Page 60 of Between the Lies

Billy reached behind the bar and set up three whisky tumblers – apparently this was a conversation they needed the strong stuff for.

‘Daisy and I meet up once every few days to talk about Robert. We haven’t got much, but the man gave us an opportunity to change our lives. In my sixty-five years, no one’s looked at me and thought,This man deserves a second go at things. He did.’ Billy pointed towards Daisy. ‘No one looks at a lady of the night and thinks she’s got brains she can make something out of. Robert did, despite the shite he received from his boss.’

‘Dickheadson is a prick,’ Nina agreed, picking up the whisky and taking a sip, despite her earlier resolve to keep a clear head. She grimaced. ‘Billy, this is good.’

Billy shot her a grin. ‘Some jewels I keep for myself.’

Daisy took a sip herself, then nodded. ‘Ever since the fire, we’ve been asking around, meeting up and talking. We want to help. We’re not the fucking cops looking for the truth; we want to protect Robert.’

‘Aye.’ Billy bobbed his head. ‘The man needs a fucking breather.’

‘And running after me certainly hasn’t given him a break,’ Nina muttered, remembering the alley then their night together, followed by Dickheadson’s arrival.

‘That’s where I think you’re wrong.’ Daisy waved her glass. ‘You can save him.’

Save him? Nina snorted, taking another scalding sip of the whisky. ‘Robert hates me.’

‘That man can’t hate a fucking rat. That’s his problem,’ Billy said. ‘Daisy, tell her.’

‘Robert likes helping us and others like us. He doesn’t believe in putting people behind bars for the night and letting them loose in the morning. But Anne, his wife, didn’t like it. He never said as much; the man rarely spoke a negative word about her. But we read between the lines. She hated him taking extra care of me and my friends. He’d get us food; once he bought jackets for Polly – she’d been pregnant and her coat had ripped. He paid for my tuition, and he helped Billy out. Anne was furious at him – told him he wasn’t a social worker; he was a cop who needed to get us junkies off the street.’

Nina frowned. ‘So she wasn’t very much like him.’

‘Their marriage was falling apart before she got pregnant,’ Billy said, downing the whisky. ‘I remember he said they’d picked him for a new project. Of course, he didn’t say what it was. He was very excited, though. It was something big and dangerous, but the man is smart enough and can handle himself. Only his wife didn’t like it when he told her. A week later, she announced her pregnancy, and he pulled out of the project. To be safe.’

‘Who marries a cop and asks them to stop doing their job?’ Daisy shook her head. ‘Anne was furious when Robert paid my fees. She found me and demanded I drop out. I never told Robert this, but that woman was ready to call the cops on me for theft. Although she never did.’

Nina couldn’t see the Robert she knew falling for the woman Daisy and Billy were describing to her. They could be wrong and Anne might’ve just been an elitist bitch. But… ‘Why are you telling me this?’

‘’Cause Robert sang her praises, never realised their marriage wasn’t just imperfect but toxic. Nina’ – Daisy leaned in and grabbed Nina’s hands – ‘we think Anne had been manipulating Robert, and he never realised it. We think the key to all of this is her. Instead of looking into anyone else, you first need to figure out why Anne was in that building in the first place. Then the puzzle might come together perfectly.’

CHAPTERTWENTY-EIGHT

Forty missed calls and a hundred texts. That’s how many times Cheryl and Joshua had tried to reach out to him, until he’d shut his phone off. Now Robert sat in his flat, ignoring the buzzer. He’d made up his mind.

It had been three days since Dickheadson had led Nina away in handcuffs. Enough time for him to create an incident board of sorts.

He’d torn pieces of paper and stuck them up on the TV and the wall around it. It wasn’t pretty, nor was it conventional. But placing it all out like this had its benefits.

He now knew everyone involved in the case – Nina, Shah, Anne and Jonas, the camera guy. His board also listed that at first Dickheadson had informed Robert that Anne had been the only casualty, but Nina had been accused of killing two people – Jonas and Anne.

Somehow, all the people on his board were connected. But how?

Robert kept coming back to his questions:

What was the motive for the murder? Why was Anne there at all? Why was Shah interested in Nina?

And that’s how far he’d got. In three fucking days.

A knock sounded at his door – probably Cheryl or Joshua again. After ten minutes, they’d give up and leave.

Robert reached for his noise-cancelling earphones when Joshua called out from the other side, ‘I have important news. Open up.’ After a pause he said, ‘I’m alone.’

No Cheryl to nag at him.

Having closeted himself in the flat, and unsure when he’d last showered, he didn’t want Mama Cheryl to find him in a state. There’d be hell to pay.

Robert got up from his seat, his muscles sore from having sat in one position for too long, then hobbled his way to the door and peeped outside.

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