Free The Last Girl by Jane Casey Page B

her grief. It’s just less intense if there are two of you there to respond. I’ll have time to stand back a bit.’
    ‘And she can make sure you ask everything you should,’ Derwent added.
    ‘It’s not like she has one chance to talk to the girl, Josh. If we need to go back and re-interview her, we will.’ Godley turned to me. ‘For the record, I don’t think you need her to come with you, but I can see your point. One-to-one interviews are never easy, especially when you’re dealing with a vulnerable person.’
    ‘We need to talk about what you want to find out from her,’ Una Burt said. ‘What’s the main thing?’
    ‘What was going on with her sister,’ I suggested.
    ‘I’m more interested in her parents’ relationship problems,’ Derwent said. ‘Divorce is a decent motive for Kennford.’
    Godley looked amused. ‘Still barking up that tree, Josh? See what you can find out, Maeve, but don’t push her too far. She might not want to reveal family secrets at this stage, and her mother is dead, remember. I don’t expect her to say anything negative about their marriage, or her mother, until she gets used to the idea that she’s gone.’
    ‘We obviously need to know what she saw last night,’ Maitland said. ‘If anything.’
    ‘And why she’s not dead. That automatically makes her a suspect in my book.’
    Godley’s mouth twitched. ‘Brutal as ever, Josh. And still you’re surprised I don’t want you going along to meet her. But you’re right, we need to know if she was left out deliberately or if she was just out of the way at the right time.’
    ‘Or whether she was supposed to die in Laura’s place.’ Una looked around the table, blinking behind her thick glasses.
    ‘I’m not following.’ It must have cost Derwent quite a lot to admit that, I thought. He certainly said it through gritted teeth.
    ‘They were identical, weren’t they? And Laura wasn’t supposed to be there.’ She shrugged. ‘We can’t be sure Lydia wasn’t the target all along.’
    Derwent was on my heels as we left the room after the meeting, leaning in close so no one else could hear him.
    ‘Well done. Thanks for getting rid of me.’
    ‘It wasn’t deliberate.’
    ‘Bullshit. I know payback when I see it. You were pissed off about having to search the house properly last night and you got your revenge by making me look like a tit in front of everyone.’
    ‘If you looked like a tit in front of everyone it was nothing to do with me.’ I turned around to face him, keeping my voice low and my expression pleasant. ‘I’m not like you. I don’t bother with holding grudges. And if I’d been pissed off about the search last night I’d have said so at the time.’
    ‘The famous Kerrigan temper.’ He leaned against the wall, always just that little bit too close to me for comfort. ‘I’m still waiting to see it.’
    And that’s exactly why I’ll never lose it in front of you
. ‘I’m sorry if you’re disappointed about not interviewing Lydia but it was Superintendent Godley who made that call. And I agreed with you, for what it’s worth. I shouldn’t be seeing her on my own.’
    ‘Yeah, much more fun if your rugmuncher mate comes along for the ride.’
    ‘Talking about me?’ Liv turned around in her chair. Either Derwent hadn’t noticed her sitting near us or he hadn’t cared.
    ‘Must be. You’re the only dyke on the team. As far as we know.’ He turned his head, tracking DCI Burt as she walked through the room with her head down, lost in her thoughts.
    ‘May I ask why I came up in conversation?’ Liv sounded interested rather than offended; she had heard enough remarks about her sexuality to take a bit of slang in her stride, even if it was stridently homophobic. Also, she was one of the most self-possessed people I’d ever known. It would take a lot more than Derwent calling her names to make her lose her cool, I imagined.
    Something – Una Burt, maybe – had made the inspector lose