Sandra said nothing.
‘You knew you had to do something,’ Charlie continued. ‘So why not kill two birds with one stone? Tell me about your properties on the Empress Road.’
Finally a reaction. It was small but it was there. Sandra hadn’t been expecting that.
‘I don’t have any…’
‘Let me show you this, Sandra,’ Charlie went on. ‘It’s a list of holding companies that have financial relationships with each other. Let’s cut the chat and acknowledge that they are all owned by you. This one’ – Charlie pointed out a company name – ‘purchased a row of six derelict houses on the Empress Road nearly two years ago. Why did you buy them, Sandra?’
There was a long pause and then the tiniest of nods from her lawyer.
‘To redevelop them.’
‘Why would you want to? They are rotten, derelict, and it’s hardly a neighbourhood that’s ripe for gentrification.’
‘You don’t want to do them up,’ interrupted Helen, suddenly getting it. ‘You want to knock them down.’
The tiniest flicker from Sandra. The closest thing they would get to an acknowledgement that they were on the right lines.
‘Nobody wants the properties in the red-light district – they are used by prostitutes on a nightly basis. But if you bought them, knocked them down and then neglected to rebuild them, what would the girls do? Risk their lives getting into punters’ cars every night or look elsewhere for employment? Somewhere safer. Somewhere like Brookmire. I bet if we do some more searching we’ll find a lot of property has changed hands on the Empress Road recently. Am I right?’
A hardness was entering Sandra’s eyes now. Charlie pressed home the advantage.
‘But what if you wanted to go a step further? The Campbells had struck at you, tried to unsettle your workforce. What if you decided to raise the stakes? You could have killed one of their girls in return, but far more imaginative to kill a punter or two. The press coverage alone would drive the Campbells’ clients away in droves. I have to hand it to you, Sandra, it’s a smart play.’
Sandra smiled and said nothing.
‘Did you single out Alan Matthews? Or was he selected at random?’
‘My client has no idea what you’re talking about and categorically denies involvement in any acts of violence.’
‘Perhaps then she could tell me where she was between the hours of nine p.m. and three a.m. on the twenty-eighth of November,’ Charlie butted in, determined to keep up the pressure.
Sandra looked long and hard at Charlie, then said:
