Free Fireflies by David Menon Page A

me and our Lewis mad with his social life. He’s always got to be here, there and everywhere. He’s going to spend this weekend too with Lillie Mae’s parents. They’ve got family over from Hong Kong and they want to show him off’.
    ‘You won’t know what to do with yourself’.
    ‘You’re right’ said Jeff, quietly. ‘Although it depends on how this case builds. I’ll probably sleep my way through much of it to be honest because I’m knackered’.
    ‘That’s no life for someone in their mid thirties, Jeff’.
    ‘Maybe not’ said Jeff. ‘But it’s the life I’m in and I’ve got to make the best of it for Toby’s sake. He’s got to grow up as happy as he can be without his Mum around’.
    ‘You wouldn’t be selfish if you thought about what you needed once in a while’.
    ‘Well this is just my way of dealing with things at the moment, Becky. I didn’t expect to lose my wife when we’d only been married four years and had a beautiful baby boy. We’d have probably had more children and it isn’t fair but then life isn’t and we come across that all the time in our job’.
    ‘I just don’t want you to deny yourself the chance to be happy if that chance came along’.
    ‘Don’t worry about me, Becky’ said Jeff. ‘But I do have to be careful about who I let into my life in future. I come as a package with the best little boy in the world. Any woman is going to have to accept that’.
    ‘But Jeff, a woman who’s worthwhile will fall in love with you the man first, not you the father. Only then will she be able to give her best to the both of you’.
    Jeff paused for a moment. Becky made a lot of sense with what she was saying but he couldn’t even contemplate being with another woman yet. He had been thinking that his carnal needs were beginning to open the door on his reluctance to get involved with someone again. But in fact all it had done was tell him that he was missing sex and he wasn’t the sort of man who could treat a woman like a prostitute. It wasn’t only women who thought that the best sex came out of genuine and mutual feelings between two people.
    ‘Anyway, what about you? You haven’t been seeing anybody for a while. Anybody on the horizon?’
    ‘Jonathan Freeman asked me out the other day’.
    ‘I thought you two were getting along rather well’ said Jeff who’d also noted a spot of tension between Freeman and Ollie Wright. He didn’t know what it was about but he wasn’t going to mention it to Rebecca if she had romantic inclinations towards Freeman. ‘You should go for it’.
    ‘I should?’
    ‘Well he’s fit, good-looking, and even he laughs at my jokes. Yeah, go for it. Life is short. Trust me, I know’. 
     
    ‘This is not a formal interview, Andrea’ said Rebecca as the three of them sat in the manager Paula Jones’ office. ‘We’re just checking up on some enquiries with regard to your friend Tina Webb?’ We understand that she’s one of your best friends?
    ‘Yes she is’ Andrea confirmed, proudly. ‘But I’ve already made a statement’.
    ‘And we’re just following that up’.
    Andrea was incredulous. ‘Oh please don’t tell me you really think Tina murdered James Clifton?’
    ‘Well why do you think that assumption would be wrong?’ asked Jeff.
    ‘Because she couldn’t kill anybody’ Andrea insisted. ‘It’s barmy’.
    ‘What is she like?’ asked Rebecca.
    ‘Tina? Well she’s kind, she’s loyal and she’s funny. I confide everything about my life in Tina because I trust her’.
    ‘And is she like that with all of her friends?’
    ‘Well I can’t imagine why she wouldn’t be because she’s just like that’.
    ‘Would anyone seek to repay that loyalty by lying for her?’
    ‘Hey now just a minute’ said Andrea. ‘Don’t you try and put words in my mouth to give you the answer you want’.
    ‘I was merely asking you a direct and straightforward question, Andrea’.
    ‘Rubbish. You were trying to get me to say