Evil in Return by Elena Forbes Read Free Book Online Page A

previous investigation, he realised how little he knew about her. She was only a couple of years older than he was and she wasn’t unattractive, far from it in fact, but she had an aura about her that said ‘keep off’. It was a self-protective mechanism he had come across a lot with police women in what was still very much a male-dominated world, but with Steele there was more to it, he felt, and he was curious.
    He followed her gaze through the window. Immediately opposite, a terrace of low-built Victorian houses backed onto the road that led from Barnes village green to the Common and mainline station. The odd light was still on here and there, revealing sleepy little snapshots of domestic life. In one house, he saw the flicker of a television; in another, he watched a dark-haired woman in a pink dressing gown make her way slowly up the stairs with a mug of something in one hand and a black cat draped over her shoulder. The sight brought on a sudden wave of tiredness and he stifled a yawn. The day’s adrenaline high had evaporated and he wished that he could be back in his flat, about to crawl into bed. But the immediate prospect of that was a remote one.
    After a moment, Steele gave another hearty sigh and turned back to him, fingers steepled under her chin, fixing him with her strange green eyes. Her mouth softened unexpectedly into a smile. ‘I agree with everything you’ve said, Mark. It looks like a cut and shunt. Maybe someone’s messing us around.’
    Her unexpected warmth surprised him. She wasn’t usually so easy to convince. If it had been anyone else, he would have been tempted to say that she was flirting with him, or at least trying to win him over, but Steele wasn’t that sort of woman, and she’d taken no more than a mouthful of whisky. Something else must be behind it and he felt instantly wary.
    ‘It’s personal,’ she continued distantly, still gazing at him, seemingly unaware of her body language. ‘The answer’s buried somewhere in Joe Logan’s life, if only we can find it.’
    There was a rap on the open door and he turned to see Minderedes.
    ‘Sorry to interrupt. But someone’s using Logan’s phone.’

5
    ‘If I catch you nodding off, you’re for the high-jump, lassie,’ a deep Scottish voice said immediately behind Donovan.
    She started, but didn’t turn around. Along with a waft of coffee, she had caught a trace of DS Justin Chang’s familiar aftershave. She shook her head. ‘I know it’s you, Justin, and Mark doesn’t talk like that anyway. I’ve had about two hours’ sleep, so don’t blame me if I’m a bit dopey.’ She carried on tapping at her keyboard, inputting a witness statement from the previous evening.
    ‘I’ve got you a coffee,’ he said, in his normal voice. She looked around. The expensive aftershave was an incongruous touch in someone who usually dressed like a student. Today, though, he was wearing a suit, although it looked as though it had seen better days. His tie was loosely knotted and the top button of his collar was undone. But in spite of the fact that he too had been up most of the night, his expression was irritatingly cheerful.
    ‘Here.’ He handed her a cup from a paper bag, which came from The Food Gallery, her favourite deli in the High Street, where they made the best coffee in Barnes. ‘I told them to put an extra shot in it. Thought you’d need something to keep you on your toes.’
    ‘Thanks. I need all the help I can get today. What do I owe you?’
    He waved her away. ‘Don’t worry about it.’
    Too tired to argue, she shook her head and removed the lid to take a sip. But the coffee was piping hot and she put it down to let it cool. Chang had joined the murder team less than two months before and had taken to bringing her coffee most mornings, so far refusing to let her pay him back, or return the favour. In the small, open-plan office, with its central bank of desks, nothing went unnoticed for long. Jane Downes, who was