‘Look, just think of something, quick! And if she asks you, it’s got nothing to do with the woman she met in my office.’
‘I’m sorry, sir?’ questioned Conrad.
‘Just do as I say,’ ordered Brady.
He cut the call and wearily rubbed his tired face. Why the hell was his life so damned complicated?
‘Are you sure that’s what she heard?’ Brady questioned.
Shane McGuire nodded painfully.
He noted that Shane’s injuries looked worse than yesterday. And that he was still on a morphine drip twenty-four hours later. There was one thing he was certain about, McGuire and his family would get the bastards who had done this to him. That was the way it worked. The lads who had organised McGuire’s beating had overstepped the mark. It was one thing to warn him to keep quiet, it was another thing to actually very nearly silence him for good.
Brady also had to accept the rules. McGuire was talking off the record. The information he was giving Brady was second-hand. And he had made it clear that Brady would never be able to get it straight from the source. Kids like them didn’t talk to the police; more so when it was a murder enquiry. But Brady was grateful for anything connected to that night. And he trusted McGuire. He knew the lad had been deeply affected by Sophie Washington’s murder, to the extent that he had asked too many questions. He should have kept quiet when they gave him the answers he was searching for; instead he did the wrong thing. He put pressure on them to talk to the police.
Brady knew that a group of kids must have been hanging about the abandoned farmland that Thursday night. The smouldering bonfire was evidence enough; that and the empty cider and Lambrusco wine bottles. But what Brady hadn’t banked on was McGuire being mates with them.
‘Look, the lass may have been pissed, yeah? But she was certain she heard them.’
‘Run it by me again. What exactly did she hear?’
McGuire thought about it slowly.
‘She reckoned she heard these two lasses arguing and then later, one of the lasses was talking with this guy …’
‘What time was this?’ asked Brady.
‘I dunno, she reckoned about one-ish, if not a bit after. But you know she was off her face and like, so she’s not that sure.’
Brady nodded. The time seemed pretty accurate to him. He glanced briefly at Conrad. If McGuire was right then this could be the breakthrough they needed.
‘She reckoned it sounded like they were an item, you know? She said she heard her mention the two of them going off to London together but he was having none of it. So she started to get upset and began threatening to tell people about them.’
Brady stiffened.
‘And?’ he pushed, trying to keep calm.
‘She said the next thing she heard was him getting angry and threatening her that if she did she’d regret it. But that just made her mad. She started screaming that she didn’t care what he was going to do to her, she was going to go ahead and tell everyone about their relationship anyway. And then she heard her shout out the name “Jimmy” and then … then she started screaming …’ McGuire faltered and stared up at Brady.
‘That’s when my mate’s lass got scared and legged it.’
Brady realised that Sophie must have desperately tried to call Matthews when Ellison had turned violent. It explained the phone call to Matthews, but after what he had just heard it didn’t make him feel any better. He then thought about the time of the call to Matthews which was at 1.31am.
‘Did you say this witness was there about 1 am? Could it have been slightly later?’
‘Could have been. Like I said she was off her face.’
Brady nodded.
‘It was Sophie, wasn’t it?’ asked McGuire.
‘I believe so,’ answered Brady.
McGuire attempted to reach out for a drink causing him to moan in pain.
‘Here, let me help,’ said Brady as he picked up the tumbler of lukewarm water. He inserted the straw between McGuire’s swollen, split lips and held it there until he’d had enough.
‘Thanks,’ he muttered as Brady put the tumbler back.
‘Did she hear anything else?’ Brady asked.
‘No,’ mumbled McGuire as he turned his head away from Brady. ‘You’ll get him? The bastard who did this to her?’
Brady nodded.
‘Believe me, Shane, we’ll get him with what you’ve just told us.’
‘She didn’t deserve to die … not like that …’ said McGuire, softly.
‘I know she didn’t,’ he quietly agreed.
Brady turned to Trina who was stood with her arms folded at the back of the room.
‘Thanks,’ Brady said.
‘Don’t thank me. If it had been up to me you wouldn’t be here,’ Trina coldly replied. ‘But he’s a good kid. Too bloody good,’ she said, worried.
Brady nodded. He understood her fear. McGuire, despite his hard-ass act, didn’t belong to her world. But the problem was, there was no way out for his sort and Trina McGuire knew it.
Brady turned and looked back at Shane McGuire. They’d finish off what they’d started if they knew what he’d just told him. It didn’t matter that a fifteen-year-old girl had been murdered. There were two rules; you don’t ask questions and you don’t talk to coppers. Shane McGuire had broken both of those rules. Brady was certain about one thing; if McGuire was summoned to reveal the source of the evidence he’d disclosed to Brady, he would most certainly end up dead.
Brady tried not to think about what would happen to McGuire. He had other things to worry about now.
‘Was it helpful?’ Jenkins asked as they left McGuire’s room.
‘Let’s say I owe you a drink,’ Brady replied.
He absentmindedly rubbed his pulsating left thigh as he thought about his next move. Interviewing Ellison. Conrad had gone to get the car while he stayed behind to thank Jenkins. She had made it perfectly clear that she had to get back to work.
Not that it bothered Brady, he was equally keen to get back to the station.
‘Conrad will fill you in on the details, but it looks fairly certain that a group of us will be having a few stiff drinks in The Fat Ox later,’ Brady said.
‘Are you sure you won’t be sharing that drink with your wife?’ Jenkins asked.
‘Ex-wife,’ Brady quietly pointed out.
‘Didn’t look that way to me in your office,’ Jenkins replied.
Brady didn’t answer; he couldn’t.
Jenkins made a move to leave.
‘Thanks,’ Brady said, unable to look her in the eye.
Jenkins waited, expecting more. Neither of them had mentioned what had happened between them in his office in the early hours of that morning. But she realised there that even if he did find her attractive, he had so much to contend with from his past that the likelihood of anything developing between them was low.
‘Seriously, Jack. If you need to offload onto someone, you know my number.’
He watched as she turned and left, knowing that he could never take her up on her offer. No matter how much he would have liked to, it was never going to happen. If there was one thing he had learned from his relationship with Claudia, that was never to mix business with pleasure.
He pulled out his vibrating phone.
‘Look, I’ll be there soon,’ Brady answered.
‘You better be, Jack. I’ve got better things to do with my time than wait around for you,’ replied Claudia curtly.
