Page 59 of Better the Devil

The other side—the Aberdonian end—was heaving with Uniforms, SOCOs, and a sharply dressed female detective in her fifties, who appeared to be dishing out orders.

‘Aye, must be,’ Tyler agreed. ‘Any sign of Ham or Ben?’

Sinead leaned her head closer to the side window, getting a better view of the cars lined up in front of hers.

‘No. They’re here somewhere, by the looks of it, but I can’t see them.’

She unclipped her seatbelt, keen to get moving.

‘How you feeling?’ Tyler asked her.

Sinead turned, surprised by the question. ‘I’m fine. I don’t get carsick.’

‘No, I mean… about tomorrow. About the interview. How you feeling? You ready?’

‘Oh. Um, aye. I think so.’

Tyler scowled playfully at her. ‘Come on, that’s not exactly fighting talk. We’re in competition here, remember? Head to head.’

Sinead smiled. ‘Yeah. No, I know. I know that’s what we said,’ she replied. There was a hesitancy to her, like she’d been building up to this, but hadn’t yet settled on the right words. ‘I just… I don’t want it to change anything, you know what I mean? Whoever gets it, gets it. Whoever doesn’t… I don’t want them feeling bad, or… Whatever.’

‘It’s OK. Don’t worry,’ Tyler said. He put his hand on his wife’s knee and gave it a squeeze. ‘You’ll get over it.’

Sinead laughed at that. ‘Oh, right, that does it. I’m totally going to destroy you for that!’

‘That’s more like it!’ Tyler cheered. ‘Although, now it’s just going to be even more embarrassing for you when I win.’

‘No, you’re right. It’d be genuinely humiliating if you won,’ Sinead conceded.

‘Exactly, so… Here, hang on. Why would it begenuinely humiliating?’ Tyler asked, calling after Sinead as she opened the door and climbed out of the car.

He leaned across the driver’s seat to look up at her. ‘I’ve been doing this way longer than you have!’ he reminded her.

‘Oh, I know you have,’ Sinead said. She winked at him. ‘But I’ve been doing it better.’

She pressed a button on her key fob, and Tyler clambered out of the car as his window began to roll up.

He had just started to explain why he was the only sensible choice for the detective sergeant job when the screaming of brakes almost made him hurl himself into a ditch at the side of the road in fright.

Dave Davidson’s car screeched to a halt in a cloud of exhaust fumes and burning rubber.

‘Sorry I’m late,’ Dave said, grinning at them through his open side window. ‘Can you believe I got flagged down by a guy with a speed gun on the way up here?’

‘Yes! Of course we can believe that,’ Tyler shot back. ‘The speed you go, I’m amazed the bloody thing didn’t blow up in his hand.’

Dave cackled at the suggestion. ‘That would’ve been funny, actually. Should’ve seen his face when I showed him my ID. Totally shat it.’

Sinead pressed the button to lock the car. ‘Why? He was just doing his job.’

‘Naw, he wasn’t even a cop, just some old rando with a gun off Temu or somewhere. I told him to leave that sort of thing to us.’ Dave’s grin widened. ‘Don’t think he really appreciated the irony of that, but he was wise enough to keep his mouth shut.’

His engine rumbled then died away with a wheeze that sounded like a sigh of relief.

‘So, who are all these knobs, then?’ Dave asked, indicating the Aberdeen end of the cordon. ‘And how are we planning to show them who’s boss?’

Bosco sat alone nowat the kitchen table, still clutching his mug. He’d asked for a word in private with Logan. Despite every atom in his body screaming at him to batter the bastard’s head in with a frying pan, the DCI had relented.

Olivia had slammed the knife back into the block and gone storming out of the room, clearly unhappy with this arrangement, but knowing better than to get in the way of it.