dangerous. Anything could happen.”
    He’d get no argument from me on that score.
    “You know I’d do it, but my hairy legs would give me away. Glasgow’s not ready for the Ladyboys.” The glint in his eyes made me chuckle.
    Tommy went back to being serious “It might not even come to that. Most people are harmed by people they know. Husbands, boyfriends, relations, even parents. So, we concentrate on family first.” He paused. “We’ll need a cover story.”
    I’d come up with a plan that I thought would work. “We can say we’re journalists doing a story on their daughters; trying to find out what happened to them.”
    Tommy didn’t agree. “The press have been door-stepping these poor bastards for weeks now, writing all sorts of lurid tales about their daughters’ descent into prostitution. Painting them as junkie whores. They’ll just slam their doors in our faces and tell us to fuck off. Who can blame them? I’d do the same thing.”
    He had a point. “But how else do we get them to talk to us? We can’t say we’re the police. They’ll expect to see some ID and when we don’t have it they’ll call the cops on us.”
    The last