Page 52 of Dying Breath
He looked at the papers spewing out of the photocopier. ‘I’m sorry; were you busy?’
‘Not really. Just some project for Ellie – our printer at home packed in last night and she needs them for tomorrow.’
She bit her tongue.Why are you lying to him, Lucy?
He shrugged. ‘Always the way when you need something. Do you fancy going for a drink after work, like the old days? We could stop off and get a takeaway. You know, there’s no point in you waiting around forever. George has moved on – so should you.’
Mattie, who’d caught the last bit of their conversation, wondered if the new boss had a death wish because the look on Lucy’s face told him it was highly likely she was going to stab him. Blond hair and muscles or not, his good looks wouldn’t save him from her wrath if she went off on one. Browning was waving to Lucy from the other side of the office and she turned to go and speak to him.
‘Excuse me.’
Patrick didn’t move and she had to squeeze past him, so close they were almost touching. She glared at him and he stepped back. He was pissing her off big time with his attitude and creepy ways. He grabbed her arm and Lucy snatched it away from him, feeling the red mist descend over the inside of her mind. She could see Mattie and Browning standing some distance away, both of them staring at her and wondering what she was going to do. She was close – she could feel her knuckles clenching as she imagined how satisfying it would be to smash her fist into his nose. The obnoxious prick. Did he really think he could grab her whenever he wanted? She took a step back into her office, pulling him in with her, and slammed the door shut. Mattie looked at Browning in horror; he didn’t know if he should intervene or not.
‘No, thank you. I run a tight department. We have five serious murders to investigate and an unidentified body. I expect nothing but a thousand per cent professionalism. You have come in here to take over from Tom, who is an excellent DCI, and it would be nice if you treated your team with the same respect as he does.’
Outside, the entire room had come to a standstill as the officers tried to listen to what was being said inside.
Browning was grimacing. ‘Someone’d better take the boss out and tell her to chill, although she has got a point; that man’s an arrogant arsehole.’
Mattie nodded. ‘I will – I’ll take her to get some food or coffee or something.’
Patrick looked at Lucy and started to laugh. ‘You have me all wrong, Lucy. I’m sorry. I thought we were all working together just fine, one big happy family.’
‘You keep it on a professional level and we will be.’
She opened the door and strutted across to Browning. ‘Did you want me?’
The look of alarm that crossed his face as he began shaking his head made her smile.
‘Don’t be a dweeb; you know what I meant.’
‘I need to show you and Mattie something on the CCTV from Aston’s. I don’t think you’re going to like it, though.’
‘I don’t think today can get much worse. Come on, then.’
Chapter Forty-Eight
All three of them walked down the corridor to the video imaging unit. They filed inside and Mattie shut the door behind him. One of the television screens was on pause and they gathered around it.
Browning leant forward and pressed play. They watched as Stacey Green began to argue with Lewis Waite. She slapped his face and he shoved her, then turned to walk away, only to be grabbed by two of the bouncers. The camera angle changed and there was Stacey again, a bit worse for wear and stumbling towards the toilets, managing to drop her handbag, the contents spilling everywhere.
‘We’ve already watched this.’
‘I know, but I wanted to go over it again. Just in case we missed something the first time.’
As Stacey bent down to pick up her things, Browning said, ‘Watch this corner closely.’
A hand came into view of the camera, passing Stacey some of her stuff. Browning smiled at Lucy. ‘You have to watch closely.’
Lucy and Mattie were both hunched over the screen intently, but Lucy had no idea what she was watching or waiting for. And then she saw it. Stacey must have removed her tights earlier in the night, or had a spare pair, because the hand that was helping her picked them up but didn’t pass them to her. Instead, it disappeared from the screen, taking the tights with it.
‘I think that’s the man who killed her. Either he was very lucky that he wasn’t caught on camera or he knew exactly where the cameras were and knew he would be just out of sight.’
‘How do we know that it’s not Lewis Waite?’ Lucy asked.
‘Because on this next disc Waite is shown being escorted from the club by the bouncers, and the time stamp on that frame is one minute before Stacey drops her bag.’
Lucy looked at Browning. ‘I knew Waite wasn’t right for it, but we can’t just rule him out – this isn’t enough.’
