Page 123 of Making a Killing

Linda turns to face her. ‘You didn’t ask.’

‘Oh, come on,’ says Gis. ‘We weren’t born yesterday and nor were you –’

Her eyes narrow. ‘Don’t youdaretry and put any of this on me – all you said was you’d found that little cow’s DNA.’

‘But you’d already spoken to Robin Tierney by then, hadn’t you? You knew something was going on with Daisy long before we turned up.’

‘You should be aware,’ says Stillwell coolly, ‘that we have the audio of your conversation with Ms Tierney.’

Dunlop flushes, very slightly. ‘So why are you asking all these fucking questions if you already know the fucking answers?AndJamie never got that fucking cash she promised him either.’

‘And yet within days of seeing you, Robin Tierney ends up dead,’ says Stillwell quietly. ‘Do you know anything about that?’

‘Of course we fucking don’t,’ says Dunlop. ‘I told you. She came here once. Never saw her again.’

‘Where were you between 14th and 17th June, Ms Dunlop?’

A half-beat, then, ‘No fucking idea.’

‘It was a weekend, maybe you were away?’

She gives a hollow laugh. ‘Yeah, must have been that skiing trip to fucking St Moritz –’

‘Maybe you have a diary you could check?’

Dunlop gives a heavy sigh and yanks out her phone. She scrolls with a thumb, then stares at the screen. ‘Looks like I did precisely fuck-all that weekend, just like every other fucking weekend. Here.’

She holds it out for Stillwell to see.

Barry is frowning. ‘Wasn’t that when I was at Speedway?’His turn to look at his phone. ‘Yeah,’ he says, after a moment. ‘I was in Redcar that Sunday with Jamie. Went up the night before.’

‘Do you have tickets?’ asks Stillwell. ‘Maybe photos you took at the event?’

‘Fuck me, what do you want – blood?’

‘Just proof. So we can stop pestering you.’ She holds out a card. ‘You can email me at this address.’

***

Date:Thu 13/06/2024 12:17

From:[email protected]

To:Tarek Osman

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Daisy Mason case

OK, so Kelsie’s now saying the meet’s off unless we agree to a $50k fee. I’ve explained that that sort of money is way above what we’d usually pay for something like this, but she’s playing hardball and insisting on $50k upfront plus a share of the post-prod profits or the whole deal is off. Told me she’d take the story somewhere else and plenty of other people would pay what she’s asking. Yeah, right. I tried to negotiate her down but she has all the cards on this one – we can’t get to Daisy without her. Sorry bud, best I could do.

Can you clear it with Nick and get the cash to me? Same account as usual. I also need $2k for that little asshole Jamie. Frankly it’ll be worth it to get that Dunlop bitch off my back.

Rob

Date:Mon 24/06/2024 16:11

From:[email protected]

To:Tarek Osman

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