Page 64 of Better the Devil

She was barely back in the living room when she heard the thud-thud-thud of footsteps running towards her, closing fast.

There was no time to react. Olivia thudded into her. They both stumbled back until Shona hit the doorframe.

Olivia’s arms pulled tight around the pathologist’s shoulders, face burying in against her neck, her whole body shuddering.

Shona put her hands on the girl’s back and on her head, holding her close, as Olivia Maximuke silently sobbed her heart out.

‘It isan honour to be here in your presence. I want to throw that out there, right off the bat.’

DCI Reeve stood face to face with Logan, shaking hands. At least, that’s what it looked like they were doing, but there was a sense of something else going on there, too. Some secret battle or contest, the rules of which neither one really understood, but were determined to win, all the same.

‘If there was a league table of legendary lawmen, then your name would sit right there on top, I do not doubt it for a moment.’

They continued shaking hands, neither one willing to be the first to let go.

‘Aye, very good,’ Logan said. ‘Now, I’m sure you’ve got plenty of work to be doing back in Aberdeen. Sheep-rustling, or whatever.’ He glanced around at the scene, drawing attention to it. ‘You can leave this lot to us.’

‘Ha! Sheep-rustling. Classic!’ Reeve said. ‘But, no. As I was explaining to Detective Inspector Khaled here a few minutes ago, we’re going to hang onto this one, but we will be more than happy to?—’

‘No.’

The hands kept shaking. Up. Down. Tyler stood watching them, transfixed.

‘No?’

‘The victim in there has been named as a suspect in our murder investigation,’ Logan told him.

The rest of his team looked at him in surprise, but kept their mouths shut.

‘So, to protect the integrity of the investigation, chain of evidence, all that stuff, we’ll be taking this one.’

‘I hear you, Jack,’ Reeve said, and Logan bristled at the familiarity. ‘But we have our own ongoing investigations concerning Mr Crichton.’

‘We’ll be happy to share what we find,’ Logan assured him.

Up. Down. The arms kept pumping.

‘It’s on our turf,’ Reeve argued.

‘It’s borderline. It’s… what?’

He didn’t take his eyes off Reeve long enough to direct the question, but he didn’t have to.

‘About two miles,’ Hamza said.

‘Two miles. Out of thousands. That’s nothing,’

‘It’s actually two-point-six miles, by my reckoning, but I’m going to go ahead and take your point,’ Reeve said.

Up, down. Up, down.

‘There’s still the matter of us getting here first,’ Reeve said. ‘Though I apologise for how childish that might sound.’

‘Listen… Nathan, was it?’

‘Nate.’

‘Listen, Nathan,’ Logan intoned. ‘I am going out of my way to do you a favour here, by taking all this work off your hands. Are you short of things to do over there? Is that the problem?’