The Half Truth

‘What did you tell her?’ said Martin as John got into the passenger seat of the BMW.

‘That Pavel was back in the UK. Kept it simple for now. I don’t want her freaking out on us,’ said John. ‘We need her to draw Pavel out of the woodwork.’

‘What’s the plan now?’

‘Back to the office. I want to check in with the team. See if anyone has got any info about the Porboski gang making a comeback. You have another chat with Baz Fisher. All this poking around is bound to have stirred up the locals. He might have heard some more by now.’ John looked up at 17 Belfour Avenue. ‘I’ll come back later to see if Pavel turns up.’

‘So, go on, admit it,’ said Martin.

‘Admit what?’ said John. He had an idea what Martin was referring to, but he wasn’t going to make it easy. The ribbing that would follow would be enough.

‘You’ve got more than just a passing interest in Mrs B.’ Martin pushed the keys into the ignition and fired up the engine.

‘Of course I have. This case means a lot to me,’ said John. He fastened his seat belt and looked straight ahead, purposefully avoiding any eye contact with his friend.

‘You know what I mean,’ said Martin as he pulled out onto Belfour Terrace. ‘Just don’t let Brogan get wind of it.’

‘You worry about the driving and I’ll worry about what Brogan knows, or thinks he knows,’ said John. ‘I’m not about to compromise the operation, despite my suspicions. I’m sure Tina is the link, even if she doesn’t know it herself.’

‘See! I told you.’ A big grin swept across Martin’s face.

‘What?’

‘It’s Tina, now. Not Mrs Bolotnikov. Absolutely proves my point.’

John shook his head. ‘You’re a dick at times, you know that?’

‘It might have been said once or twice before. Mostly by you, granted. But, I’m a dick who’s right.’ Martin laughed out loud, clearly delighted with himself.

Trouble was, John couldn’t really deny it. He was very much taken with Tina. Despite thinking he knew her from the surveillance five years ago, he didn’t know the woman she was now. She was something of an enigma, a woman who sparked his interest in more ways than one. However, he was painfully aware that she was, at best, a witness, at worst a suspect.

Chapter 10

Tina watched from her window as the BMW drew off down the road. She craned her neck until it had disappeared out of sight. A little feeling of unease snuck up on her and she glanced up and down the road, half expecting to see Pavel outside.

What exactly he was doing back in the UK, she had no idea. Had he really been spying on her? She wished she could have found out more about what he had been up to when he had lived in the UK, but John had been tight-lipped.

She wondered if Sasha had known anything. He had certainly never given her any indication that Pavel was mixed up in anything as serious as murder. Sasha would have told her. They shared everything. She turned away from the window and her eyes came to rest on the photo frame on the mantelpiece. She walked over and picked it up. A sparkly frame with bits of tiny mirror tiles, sparkly glass, a bric-a-brac home-crafted frame that Sasha had given her. Inside was a photograph of the two of them, taken on Brighton Pier.

She smiled. The frame really wasn’t her style and didn’t fit in with anything else in the house. She remembered how proud Sasha had been when he had presented it to her. She had wanted to laugh, but he had been deadly serious when he said how precious it was. A token of how precious she was and how precious their love was. How sad that they had so little time together. She replaced the frame.

‘I’m going to pop upstairs to get changed,’ she said to Dimitri. ‘Then I’ll go next door and see if Mr Cooper wants some tea. You okay there?’

A brief ‘yes’ in reply, which didn’t even involve her son taking his eyes from the screen. Okay, the TV wasn’t the ideal babysitter, but today she was grateful for it.

Tina sighed to herself as she climbed the stairs, picking up a couple of toys that Dimitri had discarded at some point that morning before school. All she ever seemed to do was tidy up after him. How was it possible a six-year-old could make so much mess? She reached the landing and, just to prove her point, there was a sprinkling of what looked like powder on the carpet.

She scuffed it with her foot in an attempt to rub it in. She paused. Not simply because she knew she was being lazy and should really get the Hoover out, but because the powder had a grey tinge to it. What on earth had he tipped out? She looked into his bedroom and noticed an old cardboard box in the corner that he had brought home from school. Well, he told her it was a robot, hence the silver foil stuck randomly all over it, together with milk-bottle lids. The dust and dirt had probably come from there. She went to call out his name and tell him to come and tidy up, but stopped herself.

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