The Lake (Cumbria Crime Book 5) by Hames Joel & McLean Rachel

Author:Hames, Joel & McLean, Rachel [Hames, Joel & McLean, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ackroyd Publishing
Published: 2025-01-23T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTY

An hour after leaving Mo’s house, Zoe stood in a very different kitchen, in a third-floor flat in a depressing-looking low-rise block in Pollokshields, not far from the heart of Glasgow.

“Thanks for seeing me,” she said.

“Yeah.”

Josh McKenzie’s ex-wife had her back turned to Zoe. She was busying herself with two mugs and instant coffee, and Zoe had the sense that she didn’t want the coffee any more than Zoe did. She just wanted a reason to look away.

Shona Murray was in her mid-thirties but looked maybe two decades older. She moved slowly and awkwardly, like someone not used to moving at all.

“You sent the other cop, did ya?” said Shona. Her accent was thick, but easy enough to understand. “Asian fella, yeah?”

“I did. I⁠—”

“Yeah. I might a been a bit rude to ’im. But I don’t like some fella turnin’ up like that, you see?”

“I understand. I just wanted to know about Josh.”

She’d already explained that McKenzie was dead. Murdered. She’d done it gently, but it soon became apparent that she needn’t have bothered. Shona Murray wasn’t sorry her ex-husband was dead; she’d said as much. She wasn’t celebrating, but she wasn’t mourning, either.

“Sit down,” said Shona, pointing at the kitchen table. Zoe sat. “What do you want to know, then?”

“I suppose the obvious, like can you think of anyone who’d have wished him harm, and⁠—”

Shona laughed, a surprisingly melodic, gentle laugh. “Sorry.”

“And what he was like in general,” Zoe continued.

“What he was like in general was nasty,” Shona told her. She took a sip from her coffee and grimaced. “It’s shit, this. Don’t mind me if you don’t wanna drink it. Yeah, he were violent, nasty, selfish, mean, if you got a… Not a dictionary, you know…”

“Thesaurus?” suggested Zoe.

“Yeah. If you got one of them, look up ‘nasty.’ He were all that. Manipulative,” she added.

Zoe had never met Josh McKenzie. But anyone who’d been able to control Huz, Carrie Wright, the rest of them… Manipulative sounded like the right word.

“As for anyone wishing ’im harm, I don’t know. Not these days. Probably everyone who met the bastard. Sorry.”

“Nothing to apologise for.”

Zoe eyed her coffee, but didn’t drink. She looked at Shona.

“I know you made a complaint about him. Domestic violence. But it didn’t go ahead. And something happened that meant Josh ended up in hospital. I was wondering…”

Shona looked past her into the hallway, her face paling.

Zoe turned. There was a man standing behind her. Short, sandy-haired, wearing glasses and the expression of someone contemplating violence.

“Who the fuck’s this, Sho?” he said. His accent was stronger than hers.

Zoe stood carefully, and turned to face him.

“DI Zoe Finch,” she said. “West Cumbria CID. I was just talking to⁠—”

“The fucking police in ’ere?” said the man. “What you let them in for, Sho? I thought you told the last one to leave you the fuck alone.”

“Sorry, Iain,” said Shona, her voice low.

So this was Iain Murray. Shona’s brother.

Expression aside, he didn’t look the violent type, but appearances could be deceptive, and Mo had shown Zoe the hospital report on Josh McKenzie.

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