Page 52 of Riordan's Revenge

Cassie launched forward. The woman gasped and recoiled, closing the door. Cassie was already there, and my hand landed beside hers to force it open.

To the waiting man, I jacked my thumb. “Fuck off.”

We hadn’t had time to discuss a gameplan, but we didn’t need one. We were in.

The sex worker, as I assumed she was, fled down the short hall in her flat. “Colin! Wake up.”

Cassie and I burst into the living room to the woman shaking awake a skinny man on the couch.

In the light from an uncovered lamp and a silent, flickering TV, he jerked up, eyes red but immediately trained on us. “The fuck’s going on?”

From a pocket, Cassie extracted a handful of notes. Fluttered them.

Instantly, Colin switched his gaze to the money. She threw it at him. “Get out. We won’t hurt her. Call the cops and the opposite will be true.”

Without a second glance, Colin snatched up the cash from the filthy carpet and fled. I’d been ready to use my fists, but cash talked just as loud.

Cassie’s target was probably in her early forties and as thin as her betraying boyfriend. She clutched her dressing gown closed at her chest and backed to the wall, her bobbed blonde hair swinging. “Whatever ye heard, they’re lying.”

For a long moment, Cassie watched her. “Do ye recognise me?”

“Don’t know ye from Adam. If ye leave, I’ll forget I ever saw ye.”

“Take another look, DeeDee.”

At Cassie’s tone, or maybe the use of her name, the woman lost some of her panic. “No one calls me that anymore. Who are ye?”

“Someone’s daughter. It’s important that ye tell me her name.”

DeeDee’s gaze turned cautious then curious. Her eyes flared wider with recognition. “No. It cannae be.”

“Who do I remind ye of?” Cassie pressed.

“A ghost, sweetheart.”

“Did the ghost have a name?”

Slowly, DeeDee nodded. “Cassandra Archer. But surely not. No way.”

My stomach tightened. Tyler’s information had been right.

Cassie sagged. Automatically, I crept a hand to her shoulder to support her. Her fingers touched mine, then she regained control.

From her inside pocket, she collected another bundle of cash. Then she perched on the sofa Colin had vacated. “I said I wouldn’t hurt ye and I won’t. I’ll also pay for your time and replace the money you would’ve made from the john we just scared off. In exchange, you’ll tell me every detail ye recall about Cassandra. Now.”

DeeDee sang like a bird. Hesitantly at first, and a little better after I removed my helmet. She shared details of a woman she’d known twenty years ago. Cassie’s mother. They’d worked side by side as teenagers new to the sex trade, and had been friends.

“I was there the day she found out she was pregnant.” DeeDee finished rolling a joint on the beer-can-strewn coffee table. She sparked it up. “I guess that was with ye.”

Cassie pressed her lips together. “Ye don’t have to pretend it was a happy moment. I know who my father is. Or was.”

DeeDee pushed her hair behind her ear. “We all knew your da. He used to send cars for girls, and the drivers would have money to buy dresses. Everyone went to him once.”

Implying they didn’t a second time.

The woman spoke on, describing her own encounter with McInver. How he liked his women to put on a show with each other. I concealed a cringe at the image of the lecherous old scrote.

“Was Cassandra a favourite of his?” Cassie asked.

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