seeing what he’d done. Maybe it was both, the possibility that he had left her there thinking she was alive and would come ‘crawling back’ in her own good time. Either way, shock was all over Breslin’s face until he reined it back into its customary snarl.
‘Where were you last Saturday night around midnight?’ Narey asked him.
‘That’s nothing to do with me,’ he answered, pointing to the photo.
‘Where were you? Last Saturday at midnight?’
‘I didn’t do that. No way you can pin that on me. That slag worked the streets. Any fucker could have done that to her.’
‘I’m sorry for your loss, Breslin. Your anguish is so touching. Once again, where were you on Saturday night?’
‘I was with someone. She can prove that.’
‘Who?’
‘A friend,’ he sneered with a grin that Narey itched to smash off his face.
‘Name?’
‘Suzanne Wright. I was with her all night.’
‘All night?’
He grinned again.
‘All night. They don’t call me T-Bone for nothing. You should try some, bitch.’
‘No thanks. I’d rather stay disease-free if it’s all the same to you. Give us an address for this young “lady”. And you are going nowhere till we check it out.’
‘Oh it’ll check out okay. Suzy’s not going to forget a night with the T-Bone. I’ll be out of here by lunchtime.’
The fear ran through Narey that he would be. If the girl that he had lined up as an alibi said she was with him then he’d be walking free unless they could prove she was lying.
‘Take this piece of shit out of my sight and put him in a cell,’ she muttered to the uniforms waiting at the door. ‘We’ll be seeing him again soon enough. Oh, and Tommy?’
‘Yeah?’ he grinned.
‘I’m just off to make that call to Social Services. Your “maw” isn’t going to be looking after your kid for much longer.’
‘You fucking bitch,’ he screamed, getting to his feet and viciously kicking over the table. ‘I told you what you wanted to know! You can’t do that!’
‘Watch me. Get him the fuck out of here.’
CHAPTER 26
Suzanne Wright, the girl that Tommy Breslin was using as an alibi, also lived in Summerston, just a few streets away from the man that called himself T-Bone. Narey had made sure that Breslin’s one phone call wasn’t to her and was now standing impatiently on Wright’s doorstep in a block of flats in Torrin Road near John Paul Academy. She’d left Julia Corrieri behind in Stewart Street to search the PNC for Una and so had Constable Sandy Murray in tow.
On the third knock, Wright finally wrestled herself away from daytime TV and pulled the door open just enough on the chain to see who her unwelcome visitor was. One look was all she needed to make Narey for a cop and the chain stayed in place.
‘Whit?’
‘Suzanne Wright?’ Narey asked of the pale face below the tousled mop of dyed blonde hair.
‘Naw.’
‘Funny, it’s your name on the door.’
‘Aye, okay. What do you want?’
Narey held up her warrant card.
‘Police. Can we come in?’
The girl exhaled heavily and slid back the chain, huffily edging the door open for the DS and the constable to enter the flat. A television blared in one corner of the poky living room showing one of the mid-morning confrontation programmes that Narey hated but occasionally watched in guilty secret. Narey picked up the remote control and lowered the volume before placing it back next to Wright.
She was in her mid-twenties and wore a short denim skirt over bare legs and a halterneck top that showed off her cleavage. Dumping herself in an armchair without bothering to offer a seat to the police, she seemed utterly unfazed by their presence and Narey guessed it wasn’t the first time that cops had knocked at her door. The girl picked up the cigarette that had been smouldering in an ashtray on the chair’s arm and began drawing on it.
‘You live here alone, Suzanne?’ Narey asked, looking around the room.
‘Yeah. Just me,’ she replied with as much defiance as suspicion.
‘You ever have friends staying over?’
‘What is this? You’re a detective sergeant, right? You’re not here about whether I’m entitled to my single person’s discount on the council tax.’
‘No, I’m not,’ Narey conceded. ‘Do you know Thomas Breslin?’
A frown flickered over Wright’s face but she quickly covered it with a heavy drag on her cigarette. By the time she exhaled, there was nothing to read on her face.
‘Yeah, I know him. Why?’
‘Stay the night sometimes, does he?’
‘What’s that got to do with you?’ Wright challenged her. ‘Not getting enough of your own that you have to stick your nose into other people’s sex lives?’
‘Does he stay over sometimes?’ Narey repeated.
‘Yeah. Sometimes.’
‘When did he last spend the night here?’
‘I’m not sure. He’s stayed over a couple of times recently.’
‘Try to remember.’
‘The weekend.’
‘Which part of the weekend, Suzanne?’
‘Friday and Saturday. He was here both nights.’
‘You sure?’
‘Yeah.’
‘You weren’t sure a moment ago.’
Wright grinned at her.
‘Well, it all just came back to me. They don’t call him T-Bone for nothing.’
It was Narey’s turn to smile.
‘Funny, Suzanne. That’s exactly what he said.’
The grin slipped off Wright’s face.
‘I don’t know what you mean but he was here all night Friday and all night Saturday. Shagging my brains out.’
‘You do know that he has got a girlfriend, don’t you?’
‘What, that skank Melanie? She’s not his girlfriend. She’s a meal ticket, nothing more.’
‘Hm. A meal ticket and a punch-bag from what I hear.’
Wright continued to puff furiously on her cigarette.
‘He ever hit you, Suzanne?’
‘Never.’
‘Never? A man with a temper like T-Bone’s? Not even a little slap when you were arguing?’ The girl’s silence spoke volumes.
‘He is a very violent man, Suzanne. Do you know why I’m asking you about last Saturday night? His girlfriend
