Private London (Private 4)

‘Nothing. I’ll take care of it.’

‘How?’

‘I don’t know.’

The door opened and Kirsty walked in. She looked at us both for a moment without speaking.

‘Isn’t this cosy?’ she said finally. ‘The Thin Man and his lawyer. All we need now is a little dog and it would be a perfect picture.’

Kirsty was a big fan of old black-and-white films.

‘Are you going to charge my client?’ asked Alison, a degree of frost creeping into her voice.

Kirsty smiled but there wasn’t a lot of warmth in it, either. ‘Client?’ she said, rolling the word around on her tongue as if trying it on for size and not finding it to her liking.

‘If you have something to say, how about we expedite matters and simply say it, Kirsty?’ said Alison.

Kirsty looked at me, ignoring her. ‘Just so you know. It was never my idea to arrest you in the first place.’

‘Fair enough.’

‘The second murder and now this abduction. My hands were tied. The big guns were wheeled in and my boss DSI Andrew Harrington ordered you brought in. There’s promotion written all over this case.’

‘I see.’

‘No way around it. You brought her here under a false passport, Dan. There’s stuff going on that you know and we don’t. And that’s not right.’

I nodded. Hard to argue with her. ‘Sorry.’ I said simply.

‘So … is there anything you want to tell us?’

I shook my head. The message had been very clear. If the police became involved then Hannah would be hurt. Hurt in ways that did not bear thinking about. There was no option.

‘Then you leave me no choice …’ said DI Webb.

‘Than to do what?’ asked Alison Chambers.

‘Than to let you go,’ said Kirsty. Surprising the pair of us.

Chapter 44

IT WAS JUST shy of one o’clock.

The union bar was starting to fill up. It was a Saturday. Lucy and Suzy had positioned themselves at the far left of the bar, perched on stools that gave them a good view of the room.

They had been chatting to Carol, a third-year history student who was working the shift with the older full-time manager called Sian.

Sian had told Lucy that Ryan would be coming on shift from one o’clock. It wasn’t the first time she had been asked that particular question over the couple of months that Ryan had been working for her and she very much doubted that it would be the last. Ryan, it seemed, was very popular with the female students.

Carol handed a soda-and-lime to Suzy.

‘Thanks. Terrible thing about what happened to those girls last night.’

‘It’s disgusting,’ agreed the barmaid. ‘A couple of No Means No leaflets and that’s all the protection they reckon we need.’

‘Too true,’ agreed Lucy.

‘I certainly won’t be working any more night shifts.’