He took her phone and peered at it, angled the screen to get rid of the glare from the neon message above them.

‘She might’ve been in this jacket,’ Hannah said, spinning round to show it to him.

He looked at her then back at the screen. Frowned for a long time. She’s a pretty girl, Hannah thought, come on. Presuming he’s straight, of course.

‘Maybe.’

‘Really?’

‘I think so.’

‘She was with someone,’ Hannah said. ‘Probably a guy. She bought a dirty martini and a beer.’

‘OK.’

‘Do you remember the guy?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘He might’ve been a lot older?’

Rakim laughed. ‘Older guys with cute young women? We get that a lot.’

Hannah pointed at her phone. ‘Please, try to remember.’

‘What’s this about?’

‘She was murdered.’

That made him pay attention. ‘Wait, is she the girl on the news?’

‘She was my friend.’

‘Shouldn’t the police be doing this?’

‘I’m trying to help them.’ She flicked up a picture of Peter from the web on her phone. ‘Was it this guy?’

Rakim took the phone, stared. ‘No.’

‘If you know it wasn’t him then you remember something.’ She flicked back to her camera roll, got up a photo of Xander and Mel. ‘Was it him?’296

‘He was older. In a suit.’

‘What did he look like?’

The two guys in the corner pushed themselves to their feet, unsteady, and headed to bed. Rakim watched them go.

‘You know how many middle-aged white guys in suits we get in here?’

‘So he was middle-aged?’

Rakim nodded. ‘Forties, I’d guess. Dark hair. He wasn’t ugly or fat. Like, it wasn’t crazy they might be together, not necessarily a call-girl situation.’

‘Is that all you remember?’

Rakim fiddled with a bar towel. ‘Sorry.’

Hannah looked around the empty bar. ‘What about CCTV?’

‘They wipe it from the hard drive every seven days.’

Hannah rubbed at her temple then placed her hands on the bar, felt the stickiness of a million drinks under her fingers.

‘There has to be something,’ she said. ‘What else do you remember?’

He shook his head and looked above them, that neon sign throbbing in the darkness, mocking them.

‘I’d like to help you,’ Rakim said. ‘But I just don’t know.’

Hannah got the receipt back out of her pocket and looked at it.

‘So she bought these drinks, did she buy others? Did they have a meal? One drink is not much, did the guy buy drinks the rest of the night?’ She pointed at the till on the bar. ‘Can you check through the purchases that night?’

Rakim shook his head. ‘That stuff’s not stored.’

Hannah looked around again then realised something. ‘But this is a hotel so maybe they put food and drink on a room tab?’

Rakim ran his tongue around his teeth, leaned forwards. ‘If they had a room, yeah.’