Blue Murder Read Online Free PDF Page B

wrinkled her face. ‘He’s still getting over my promotion to Chief Inspector. But we’re shorthanded and he’s being leaned on to meet his minority targets – and despite my size, I’m a minority.’
    ‘And O’Halloran’s still hanging on?’ They’d both worked with O’Halloran in the old days.
    ‘Bully Boy. Too right. Lemon won’t touch him.’
    ‘I heard,’ he hesitated, ‘you and Pete.’
    She took a breath. ‘Tina. Latest home help. Helped herself all right.’
    Richard shuffled in his seat. ‘Did he know … you were pregnant?’
    ‘Oh, yeah. We’d both been in deep shock for a few weeks already. First weekend alone, in Barcelona, for our sixteenth anniversary – big, romantic gesture: all a decoy.’
    Richard looked puzzled.
    ‘He was sleeping with her way back then: bastard. Anyway, too much Rioja and bingo: our own special souvenir.’ She patted her stomach. ‘I’d have settled for a pair of castanets and a straw donkey.’
    Richard laughed. She had always been able to make him laugh.
    ‘How are the kids?’
    ‘Tom’s six, now.’
    ‘You’re joking!’
    ‘Been rough on them. Pete’s still on air traffic control, shifts. They barely see him some weeks. They miss him.’
    ‘And you?’
    She sighed. ‘Good days, bad days. It’s not been long. I gave him a second chance, with the baby and all. He moved in with her.’ And it still hurt. That he’d been willing to walk away from all they had, the kids, the marriage, their lives. For what?
    ‘What about you?’ She broke another square of chocolate off.
    ‘Single again.’
    ‘Really?’ She was surprised. Had assumed he’d moved back with his wife. ‘You and Wendy?’
    Richard nodded and then they both heard the sound of a car slowing. Watched the silver Volvo turn into the driveway and park.
    Janine observed the woman, slim, dark-haired, petite, laden with packages as she got out of the car and opened the door to Ashgrove. It wasn’t strictly her job to inform next of kin but in a case of murder the spouse was always a prime suspect and she wanted to scrutinise Mrs Tulley’s reaction to the news. She recorded the time in her notebook.
    She turned to Richard. ‘Take notes while we’re in there.’
    ‘Yes, boss.’
    ‘Let’s go.’ She braced herself for the difficult task ahead.
     
     

CHAPTER FOUR
     
    Dean stood in the shadow of Oldham bus station and punched in Douggie’s number.
    ‘Douggie, yer dub brain, where’ve you been?’
    ‘An’ I love you too, Dean.’
    ‘Yer were switched off.’
    ‘It’s the moby. It’s rubbish. I got it off this bloke on the market and it only works half the time. So – what’s new?’
    ‘I was wondering, can you put us up for a bit?’
    ‘No worries. And is Paula coming too?’
    ‘Nah, just me.’
    ‘You’ll need directions, mate. Hang on.’ Dean could hear Douggie yelling to someone, something about milk and Frosties. Then he came back on the line. ‘Tosser,’ he volunteered, ‘thinks food grows in the dark while he’s sleeping, like mushrooms. Yeah, take the M66 …’
    ‘No wheels.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘Starter motor’s gone. Give us directions from the bus station.’
    Douggie told him which way to go, there was a bus or he could walk it in twenty minutes but it was all uphill.
    Like bloody life, thought Dean. ‘See you in twenty minutes.’
    ‘You what?’
    ‘I’m in Oldham.’
    ‘Aw, right. Nice one. See yer mate.’
    He wanted to be honest with Paula. He was honest with her. Well, some little things he hadn’t told her, things from the past. One or two big things maybe but he’d never lied about new stuff. Now all this going down. If he told her it all straight she wouldn’t understand. She wouldn’t see why he had to run. She’d never had the sort of troubles he had.
    Douggie would get it no messing. Douggie knew where he was coming from. He’d walked the same road. Been there, got the t-shirt. Dean turned to face the redbrick municipal building that