'Oh please.' Faulds picked up his tea, then put it down again. 'You know, I always suspected he had an accomplice. Someone to help him. Someone with their own butcher's shop. Someone--' 'No you bloody don't! I didn't do anything.' The Chief Constable leant across the table and poked McFarlane in the chest. 'You were helping him dispose of the bodies twenty years ago, and you're helping him now.' 'I never--' 'Where were you on the fourteenth of October 1982?' 'What? I don't remember, it was twenty-five years--' 'Were you in Birmingham, Mr McFarlane?' 'No!' 'Shirley Gidwani was pregnant, did you know that, when you and Wiseman carved her up?' 'We didn't--' 'Stuffed chunks of her in the freezer like she was nothing more than joints of bloody meat.' 'I never--' 'I had to tell her parents!' McFarlane slapped both hands over his ears. 'Stop it!' 'You didn't even leave them enough for a decent burial.' 'I DIDN'T KILL ANYONE! It wasn't me! Ask him! Ask Ken! He'll tell you--' 'Oh we intend to, Mr McFarlane, soon as we catch him. And we'd also like a word with your wife ...' Faulds checked his notes,'Kirsty.' McFarlane's face went fish-belly pale between the bruises. 'She left me.' 'We know that: where is she now?' 'I ... I don't know.' He stared at the tabletop. 'She ran off with an electrician called Neil, OK? You happy?' 'Not even vaguely.' Faulds pushed his chair back and stood, towering over the shivering butcher. 'I hope you've got a good lawyer Mr McFarlane, because you're going to need one.'
12
'You really think he's involved?' asked Logan as they drove back to FHQ. Faulds didn't look round, watching the grey granite buildings drifting past instead. 'Don't tell me you bought all that, 'It wasn't me' crap.'
