What was going on? I didn’t know my brother-in-law very well because he was married to my sister and thus I hardly ever spent any time in his company. Ginny and I avoided each other. Or possibly it was the case that I avoided her while never making it into her conscious thought as a thing that even existed.
Either way, I knew he was a lawyer and a barrister and went to court but beyond that I couldn’t have said anything about his career. However, he was acting like he owned the room and the chief inspector … well, he looked cowed almost. Annoyed too, his eyes and top lip twitching as if something were deeply aggravating him.
‘Can we hurry this along, Chief Inspector?’ Shane demanded. ‘I am due in court in an hour.’
Snapping his head and eyes across to glare at me, Chief Inspector Quinn’s lips were pressed together so hard that they looked like they might just merge into one.
It would be an improvement if he couldn’t talk. The naughty voice in my head was back because I no longer felt utterly terrified.
‘I owe you an apology, Mrs Philips,’ the chief inspector announced, and I thought I might just fall off my chair I was that surprised. ‘There were some … discrepancies in my investigation.’ The chair to his left, which last night had a sergeant in it, was now empty, the chief inspector wanting no one to hear him admit his error. ‘You are, of course, free to go.’ He fell silent.
No one said anything for a second, but just when I was going to speak, planning to graciously accept his apology, Shane placed a hand on my arm.
‘And?’ he prompted.
The chief inspector’s top lip twitched in annoyance again. ‘And I am sorry for any inconvenience this has caused. Shortly, I will be issuing a statement to the effect that you were mistakenly arrested.’
I waited to see if there was any more to come and glanced at Shane for a nod that we were done before saying. ‘Thank you, Chief Inspector. I hope you catch whoever did kill john Ramsey.’
The lip twitched again, but he said nothing, getting to his feet to open the door. Exposed to the people beyond – his people – he put on a smile and offered me his hand to shake.
The naughty voice told me to slap it away, but I extended my own, thinking it probably better to let the man save some face rather than make an enemy of him.
Clearly primed, Beardy was waiting to escort me back to where my possessions were catalogued and taken away the previous evening. Five minutes later, I had everything back and packed inside my handbag. My coat was back on my shoulders and I was leaving the police station with a plan to never ever return.
I barely spoke at any point, however, once we were outside the torrent of questions building mass in my head burst forth like a dam breaking.
‘Oh, my goodness! How did you get him to apologise? What discrepancy was there? What happened to John Ramsey; no one told me? I got arrested with Vince Slater, do you know if they let him out?’
Shane laughed and held up both hands to slow me down. ‘Whoa, Nelly. The crux of this is that the chief inspector didn’t wait for the forensic team to examine the car. I believe he reacted the moment he heard about the crash. It was on the news because it closed off the motorway heading south.’
I wasn’t following what Shane was trying to tell me.
Seeing my confusion, Shane explained. ‘The brakes failed on John Ramsey’s car. The verdict recorded is accidental death.’
The news took me by surprise. ‘So he wasn’t murdered at all?’
Shane frowned slightly. ‘No, Felicity. The point being that the chief inspector was more than a little premature in his desire to arrest you. How can you be charged with murder when no one had been murdered?’
‘Hence the apology.’
Shane nodded. ‘What you don’t know is that the chief inspector has a couple of black marks against him already. He’s a clever operator and a good policeman; nothing ever sticks, but if enough mud gets thrown … He has his eyes set on one of the top jobs. Maybe even the top job of Commissioner and I reminded him of the need to appear to be squeaky clean.’
‘You mean you threatened him?’ I gasped.
Shane snorted a small laugh. ‘Not exactly. I have cross examined him in the past while defending my clients and thus far I have always come out on top.’
‘What about breaking into Orion Print? I admitted to doing it.’ I really was dumb.
‘Actually, you were lucky to get away without being cautioned for that, Felicity. It would seem that your … friend, Mr Slater,’ Shane wasn’t sure how to label Vince, ‘claimed he heard a cry for help and upon investigation discovered the rear door to the property to be open. With the embarrassment of the false murder charge against him, it was in the chief inspector’s best interest to let the possible B&E charge go. It’s not as if he had any evidence. I don’t for one minute think the chief inspector believed him, but Mr Slater’s counsel had no trouble getting him released.’
‘Vince is out too?’ I looked around, wondering whether he was still here waiting for me.
Shane nodded. ‘Listen, I got you out, but I doubt that will be the end of it.’
Fear shot through me. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, for a start, Chief Inspector Quinn is a sore loser. He will be watching you because he still thinks you are guilty. The accidental death verdict can be reversed easily if they find sufficient reason to doubt it. I forced him to back off,
