Page 89 of Between the Lies

Robert crossed his arms. ‘I don’t want him drunk.’

‘Oh aye, a pint’s enough to get me hammered. Ye wee bastard, you think ye’re my boss man, do ye?’ Finn flashed his teeth at Robert. Then, just to make a point, picked up one of the glasses Billy had already poured and drained the entire beverage. ‘Now, what do you say?’

‘Are you sure about this?’ Nina raised an eyebrow at Robert. ‘This isn’t exactly the A team you promised me. I’m not sure we’re even equipped to log in to a computer, let alone hack into a camera with sophisticated security.’

Robert rolled his eyes and sat down next to Nina. ‘Aye, considering he just drank an entire pint of apple juice thinking it was beer, I don’t think?—’

‘Fuck off!’ Finn pushed the glass away. ‘Do you have coffee?’

Daisy walked behind the counter and found a kettle. ‘Instant coffee. None of the fancy stuff. But everyone’s getting a cup. We’re catching this bastard tonight, and then neither Nina nor Robert will bother you again, Finn.’

Finn had opened up his laptop and stared at them over the rim of the screen. ‘Eh, I fucking doubt that.’

With a small smile on her face, Nina dug out the camera and placed it next to Finn’s laptop. ‘And we,’ she said, ‘need you to break into this camera. Think you can manage?’

Finn looked at Robert. ‘Whose is this?’

Of course the man would ask questions. Looking Finn up and down, Robert realised he’d just put the fate of his and Nina’s lives in the man’s hands. Finn forged IDs for a living, but could he crack password-protected data on a camera?

Robert leaned in, his lips pulled tight in a snarl. ‘Get this done, Finn. Now.’

‘Easy,’ Finn said, reaching for the camera’s ‘on’ switch. ‘Have you tried turning it on and?—’

‘Don’t touch that!’ Robert shouted a second before Nina smacked Finn’s hand away from the button.

Robert huffed. ‘That camera connects to the cloud. We’re not sure if it has tracking features on it. But we believe it’s got password-protected or hidden images on it. We need to find all images this camera contains, especially the ones we shouldn’t have access to. And to make matters worse, the owner has glued the memory card in, so you can’t access it that way’

Finn frowned at the piece, then nodded. ‘I’ll see what I can find. But I charge?—’

‘Work first, son.’ Billy leaned on the counter. ‘Then as payment I’ll teach ye a wee lesson about helping a pal out.’

Billy might have sounded genial, but even Finn picked up on his threat. Dropping his chin, Finn began clattering away on his computer.

Daisy passed steaming mugs of coffee around, settling in beside Robert. ‘What can we do to help?’ She indicated Billy and herself.

Robert had planned on bringing Finn to a location he could work at, nothing more. But now that they were all here, he had a few things to run by his pals.

With a look at Nina, he hunched his shoulders and launched into the story of what had happened. He told them about Nina’s visit to the lockers then Shah’s attack. ‘He was killed. The police don’t consider Nina to be a suspect. It was a gunshot wound.’

‘No one just mucking about would have a weapon like that.’ Billy engulfed Nina’s hand. ‘Are you alright, lassie?’

Nina sighed. ‘I remember seeing it, and then the shock coupled with the pain started pulling me under. I tried hiding by the bins but lost consciousness.’

‘I told you that man’s a pig,’ Billy grumbled. ‘No doubt there’s a few who’d have wanted to take him out.’

Daisy tapped her palm on the counter, drawing their attention to her. ‘Hold on, old man. By the lockers, do you mean those by the St Mungo mural on the High Street?’

‘Aye, by the uni halls.’ Robert sighed.

‘I know that hill,’ Daisy said. ‘A pal of mine lives in the student halls on top of that wee hill. He can see those buildings from his room. That hill’s been cut to make way for those tenements, I think. And they’ve got a few trees, like a fence to keep students away.’

Nina nodded. ‘Yes, I noticed that. But Shah got me good, so I don’t remember seeing the student halls. Perhaps a student saw the killer?’

Daisy reached out and picked up the glasses Billy had set out earlier, including Finn’s apple juice pint. She placed them so they formed a square between them. ‘That wee square is where he attacked you. Now think: the glass on Robert’s side of the counter, and the two glasses touching it perpendicularly are the buildings. The glass opposite, the one on Billy’s side, is a fence. On the other side there are the student halls and the car park. If a killer stood on this slope and shot Shah, they would be in clear view of the students or anyone parking their car. So if someone wanted to kill Shah and remain anonymous, they would’ve shot him from one of the flats looking into that square, not from the side of the uni halls.’

She might think she was a ‘dumb blond’, but Daisy had just proved herself wrong.

Billy patted Daisy’s hand. ‘So it’s worth checking who lives in those flats.’

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