In Dark Water (Detective Shona Oliver 1)

‘I’ll work to pay it back,’ he said. ‘I’ll get another job, I’ll get help. I promise. Please, Shona.’ He tried to hug her, but she pushed him away. ‘Just let me try. I love you, Shona.’

‘No!’ she shouted, the tears pricking behind her eyes. ‘You don’t do this to people you love. You’ve destroyed everything and made me an accessory to your crime. I was a DI in the City Police, no one will believe I didn’t know about this. Don’t you realise? I have to report this fraud.’

‘Don’t, don’t. I’m begging you, Shona. What’s the point? They’ll come after you.’

‘Who?’

‘I don’t know. Whichever gang Milton McConnell are in league with.’

‘Well, I’ve got news for you. My gang’s bigger than their gang,’ she said with a bravado she didn’t feel. She wanted to scare him; it was the only way she could think of to make him realise the depth of shit he’d landed them both in.

‘Look, just forget I told you. I’m drunk, don’t know what I’m saying.’ He tried a tentative smile. ‘It’s all my fault but I’ll sort it, I promise. Just go to bed, you look exhausted. I’ll sleep in a guest room. Here,’ he filled a glass from the tap and held it out to her, ‘get some rest.’

She felt the impulse to smash it from his hand, but he was right about one thing. She was exhausted. Becca’s accident, the unresolved cases of Isla and Sami, the strain of keeping Baird at bay and now this. What had started as a trickle was now a deluge. It was like she was drowning, pushed further and further down by the weight of water.

She ignored the glass. ‘I’m going upstairs. I need to think.’ She looked him in the eye. ‘Tomorrow, you call the doctor. You’re an addict, Rob. You need help. You get an appointment and you tell him what you’ve done.’ He nodded eagerly, feeling he was making progress with her, but when he reached out to kiss her goodnight, she turned away and slammed the door behind her.

Chapter 27

‘Everything okay, boss? Becca all right?’ Murdo’s concerned face greeted her the next morning in the office.

‘Yes, fine. Busy night,’ Shona said distractedly. Her navy trousers and deep purple shirt were neat and pressed but her eyes were red-rimmed, and her dark bob was scraped back into a pony tail held in place by one of Becca’s hairbands.

‘You get called out on the lifeboat?’ Murdo looked set to launch into a lecture about burning candles at both ends.

‘No, no,’ she said, irritated by the interruption. She picked up a pile of papers on her desk, then put them down again. There had been something she wanted to check about the Isla investigation but Murdo had distracted her and now she couldn’t remember what it was. It had occurred to her, as she lay awake last night trying to grade her troubles into order of priority, but she’d omitted to write it down. ‘No, just sorting out things at home.’ She’d stood over Rob this morning, while he called his GP, but had said little else to him.

Murdo gave her a look which said that man of yours could do with sorting out for a start. Shona was aware that Rob’s currency had slipped in the eyes of her deputy since he’d found him in the pub after Becca’s accident. He’d said nothing, but a look from Murdo could say everything.

She stopped searching her desk fruitlessly for her lost thought. Murdo was watching her and frowning. ‘Do you need me for something, Murdo?’ The question sounded more exhausted than she’d meant it to.

He’d been leaning against the door frame but now stood upright and read from a Post-it note in his hand. ‘Just a wee thing. A Nathan Jones called. Said it was urgent you got in touch.’

Shona felt the gears of her memory, heavy with fatigue, slip and judder.

‘It’s a Gretna number,’ Murdo prompted.

It came to her. ‘Nathan Jones, the yard next to the Carmine warehouse. Where the pills were found.’

‘Okay, so, he wouldn’t say what he wanted. Will only talk to you.’

‘Murdo, I don’t have time for this today.’ She sat down, exasperated. ‘I’m picking up Becca from the hospital in an hour.’

‘That’s grand.’ Murdo smiled. He held the yellow Post-it note up. ‘Want me to deal with this?’

‘Yes. Please do.’ She began opening and closing her desk drawers. ‘Wait.’ She stopped and looked at him. ‘Could this be a change of heart from Jones? He must have seen the news about Op Fortress, how we rounded up the dealers. Maybe he feels safe enough to tell us something about the pills we found without fear of reprisals?’

‘Aye, mibbae,’ Murdo considered.

‘Go and see what he has to say, and Murdo…’ she hesitated. Right now, she felt like she was fighting a war on all fronts. She needed Murdo’s help. ‘Listen, technically we’re not pursuing the Isla Corr case, but I still think it

’s possible that yard is where she went into the Solway. If Jones should happen to mention anything…’

‘Aye, I know what you mean. It doesnae sit well with me that we never found out what happened to the lass.’ Murdo nodded slowly.

‘Take Ravi with you. As Family Liaison Officer he knows Isla Corr’s background best.’

‘Fine. Do you want me to pass anything onto Dan Ridley? Technically it’s Cumbria’s case.’