Breaker

great deal to do with it.' He folded his hands in front of his mouth and studied Bridges intently. 'Did she know you fancied Kate Sumner?'

The solicitor laid a hand on the young man's arm. 'You don't need to answer that.'

'Well, I'm going to,' he said, shaking himself free. 'I'm fed up with them trying to drag Bibi into it.' He addressed Galbraith. 'I didn't fucking well fancy Kate. I loathed the stupid bitch. I just thought she was easy, that's all, so I tried it on once. Listen, she was a cockteaser. It gave her a buzz to get blokes excited.'

'That's not what I asked you, Tony. I asked you if Bibi knew you fancied Kate.'

'No,' he muttered.

Galbraith nodded. 'But she knew about Steve and Kate?'

'Yes.'

'Who told her? You or Steve?'

Bridges slumped angrily in his chair. 'Steve mostly. She got really worked up when Kate started smearing Hannah's crap all over his car, so he told her what had been going on.'

Galbraith leaned back, letting his hands drop to the tabletop. 'Women don't give a toss about a car unless the guy who drives it matters to her. Are you sure your girlfriend isn't playing away from home?'

Bridges erupted out of his seat in a fury of movement, 'You are so fucking patronizing. You think you know it all, don't you? She got mad because there was shit all over the handle when she tried to open the door. That's what got her worked up. Not because she cares about Steve or the car, but because her hand was covered in crap. Are you so stupid you can't work that out for yourselves?'

'But doesn't that prove my point?' said Galbraith unemotionally. 'If she was driving Steve's car, she must have had more than a nodding acquaintance with him.'

'I was driving it,' said Bridges, ignoring the solicitor's restraining hand to lean across the table and thrust his face into the inspector's. 'I checked the driver's-side handle and it was clean, so I released the locks. What never occurred to me was that the bloody bitch might have changed tactics. This time the crap was on the passenger's side. Now, get this, dickhead. It was still soft when Bibi touched it, so that meant Kate must have put it there minutes before. It also meant that Bibi's hand stank to high bloody heaven. Can you follow all that, or do you want me to repeat it?'

'No,' said Galbraith mildly. 'The tape recorder's pretty reliable. I think we got it.' He nodded toward the chair on the other side of the table. 'Sit down, Tony.' He waited while Bridges resumed his seat. 'Did you see Kate walk away?'

'No.'

'You should have done. You said the feces were still soft.'

Tony pulled both hands across his peroxided hair and bent forward over the table. 'There were plenty of places she could have been hiding. She was probably watching us.'

'Did you ever wonder if you were the target and not Steve? You describe her as sick and say she spat at you.'

'No.'

'She must have known Steve allows you to drive his car.'

'Once in a while. Not often.'

Galbraith flipped another page of his notebook. 'You told me this afternoon that you and Steve had an arrangement regarding your grandfather's garage and Crazy Daze. A straight swap, you called it.'

'Yes.'

'You said you took Bibi there two weeks ago.'

'What of it?'

'Bibi doesn't agree with you. I phoned her at her parents' house two hours ago, and she said she's never been on Crazy Daze.'

'She's forgotten,' he said dismissively. 'She was drunk as a skunk that night. What does it matter anyway?'

'Let's just say we're interested in discrepancies.'

The young man shrugged. 'I don't see what difference it makes. It's got nothing to do with anything.'

'We like to be accurate.' Galbraith consulted his notebook. 'According to her, the reason she's never been on Crazy Daze is because Steve banned you from using it the week before you met her. 'Tony trashed the boat when he was drunk,' ' he read, ' 'and Steve blew his stack. He said Tony could go on using the car but Crazy Daze was off limits.' ' He looked up. 'Why did you lie about taking Bibi on board?'

'To wipe the stupid smirk off your face, I expect. It pisses me off the way you bastards behave. You're all fascists.' He hunched forward, eyes burning angrily. 'I haven't forgotten you were planning to drag me through the streets in the buff even if you have.'

'What's that got to do with Bibi?'

'You wanted an answer so I gave you one.'

'How about this for an answer instead? You knew Bibi had been on board with Steve, so you decided to offer an explanation for why her fingerprints were there. You knew we'd find yours because you went out to Crazy Daze on Monday, and you thought you'd be safe pretending you and Bibi had been there together. But the only place we lifted your prints in the cabin, Tony, was on the forward hatch, while Bibi's were all over the headboard behind the bed. She likes being on top, presumably?'