Page 17 of Between the Lies

The scuffle halted, and Rob’s colleague was now sitting on top of Shah, the knife Shah had carried discarded in the corner.

Rob turned to face them as he spoke on the phone. ‘Aye, a man in the bar. He had a knife. Josh says he’s also got a lot of cash on him. Uh-huh…. uh-huh.’

Nina took a deep breath and let it out. It was lust, infatuation. She’d get over it. She had overcome much worse, after all.

With the little will she could muster, Nina put one foot in front of the other, skirting past the police officer, Shah, Rob – and then she ran.

Her feet carried her through the crowd of people recording the goings-on and staring awestruck, then she ducked through the other entrance door – thankful she’d at least had the sense to take her purse along – and leapt into the fresh air of freedom.

CHAPTEREIGHT

He wanted to run through the damned wall. Instead, Robert paced from one end of his living room to the other. ‘Are you sure he said that?’

Cheryl’s eyes were sombre. She sat cross-legged on his sofa, a bunch of papers spread across her lap. She’d been flicking through them for the last two hours.

Joshua sat on the floor, his back against the wall, nursing his bruised chin. ‘My wife’s going to kill me when she sees this. I wasn’t even on duty!’

‘Apparently, I let go of all my cop instincts when I gave Dickheadson my warrant card,’ Robert growled, stalking back to the other end of the room. ‘She was right there!’

Cheryl looked up at him. ‘Killers, criminals and con artists don’t walk around with a sign on their heads. Besides, they have a knack to convince you they’re right… Iknow.’

Robert shook his hands, as if he wanted to rip someone’s head off. ‘But I found her in the alley behind where Anne was killed. Why the hell would she have been there, dressed like she was?’

Joshua groaned, eyeing the semi-frozen packet in his hand. ‘She could’ve been a journalist? And, Cheryl, what do you mean you know?’

‘Still! They’re the worst scum on planet earth!’ Robert roared. ‘And criminals often return to the scene of the crime – it’s investigation 101.’

Cheryl gathered the papers together and placed them on the sofa to the side. ‘I’ve put away my share of criminals, that’s how I know. Anyway, what does everyone fancy for dinner?’

Seriously? That’s how easily she was going to shove it under the rug? His idiocy had cost him. Robert stopped pacing. ‘Wait, let’s talk this through again.’

‘But I’m hungry.’

Robert turned on Joshua. ‘You’re pressing frozen peas to your mouth – eat those!’

Joshua flipped him the bird in response.

Cheryl, ever the peacemaker, cleared her throat. ‘Harish Shah, the man loitering about the loos who you brought in for questioning for possessing a knife and obscene amounts of cash, says he was after the woman who set fire to his club. The same club that was on the ground floor of the building Anne died in.

‘Apparently, Shah had been after her at the airport, but she gave him the slip. As the police ruled the fire at the building an accident, he decided to take matters into his own hands. Some people have submitted videos toGlasgow Liveand theGlasgow Timesof the scuffle in the pub that they’ve passed on to us. A few managed to capture her face, and Shah identified her as the woman who’d set the fire.’

Robert hissed. ‘The woman I spent two hours talking to and sharing drinks with!’

Cheryl shrugged. ‘Shah hasn’t got proof apart from hearsay. But’ – she paused, waiting for Robert and Joshua to face her – ‘I reached out to Billy and Daisy. Both wanted to help their beloved Rob the Cop.’

Robert made it a point to meet up with Billy and Daisy during his usual patrols.

Billy had lost his wife, who he’d met when struggling to get clean from drugs. She’d died of an overdose unfortunately which had sent Billy spiralling back to drugs himself. But Robert believed in the philosophy that there was more to people than met the eye. And so he’d begun a conversation with Billy and found a heart of gold.

Daisy’d had a rough life, too. She’d been forced to make ends meet by doing things that barely landed in legal territory. For her twentieth birthday, Robert had paid for her part-time course studying economics at the University of Glasgow when the funding she’d applied for fell through.

For him, it was part of his remit to reduce crime.

‘I don’t want them getting into trouble.’ Robert stuffed his hands into his pockets. Especially when he wasn’t on the streets to rescue them.

‘They won’t. Billy and Daisy asked around for you.’ Cheryl held up the papers she’d been perusing. ‘We never got a visual of this woman at the airport. And now we have one. Since the case is officially cold and we’re doing this behind your boss’s back, we don’t have access to police resources.’

But they had a name: Nina Banerjee. And Cheryl had been able to discreetly find more details.

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