Page 27 of Better the Devil

This made Dave laugh—a dirty cackle at the back of his throat that shook his big barrel chest.

‘Aye, that’s fair,’ he conceded. ‘But Sinead’s not wrong. There’d be hundreds of pieces of glass if it was a side window. Thousands, maybe. I don’t know, I’ve never stopped to count them, but it’s a lot.’

He raised his mug and used it to point to the photograph of the fragments that had been blown up and pinned to the Big Board.

‘How many do we have?’

Sinead and Tyler replied simultaneously, though Tyler spoke louder: ‘Eleven.’

It was then that Logan dropped a bombshell.

‘Twelve.’

Tyler picked up his printout. Sinead checked the board. Everyone else turned their attention to the DCI.

‘Twelve, boss?’ Tyler asked. ‘You sure? Geoff said eleven.’

‘He did, sir. Definitely eleven,’ Sinead confirmed.

Logan crossed to the table beside the Big Board and reached inside the Exhibits box, where the evidence that had been released into their chain of custody was stored. Right now, it was empty. Or so the others had thought, at least.

To their surprise, Jack produced a small transparent bag that, from that distance, seemed to be empty.

‘Shona found it last night.’ He passed the bag to Hamza, who held it up to the light, revealing a single fragment of the same glass discovered at the scene.

‘Where?’ Hamza asked.

‘In an indent in the victim’s forehead,’ Logan explained. ‘Blood on the face and angle of the body hid it at the scene. She’s doing the full PM this morning, but wanted to get this over to us early.’

‘She got any idea what caused it?’ asked Ben. He leaned forward, then sat back again, raising his hands. ‘Sorry, forget I said anything. That’s not why I’m here.’

‘She couldn’t say for certain,’ Logan replied, ignoring everything after the question. ‘But we’ll know more today.’

‘Maybe he headbutted a car window,’ Tyler guessed.

‘That’d be a bold move,’ Dave said. ‘They’re pretty solid. They take a lot to break them.’

‘And yet you’ve somehow managed to shatter multiple,’ Tyler replied. ‘Seriously, never getting in a car with you again.’

‘He’s right,’ Logan said. ‘I mean, both of you are. I’m also not getting in a car again with you, Dave, after the last bloody time. But I mean car windows. Modern ones. Skull would shatter long before the glass did.’

He folded his arms and tapped a finger against a bicep as he considered the board.

‘We’ll come back to it,’ he eventually decided. ‘What’s this about footprints?’

Sinead answered while Tyler was still frantically scanning down his printout.

‘Two sets, sir. In the mud. One walking around at the driver’s side door. Size eight. Boot of some kind. Hiking, maybe, though the mud was wet, so they can’t get a solid read on them.’

‘And the other?’ Logan asked.

‘Found it!’ Tyler declared. ‘Single print, boss. Just one right foot. Maybe a one-legged guy.’

Even as he said that last part, he was wincing at the sound of it.

‘I mean, probably not, though,’ he conceded.

Sinead fought back a smirk. ‘The single print matches the victim’s shoe.’