The attitude of Norwich City Council towards providing parking spaces meant that Saeed and Cushion had to park three streets away. Cushion was not a big fan of walking. His love of using his feet was in inverse proportion to his love of cheeseburger and chips. Saeed's pace left the older man panting and perspiring in equal measure by the time they got to the bottom of the stairs leading to no 27 .
He took a breather bending over with his hands on his knees. After a couple of minutes he stood up straight and the two mounted the stairs and rang the polished brass doorbell.
An attractive dark haired woman about five foot six tall answered the door. She had cornflower blue eyes, clear skin and a slightly aquiline nose. She had a body shape that, in common parlance, most women would die for.
'Yes?' she enquired of the police officers in a haughty tone that had a hint of an accent.
'Police' responded Saied, showing his warrant card and simultaneously putting his foot inside the door.
The woman did not seem surprised to see them or she had sufficient presence of mind to hide it well.
'How can I help you?'
'We have reason to believe that this young woman lived here' Cushion took out the photo of the floater and showed it to the woman. Subtlety had never been the Norfolk man's strongpoint.
'I have never seen her before.' She looked Cushion straight in the eye with an unwavering gaze and started to push the door to.
Saied noticed a slight simultaneous tightening of her grip on the door and gently pushed back on it and half stepped inside the hallway,
'We've been told differently. We want to question you and the other girls and the two guys that are here, where are they?'
'This is a school of English....'
'We may be from Norfolk but we are not stupid' interrupted Cushion, 'where are they?'
'This is a school of English, have you got a search warrant..'
At this point Saeed noticed the look of consternation flash across his colleague's face followed by a furrowed brow and a slight slumping of his shoulders. The woman picked it up too.
'I must ask you to leave if you have not a search warrant' she straightened her back and defiantly thrust her face towards Saeed.
'Where are they?' the Asian asked more firmly and moving closer to the woman 'We do not need a search warrant when we are investigating a murder'
'The attic rooms at the top of the house, the ones to the left and the right' she decided to comply.
'How many girls are here?'
'We have four students'
Saied, gave her a sardonic smile before he and Cushion ascended the plushly carpeted stairs
Saeed took the attic room on the left and Cushion the one on the right. They were locked.
They both gave them a good kick and tumbled into the rooms.
The occupant of Saeed's room quickly awoke and reached for a pistol laying on the bedside cabinet.
'No you don't' Ahmed shouted, grabbing the pistol with his left hand and shoving the man sharply on the temple with his right hand, knocking him back onto the bed.
'Police!'
He noticed that he was dealing with the Neanderthal. The man's eyeballs were constantly on the move. It was as if he did not trust the space he occupied: always looking for threats real or imaginary.
Saeed nearly gagged as the man's odours began to get to him. The acrid smell emanating from him attested to both his glandular problem and his twin aversions to deodorant and the cleansing effects of soap and water.
'Name?' demanded the police officer standing over the prone Russian. The man's eyes looked backwards and forwards to Ahmed's face and the gun in his left hand. He tried to get up. Ahmed pushed him hard on the temple again, forcing him back onto the bed.
'Fuck off' the heavily accented response accompanied by a hostile glare.
As soon as he opened his mouth Ahmed was assailed by a most vile and putrid odour that made him want to throw up.
'What manner of creatures were they that both sired and spawned the lump in front of him' thought Ahmed.
'Hands behind your back'
The Neanderthal glared at him quizzically
Simultaneously, Cushion had smashed into the other room. The tall gangly one had been caught in the act of dying his hair grey. The dominant odour in the room was deodorant and its overuse The man was a little more intelligent than the Neanderthal. He gave his name as Filip Pidrik and even volunteered the other's name Leszek Morski.
Pidrik and Morski, hands cuffed behind their backs were frogmarched down the stairs to the entrance.
The woman and four other attractive but apprehensive looking young women were peering from the doorway of one of the front rooms.
'Get me a phone' Saied barked at the 'headmistress'.
Pidrik shouted something at the woman and Morski grunted threateningly at her.
She paled at what they had said.
Cushion grabbed Morski by the throat, 'Shut the fuck up'.
He immediately let go of the man. Not because he realised that he had done wrong. But because the man in front of him not only had a glandular problem. As soon as he opened his mouth one was assailed by a most vile and putrid odour that made anyone within ten paces gag. And boy was Cushion gagging
'We want a lawyer' said Pidrik with a sly smirk, taking in the policeman's discomfort.. 'It is the law'
'We're only taking you to the station for questioning'
'But you told us that you were arresting us. You put cuffs on. That's not asking. That's arresting. We want a lawyer. We know rights.'
'Yeah, lawyer' guttural sounds from the Neanderthal.
'You'll get a lawyer, when we get you to the nick. Now shut up' Saied ordered.
'Steve, here' he threw the phone to Cushion, 'ring the station and get us some back up for these two and the 'headmistress' and her 'students'. We'll probably need interpreters as well'
After the Ford Transit and car had taken the two males and the females to the station Saied and Cushion had a quick look around the 'school', starting with the attic rooms.
The window of Morski's room was flung open so as to dissipate the concentrated stench of the man. Morski's room contained a number of body building magazines in German and what looked like Russian. His bedside cabinet contained a number of jars of vitamins and a small bottle of clear liquid. It was bagged together with one of the vitamin jars. Prints could be lifted off each item and sent to Interpol and the liquid could be sent to the lab for analysis.
Pidrik obviously fancied himself. Hair dye, deodorant and designer clothes, especially Paul Smith and Ted Baker, featured in his room.
The third room obviously belonged to the 'headmistress'. It was neat and tidy and contained the usual things that a woman's bedroom would contain. Interestingly enough it contained books by Emily Bronte and Anais Nin. More interestingly and less feminine it contained a locked safe. Her passport, German, identified her as one Halyna Medvedskaya.
The thing that struck them was the German Passports for Pidrik, Morski and the 'headmistress' Halyna Medvedskaya
Yes there was one spartan bedroom with five beds crammed in and five lockers just like a dorm. However, there were four other bedrooms luxuriously furnished, with well stocked drinks cabinets. The wardrobes featured an array of lingerie and dresses ranging from the erotic to the fetishist. This was no backstreet dive it catered for a clientele that could afford to pay. A clientele that would keep its mouth shut.
* * *
Saied looked in on Morski in the holding cell. The man just sat there as if in a trance. His colleague Pidrik was the exact opposite. The man's feet were bouncing up on the floor and he was constantly biting his finger nails.
It would be another hour before they could interview them. Their solicitor was driving up from London. They had refused to be interviewed without a solicitor present.
However, Medvedskaya had agrees to be interviewed alone.
'Halyna, may I call you Halyna?' asked Saied
'Of course you may' the confident reply.
'What can you tell us about the girl. We know that she was at your 'school'. We just want to know who she is so that we can inform her next of kin'
'I don't know who she is. If one of my students have met her then it certainly will not have been at my school. So, there is not much more that I can tell you. I would like to go home now'
'Halyna, you have a German passport but were born in a Russian town. How come?
'My mother was East German and my father Russian. He was stationed in the DDR then Russia and then the DDR. I was brought up in the DDR and when we became part of West Germany I became a European citizen. Is that a crime?'
'Mmm' responded Saied 'We both know that you are running a brothel. What have you got in the safe?'
'I am running a school of English. What is in the safe is of no concern of yours'
'It is if we think that it may be evidence of crimes that have been committed or are being committed'
'Then you will need a search warrant and you will have to charge me'
'In the dormitory you have five beds but only four....students? What jobs do Pidrik and Morski have in your....'school''?'
'Recessionary times. Not everyone can afford to learn in an establishment like mine. So like any other school or an hotel we are not entirely full. They are caretakers. Now can I go now please?'
'They have German passports and were born in Russia the same as you. Can you explain that?'
'Of course. In a strange country one is always drawn to one's own. Surely, don't you find that?' she threw the question back at Saied.
'I'm asking you're answering!'
'I cannot think of anything else that I can help you with. So, if I may leave now?'
'We need to talk to your.....'students' first. The interview has ended at and officers Saied and Cushion are leaving the interview room '
He turned off the tape recorder and they both left the room.
'She is one cool cookie' Saied said to Cushion as they stood in the corridor.
Let's go and see our two friends and see what they have to say.
They took Morski first. His solicitor, from 'Gribben and Gribben', sat at his side. They were conversing in Russian when the two policemen entered the room.
As soon as the tape started the solicitor swung into action.
'Detectives Saied and Cushion on what grounds did you arrest my client?'
'Illegal possession of a firearm, suspicion of being involved in the mysterious death of a young woman who lived at the same house and participating in the operation of a house of ill repute' the Asian detective responded.
'Let's deal with each of these separately. Firstly, my client assures me that he has a licence for the firearm. On the second count he has no idea of who you are talking about. Thirdly, he is a caretaker of the property. Therefore, may I suggest that my client is released right now. And by the way he will be looking to sue you for unlawful arrest and criminal damage. Furthermore, he will look to have you arrested for...'
'Whoah, hold on. How does your client know that he does not know the woman. We have not showed him a picture'.
The solicitor hesitated only slightly.
'Be that as it may my client is adamant that he knows nothing. However, because my client is always willing to help the police he will look at the picture'. The solicitor conversed in Russian with Morski who vigorously nodded his head in assent.
Cushion took the picture of the dead girl out of his folder and passed it to the Russian who looked at it and then shook his head. He then spoke in Russian to the solicitor and followed it up with a bale yet smug glare at the two policemen.
'Well gentlemen my client states that he has never seen the girl. He also asks if you can get him something to drink. Coffee the colour of you' he nodded at Ahmed 'with one sugar. Thank you. Now when do you wish to interview my other client Mr Pidrik? I think you have also arrested him but also failed to mention why and on what grounds. Can you also confirm that you have spoken to Miss Medvedskaya without my being there. Finally, have you arrested my other four clients and if so what for, and if not why are they being held in cells?' the solicitor ended with a self-assured smile.
'The conceited bastard' thought Saied 'He's made sure that he's got a wrongful arrest in on Morski and Pidrik and a strong implication that we have failed to follow procedures on the woman for good measure. Then of course the lack of a search warrant is bound to be thrown in for good measure.'
'We will get Mr Morski a drink as requested. We will interview Mr Pidrik very shortly. When you want to see him just knock on the door and the officer outside will take you to him. The interview with Mr Morski in the presence of his solicitor Mr Hewett conducted by Sergeant Saied and Sergeant Cushion terminated at...'. He switched off the recorder and he and Cushion left the room.
Once outside Saied turned to Cushion with outstretched palms up and shrugged his shoulders,
'Steve, my friend we are in deep shit. I have screwed this up from the start. These people are not dumb. I think we better go and see Blunt before we interview Pidrik'.
'Yes' replied the Norfolk man 'you did' the other expected a hail of criticism from his partner and tensed himself for the same, 'but I should have stopped us when that woman brought up a search warrant!'
Ahmed looked at Cushion and smiled wanly. 'Let's go and see Blunt'.