The Half Truth(46)

He pulled her in for a reassuring hug and felt her squeeze him tightly before pulling away. ‘Thank you, John. I’m not sure how I’d manage all this without you.’

‘You’re a very brave and strong woman. Stronger than you think. You would manage, I have no doubt. However, since I’m here, I aim to make it much easier for you.’ He smiled reassuringly. ‘Come on, let’s pop next door and speak to Mr Cooper.’

Standing on Mr Cooper’s landing, everything looked as it should.

‘Whoever it was must have been quietly creeping in and out without Mr Cooper noticing,’ said John.

‘Well, Mr Cooper is as deaf as a post. You saw how easily we let ourselves in and came upstairs. He wouldn’t hear a thing. I’m always nagging him to lock that back door.’

‘Tomorrow I’ll get up in the loft and rebuild that hole. I’ll also have a chat to Mr Cooper about locking the door.’

‘I don’t want to alarm him, but I think he needs to know.’

‘Don’t worry, I’ll handle it. I’ll tell him that it’s something we suspect rather than have any hard evidence.’ John ushered her out of the room.





Chapter 22


Mr Cooper hadn’t been overly alarmed, but he had agreed to be more vigilant with locking his back door.

‘I’m an old dog,’ he said. ‘It’s hard to teach me new tricks, but I’ll do my best to remember.’

Tina knew it was the best compromise she was likely to get from him.

‘So, what happens now?’ asked Tina as they went back into her house.

‘We’re going through local CCTV to see if we can see who was hanging around the café the other night.’

‘I didn’t realise there was CCTV,’ said Tina. She didn’t meet John’s look, she knew the look of guilt would speak louder than any words.

‘Is there anything you want to tell me about the other night?’ said John, his voice was gentle. ‘Anything you may have remembered?’

Tina stared at the coffee cups she had taken from the cupboard. Her back was to John.

‘Tell me a bit more about the Moorgate robbery and what happened there. Who was involved?’ She needed to know for certain it was only Pavel.

‘What’s this, some sort of trade-off?’ His tone was tetchy.

‘I need to be clear who was involved and to what extent.’

‘So you can protect people?’ He was angry. ‘You’re not judge and jury, you don’t decide who gets caught, who gets punished. If you know something and you’re not telling me, then that’s withholding information. A serious offence.’

She spun round to look at him. ‘If that’s what you think, then arrest me.’ She knew as well as he did, he couldn’t prove loss of memory.

‘Look, Tina. Let’s cut the bullshit,’ said John. ‘Someone came to your rescue the other night. Who would want to protect you? Who doesn’t want the local police to know they were there?’ He paused and looked out of the window as if in some sort of internal fight. ‘Pavel. He’s over here, he wants to spoils of the Moorgate job and you, whether you like it or not, whether you know it or not, are the link.’

She thought he was going to say something else. Did he know about Sasha, if indeed it had been Sasha she had seen? She was even less convinced it was him now. Wishful thinking on her part. Hearing the Russian voices and getting the bump on her head had caused her imagination to go into overdrive. Adrenalin and fear fuelled all those subliminal connections, surging at the same time, making her see things she wanted to. Reality suspended. No, she didn’t really believe it was Sasha.

Tina could see the anger and frustration in John’s face, the gold flecks in his hazel eyes burned, reflecting the flames of guilt which flickered and glowed from deep within him. There was something he wasn’t telling her. She needed to know one thing before she could tell him the truth.

‘Was Sasha involved in the death of your partner? Was he involved in any of it? I need to know.’

He looked her straight in the eye when he answered. He didn’t blink. He didn’t shift his gaze for one second. ‘No,’ he said. ‘No, he wasn’t.’

‘Thank you.’ Relief flushed through her. Now it was her turn to level. ‘Pavel was there. He came to my rescue.’

‘Just Pavel?’

‘No. There was someone else with him. At first I thought it was Sasha, but I didn’t really see him properly.’ She bowed her head, embarrassed at her behaviour. ‘I think I wanted it to be him. I thought he had come back.’

‘Are you certain it wasn’t him?’