Free Garnethill by Denise Mina by Garnethill Page A

helpless and tied to a fucking chair. Nice people don't do that. These are unpleasant, dangerous people. This isn't Taggart. Bad things happen to the good guys."
    "Bad things happen on Taggart "
    "Maureen," he said, "there are very nasty people in the world. You're not like them, you're not fit for them. You've no idea what people are capable of doing to each other, no idea."
    "But how are they going to catch the right person?"
    "Do you think that's what the police are about? Catching the right person?" He ruffled her hair. "You're not fit for these people, Mauri. Just stand back and shut up and you'll be all right."

    On the way back to Benny's Maureen stopped at the cashpoint and took out the last twenty quid from her account. If the bank withdrew her £100 overdraft facility before the end of the month she wouldn't be able to pay her meager mortgage.
    She waited until Benny had gone to bed before she lay down on the settee and did the breathing exercises she had learned in the Northern. They were supposed to help her sleep but each time she started to relax images and phrases from the day flashed in her mind, startling her awake.

Chapter 6
    WINNIE

    Liz was reveling in the drama of it all. The mustachioed policeman had been to the office and questioned her, asking her to sign a statement to the effect that Maureen had not left the office for any longer than five minutes during the previous day. The walk to the house took ten. Maureen had been in the toilet for fifteen minutes but Audrey had spoken to her. Liz said wasn't it lucky Audrey was a chain-smoker.
    Maureen looked up a couple of times during the day and caught Liz staring at her with undisguised awe. She asked three times about going to the police station. Maureen didn't want to talk about it. She had woken up on Benny's settee with trembling hands, a throbbing headache and a terrible sense that the worst of it wasn't over. It felt like her night terrors. She wanted to be at work, pretending it was a normal day, but Liz was desperate to be part of the show. "I think friends should trust each other," she said, over lunch.
    "I need a piss," said Maureen, excusing herself as only a lady could.
    Mr. Scobie seemed more traumatized about it than either of them.
    When Maureen went off to hide in the toilet during the morning she saw him walking toward her down the corridor. He looked panic-stricken and ducked into a cloakroom to avoid running into her. She thought about going after him, just for badness' sake, but decided against it.
    In the afternoon he shuffled nervously into the ticket office, keeping his back close to the wall, and handed them their wages. Maureen had a tax rebate in hers and the brown envelope held £150 in tens and twenties. "I'm sorry to hear about your trouble, dear," said Mr. Scobie.
    "Thank you, Mr. Scobie."
    "Will you be taking any more days off?" His voice cracked mid-sentence. "Or can I leave the shifts as they are?"
    "You can leave them as they are." fine.
    He scuttled back out. Liz sniggered when she was sure he was out of earshot.

    Winnie phoned late in the afternoon. "Please come and see me," she said. "Please do. Just to make me feel better because I'm worried about you."
    Maureen agreed to come over after work.
    "Now, promise me, you won't get a bus or anything, just get into a taxi and come here and I'll pay it at the other end."
    "You don't need to do that. I can pay it."
    "I insist," said Winnie. She sounded stone-cold sober.
    Maureen didn't want to go. Sober Winnie was almost as much work as Very Drunk Winnie and Very Drunk Winnie was a lot of work. She was angry and vindictive, shouting carefully personalized abuse at whoever happened to be in front of her, casting up any failure or humiliation, however petty, always going straight for the jugular. It was her special talent, she could find anyone's tender spot within minutes. Sober Winnie was an emotional leech, demanding affection and reassurance, bullying them with her limitless