‘Ahhh … you bastard! You’re fucking choking me!’ the lad hissed, as he struggled in vain to get free.
‘What do you know about Sophie Washington?’ Brady demanded.
‘I don’t fucking know nowt!’
‘Try harder,’ Brady suggested as he tightened his grip.
The kid started spluttering and kicking.
‘Let him go, will you?’ cried out the lass still holding his tab.
Brady ignored her.
‘She used to come down here with her mate, all right?’ he spluttered.
Brady already knew who the mate was without asking.
‘Was she here last night?’
‘Nah, haven’t seen her around for a while.’
‘Did she have any boyfriends that you know of?’
‘Who knows? She was a right fucking slapper she was! Half of Whitley have shagged her!’
Brady relaxed his grip on the kid. He fell to the ground.
‘You fucking need your head seeing you do!’ screeched his lass.
‘Tell me something I don’t know.’
Brady turned to the kid as he started to get to his feet.
‘You’re coming with me,’ Brady ordered.
‘I’m going nowhere, you fucking pig!’
Brady suddenly felt something hard and jagged hit his forehead.
‘You little shit!’ Brady swore as he realised that the kid had got him good.
Before the kid had a chance to leg it, Brady grabbed him.
‘Taken to beating up kids now have we, sir?’ Conrad asked as Brady dragged the reluctant youth over to the car.
‘Other way round. Little shit got me a good one,’ Brady said as he pressed his shirt sleeve to his bleeding forehead.
‘You want to get that seen to,’ Conrad suggested as he took a look at the cut.
‘It’s nothing,’ Brady muttered.
He had more to worry about than a wound.
‘You sure about this, sir?’ Conrad asked as he sceptically looked at the kid.
‘Yeah, he knows something all right!’
‘How can you be certain?’ asked Conrad.
‘Because that’s bloody Shane McGuire.’
‘Bloody hell, Jack! What happened to you?’ asked Turner as Brady limped into the station.
Brady shrugged.
‘See if you can get hold of a social worker for me, will you?’
‘Why would you—’ Turner stopped short when Conrad came through the double doors with the lad.
‘What the bloody hell have you done this time, McGuire?’ Turner demanded as he raised his bushy, white eyebrows at the kid.
‘Pissed me off,’ muttered Brady.
‘Aye, I can see that, bonny lad,’ answered Turner as he shook his head at the nasty cut above Brady’s left eye.
‘Why the fuck should I talk to you? You fucking wanker,’ growled Shane McGuire.
Brady casually leaned back against his chair.
‘You wait till my fucking dad hears about this, then you’ll fucking see!’ McGuire threatened.
‘Where is your old man again? That’s right, he’s bangedup. So tell me, what’s he going to do to me from behind bars?’
The social worker that Turner had called in gave Brady a withering look.
Brady returned it with a lame smile. He’d worked with Linda Johnson on numerous occasions. She knew what hardened little buggers they were as much as Brady did. She was under no illusions; unlike some of the newly qualified bloody do-gooders.
‘Can we cut straight to the point, DI Brady?’ Linda asked as she raised a narrow pencilled eyebrow at him. ‘It is a Friday night after all.’
‘Sure, but I reckon you should be telling McGuire here that,’ Brady replied.
McGuire responded by spitting a glob of phlegm at Brady.
It missed and hit the table in front of him.
‘So, let’s go over last night again, shall we?’ Brady repeated.
‘Like I said, I was at home with my nan,’ McGuire cockily replied. ‘So you’ve got nowt on me!’
‘Apart from your girlfriend’s murder.’
McGuire sucked in air.
‘She wasn’t my fucking girlfriend …’ he nervously replied.
‘What was she then? Just some shag?’
‘You fucking know nowt!’ McGuire replied edgily.
Brady raised a sceptical eyebrow.
‘What about these then?’ Brady asked as he laid out photographs.
‘Where the fuck did you get those?’ McGuire spat as he snatched the photos.
Brady shrugged.
McGuire quickly flicked through the digital images of him and Sophie.
‘So fucking what? It wasn’t as if we were serious or nowt. We both just hung out sometimes. There was nowt in it!’
‘But now’s she dead,’ Brady stated.
‘Look, I haven’t seen Sophie for a while now. All right?’
‘What happened? Another schoolgirl catch your eye?’ Brady asked laconically.
‘It’s none of your business. Anyhows, she and her mate always had booze on them, and weed. So don’t fucking make out she was innocent. Cos she was far from fucking innocent!’
‘That’s what you say, McGuire. But who’s going to believe a seventeen-year-old lad on remand caught out having sex with an underage girl?’
‘Wasn’t fucking like that! And anyhows, do you think I was the only lad that fucked her? Nah, fucking off her head most of the time. She was well mental,’ McGuire retaliated.
‘What do you mean?’
‘She was mental like. You know? Always fucking extreme she was. That’s why she stopped hanging out at the park cos it wasn’t fucking good enough for her any more. Crazy fucking cow,’ said McGuire resentfully.
‘Where did she go then?’
‘Soon as she realised she could get into the pubs in Whitley she was off,’ muttered McGuire.
He slouched forward and held his head in his hands as he stared down at the table.
‘Fucking knew she’d end up like this. It was only a matter of time. The stupid bitch!’ McGuire’s voice cracked and gave way.
‘Why?’ Brady asked, surprised that Sophie Washington had managed to get under Shane McGuire’s thick skin. It was clear that he felt more for the victim than he was letting on.
‘Cos she was fucking well mental! Ask that mate of hers, she’ll tell you,’ McGuire muttered.
‘That’s exactly what I plan on doing,’ replied Brady evenly as he stood up to leave. ‘Oh yeah, and Shane?’
He looked up at Brady resentfully.
‘Tell your mam I was asking after her.’
‘Fuck you!’ McGuire replied scornfully as he kicked out at the table.
