Echoes of Lies by Jo Bannister

Author:Jo Bannister
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2012-01-22T22:00:00+00:00

First thing on Monday morning she drove him to the hospital to get his dressings checked. “Call me when you’re done and I’ll pick you up.”

“I’ll get a taxi.”

“Call me.”

The doctor was still offended at him discharging himself. But when pressed he admitted that Daniel had come to no harm, that his injuries were healing, that more of the clingfilm could be dispensed with.

Daniel came out of the treatment room, tender and pink under his shirt, to find Detective Inspector Deacon waiting for him. Surprise froze him momentarily in his tracks.

“Daniel,” said the policeman non-committally. “You’re looking better.”

In the couple of seconds it took to detach his feet from the linoleum Daniel had made two decisions. He wasn’t going to tell Deacon about the Ibbotsens, and he wasn’t going to lie. If need be he’d stand there all day trying to reconcile the two. “I’m a lot better,” he said.

Deacon nodded. “Good. Now let’s see if your memory’s improved too.”

“There never was anything wrong with my memory,” Daniel said quietly. “I told you everything I knew. I don’t know why you didn’t believe me.”

“Well, I’ll tell you,” said Deacon expansively. “It’s because when people are telling the truth, it adds up and makes a kind of sense. When it doesn’t add up and it doesn’t make any sense at all, nine times out of ten somebody’s telling porkies.”

“I haven’t lied to you. I just didn’t know the answers to your questions.”

“That’s right,” remembered the detective. “You don’t like liars, do you? ‘Tell the truth and shame the devil’ - it’s a good epitaph. I’ll have it inscribed on your tombstone.”

Daniel felt his skin crawl. “What do you mean?”

“I’m only being realistic.” Deacon put an arm around his shoulder and, if he noticed the younger man wince, pretended he hadn’t. “The people who chucked you in the skip thought you were dead. I lied - sorry about that, I know you won’t approve - I lied to the press to keep them thinking that. And now here you are, walking around in public and staying with a woman they also know about. Whoever they are, whatever it was all about, they must know by now that they left the job unfinished. It can’t be long before they decide to rectify that.”

He cocked his head, waiting for Daniel to reply. But Daniel said nothing. Deacon smiled his crocodile smile. “I have to hand it to you, Danny, you’re a braver man than me. That’s a good quality in a teacher, though it’s not the first thing that springs to mind. You think of teachers and you think cardigans, long holidays, pay disputes and whingeing on about not getting the respect they’re entitled to. You don’t immediately think of people brave enough to stand in front of a loaded gun just to prove that they can.”

Daniel knew he was being goaded and dared not respond. “Inspector - what is it you want from me?”

“I want to know what you know,” Deacon said forcibly.

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