The Convenience of Lies by Geoffrey Seed Read Free Book Online

but I’ve a pal in the anti-terrorist squad and he’s tipped me the nod that before this Ruby job came along, Benwick had been working under cover for years.’
    ‘Was he, by God? So that’s why you fronted the press conference and not him.’
    ‘It’s got to be, hasn’t it?’
    ‘What kind of undercover work was he doing?’
    ‘I don’t know but as sure as the good Lord made little apples, he’s not adjusted to everyday police work yet. There’s an anger in the guy, only just below the surface, like he doesn’t give a damn about anyone or anything.’
    ‘But why put a UC like him on a case you say doesn’t amount to much?’
    ‘Can’t help you there but I wouldn’t want to cross him, I seriously wouldn’t.’
    ‘So you’re accepting there’s a half decent story in Ruby’s case?’
    ‘You didn’t hear this from me, but yes… and judging by the little I know, it’s a belter.’
    ‘Great, now we’re getting somewhere. So tell me more.’
    ‘Sorry Mac, no can do. I just daren’t. I know I owe you big time - ’
    ‘Then do me this little service and we’ll call it quits.’
    ‘It’s not that easy, old sport. I’m still on my uppers after the divorce.’
    ‘But I’d keep your name out of everything.’
    ‘That wouldn’t save me,’ he said. ‘Benwick knows about our meet today and that we’re pals. If I anything leaks, I’m out on my ear and with no way back this time.’
    *
    There had always been something of the monk about Lexie’s ex-husband, Evan, something austere, not entirely joyless but a man driven by a certainty of purpose.
    McCall parked outside his house, a large dormer bungalow behind a screen of willows already shedding their yellow leaves. Evan would be in his study. It looked out across the river slipping between the sloping lawn of his rear garden and the water meadows beyond and in the distance, to the spires of Cambridge where he taught.
    But Evan’s connections weren’t just academic. He had access down corridors where few others ever went.
    ‘Mac, it’s been too long. You should’ve rung and I could’ve organised supper for us.’
    ‘Thanks, but I can’t stay. I’m on my way home from Essex.’
    McCall was under no obligation to tell Evan that Lexie had reappeared in his life, still less that he’d become her lover again. Yet it felt right that he should, however subconscious his need for approval.
    ‘I hope you survive this time,’ Evan said. ‘I wouldn’t want you hurt again.’
    His voice held neither jealousy nor resentment, only the concern of a fellow casualty. McCall told him about Ruby and how Lexie feared she could have been murdered.
    ‘What an intolerable strain for her to be under.’
    ‘It is, which is why I’ve come to ask if you might help.’
    ‘In what way, Mac?’
    ‘By making a few discreet inquiries with your anonymous friends about a detective in London called Larry Benwick.’
    ‘Why, what’s he been up to?’
    ‘All I know so far is that he’s just been taken off long term undercover work to run the Ruby case. I find that interesting.’
    ‘Couldn’t he have just finished one assignment and been given another?’
    ‘Possibly, but someone in a position to know has told me to keep digging on this tale.’
    Evan nodded but said nothing. McCall left it there. Evan was a source who could join the dots for himself.
    They walked to the front door. McCall still saw no sign of any female presence in the house save for the sterile neatness imposed by a cleaner paid by the hour.
    ‘Mac, before you go, I should tell you my news.’
    ‘What’s that?’
    ‘I’ve bought Staithe End cottage.’
    ‘Say that again.’
    ‘I’ve bought the cottage.’
    McCall stared at him. After twenty-five years of knowing each other, this outwardly cautious, measured man could still amaze him.
    ‘How on earth’s this come about?’
    ‘I saw it advertised and I didn’t like the idea of a stranger mucking up our memories.’
    ‘Lexie simply