Page 24 of Better the Devil

‘Right.’ Logan looked around the room. At the extravagant couch. At the awful wall art. At the TV the size of a cinema screen. ‘And what business is that, exactly?’

‘Our business,’ Sergei said, before Eleanor could speak. ‘Not yours.’

Logan shoved his hands into his coat pockets. ‘Fair enough,’ he said.

He turned again towards the door.

Then he turned back again.

‘One last thing.’

A look of irritation broke through Eleanor’s otherwise impassive defences. There one moment, gone the next. ‘Yes?’

‘Where’s your dog?’ Logan asked.

The question caught her off guard. She frowned, though her Botoxed forehead still didn’t register it.

‘What dog? We don’t have a dog?’

‘You don’t have a Golden Retriever, or something similar?’

Eleanor gestured around at the pristinely clean room. ‘Does it look like we have a dog?’

‘No,’ Logan conceded. Then again, it didn’t look like she had kids, either. Not a thing was out of place. Not a toy lay abandoned anywhere. ‘No, it doesn’t.’

He glanced around again, taking it all in, then bid her farewell with a nod.

‘Goodnight, Mrs Belov,’ he said. ‘We’ll talk very soon.’

CHAPTER TEN

‘Here’sa wee summary for you, boss.’

Logan picked some morning sleep from the corner of an eye and looked down at the sheet of paper that was being offered to him by DC Neish. Tyler gave him an encouraging nod as he inched the page closer.

‘A summary?’ Jack asked, still not taking it.

‘Aye, that’s right, boss. Knocked it together overnight. Just pulled together the information we’ve got so far onto a cheeky one-sheet for us. Make it easier, I thought,’ Tyler explained.

Logan looked past the detective constable to where DC Sinead Bell was arranging information on a freestanding corkboard in the centre of the Incident Room.

‘Is Sinead not pulling it all together on the Big Board?’

‘Oh, aye. She is. And I’m sure she’s doing a great job, as always,’ Tyler said. ‘But I just thought it might be handy to have it laid out as just a wee one-pager, too.’

‘Right. You just thought you’d do that, did you?’ Logan asked. ‘Just off your own back, to make life easier for us?’

Tyler beamed at him. He gave the sheet of paper a waggle, reminding the DCI it was there. ‘Exactly.’

‘Nothing to do with the upcoming interviews, then? This competition you two’ve got going on?’

‘What? No. Perish the thought,’ Tyler said. He kept his smile nailed on as he placed the sheet of paper down on Logan’s desk. ‘I’ll just leave this here for you. I think you’ll be quite impressed by it, if I do say so myself.’

With a wink, a point, and a click from the side of his mouth, Tyler headed off to continue distributing his pile of printouts.

‘Dave, mate! Here, you’ll like this…’

Logan watched him go, then grunted and shrugged off his coat. He dumped it on his chair before joining Sinead by the Big Board.