Death to Pay by Derek Fee Read Free Book Online Page B

intelligent and funny and a whole lot better in bed than her ex-husband. Sometimes she wondered where it was all going. Brendan was only in Belfast for one year. Then he would be returning to his real life at Harvard, while she would still be chasing miscreants around the dingy back streets of Belfast. She was happier than she had been for some time. Although she was enjoying the banter with Brendan concerning Wilson, she was also realising that there might be something to it. Maybe she spoke too much about him to Brendan and God forbid some of her colleagues. Wilson was always going to be out of reach for her.  Brendan was her here and now, and she was going to enjoy every minute with him.
    ‘Coffee or round three,’ she asked.
    ‘What’s that expression you guys have ‘need you ask’?’
     

CHAPTER 13
     
     
     
    Wilson rose earlier than usual. He had been awake since six o’clock and had decided to get up and go for a jog along the Embankment. He loved an early-morning jog not only for the fact that it blew the cobwebs of sleep away. He was able to mull over what was on his mind as his feet pounded the pavement. Although he had learned to disguise his limp when he walked, he had never, and would never, regain the fluidity in his running style he had had before his injury. As he started his run, his mind was focused on Lizzie Rice’s murder and the possible motivations behind the killing of a woman in her mid-sixties who had been for some considerable time in the wastebasket of Ulster’s politics. He would have to put the issues of motive on the backburner until he knew more about Lizzie’s life. He was quite sure that there was more than one skeleton in Lizzie’s cupboard, and he would have to dislodge them all before he could discount them as possible motivations. As his feet pounded the concrete, he considered the past day and the information they had gleaned. He concluded that they were no nearer to finding the killer than they had been the previous morning. Murder investigations were process, and as with any process there had to be forward momentum. Standing still was not an option. Every day would have to show some progress in identifying the killer. He was well into his fifth kilometre when his mind switched from Lizzie Rice to Kate. Their conversation of the previous evening troubled him. Was his concern with Kate’s working life really centred on the wellbeing of their unborn child or was she right in thinking that he was trying to control her? He was in no doubt that she believed it was the latter although the accusation had come out in the heat of argument. He tried to examine his motives. Did he really want to curtail Kate’s professional life because he wanted to turn her into a wife and mother? She was one of the most brilliant lawyers of her generation. She would, in the not to distant future, be offered a place on the bench with the possibility to contribute not only to the dispensing of law but also to the making of law. Did he really want to deny her that future?  He was still struggling with the answers to these questions when he reached their apartment. He had time for a shower, and then he’d make Kate breakfast as a peace offering.  The smell of frying eggs greeted his nostrils as he pushed open the door to the apartment.
    ‘You’re just in time,’ Kate called from the kitchen. ‘Ham and cheese omelette alright.’
    ‘Prefect, along with a coffee. Let me get out of these sweaty clothes and grab a quick shower. I’ll be with you in five.’
    He was still perspiring when he joined Kate at the breakfast bar in the kitchen.
    ‘My perfect wife,’ he said kissing her on the lips.
    ‘Let’s not go there. It’s only an omelette and coffee.’
    He looked at her and was delighted to see that the smile was not only on her lips but also in her eyes.
    ‘What’s on the agenda for to-day?’ he asked.
    ‘Court, court and even more court. I have a nice juicy drugs case, and I’m