Free Death of a Showgirl by Tobias Jones

big time. She had no idea he was taking photos that people were buying to keep out of magazines. It was the opposite of what she thought was going on. She never thought they were being used for extortion.’
    ‘And you believed her?’
    ‘Yeah, I did. She was furious when she found out. She thought she was putting herself about to get in the papers, to make a name for herself. And actually, she was just there as bait for a shakedown. She was more innocent than that. I know it sounds strange, but she was like a young girl in an adult world. Even the longing to be a showgirl on TV was girlish. She was determined to make it. Determined to be famous, for whatever reason. She would have done anything to fulfil that dream, even all sorts of “adult” things. And she did. Only she didn’t know he was snapping it all, making a record of how low she would go and with who. He was using her to make money. Most of those girls demean themselves in the hope of stardom, but don’t realise that’s all stardom is: it’s performing in private. She was never going to make it. He let her think she was getting close, so she would keep on playing his game until, in the end, it was game over.’
    ‘You got a photo of her?’
    He laughed bitterly. Given the context it was the wrong thing to ask. ‘You could find her face in the papers from around that time.’ He shook his head sadly. ‘She was beautiful: thick dark hair, dark eyes, dark skin. Everything about her was passionate.’
    While he was reminiscing about an old flame that had burnt him, I felt a rising urgency about Simona’s well-being. I still had no leads on Mori, but I felt I was getting closer to him, beginning to understand who he was and how he worked. He used murky photographs like chips in a casino, chucking them around until the gamble paid off and someone turned them into a stack of cash. It was a dirty business, the kind of work that would make him a lot of money and even more enemies. I had assumed until now that Mori was up to his old tricks, making money out of people’s weaknesses by using beautiful women as bait. I couldn’t work out what he wanted with young Simona, but I guessed, unlikely as it seemed, that she was the new honey in the trap. She was the lure. Her parents and sister thought that she wasn’t that sort, but parents always think that of their children. If she was desperate to become a starlet, like Anna Sartori, she might have been prepared to play the part Mori wanted. And the fact that the thug in his caravan was after Mori too made me think that he was trying to squeeze cash from someone who had a secret to hide. Someone who had, presumably, hired the thug. It had appeared sordid, but not particularly dangerous. But if one of Mori’s girls had gone missing in the past, the stakes were suddenly higher.
    ‘Who was the go-between who brokered the deal?’ I asked Marinelli, waking him up from his reverie.
    He smiled ruefully again. ‘A guy called Gianni Esposito.’
    ‘On what magazine?’
    He let out a dismissive sigh. ‘I can’t remember. No idea. One of the usuals.’
    ‘Ever heard of him since?’
    He shook his head. ‘He was tried along with Mori. Can’t remember what happened to him. Let off I think.’
    ‘Gianni Esposito,’ I said quietly. I committed the name to memory, wondering what role, if any, he had in this current case.
    We heard the front door open and shut. Marinelli stood up and went to the window. We heard the sound of a moped revving up outside. It grew fainter as he came back to the kitchen table and rolled his eyes.
    ‘Not a word,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘She won’t come back until after midnight and I’ve no idea where she is, who she’s with.’
    ‘Must worry you.’
    ‘Yeah, it does.’ It sounded like it made him more angry than worried.
    ‘Simona Biondi,’ I said slowly, ‘this girl I’m looking for, she hasn’t been seen since the day before yesterday. Her parents are very worried. Does