Page 65 of Better the Devil

‘Oh, no, sir. We have a whole lot to be getting on with.’

‘Well, there we go, then. Out of the goodness of my heart, I am offering to ease some of that workload.’

Up. Down. Tyler’s head continued to follow the hands. He was starting to look like a nodding dog.

‘Our pathologist is already on the way.’

‘Fine. They can declare it and take the rest of the day off. We’ll get the body shipped to Inverness. Win-win.’

Reeve’s smile cranked up a few notches. Sinead caught herself before she could tuck her hair back again.

‘You have got this all figured out, huh?’

‘Just helping out a fellow officer.’

Reeve chuckled at that. He continued to shake Logan’s hand for a few more seconds, then relented and released his grip.

‘Who am I to argue with one of the old legends?’ he asked.

Logan didn’t miss the dig. He smiled, showing his teeth.

‘You’re nobody at all,’ he replied.

Reeve caught that one, too. He laughed, looked across the faces of the team, then gave Hamza a friendly pat on the shoulder.

‘Congratulations again, Detective Inspector. All of us over on the east coast are rooting for you.’

‘Eh, cheers,’ Hamza said.

Reeve nodded, one quick tipping of his head to be shared among the six of them, then turned and headed back down his own end.

Logan let him get a decent distance away, before calling after him.

‘Oh, and here.Buck Howdy, or whatever your name is.’ He raised a finger and pointed at the other DCI. ‘For this, you owe me one.’

Reeve’s grin lit up his face.

‘Buck Howdy. That’s a good one.’

He wagged a finger, like he was making a mental note to remember the moment, then put an arm around the shoulder of a passing constable, and guided him back up towards the cordon.

‘Nicely done, Jack,’ Ben remarked.

‘You fair put him in his place, boss,’ Tyler agreed.

‘But, eh’—Hamza glanced back in the direction of the house—‘that right enough, what you said? About Crichton being a suspect for Victor Belov.’

‘Aye. Maybe.’ A tilt of Logan’s head said he wasn’t ready to commit, either way. ‘But it didn’t exactly come from the world’s most reliable source.’

‘Where did it come from, sir?’ Sinead asked.

Logan bit down on his lip. They were all watching him. All waiting.

He had to tell them. He did. He would.

But not yet. Not now.

‘Let’s get everything underway here,’ he said. With a nod, he handed all authority back to Hamza, then turned towards his car. ‘We can regroup at the station. We’ll talk then.’