‘It can help with the job, Erin.’ I keep my tone friendly and conversational. I don’t want her to hang up.
‘Gov!’ My finger shoots up to my lips as Mitchell enters the room. She stops, tiptoes towards me, her head shaking in what looks like disbelief as she places something onto my desk.
‘The woman who killed your victim…’ Erin continues. ‘Would you say that she’s the antithesis of a murderer, looking at her? Is she aniceperson, a bit vulnerable in some way perhaps, maybeeven shy or naive, and definitely not the sort who goes around stabbing people to death?’
Now my heart stops dead in my chest.
‘Do youknowthe woman arrested at the scene?’
‘Ha! I’m right, aren’t I? And, no, I don’t know anything about her or who she is, even. But Idoknow that there aretwovictims in this crime, Dan – the deceasedandthe perpetrator of that fatal wound.’
‘What do you mean by that exactly, Erin?’
The pause is long enough for me to think she may have hung up.
‘Samantha Valentine is a con-woman.’
I hear her take a sudden sharp intake of breath, as though she’s in pain.
‘Are you OK? Erin… hello? Erin…?’
I hear movement, some shuffling in the background.
‘Listen, Erin, would you prefer to talk in person? I can come and meet you…’
‘You have no idea who you’re dealing with, Dan,’ she interjects, though it’s unclear who she’s referring to exactly, herself or Samantha Valentine.
‘So tell me.’
She’s sucking air through her teeth now – it definitely sounds like she’s in some kind of discomfort.
‘If your team are as good as you say they are, Dan, then my police file is probably on your desk already. Read it. It’ll explain more.’
‘Erin, listen, don’t hang up, take my number, my private number…’
Davis’s eyes widen. It’s not standard procedure, I realise, to give out my personal digits – Archer would have harsh words to say about it, I’m sure – but something about this caller tells me she’s legit, and I want her to trust me.
I recite it to her, though I can’t tell if she’s taken note of it or not.
‘… I have to go now,’ she says. ‘I’m washing my hair. Nice talking with you, Dan. I’ll be in touch soon.’
SIXTEEN
ERIN
‘…Argh…!’
I tear at the plastic bag from my head, cursing as I rip it off. It feels like it’s going to burst into flames at any moment.
Rushing into the bathroom, I grab the shower attachment, start rinsing the peroxide off in a panic, sweating and puffing as the cold water gushes onto my burning skin. Twenty minutes it had said on the box. Only ten had passed and already I couldn’t take the pain anymore. Marilyn Monroe must’ve been hard as nails. Regrettably though, it meant I’d had no choice but to cut short my conversation with Detective Dan. Just as it was getting interesting as well.
The detective has a nice voice; it’s deep, with a sort of gentle consideration to it. It matches his face somehow. I can’t trust him of course – he’s still a policeman – but I get the impression that he’s something of a maverick by the fact that he’s given me his personal phone number. Plus he’s a family man, and I like that about him, envy it I suppose. He’d referenced his wife and children affectionately throughout the article I’d read on him, which makes me feel a touch regretful that I’m going to use him for my own ends, to get information from him. But all’s fair in love and war – and justice, let’s not forget justice.
I picture Detective Dan right now, reading through my police file. I wonder what he’s thinking, and, moreover, what he’s going to do about it. I wasn’t lying to him when I said he has no idea who he’s dealing with.I wasn’t lying full stop.
My scalp feels tender and sore as I rub my now-much-shorter hair with a towel. Glimpsing myself in the old mirror, I drop the hairbrush, gasp.
I don’t recognise myself. My short, slightly uneven hair is now a bright yellow colour and looks like the bad DIY dye job that it is. After the toner washes off and it dries though, it lifts slightly, looks a bit cooler and less brassy. Anyway, it’s no Vidal Sassoon number, but it’ll have to do. You see, in order tofindSamantha Valentine, I have tothinklike Samantha Valentine. To beat her at her own game, Erin Santos has to vanish into thin air, just as she did.
