Page 54 of Between the Lies

Out of desperation?

The puzzle pieces fell into place. Nina, having left her family behind, had found herself in Glasgow, without that corner office or incredible career in sight. Such severe frustration could lead to murder. She’d killed in the hopes of creating a story for her to investigate. Instead, the plan had backfired.

Robert swerved into a side alley to head into the residential area. Here the houses were just two storeys with two flats on each floor, with a children’s play area in the centre, a hot spot in spring and summer.

While Anne had avoided that area as if it were junkies who played there instead of children, Robert had always enjoyed walking through it, hearing the kids’ joyful shrieks as they hopped on a swing and skittered down a slide.

He unlocked the door to the building and climbed up the stairs. His feet dragged, his mind stuck in a loop.

Why? Why? Why? This puzzle sure appeared to be a complete picture, but…

He shrugged. Dickheadson had Nina. Yet somehow this case was far from over.

CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE

The lawyer was talking. Apparently, Robert had dug her further into the ground, saying she’d conned him.

After his words from that morning, Nina honestly hadn’t thought her heart could break further.

It was stupid. She’d been intimate with men before who’d turned out to be arseholes. She’d never grown attached or had her heart broken. Hell, she’d walked away from her boyfriend without a second thought. And yet one night with Robert had altered her heart’s structure. In that moment when Dickheadson had been carting her away, she’d turned to Robert for help – and until the lawyer’s arrival believed Robert would do something for her, despite what he’d said.

Stupid – and, as it turned out, extremely naive.

Perhaps it was his good-person act that had drawn her in. He was good, inherently good to people. Just not to her. Or any woman he shared a bed with.

Nina dropped her head into her hands and massaged her forehead. ‘What evidence do they have against me?’

The lawyer sighed. ‘You saw it. The picture of you holding the bloody knife. They’ve got your phone pinging at the towers in that area. Plus, they have a warrant to search your things including your devices, so anything on them will be used as evidence.’

Nina dropped her hands to the table with a clank. Technology was a bitch. She shouldn’t have accessed that camera at all. The police had Jonas’s laptop, found after a missing person’s report from his landlord when he’d failed to pay rent. And the pictures had synced, giving the police access to the evidence she’d wanted to keep hidden.

‘The crime scene is in the city centre. My phone pinging in that area hardly matters.’

The lawyer, some stiff collar they’d found for her, shrugged. ‘Aye, but the images don’t lie. They haven’t been doctored. Forensics confirmed that.’

Nina had seen those pictures, and not one of them proved the simple piece of evidence the police wanted. ‘None of them show me plunging that knife into anyone. They don’t show the victims either. And I… I don’t recall killing anyone.’

‘That blackout certainly doesn’t help your case. But I think if you plead guilty, your sentence?—’

Fuck this. Nina held up a hand to shut him up. ‘I think you’ve done enough. They’ve no proof I’ve done anything. They can’t hold me here if they can’t prove it. That building has a nightclub. I was there, so yes, they found my DNA. However, as the pictures show, I wasn’t the only person there. All they have are a few images that don’t actually prove I did anything. I’m not going to confess to a crime I didn’t commit. So do your damned job or I’ll replace you.’

The lawyer shrugged and said, ‘I’ll call them in.’

By ‘them’ he meant Dickheadson and his crony, a middle-aged DI with a penchant for sticking biscuits into his mouth and not dusting off the crumbs.

A couple of minutes later, Dickheadson smacked the file on the desk and plopped his arse down in front of Nina. ‘Ready to confess?’

‘No,’ the lawyer said. ‘She isn’t going to confess to a crime she didn’t commit.’

Dickheadson waved his hands as if it were nothing. ‘Not remembering is one thing. Not committing a crime is another. We have pictures, we have your phone in that area, and we know you were researching a new article.’

‘So?’ Nina tilted her head. ‘What has that got to do with your case?’

The crony pulled out a paper from the thin file on the desk and placed it so Nina could see what it was. She’d recognise that document anywhere. It was an outline of her article on sham marriages.

Dickheadson tapped a finger on the paper. ‘You began working on this document early last year. And your outline seems a bit…’

‘Threadbare,’ the crony supplied. ‘Besides, your notes are also very scant, especially for someone who’s been researching a topic for this long.’

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