“Tell you what. We’ll write to Laura in prison and ask her to adjudicate.”

“I wish I could believe Laura’s going to end up in prison,” Lindsay sighed.

“What do you mean?”

Lindsay downed the rest of her glass and burped discreetly. “Come on, Soph. Do you really think that’s ever going to come to trial?”

“Why won’t it?” Sophie demanded. “They’ve arrested her, charged her, and with your evidence, they’ve got enough to convict her at a trial. Bang to rights, I’d have thought. And not just for the murder. They’ve also got her for fiddling the union’s expenses, embezzling the strike pay and fraudulently manipulating the pension fund. All to keep her in blackmail cash and designer clothes. None of which is calculated to endear her to a jury.”

“I’m not disputing any of that. Nor do I think it’s anything other than disgusting. But I’m not holding my breath waiting for a trip back to the UK at the taxpayers’ expense.”

“But why not?” Sophie persisted.

“A Special Branch undercover operative in the witness box? You’ll be telling me Britain’s a democracy next!”

Sophie smiled wryly. Lindsay adjusted her seat and stretched out her legs. “Well, at least we got everything neatly tied up.” She grinned. “I’d have hated never knowing who the phantom Chronicler was. You know how I hate loose ends.”

“Hmmm.”

Lindsay jerked upright. She looked sharply at Sophie. “What do you mean, ‘hmmm’?”

“Nothing.”

“What d’you mean, nothing?” Lindsay demanded frantically.

“Well . . .” Sophie drawled. “I was just wondering . . .”

“Wondering what?” through clenched teeth.

“At the ceilidh, Union Jack arranged a meeting with you for the following morning.”

“That’s right,” Lindsay said impatiently. “So?”

“So what did he want to talk to you about?”

Lindsay looked thunderstruck. Her mouth fell open and her eyes widened in panic. “I’ve no idea,” she gasped.

“I just wondered,” Sophie said, the picture of innocence. “Now I suppose we’ll never know.”

Lindsay stared at Sophie, frustration incarnate. Then she saw the hint of the smile Sophie was trying to suppress, and she couldn’t keep a rueful smile from her own lips. She shook her head. “I may have mentioned this before, Sophie, but sometimes you really piss me off.”

V. L. McDermid

V. L. McDermid