Page 34 of M for Murder

As usual, Rebecca hadn’t cared and hadn’t agreed.

She wasn’t in a big rush to get married and didn’t believe there were many guys in Swallow Falls who had the balls to take her on anyway.

‘They probably don’t expect such behaviour from the Minister’s daughter,’ her mother had argued. ‘Can’t you try to be a little more refined, like Wendy?’

Like middle sister, Wendy? That was a laugh. Stay at home, bake cakes and have babies. No, thank you. If anything, Rebecca aspired to be the complete opposite to Wendy.

It was soon after that fight that she’d applied to join the academy. And now here she was, a cop in the city, already involved in a murder investigation.

Hickok and Sutton had been over at the college for most of the day, conducting further interviews, and when they’d returned neither of them had been particularly forthcoming about how well things had gone. Rebecca hadn’t asked. She wasn’t going to give Joel Hickok the satisfaction of knowing that she wanted to know. She had already had a pretty shitty day and the less time she spent in his company the better.

At various times during the week, she had tried to figure out what he was all about. At first, she’d just assumed that he was a chauvinist and liked to belittle women. From the way he treated Vic, though, it had quickly become apparent that he spoke down to most people, regardless of sex or rank – especially cops.

She loathed him for it, believing that no one was above good manners, but she had also worked with him closely enough to see that he was good at his job. He was thorough and dedicated, which she guessed was probably why he got away with acting like such a jumped-up jerk most of the time.

Her own day had been spent out on patrol with Vic. Although the shift itself had been pretty much uneventful, she’d really had about as much of Vic as she could handle. Vic and his continual rambling about how he was a big hero because he’d found the second body in the sewer. In the end he’d made a day spent with Hickok seem almost appealing.

Rebecca hoped sincerely that the two Feds would want them working on the murder case again on Monday, because she wasn’t too sure she could handle another shift quite like today.

Right now she was just glad to be away from it all.

The apartment that she rented wasn’t the kind of place you wanted to spend too much time in. It was very basic, with one bedroom, a bathroom and a very small open-plan living room and kitchen. The walls were magnolia and, not having had time to do any kind of decorating, Rebecca had stuck a few cheap prints up that she had bought from a nearby market stall, in an attempt to cheer the place up.

At the moment, this apartment was all she could afford. On her first day in the city she had opened up a second bank account and planned on paying money into it every month until eventually there was enough for her to move. She didn’t want anything lavish, just somewhere with a larger living room, thicker walls – she had noisy neighbours – and in a quieter location that would be safer for Sabrina.

Sabrina, named after her favourite Charlie’s Angel, was the black kitten that she had adopted from the local animal shelter; right now she was hungry and purring around Rebecca’s legs as she changed out of her uniform. Once dressed in comfortable jeans and her favourite black T-shirt, Rebecca took her through to the kitchen and opened a new can of cat food. Then she played back messages on her machine: two, both from her mother checking she was eating okay, and sat down to have a quick read of the paper she had picked up on her way home.

There wasn’t much that she didn’t already know about. Most were follow-up stories. There was a couple of new shootings and muggings, nothing really positive. Wondering why she had bothered to read it in the first place, she put down the paper and hit the remote for the TV, flicking until she came across an episode of ER. The news was always the same: brutal crimes and greedy politicians, just different names and different places.

The Feds were still trying to keep the murders under wraps and the paper just had a brief story on Rufus Lind, the second victim, saying that investigations were continuing. Max Sutton had insisted that everyone involved keep quiet until they’d established there was a definite connection to the Alphabet Killings, and Rebecca felt sure that she would be able to do a better job of keeping quiet than Vic would.

Already she’d had to stop him twice today from shooting his mouth off, first to the hot dog vendor and then a guy they’d stopped for running a red light. Discretion, she’d quickly come to realise, was not Vic’s strongest quality and if the press got wind of what was going on, she would bet a month’s salary it would be down to him.

She wondered how he was getting on out on his date with Jill and Kylan and her husband. He had talked constantly about it all day. Seemed to think he might get lucky with Jill tonight.

Poor girl.

Rebecca laughed to herself. Jill probably had no idea what she was letting herself in for.

Leaving the TV playing, she went into her kitchen and started rummaging through the various packet meals in the refrigerator for something to have for dinner. Her mother would have a fit if she saw the type of food Rebecca had been eating since she’d moved to Juniper.

Rebecca was the only one of her daughters who couldn’t cook and, if it hadn’t been for the invention of the microwave oven, she suspected that she would probably be spending most of her evenings either eating out or buying takeaway food.

At least she had plenty of the packet meals to keep her going for a while. During her visit to the grocery store with Vic, Rebecca had taken the opportunity to load her basket as full as possible. Of course, he had complained bitterly when the time came to pay, but Rebecca had threatened to go tell his friend, Kylan, who stood in the queue next to them, all about his little adventure in the sewer. It had worked, she guessed, because he didn’t want word to get back to Kylan’s sister, and he paid up without another word. As far as she was concerned, they were even, but she got the distinct impression that Vic felt she was one up on him and she had been watching her back for the last couple of days, not sure what to expect. Maybe she would get lucky and he’d elope with Jill tonight. Then she wouldn’t have to worry anymore.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud knocking on her door.

Replacing her ready meal dinner back on the refrigerator shelf, she started to get up, wondering who was there.

The knocking came again, sharp and persistent.

‘Okay, I’m coming,’ Rebecca yelled, irritated at the caller’s impatience. Not bothering to enquire who it was, she pulled the door wide open.

She wished she hadn’t when she saw Joel Hickok standing on her doorstep looking completely different out of his suit, dressed in jeans and T-shirt, but still wearing a cocky look on his face. She screwed up her nose, making no attempt to hide her disdain.

‘Oh, it’s you.’

Hickok gave her a crooked grin. ‘That’s a nice greeting, Angell.’