Page 90 of Better the Devil

‘Not important,’ he said. ‘But he knows something. He’s hiding something. And I don’t think the bloody’—he waved a finger towards the glass—‘Sundance Kid through there has it in him to get to the truth.’

‘Well, let’s no’ go and underestimate him yet,’ Ben suggested. ‘I get the feeling he knows his stuff.’

There was a knock at the door—a quicktap-tapbefore Hamza let himself in.

‘How’s it going?’ the DI asked.

‘Good,’ said Ben.

‘Terrible,’ Logan insisted.

‘Aye, well, eh, I know you want to watch this, but… Something’s come up,’ Hamza said. He looked back over his shoulder, then faced them again. ‘There’s something you’re going to want to hear.’

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Sinead’s headsnapped in the direction of the door as Logan came barrelling in with Hamza and Ben trailing in his wake.

It had been a couple of hours since her interview, and almost ninety minutes since Tyler had been called through for his. She’d felt reasonably calm during her own interrogation by the panel, but her heart was hammering away in her chest now.

Logan acknowledged her with a nod, then stopped beside Dave Davidson’s desk, arms folded, face like a bulldog chewing a wasp.

‘Joe Robertsonhad ashotgun?’

Dave rolled himself back a little so he didn’t put his neck out looking up at the towering DCI.

‘Aye, so the wife says. Reckons he must’ve taken it out with him when he left.’

‘And she didn’t think to mention that when she called it in?’ Logan barked.

‘She only realised when I asked her if anything was missing. If he’d taken anything with him when he went out,’ Dave explained. ‘She went and checked under the bed, where he keeps it. It wasn’t there.’

‘Christ,’ Logan hissed. He wheeled around to Hamza. ‘Get on to that sergeant. Something Fleck. Gavin. Let him know?—’

‘Already done, sir. Dave phoned it in on the way back up the road. We passed it on. There’s more Uniform heading down to join the search. No sign so far, though.’

‘Right. Good,’ Logan muttered. He tutted. ‘A fucking shotgun.’

‘You thinking about yon fella over in Forres?’ Ben asked.

‘You mean the one who had seventy percent of his skull blasted off his shoulders by a shotgun fired at close range? Aye, funnily enough, he had crossed my mind,’ Logan confirmed.

‘You don’t think the old fella did it, do you?’

Logan sighed heavily. His teeth ground together. ‘I don’t know. I doubt it. Maybe. I don’t know.’

‘If it makes any difference,’ Dave volunteered, ‘it’s unregistered. I looked it up. The wife reckons it was Joe’s brother’s before he died.’

Logan spun back to Dave. ‘Did she know for sure it was there earlier? Under the bed? Yesterday morning, the day before, whenever? When did she last see it?’

‘Months ago, she says.’

‘Fuck.’ Logan folded his arms and drummed his fingers on his biceps. ‘So, we don’t know for sure he has it with him?’

‘We know it’s not there, though,’ Hamza said. ‘So probably better to assume.’

‘And if he did take it, he took it for a reason,’ Ben added.

Logan conceded both points with a grunt. Sergeant Fleck had clearly been worried that Joe was going to do something stupid, but there had been an impliedto himselftacked onto the end of that concern.