Burnt Echo by Rhys Dylan

Author:Rhys Dylan [Dylan, Rhys]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-03-27T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Catrin was wading through Mirain’s phone records when her phone chimed an incoming text message notification The name came up on her screen and she lifted her chin towards the ceiling with a sigh.

Byronski: It’s Saturday. You up for a coffee? Magda’s is still here.

Remember those post hangover fry-ups? These days it’s lattes and macchiatos

and almond croissants. Here’s another snap from the archive.

The photo, this time, showed the younger Catrin on a bed, face down, her hair, a lot longer then, half covering her face. Bed sheets covered only part of her backside. The rest was all on show. Her pale skin in the dim light of a dark bedroom looked oddly darker than usual. She remembered that Byronski had a couple of cameras that he was always playing with. This shot looked grainy, something to do with how you processed the image, no doubt.

But it wasn’t so much the image that bothered her now. The term “archive” sent a flutter through her gut. How many more of these did the sod have?

She began texting back a firm refusal of the offer but stopped halfway through. There was only one way to find out how many “snaps” Byronski had in his archive, and that meant confronting him. This needed nipping in the bud.

She sat back, eyes on the screen in front of her, but her mind somewhere else altogether. Trying and failing to piece together the details of that flighty ten months of her first year of university. She hadn’t thought about all that for a long time. She’d moved on. A different degree, a career, a couple of boyfriends in between, and then Craig.

She glanced around the room. A few Uniforms had been co-opted as indexers and researchers, but Gil looked busy at his desk, so did Rhys. She turned around and found Jess Allanby on the phone.

She’d tried talking to Rhys about this, to no avail. Gil might be a little more sympathetic, but ideally, she wanted to run all this past another woman. She’d spent a lot of time with Jess Allanby and, although the DI kept an air of composed professionalism at work, she had her own cross to bear regarding a breakup. To an extent that that made her personal life off limits, other than discussions over Molly’s teenage antics.

Because of that, Catrin never truly opened up to Jess, but Byronski seemed like a special case. More than anything, she needed advice about how best to deal with him.

The Incident Room, with Warlow gone, felt relatively calm. Now would be as good a time as any.

Catrin got up from her desk, smoothed down her trousers, and started across the room just as Jess finished her call. She took two steps when the DI fixed her with a look that she recognised. Animated, and a little flushed. The kind of look she got when something significant had happened in a case. And when she spoke, she used a voice meant to be heard by everyone in the room.

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