Page 156 of Too Close To Home

Harrison remained calm as Calder tapped on his laptop, making notes.

“We have you on CCTV talking to the barman for several minutes.”

“Weren’t nowt about that.”

“What was it about?”

Andy shifted again. “He were asking me stuff.”

“About what?”

“My job.” He shrugged. “Steel works. I told him, place is rotten. Dirty bastards running it. Everyone looks at me like I’m the problem, but it’s them. That place. And that girl’s dad…worst of ‘em. But no one says nowt cause you gotta keep your job around here. You lose the steelworks and you might as well be buried there, too.”

Calder looked at Harrison. But Harrison watched Andy carefully. That wasn’t rehearsed. That was emotion bleeding through. Andy shook his head, peering down to the picture of Robyn Whitton. So Harrison waited a beat. He didn’t jump on it. This was exactly what Andy had done before. Throwing other things in the way to get the heat off him. Like he had with Jake, his father. But there was some new information in there that Harrison had filed and needed to sort through in his own head first.

So Harrison steered it back to where he needed it. “And you said all this to Brodie? Referring to Emily’s father?”

“Aye. He were asking all sorts of things. Thought I best tell him who he’ll have keeping an eye on her.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“That girls’ dad. They’ll all be in here watching her for sure.”

Harrison wrote that down.

Andy seemed content to keep going. “Thought it a bit odd at first. Cause, well, I don’t like fairies and I think he might have been flirting. Like with his car. Asking me to jump-start it. Then chat, chat, fucking chat.”

“Isn’t that the reason he gave you the free pint?”

“Aye.”

“So he approached you first?”

“Aye. At the petrol garage. His car needed a jump.”

“Then he invited you to the King’s Arms that day?”

Andy frowned. “Ain’t no dirty shirt lifter. Didn’t go there for him. I like a drink, is all.”

“But he invited you to the pub after you fixed his car, on that day and time to give you a free drink as a thank you?”

“Aye. Said that’s when he’d be working, I should come by.”

“Otherwise, you wouldn’t have been in there at that time?”

“The band were playing.”

“Did that strike you as odd?”

Andy shrugged.

Harrison let the silence settle. Long enough to make it uncomfortable. Then he glanced down at his notes, as if the answer didn’t matter.

“What did you mean about Emily Fisher’s father?”

Andy clenched his jaw. “He’s been covering for them for years. Everyone knows it.”

“Who’s ‘them’?”