Flesh and Blood: A gripping serial-killer thriller (DCI Mark Lapslie Book 5) (Dci Mark Lapslie 5) by Nigel McCrery

Author:Nigel McCrery [McCrery, Nigel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786482068
Publisher: Quercus
Published: 2017-12-13T16:00:00+00:00

12

Chelmsford Police Headquarters, Essex

April 2015

‘So, no emergencies while I was away?’ Lapslie enquired.

‘No, nothing to speak of, sir. The CPS called to say that a preliminary hearing date has been scheduled for the Reid appeal. Just over a month from now, and they expect it to run a half-day at most.’

‘Okay. I’ll note it in my desk diary.’

Bradbury smiled primly. ‘Already done, sir.’

Lapslie nodded. Ever-efficient Bradbury.

‘Anything else, sir?’

‘Yes, there was, actually.’ He hadn’t wanted to make it the first subject aired, even though it had been predominantly on his mind since the possibility had been raised. But some of that depended on Emma’s current situation with Dom McGinley, her ex-villain boyfriend for the past four years, so he needed to tread carefully. For obvious reasons, Lapslie had strongly advised against the relationship, before finally giving up the ghost. He gave his best paternally concerned grimace. ‘I wondered, are you still seeing Dom?’

‘Yes, I am. Why?’

‘No problems now?’ Lapslie would get to the why in a minute, when he saw how the ground lay on other fronts; in particular, a situation not long ago when Emma feared Dom was becoming suspicious of her seeing another man (which indeed she had been at the time).

‘No. That’s all settled down now.’

‘So you’ve stopped seeing the other guy?’ The slight pause and flicker of concern that crossed Emma’s face in that instant made Lapslie fear the worst. ‘For goodness’ sake, Emma. I made it clear to you before – that isn’t the wisest of moves with a man like Dom. He could end up taking a chisel to your face, or worse.’

‘I haven’t seen the other guy in months.’

‘How many months?’

‘Three or four.’

Lapslie paused, absorbed in thought for a moment. ‘But you’re planning to – is that what you’re saying?’

Another pause, with a conflict of emotions crossing Emma Bradbury’s face.

‘I don’t know,’ she said. This wasn’t the sort of conversation she wanted to be having with her boss. She saw his point, but it was too intrusive. She wanted to keep her private life separate from her work – but when you were hitched up with an ex-villain, that was more difficult to do. She’d explained it before, in her own mind and to Lapslie, her theory of ‘opposites attract’, and how their own work was very similar to that of a villain’s – just the other side of the same coin. They had more in common with villains than perhaps they were willing to admit.

‘But if now, with you having stopped seeing this other guy – a schoolteacher, if I recall correctly? – everything’s settled down with Dom. Why risk that?’

She shrugged, deflecting his question with another, ‘I don’t know.’ Then added, ‘And he’s a college lecturer, actually. Genetic engineering.’ Bradbury pondered that, while Lapslie might understand that first part of the equation, how was she to take it to the next stage of explaining that both men satisfied different needs in her?

Dom was hard-edged, manly, direct, and she liked that about him.

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