I felt… ridiculous.'
'You're grieving. What do you expect?'
'Going crazy, that's what I'm doing. A little bit crazy.'
Jackie smiled. 'It's not crazy, it's normal. Perfectly natural.'
'That's what he said, the bereavement counsellor. Absolutely natural.'
'Well, he's right.'
'I suppose so.'
'How long is it, Charlie? How long's it been? Not long.'
He held her gaze. 'You want the hours, the minutes, or just the days?'
She placed her hand over his. 'I'm sorry.'
'I know.'
'And I need a real drink.' Pushing her Coke aside, she got to her feet. 'You want anything?'
Resnick's pint was barely touched. 'I'm fine.'
Jackie Ferris came back from the bar with a large Scotch, just a little water. She could pick up some mints on the way back to the station.
'You saw her not so long before it happened, one evening, before she caught the train back to Nottingham.'
Jackie nodded.
'How was she?'
'She was… she was good. It was great to see her. I was teasing her about this bloke behind the bar, I remember. We had a laugh.'
'Did she say anything?'
'How d'you mean?'
'Anything that might have some bearing on what happened.'
'I don't think so. She'd been to see this woman over in Leyton. Andreea something? Herself and someone called Daines.'
'From SOCA.'
'That's right. The two of them went together, and then Lynn nipped back later alone. She wanted to talk to this Andreea on her own. Apparently she claimed to have seen Daines getting his rocks off in some dodgy sauna where she was working, being pally with the owner. But then, when they'd been to the flat earlier, Daines had looked right through her, as if he'd never seen her before at all.'
'She challenged him about it later. She told me.'
'What did he say?'
'Denied it. Said the girl was lying. Told Lynn to mind her own business in no uncertain terms.'
Jackie raised an eyebrow. 'She didn't trust him; that was obvious. Said she was going to ask around, I don't know where. I said I'd do the same.'
'And did you?'
Jackie took a sip from her glass. 'There was a joint operation, came to a head round here, about a year ago now. Customs and Excise and the Met. Illegal firearms. Four arrests.'
'You were involved?'
'Not directly. But I know a couple of people who were. Not that they were exactly forthcoming. Daines was with Customs and Excise then-this was before SOCA really got going-part of the team. A lot of the information they were using came from him.'
'It worked out?'
'Spot on, apparently. Kept surveillance on this cafe where it was all due to go down. Made the exchange between lattes. 'Red-handed' didn't come into it. Semiautomatics and ammo packed into a rucksack with an old peace sign on the back.' She smiled. 'Someone with a sense of humour, at least.'
'Four arrests, that's what you said?'
'Yes. And three sent for trial. Found guilty, all of them. Ten years apiece.'
'The one who walked, he was what? Someone's informant?'
'Looks that way. And not just to me. He was found three months later. Over in Ireland. County Wexford. Nailed to a tree.'
Resnick winced at the thought.
Jackie drank a little more of her Scotch.
'These people you spoke to,' Resnick said, 'there wasn't any suggestion about Daines being, I don't know, dodgy in one way or another?'
Jackie shook her head. 'Not really. I meant to dig a little deeper, get back to Lynn and pass on what little I'd heard, but then…'
'Yes.'
Resnick's beer tasted sour; his palate, not the pub's cellar. 'These guns, the ones that were seized.'
'Semiautomatics.'
'Baikals?'
'I think so, yes.'
'The gun that killed Lynn was a Baikal 9mm semiautomatic.'
For some moments, neither of them spoke. The few customers who had been there had mostly drifted away.
'You think there's a connection?' Jackie Ferris asked.
Resnick shrugged his shoulders. 'I don't see how.'
'Coincidence, then?'
'Probably.'
Jackie looked round at the clock on the wall. 'Charlie, I should really be getting back.'
'Of course.'
'Here.' She slid the whisky glass towards him. 'Stay and finish this for me.'
'Sure.'
'The funeral,' Jackie Ferris said, 'you'll let me know?'
'Of course.'
'I'll get there if I possibly can.'
When she had gone, he eschewed his pint for her whisky and water, drinking it slowly as he sat thinking.
Daines was just leaving his office as Resnick arrived. A darker grey suit today, the colour of slate; white shirt with the top two buttons undone, no tie.
'A minute,' Resnick said.
Daines looked at him as if not immediately knowing who he was.
'Resnick, isn't it? I'm sorry, but your face-'
'A couple of minutes,' Resnick said. 'That's all it will take.'
Daines slid back his cuff and looked at his watch. 'It's really not the best time. Perhaps tomorrow?'
'Now's fine,' Resnick said.
Daines started to say something, but swallowed back the words and opened his office door instead.
'Come on in,' he said. 'Take a seat.'
Resnick stood.
Daines was standing also, close alongside his desk. It was almost dusk out, the evenings still closing in.
'What happened,' Daines said. 'I'm sorry for your loss.'
Resnick nodded an acknowledgement. 'This operation you're working on, illegal-arms sales, is that right?'
Daines's turn to nod.
'These arms, they're Lithuanian?'
Daines nodded. 'I don't understand why you're interested in all this.'
'The weapon that killed her-killed Lynn-it was manufactured in Lithuania.'
'A Baikal IZH?'
