Page 88 of Better the Devil

‘Bringing Bosco in. I, eh, I can’t back you on that.’

Logan took a step towards him. ‘Youcan’t back meon that?’

‘Um, no. No, I can’t. If you bring him in, given everything that happened, given your relationship—our relationship—with him, then it’ll jeopardise this whole investigation.’

He stole another look down at the man sitting next to him. Ben was still focused on the screen, though he was now also eating a Kit-Kat that he’d apparently produced out of thin air.

‘This is… This is technically my case. I’m SIO,’ Hamza continued.

‘Reporting to me,’ Logan reminded him.

‘Yes. Aye. I know, but still.’ Hamza swallowed. ‘I, uh, I make the calls.’

‘And I can overrule them.’

‘You can, sir. I mean, Jack. You can, aye. But… you won’t. I don’t think. Because you know I’m right.’

Logan jabbed a finger towards the photo on the board. ‘He’s hiding something. He’s been lying to us. Tome.’

‘I don’t doubt it,’ Hamza conceded. ‘But that doesn’t change anything. We can’t interview him. Not us. If we do, and he’s guilty, then he walks.’

The floor beneath Logan’s feet groaned, like it was struggling to hold the weight of his anger.

‘If he did this, if it was him, then we’ll get him,’ Hamza said. ‘But only if we do it right. Do it properly. And this—you bringing him in—it wouldn’t be proper. It wouldn’t be right.’

Logan said nothing. The only sounds in the room were the faint creaking of fabric as the DCI’s fist tightened around his coat, and the quietsnapof a chocolate-covered wafer finger.

Logan breathed in.

Breathed out.

‘Fine,’ he said through gritted teeth. ‘Then what do you suggest?’

‘We get someone else to bring him in and carry out the interview.’

Logan’s coat slumped down as if in relief as he tossed it onto the back of a chair.

‘Oh? And just who, exactly, did you have in mind?’

DCI Nathan Reeve’ssmile was like the beam of a spotlight shining on the man across the table.

‘Bosco Maximuke. Bosco.Bosco. That’s fun to say,’ Reeve declared. He said the name a couple more times, really popping on theboh. ‘You know, I think the only other Bosco I ever heard of was in the A-Team. You know, the TV show? Bosco “B.A.” Barracus. Everyone just called him B.A., though. Stood for “Bad Attitude.”’

Reeve drummed his hands on the table, his smile somehow hitching up even higher.

‘How’s your attitude, Mr Maximuke?’ He tapped on the thick paper file positioned beside him. ‘According to this, you’ve had some issues.’

‘You are American?’ Bosco asked.

‘No, sir, I am not.’

‘You sound American.’

‘Yes, sir, I do,’ Reeve confirmed, his smile not wavering. ‘But, while I could gab all day long about the wheres and the whats of my upbringing, that’s not why we’re here.’

Reeve gestured to the empty seat beside the Russian, then glanced at the light of the recording equipment set back near the mirror on the DCI’s right.

‘Could you just confirm for me one more time that you have waived your right to legal counsel?’