“I’m sorry things didn’t work out last night,” Lena said as we stepped off the stoop and headed for our cars.
“It was a blow,” I admitted. We stopped by Fletcher’s car, and I bounced the keys within my pocket, unwilling to leave despite all the things I needed to do. “Maybe next week we could meet up for a pint or something? If the case isn’t wrapped up by them, well…” I let the dark thought trail off.
Lena smiled at me, though there was something tight around its edges, which I hoped was nerves and not her desire to say no. “That sounds nice,” she said. “Well, I should go. Rehearsal and all.” She pointed over her shoulder with her thumb.
“I’ll text you.”
She began to walk away, but she stopped after just a few steps and turned back to me, her lips pursed in uncertainty. “Listen, Callum…”
Her eyes caught on something behind me, and I watched as all emotion dropped from her face. It scared me a little, as I’d never seen someone go so blank so fast. I glanced around, trying to find what had shocked her so, and I spotted a man in a long coat and a tweed cap leaning against a street lamp beside a long, black car.
“Is that your ex?” I asked. I hadn’t gotten a good look at the man haggling her in the shadows outside the pub, but I thought I recognized the arch of his nose and the brush of stubble across his jaw.
Tension rolled off Lena in waves as she nodded, and she stepped back towards me, hiding in my shadow just a little bit. She bit her lip and wrapped her hands around the strap of her satchel. Her ex didn’t move, and it may have been my imagination, but I thought I sensed a smidge of violence wafting off him.
“Do you want to come with me?” I asked. “I have to meet my mum for lunch, it’s a weekly thing, but you could come with. Or I could drop you somewhere?”
Lena stared past me at her ex for a long moment, chewing on her lip as she thought it over. “Would that be okay?” she asked.
“Of course.”
“It wouldn’t be improper?”
“Since we’re meeting my mum, I definitely wouldn’t call it a date,” I joked, and she cracked a smile.
We’d been staring at the man for a full minute, but he had yet to move. He simply leaned against the post and watched us in turn. It made the hairs on the back of my neck prickle. I couldn’t see his eyes from here, especially not beneath his cap, but I imagined them as dark and rather blank.
“Let’s get out of here,” I said with a shiver and unlocked the car.
We had to pass Lena’s ex to get back to the main road, and we turned our heads to look at him as we drove by. He had sharp, well-defined cheekbones, and his skin was tanner than any true Scot’s had a right to be. He studied us in turn, though his face was impassive and impossible to read. Lena swallowed, rubbing her palms on her thighs.
I watched him in the rearview mirror as we continued down the street, and for a long time, he didn’t move, but as I rounded the corner, I caught a glimpse of him climbing into his car.
“Will he follow us?” I asked. I wasn’t in the mood for another car chase at any speed.
“I don’t know.” Lena was also watching the mirror, and I could see the tension tightening the corners of her eyes.
“Well, my mum will scare him off.” You didn’t want to be on the wrong side of Eleanor MacBain’s temper. She could be a rather terrifying woman, especially when combined with her thirty-odd years of experience knocking heads together on the force.
I was glad when Lena laughed and some of the anxiety leaked from her face. I didn’t know what to say to her as I drove towards the cafe where I met my mother for lunch every week. I didn’t know what we had in common, nor did I know much about her aside from her love of music.
“So you have band practise this afternoon?” I finally asked after several minutes of silence.
“Yes, we meet three times a week.” She smiled as she said it, expression immediately softening at the mention of her music.
“You’re in a band, and you teach music classes to kids. Do you do anything else?”
“I have a part-time job at Tesco, too,” she said, though she sounded a smidge embarrassed. “Just to make sure I can pay my bills.”
“Is there much money in music?” I asked.
“Not at my level, no, but I don’t really do it for the money.”
“Of course not,” I agreed quickly, heat rising in my cheeks. I checked my mirrors before I changed lanes and thought I caught a glimpse of Lena’s ex’s long, black car, but it turned left and disappeared before I could be sure. “How did you fall in with this guy?” From the little I’d seen of her ex, he seemed rather dark and mean for how brightly Lena dressed and the bubbly way she smiled.
“He was a friend of a friend. We all went out for a pint one night, and then it just sort of happened. Before I knew it, he and I were involved.” Lena shrugged and tucked a stray curl behind her ear. “It was nice at first. He’s very intense, and I guess I liked having that much attention focused on me.”
“What happened?” I asked as I eased to a stop before a red light. A black car cruised through the intersection, but it was going the wrong way to be following us, so I figured it couldn’t be her ex.
“Intensity
