Free The Broken Shore by Catriona King

Jonno Mulvenna banged up? If we find the answers to those questions then we’ll be halfway there.”
    Liam tapped his chin thoughtfully with his pen. “Of course there are two other things to consider.”
    “What?”
    “If it is the same killer then why not kill for over thirty years?”
    “Yes, and?”
    “If it’s a straight copycat, then why no beating this time? And you’re definite Lissy wasn’t raped, aren’t you Doc?”
    “Yes. Positive.”
    “OK, then why copy the strangulation and burial, but not the beating and possible rape, if it’s the same man? And if it’s not the same man then why just copy the most dramatic bits?”
    Of course…
    “To ensure the crime caught our attention.”
    “And the media’s, boss.”
    “The fact that it’s Lissy Trainor would catch the force’s attention at the highest level too, Marc.”
    “And ACC Trainor’s in particular.”
    Craig nodded thoughtfully. Liam was right, there were dimensions to this case way beyond the obvious. He smiled at the newly minted D.C.I. and tipped him a small salute.
    “Well done, Liam. Now everyone knows how you passed the board.”
    Liam blushed faintly and covered his embarrassment with a deep gulp of tea.
    “OK. That leaves us with a lot of interviews. John, dig as deep as you can on the forensics on both cases.”
    “Even if it means exhuming Ronni Jarvis’ body?”
    Craig winced then nodded. It might have to be done.
    “Andy, you and I are going to pay Mr Mulvenna a visit. I need to speak to the Chief Constable at some point as well. I don’t think Melanie Trainor will talk to us, unless she’s instructed to.”
    “That’s interesting, hey. You’d think she’d be desperate to find out who killed her daughter.”
    “Yes, you would. But remember the Jarvis case was hers and she can’t have missed the similarities. She may not want anyone digging around too much.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Tough. We’ll do what we have to do.” He turned to Liam. “Liam, chase up those interviews and ask Davy to find out anything he can about Ronni Jarvis’ life and if there were any other viable suspects on the case. If there were, then who had a vested interest in keeping them out of the nick?”
    He beckoned over the waitress but instead of asking for the bill as expected he ordered them all another round of drinks and scones.
    “This is going to be a long day. We need coffee and fortification before we start.” He scanned their pale faces. “And more than one of us needs our blood-alcohol to drop before we go anywhere near the street.”

Chapter Nine
     
    Annette put down the phone to Davy and glanced at the file. It was Sunday and even though she was on duty, making the phone calls about Lucia’s case from home seemed more appropriate somehow. This wasn’t a murder, and going behind Craig’s back was one thing, going behind it in full view of his glass office, even when he wasn’t in there, felt like quite another.
    Davy was on board to help Lucia, and Nicky too. She’d felt bad about asking them but she’d explained Lucia’s reasons for by-passing Craig under the heading of ‘over-protective big brother’ leaving out all mention of the assault when Craig was seventeen. That was Lucia’s business. They’d been eager to help and Davy had started tracing the texts and letters already. Meanwhile Lucia had kept her part of the deal, telling her parents a small white lie and moving back home. The unmarked patrols would keep an eye on her apartment for a few days and report back. Now she just had to come up with a list of possible suspects and they could start to eliminate them one by one.
    A cup of hot tea was placed in her hand, breaking into her thoughts. She looked up at her benefactor and smiled. Pete was making a real effort nowadays; he had been since they’d had their traumatic almost-split five months before. The jury was still out on whether they could make their marriage work, but he was trying hard and