Page 85 of Better the Devil

Once she’d left, Tyler shuffled awkwardly from foot to foot, his cheeks reddening with embarrassment.

‘So, um, will… Did…’ He brushed a hand against the top of the desk, like he was checking it was real. ‘Is that a new’—his eyes darted desperately around the room—‘bin?’

‘No,’ Logan told him.

Tyler tilted his head to one side and nodded. He rapped his knuckles on the desktop. ‘What sort of wood’s that, do you think?’ he asked, then a knock on the door provided a much-needed escape route.

‘Oh, thank God,’ Tyler whispered, as he turned to see Hamza entering the room.

‘We just got a call,’ the DI announced. ‘It’s your man, Joe Robertson.’

‘The bag snatcher. What’s he up to this time?’ Logan asked. ‘A smash and grab?’

‘Eh, no, sir.’ Hamza glanced down at the notepad in his hand, like he was double-checking the facts. ‘He’s gone missing.’

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

‘You wanted to see me, sir?’

Logan turned from the Big Board, which he’d been studying for the past twenty minutes, and acknowledged Sergeant Fleck with a nod.

‘Yes. Thanks for coming in.’

Gavin let the door swing closed behind him and stopped with his heels together. He looked over at Ben and Hamza, and nodded a silent hello before turning back to Logan.

‘No bother. I was just about to start shift, so I was downstairs.’

‘Right. Good. Well, I won’t keep you long,’ Logan told him. ‘Just got a couple of questions about our mutual friend.’

‘Joe?’ The sergeant sighed. ‘What’s he done now?’

‘Funny. That’s more or less what I said. You drove him home yesterday, aye? After we let him go?’

‘I did, yeah. Thought that was best.’

‘How did he seem?’

Fleck puffed out his cheeks, then shook his head. ‘Fine. I mean… quiet. Tense. Not his usual self, but then I wasn’t really expecting him to be. I think you gave him a bit of a scare.’

‘I have that effect on a lot of people,’ Logan said. ‘He say anything?’

‘About…?’

Logan shrugged. ‘Anything.’

‘Just that he was sorry, really. Kept stressing that. Went on about his wife’s dolls a bit. I saw those, by the way, when I dropped him off. He was right. Bloody awful things.’

‘And when he got home? How was he then?’ Logan pressed.

Fleck hesitated. ‘Aye, fine. About the same. Why? Has something happened, sir?’

Logan drew in a breath, then let it slowly out through his nose.

‘His wife phoned. He went out on hispatrollast night and didn’t come back.’

‘Oh, God.’ The sergeant groaned. ‘Oh, Jesus. I told him not to go out. I bloody… I told him to stay in the house until all this was sorted out. He promised me. He swore to me he would stay in.’

‘Aye, well, doesn’t seem like he stuck to that. What time did you drop him home?’