Easy Kill Read Online Free PDF Page B

yourself.’
    It was a nice little speech. Suitably deferential. Bill wasn’t impressed, but from the look on his face Sutherland was. Bill silently wondered, if Pirie had really meant what he’d just said, then how the hell having him around was going to help at all.

7
    ‘ HAVE YOU TIME for a coffee?’
    Bill had made a swift getaway after the meeting. Superintendent Sutherland had ‘left the professor in Dr MacLeod’s capable hands’, suggesting she help him in any way she could. Rhona decided to play along, if only to give Bill peace for a while.
    ‘If you don’t mind having it back at the forensic lab?’
    Professor Pirie’s face lit up and Rhona realised that was what he’d wanted all along.
    ‘I’d love to take a look at the evidence you collected.’
    ‘Superintendent Sutherland ordered us to welcome you into the fold.’
    He looked discomfited by the remark and Rhona relented. ‘A joke,’ she said hastily. A good psychologist would be able to tell she was lying. Pirie was a good psychologist.
    ‘I’m sorry if Superintendent Sutherland has made things difficult by asking me in. But I do appreciate the opportunity to study the case.’
    It was strange, even eerie, to meet a man who could read mood and manner so accurately.
    ‘I deal in the minutiae. You might learn more from Bill.’
    He met her gaze. ‘We both deal in the traces the perpetrator leaves behind.’
    Rhona wanted to argue that her traces were real and scientifically proven, but for the moment she held her tongue.
    Chrissy’s reaction when Rhona walked in with Professor Pirie was worth the awkward journey. Rhona’s offer of a lift had been met with the news he’d come by bicycle. After discussing the possibility of him following the car, they’d agreed to put the bike in the back. Travelling with the handlebars between them had at least discouraged further conversation.
    ‘This is Professor Pirie . . .’ Rhona began.
    ‘Magnus.’ He held out his hand to an open-mouthed Chrissy.
    ‘Chrissy’s my right-hand woman,’ Rhona explained, since Chrissy seemed uncharacteristically tongue-tied. ‘Professor Pirie is an investigative psychologist. The Super asked him in to help with the Necropolis murders.’
    ‘Cool.’
    ‘Chrissy is a Cracker fan,’ Rhona explained.
    ‘And Wire in the Blood , and Prime Suspect and . . .’
    ‘I think he gets the picture.’
    Magnus smiled. ‘So am I,’ he admitted. ‘I only wish I had the same results as my small-screen equivalents.’
    ‘Is there any coffee?’ Rhona said to break up the prime-time TV admiration society.
    ‘Of course,’ Chrissy looked up at Magnus. ‘How do you like it?’
    ‘Black, no sugar.’
    When Magnus excused himself to go to the toilet, Chrissy gave Rhona her unadulterated opinion.
    ‘Wow. I wouldn’t mind him studying me in detail.’
    ‘You’re pregnant.’
    ‘The perfect contraceptive.’
    ‘What about Sam?’ Rhona regretted the question as soon as it escaped her lips.
    ‘Sam’s dead,’ Chrissy said flatly.
    Rhona chose her words carefully. ‘You don’t know that for sure.’
    The brazen Chrissy was gone, replaced by a vulnerable one. ‘We both know he’s dead. So why keep pretending?’
    A discreet cough behind them indicated Magnus’s return. Rhona wondered how long he had been standing in the doorway, listening to their conversation.
    Chrissy turned abruptly away. ‘I’d better get on.’
    Rhona had hoped to deposit Magnus with Chrissy, but that was no longer an option. She would have to deal with him herself.
    Rhona began with the victim’s skirt. The plastic material, designed to resemble snakeskin, was spotted with dark splashes of what was probably the victim’s blood. Intermingled were lighter coloured areas which might or might not have been seminal fluid.
    ‘The haemoglobin of mammals has the capacity to behave as an enzyme in the presence of hydrogen peroxide,’ she explained for Magnus’s benefit. ‘We use this to test for