‘Which is the more polite answer?’ he said, hoping to climb back out of the deep hole he’d dug for himself. ‘Yes, we do need a room, or no, we don’t?’
‘The second is more polite,’ Kelly said, her gaze not shifting, ‘but an awful lot less interesting.’
He took a deep breath. For the first time in as long as he could remember, he had no clue how to respond. After an awkward pause, Kelly touched his arm and said, ‘Have I embarrassed you? I do apologise. Me and my big mouth.’
‘No.’ Bliss shook his head. ‘Not embarrassed. Just… caught unawares. I’m a little bit distracted. Bit rusty, too. Sorry.’
She nodded. ‘That’s fine. I was only being playful.’
‘Good. Of course you were. That makes sense.’
‘On the other hand, I’m sure someone as resourceful as you will know how to find me once you’ve thought of a more honest answer than the polite one.’
Bliss swallowed. Kelly had to be ten or twelve years his junior, and he didn’t even know her surname. Could he be reading her so badly? Had he lost the ability to talk to women and reliably understand their intent? A fog of confusion hung over the manner in which men and women regarded one another in the current social climate, but he’d take some convincing that appreciating a woman’s body as much as her mind and her talent made him a sexist. Pretty much every loving relationship began with physical attraction, and to his mind the human race was doomed if that ever changed.
‘I have to run,’ he said eventually. ‘It was good seeing you again.’
‘You too. Don’t leave it so long next time.’
She flashed the smile once more before heading off with her colleague. Bliss was left to stand and shake his head. What had that been? Another tease, or an invitation to call? He pushed out a breath and told himself off. He was being foolish. A middle-aged man coveting a younger woman was one of the oldest stories going, and he had fallen into the trap of misreading the paramedic’s easy-going nature and bubbly personality.
As the thought came and Bliss watched her walk away, Kelly glanced back over her shoulder. He raised a hand to say goodbye. She flashed that smile again and did the same.
Continuing along the corridor, Bliss mentally chided himself all the way to the treatment area. A flirt was just a flirt, a wave a wave. He found the bay he’d been told to look out for; its curtains were open. The man being treated by a nurse and examined by a doctor caught sight of Bliss and rolled his eyes. Not wishing to interrupt, Bliss waited outside the cubicle. Almost ten minutes passed before he was allowed to speak to the patient. He pulled the curtain around to afford them some privacy.
‘Was this Watson?’ Bliss demanded.
The man – with a swollen eye socket, deep red marks surrounding it, and three ugly lacerations to his face – was Edward Barr, known as Teddy to everyone who encountered him. An ex-cop working as a private investigator, Barr had been hired by Bliss to keep an eye on Neil Watson. It was he who had made the phone call the previous night, having followed the target to the restaurant in Whittlesey.
Barr nodded. Even the slow and slight neck movements caused him to wince. He set his chin as though unwilling to say more, but softened it again after a moment of reflection. ‘I thought he might be going to pay the woman a visit. He was behaving oddly, walking around the streets in circles but at the same time consistently edging towards the same general location. I have to assume he knew I was there and had been looking for a good spot to jump me, because when he turned into an alleyway and I followed, he got the drop on me. Sad to say I didn’t manage to land a single blow of my own. He threw himself at me, knocked me to the ground and it was all over from that point. Well, you’ve seen him. It would’ve taken a crane to hoist him off me. He gave me a good hiding, told me to stop following him or next time it would be worse.’
‘He’s a big unit,’ Bliss said. ‘Even in your prime, you’d have struggled. Don’t beat yourself up about it, Teddy. Watson did enough of that for the two of you.’
Barr gasped in pain as he laughed. ‘Stop it, you evil bastard. It bloody well hurts when I laugh.’
‘Sorry. Couldn’t resist. Has it been reported? It should have been, if you were found unconscious.’
‘No, nothing like that. I wasn’t going to bother, but I got a bit dizzy so I came here under my own steam.’
‘Are you going to report it?’
‘If I do, I land you in it, Jimmy. I don’t want that.’
‘Sod me, Teddy. He assaulted you. He has previous. It’s a chance to bang him up.’
‘Yeah, but it’s my word against his. Nobody saw a thing.’
‘You can’t know that for sure,’ Bliss said. ‘Just because nobody came to help doesn’t mean they didn’t see what happened. The fight could have been witnessed from any of the surrounding buildings. You tell me where and I’ll check it out before you speak to uniform.’
Barr took a moment before responding. ‘I’m telling you there was no one around, Jimmy. I checked the windows myself while I was pulling myself together. Nobody saw us, so there’s no reason to report it. It won’t go anywhere.’
Bliss saw the sense in that. The only reason to report the offence was if they had a better than average chance of it resulting in a prosecution. Without a corroborating witness, that was unlikely, especially given the circumstances.
‘All right. But if you think of anything we can use against him, let me know.’ He lowered his voice. ‘Tell me something, Teddy. You already planning payback? Thinking
