‘What is it you want to ask me?’
‘What do you think will happen when the DCI figures out that you and DS Miles are in a relationship together?’
At least that answered that question. Maybe she and Adrian weren’t as discreet as they thought they were.
‘Excuse me?’ Imogen responded.
‘That’s assuming she hasn’t figured it out already.’
‘Did she say something to you?’
‘Not to me, but it’s obvious. Maybe she was waiting for it to peter out. These things happen a lot within the force. You’re not the first.’
‘Adrian has volunteered to transfer,’ she said, almost like a boast, as though he should know that they had discussed it like adults already.
‘So, he should probably do that.’
‘Why doesn’t she like team members dating? It’s not against policy.’
‘It’s not my story to tell, I’m afraid, but if she knows you’re together then she will partner you both up with other people. It just keeps things simpler on call-outs.’
‘Have you ever been in a relationship with someone on your team?’
‘This isn’t about me,’ Walsh replied.
‘So that’s a yes, then. You know what it’s like – you work with someone day in and day out and you have no social life. Your world revolves around the job. People need other people. It’s just a basic human thing. We certainly never intended for it to happen.’
‘But it has happened. I just wanted to let you know that it hasn’t gone unnoticed.’
Imogen wished this conversation wasn’t happening right now. She was trapped in the car with DI Walsh and as friendly as this conversation was, it was almost certainly a reprimand.
‘Is that why DCI Kapoor has suggested that I work primarily with you?’
‘I told you, she hasn’t said anything to me, but I would say that’s a safe bet, yes.’
‘Shit!’ she swore.
‘I’m just giving you a heads-up, DS Grey. You work with detectives, someone was bound to notice. As long as it doesn’t interfere with anyone’s ability to do their job, she will turn a blind eye. These last few weeks have been quite tense, though, and after the way this case is playing out—’
‘That’s got nothing to do with our relationship.’
‘Maybe not, but if Adrian was working with another officer, maybe he wouldn’t feel able to cultivate this anger of his.’
‘So, it’s my fault?’
‘I’m just saying if he was with, say … me, he would remember he was working, that his personal feelings don’t come into it.’
‘Are you going to talk to the DCI about it?’
‘Only if she speaks to me first. I’m not the enemy, Grey. I’m trying to give you some advice here.’
‘OK. I appreciate you being honest with me. I guess DS Miles and I need to have another talk about the future. It doesn’t feel like a fling, so we need to figure out a way to move forwards.’
‘He could just move to another team and you would still see each other at the station, as well as at home.’
‘I can’t make the decisions for him, and this is a discussion for me and him to have, anyway. I’m sorry if we put you in a difficult position.’
‘I’m not worried about me. Like I said before, these things happen a lot.’
‘Well, I’m tired. I’m going to shut my eyes for a minute, if that’s all right with you,’ Imogen said before the conversation got even further away from her.
She should have known people had figured it out. Somewhere inside she already did. Would she even tell Adrian, or let him think that no one was any the wiser? She had hoped to keep it quiet until they had figured out what kind of relationship this was, it still felt too early to go public. She didn’t want to keep secrets from him, but at the moment she had no idea how he would handle the news. He really wasn’t himself.
She leaned against the glass and crossed her arms. It was cold in the car, but she didn’t mind it that way. It occurred to her that maybe Walsh had started that difficult conversation to avoid talking to her for the rest of the journey. Was he that smart?
The catseyes on the motorway blinked past her like the tick of a clock, each around a second apart. She started to count in her head, mostly to stop herself from thinking about the dilemma she was faced with. Same shit, different day. The man or the job. She couldn’t have both.
Chapter Sixty-Seven
Imogen knocked on the door to Adrian’s house, but there was no answer. She tried the spare key in the Yale lock, but the door wasn’t budging. Adrian must have double-locked the door and she didn’t have a key for the mortise lock. Maybe he thought she wouldn’t be back and he was elsewhere, with someone else. She pulled out her phone and called him.
‘Where are you?’ Imogen asked, wondering why he hadn’t answered the door.
‘Is that you outside?’ he whispered.
‘Yes, it’s me. Can you let me in, please?’ she said, although he rang off before she even got to the end of the sentence.
He appeared at the door a few moments later and unlocked the secondary lock before letting her inside and closing the door quickly behind her.
‘What’s wrong?’ he said.
‘We just got back from Shropshire and I wanted to see you.’
‘It’s three in the morning.’
‘Do you want me to leave?’ she said, annoyed at him for not being pleased to see her.
She could have gone straight home. The way Adrian had been behaving lately, she should have gone straight home.
‘No. No, of course not. Did you find anything?’
‘Nothing at all. Complete waste of time. I’m starving, have you got any food?’
‘I think there’s some bread in the kitchen. I could make you some toast.’
‘Thank you.’
She leaned forwards and kissed him – that flinch was there again, more pronounced than usual. She pushed it to one side and walked through to the kitchen.
Adrian followed behind and went straight to the toaster, busying himself with kitchen activities. She watched him closely and realised that he wasn’t making eye contact with her deliberately. Was he feeling guilty about something? Imogen was good at reading people and she couldn’t ignore her instincts anymore – she had to get the truth out of Adrian.
‘Adrian, what’s going on?’ she asked.
‘I’m making you toast, that’s what’s going on. Almost ready.’
‘I mean with us. Something is wrong. I can feel it. Are you experiencing some kind of buyer’s remorse or something?’
‘I’ve told you before that there is nothing wrong with us. I don’t know what you want me to say. Do you want me to make something up? Will you leave me alone then?’
The toast popped up and Adrian got a plate to put it on.
‘I thought we were being honest with each other.’
‘Look, I’m tired. I don’t have the energy for this. You know where the butter is,’ he said, dumping the plate of toast on the table in front of her before leaving the room and going back upstairs.
She closed her mouth, realising that it was slightly open in shock. She had never known Adrian to behave like this before. She rushed upstairs after him, but when she reached the bedroom and opened the door, she saw that he was already back in bed and covered up.
‘What the fuck was that?’ she asked.
‘Don’t read too much into this, Imogen. I am just fucking tired.’
‘I know you are lying to me about something, Adrian. One thing about you is that you have no poker face. Have I done something wrong?’
She could feel the neediness in her voice and she hated herself for it. She hated Adrian for it.
‘No, no, of course not. Can we maybe talk about this in about four hours?’ he said dismissively.
‘I don’t know if I can actually do this for much longer, Adrian. I hope this secret is worth what it’s doing to us.’
‘Grey, you�
�re paranoid; there is nothing you don’t know.’
‘Grey? You’re calling me by my surname and there’s nothing wrong? Is there someone else, Adrian? That’s really the only thing I can think of.’
Adrian sat up in the bed and crossed his legs before running his hands through his hair. She could see he had the urge to grab clumps of it in frustration.
‘Imogen. It’s three o’clock in the fucking morning. I need to go back to sleep so that I can wake up for work tomorrow. I promise you that I am not sleeping with anyone else. I already told you I love you and I meant that, but if you really think I would cheat on you then you should leave.’
‘Of course I don’t. I’m just scared, that’s all. I can feel you shutting me out. I don’t know if we can survive that kind of relationship. I don’t know if I want that.’
‘So, one little problem and you want out, is that what you’re saying?’
‘I’m saying talk to me!’
‘This is ridiculous! You can’t just come here at three in the morning and demand … this. Is this about sex?’
‘What? Of course it’s not! I mean, don’t think I haven’t noticed that you don’t seem to be interested in me anymore. I guess that’s why I asked you if there was someone else.’
‘Do you really think I would do that to you?’
He looked hurt at the suggestion this time.
‘No, of course I don’t, but I do know that you aren’t talking to me. Did I do something wrong?’
‘Look, you were right before. It’s this case; it’s getting to me. I’m sorry it’s spilled over into our relationship, but I can’t switch off. I am really trying not to dwell on it, but it’s not letting me. I wish I thought talking things through would help, but I don’t. Just be patient with me for a bit, please. I don’t want you to go. I don’t want to lose you, Imogen,’ he said.
The softness had returned to his voice. The tension left her shoulders as she looked at him – he wasn’t lying or pretending, at least at that moment.
‘You know, that’s the most you’ve said to me in weeks. I just don’t like to think of you going through this alone when you don’t have to.’
‘I know, I’m sorry. I’ll try harder.’
‘You don’t have to try at all, just let me be there for you.’
‘You are. I would have gone crazy without you these last few weeks. I really don’t deserve you.’
He held his hand out to her. She took it and he pulled her towards him, kissing her on the lips, soft and tender, reassuring her that all of her concerns were completely unfounded. Giving her exactly what she wanted.
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Adrian had got four hours’ sleep the previous night with Imogen turning up at three in the morning and making him feel like shit for making her feel like shit.
They lay together on the bed until the sun came up and it was time to get ready for work.
He had some thinking to do. He wasn’t sure he was even fit to be in a relationship and so maybe he did need to let Imogen go, even though the thought killed him; she was more than his lover – she was his best friend, they were a team.
As it was, the situation was confusing. He wasn’t doing the best job of getting back to normal and he was pulling Imogen down with him. If they broke up, he would be losing so much more than just a girlfriend. He briefly considered telling her the truth, but the thought of how she would look at him from that moment on quickly put an end to that idea. He washed his face in the sink of the station bathroom and went back to the team briefing he had asked to be excused from because he kept falling asleep.
He sat back down at the end of the conference table nearest the door, just as Gary finished explaining the company financials to the rest of the room.
‘What did I miss?’
‘I was basically telling everyone how, as far as I can tell, there is no way to get him through the business. Certainly not quickly. It’s a dead end. Everything is just this side of legal and if there is anything untoward going on then I can’t find it. No wonder he was so eager to give us copies of his files; they are in very good shape. I have handed it on to someone in forensic accounting, but it could be a while before we get anything back on that, if we actually do. They are the cleanest-looking books I have ever seen. He’s clever; he knows how to cover his tracks. I’ll give him that.’
‘This is absolutely ludicrous. We are almost six weeks into a murder investigation and we know who did it but have absolutely no physical evidence tying him to the various crimes we suspect he is guilty of. Did you reach out to Cameron Becker?’ DCI Kapoor asked Adrian.
‘Another dead end. He didn’t have anything to say about Corrigan at all,’ Adrian said, his voice catching.
‘Do you think he was telling the truth?’
‘Yes,’ Adrian lied.
If he was right about what had happened to Cameron Becker and the police investigated it, it could lead them to discovering what had happened to Adrian. He couldn’t have that. Also he felt a little protective over Becker, wanting to safeguard his privacy, understanding that coming forward was his choice and no one else’s.
‘So, we keep looking; there has to be something,’ Imogen said.
‘So far, we suspect he killed both Simon Glover and Clive Osborne. We also think he maimed a couple of people, as well. We think he attempted to murder his wife, Angela Corrigan. And not forgetting whatever drove Leon Quick to stabbing himself in front of two police officers out of the bloody blue. There was nothing in the house in Oswestry?’ DCI Kapoor said.
‘They haven’t come back with anything, but they’d found nothing when we left. The cellar was newly remodelled when they moved in, but the Parkins permitted them to drill into the concrete to get to under the foundations and take soil samples. They are quick, simple tests on the ground and none of them threw up any trace of human remains. Forensics said that was their best bet at this point,’ Imogen said.
‘Feels a bit too much like a lucky dip for my liking. We are missing something or someone, I know we are,’ DCI Kapoor said.
‘Do you want us to take another run at his right-hand man, Jimmy Chilton? He must have some information by now,’ Imogen said.
‘You do that, DS Grey. Scare the shit out of him if you need to. He definitely knows more than he is letting on. Bring him in and make him sweat it out in an interview room. Go and speak to Quick’s parents first, see if they can’t tell you a bit more about why he left. I know you haven’t been cleared for active duty yet, DS Miles, but as these are grieving parents and not suspects, you should be fine. I think it needs to be the two of you who go and speak to them, not someone new. They’ve met you before,’ DCI Kapoor said.
Adrian was thankful at least that he had been paired with Imogen and not someone else. The thought of leaving the station was not particularly appealing after what happened at Cameron Becker’s. These days he divided his time between home, work and sometimes the church. He didn’t want to deal with anything or anyone else. He knew he would have to get over all of that if he wanted to continue as a police officer. Before the attack he had never considered being anything else. His whole life had been called into question. He didn’t even know who he was anymore.
Imogen tapped him on the shoulder and he realised the briefing had ended. His mind had wandered off again. Standing, he walked out of the room, because that’s what he was supposed to do now. Just a few more hours of going through the motions and he could go home and shower, sleep and let go of the pretence for just a while.
Chapter Sixty-Nine
Adrian got chills as they pulled back into the Quicks’ driveway, remembering what happened the last time they were there. Adrian thought of who he had been then and it felt like a lifetime ago.
Imogen pushed the doorbell and Mrs Quick answered the door. She had that look still, grief, the hollow of bereavement. They had known they wouldn’t be welcome after what had happened last time they were there, but nothing could prepare Adrian for the loo
k of sheer hatred and betrayal Mrs Quick gave him.
‘What do you want?’ she asked.
‘We just wanted to ask you a few questions about your son, Mrs Quick,’ Adrian said.
‘Can we come in?’ Imogen added.
‘I don’t think so. Just ask me what you want to ask and then leave.’
‘Do you know why your son moved back home?’
‘He said he wanted to save some money, said he was struggling to keep on top of his bills. I didn’t really scrutinise his reasoning; I was just glad to have him home.’
‘Did he say much to you about his work at Corrigan Construction?’
‘No, but he was different after he worked there. It changed him, it did.’
‘Changed him how?’ Adrian asked, remembering that Gerry Thompson had said something similar about working there.
‘He just became a total recluse. He was always late for things, or just didn’t turn up at all. He cut himself off from almost everyone he knew apart from Simon.’
As she spoke, Adrian thought again of the idea that had come to him at Cameron Becker’s residence. He remembered the look on Leon Quick’s face as he plunged the knife into himself. There had been something he would rather die for than talk to them about.
A few weeks ago, Adrian had no idea what could have caused a young man to behave in such a way. As soon as the thought entered his mind it stuck. No proof, but Adrian knew. He thought of Leon’s face and he knew. He knew what had happened to Leon because it had happened to him and, he believed, to Cameron Becker, too.
Reece Corrigan was behind the sexual assault on Adrian. Any doubt Adrian had of that fact was quashed by this realisation. He might not have done it himself, but he was the driving force. To distract him from the case? To teach him a lesson? To put him in his place? There were no boundaries. There was nothing Reece Corrigan wasn’t willing to do to protect himself. There was also no way Adrian was going to let him get away with it.
This meant that it was more than likely one of Corrigan’s associates was his attacker. This narrowed things down and gave Adrian a sense of peace, knowing which direction the attack had come from, knowing the reason.
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