Page 64 of Maybe Tomorrow

‘My team is made up of exemplary detectives. We worked the clues given and made an arrest based on facts. I don’t need to fabricate anything,’ he said, raising his voice in defiance.

‘This statement is crap, and you know it. I’m going before an appeal judge this afternoon and I’m going to make sure Anthony Winstanley is sleeping in his own bed tonight.’

‘Good luck with that, sweetheart.’ Bishop winked.

‘I didn’t have you down as a fry-up kind of woman,’ DC Chris Tyler said as he sat opposite Freya Sloan in the station canteen.

Freya was sitting alone. On the plate in front of her was a mound of sausage, chips, fried egg, baked beans and a slice of fried bread.

‘I’m not usually.’

‘Why is today so special?’

‘I’m angry. I eat when I’m angry.’

‘If I did that, I wouldn’t be able to fit through the station doors.’

‘What makes you angry?’

‘You tell me what’s pissed you off so much first,’ Chris said, struggling to open the plastic box which contained his chicken sandwich.

She threw her fork onto her plate. ‘It’s my own fault. I overheard something I shouldn’t have done.’

‘Gossip?’ Chris’s eyebrows lifted.

‘Not the kind of gossip you want to hear though.’

‘Are you going to tell me?’

‘Do you really want to know?’

‘This conversation isn’t going to go any further if we’re just going to ask each other questions.’

‘OK. First of all, thank you for the drink last night. I really needed it.’

‘You’re welcome,’ he said with a smile.

‘Secondly.’ Freya looked around her to make sure they weren’t overheard. She dropped her voice and leaned closer to Chris. ‘Sergeant Wells was talking to Sergeant Peters this morning and Peters told Wells that Bishop had got one of his tarts to say Anthony Winstanley was watching her have sex on the night of the murder. Their words, not mine.’

‘So?’

‘Bishop has got a statement from this… woman, whoever she is, saying that Anthony watches her have sex. They’re trying to make out he’s some kind of pervert and he watched her on the night of the storm, then came across Alice and raped and murdered her.’

Chris took a bite of his sandwich and chewed slowly while he thought. He nodded. ‘I know. This is the theory.’

‘Also, you know how bad the storm was. Do you honestly think anyone in their right mind would have been out on that night having sex?’

‘Some of these women are desperate.’

‘Yes. But are the men? If you were in a cosy warm home and there was a raging storm outside, would you even consider going out for a quickie?’

Chris smiled to himself. ‘No. I’d just…’ He remembered who he was talking to, blushed, and looked down at his sandwich.

‘Exactly, Chris. You’d take care of business yourself.’

‘Don’t be crude.’

She smiled. ‘I’m right, though.’