‘Okay,’ he said, stepping forward.
He carefully opened the top button which revealed nothing more, but when he unfastened the second button it was clear.
There was a thin wire travelling the diagonal line of her bra into her cleavage.
Mitch pushed the shirt aside and revealed a tiny microphone attached to the metal part of her bra strap.
‘She was recording someone?’ Keats asked.
‘Looks that way,’ Kim said, suspecting there was some kind of device on her person. ‘Need that as soon as possible,’ she finished before heading back towards the front of the pub, where she’d seen a constable standing with a man she assumed to be the landlord.
She turned to Bryant. ‘Hang on for the ID. I want to speak to the owner.’
* * *
A man in his late fifties, with long white hair and an open-neck shirt, was sitting down near the bar. He lit a cigarette as she approached.
A female police officer stood silently beside him.
‘You the landlord?’ Kim asked.
He nodded. His weathered face was pale and drawn. ‘Mick Hill,’ he said, offering his hand.
‘You found her?’ she asked, briefly returning the handshake.
He nodded again and took a long draw of his smoke.
‘She definitely dead?’ he asked, as though if he asked a different person, he’d get a different answer.
‘I’m afraid so,’ Kim said. ‘She’d been in this lunchtime?’
Again, he nodded.
‘Is she a regular?’
He shook his head. ‘Never seen her before.’
‘Did you notice her when she came in?’ Kim asked as Bryant appeared with a clear evidence bag containing her driving licence.
‘Who wouldn’t?’ he answered honestly. ‘She’s a definite ten. Well, was, I mean… shit, I’m sorry.’
‘It’s okay. You say you noticed the woman enter the pub. Was she alone?’
‘Yeah. She ordered a Diet Coke.’
‘And you didn’t see anyone join her?’
‘No. I mean, I was kinda busy. It was peak trading and I had a pump go down.’
‘Any other people in that you didn’t recognise?’ Kim asked.
He went to shake his head but then frowned. ‘Actually, there was this one guy. Sat over by the fruit machine cleaning his camera. One drink and a packet of crisps and gone.’
Kim was unsure why the behaviour would have caught his attention, but she guessed there was nothing to be gained by further conversation with him. He knew the woman had entered, but he hadn’t seen who she’d come to meet.
‘Do those cameras work?’ she asked, nodding towards the two she’d already spotted.
He shook his head, and Kim groaned internally.
