‘You think that’s the way to sort this out?’ she yelled back at him. ‘Coming round here off your tits and calling me names?’
‘What the fuck is this all about?’ he demanded, all injured innocence.
‘It’s about you sticking your dick where it doesn’t belong. I’m through with it. I thought becoming a dad had changed your ways, but that’s not what I’m hearing. You dirty bastard. Shagging that cow Toffany then coming home to me? Now I’m going to have to get tested for every bloody sexually transmitted lurgy under the sun. You are a complete and utter prick.’
Joshu kept trying to get a word in, but it wasn’t happening. Scarlett was off and running and she wasn’t giving him a chance to change her mind. ‘I packed up your stuff and now you can sling your hook. I’m not having you back here – I want a divorce. I want nothing to do with your skanky arse ever again.’
‘You can’t do this,’ he finally howled when she paused for breath.
‘I already have, dickhead.’
They glared at each other. ‘It’s a lie, what Toffany said,’ he tried.
‘You are pitiful,’ Scarlett countered. ‘You think I’m going to fall for the oldest line in the book? You think I’m stupid?’
‘You can’t throw me out. What about the boy? I’m his dad.’
‘His dad? You can barely bring yourself to call him by his name because you didn’t get to choose it. You think I haven’t noticed how he’s always, “my boy” or “the kid” or “junior”? His name’s Jimmy, dickhead. And he won’t even notice you’ve gone. He misses Steph if she’s not around for a few days. Or Leanne. But he doesn’t ever miss you.’
‘Oh yeah, he misses Steph.’ His lip curled in a sneer, his voice mocking her. ‘Your fucking lezza girlfriend Steph.’
My mouth fell open. It did. Literally. I couldn’t have been more taken aback.
Scarlett roared with laughter. ‘You are so pathetic and so predictable. You’re all the bloody same. The only possible reason there could be for us not fancying a he-man like you is that we’re big old lezzas. That’s what you have to tell yourself, because you can’t face the truth. Well, here’s the truth, little big man. I don’t fancy you because you’re always drunk, or fucked up on drugs, or you stink of sweat and fags. It’s because you’re disgusting that I don’t fancy you, not because you’re a man. It’s because you’re not enough of a man, as it happens.’
His eyes widened in hurt. She’d got through his addled state and scored a bull’s eye on his self-esteem. ‘But I love you,’ he said, his pitch cracking like a teenage boy.
‘And I don’t love you.’ Scarlett spoke in a low, choked voice. ‘You killed it, Joshu. You killed it.’
‘You can’t do this, Scarlett.’ Now his eyes were wet. I almost felt sorry for him, then I remembered how much I disliked him.
‘I have to. Being with you, it’s one big recipe for misery. And I won’t put Jimmy through that. He’s better without a dad than stuck with a deadbeat like you.’
He gripped the top of the gate. ‘You bitch. You think you can lay down the law to me? You’ve got another think coming.’ It was striking how, under stress, the affectation of street speak had fallen away, leaving Joshu sounding exactly what he was – a well-educated middle-class lad.
‘You don’t scare me, Joshu. I’m not the same woman who fell in love with you.’
Now it was his turn for scorn. ‘Listen to you. You’ve got no idea. You need to remember who knows your secrets. How do you think your precious fans will like it when they find out you’ve been taking them for a ride this past year? You and your airhead cousin – you won’t last five minutes when I tell my story.’
From where I was standing, I could see Scarlett stiffen. For a moment, I thought he’d trumped her ace. But yet again, I’d misjudged her. She took a couple of steps closer to the gate and tipped her head back to look Joshu in the face. ‘You think? It’s me the public loves, not you. They’ll totally get that I had to deal with your scumbag behaviour. You’ll be the one who gets savaged for being a pig. And don’t forget, your hands are as dirty as mine. You’re the one who’s been touting Leanne all round town as your missus. Either you were in on the whole thing, in which case you’re as bad as me. Or you’re too fucking dim to know the woman you’re out on the razz with isn’t your wife. So don’t you dare threaten me, you worthless piece of shit.’
He tried to launch himself at her over the gate. But the sloping bonnet of the Transit was too much for him and he slid out of sight, swearing. There was a clatter and a crash and a yelp then more swearing. ‘I’m not done with you, bitch,’ he yelled from the other side of the gate. The van door slammed, the engine raced and the tyres screamed on the road. Within seconds, the usual early morning sounds of birdsong and the distant hum of traffic were the only soundtrack.
Scarlett kicked out savagely at the gate. ‘Bastard,’ she spat. She turned back to face us and gave a crooked smile. ‘First blood to the bimbo, I think.’
First blood, but not the last.
22
The first thing Detective Sergeant Nick Nicolaides did when he got to his car was to make a list. He liked lists. They almost made him believe the world was tractable.
Talk to Charlie
Track down Pete Matthews
Check whether Megan the Stalker is still under lock and key
Double check Scarlett’s mum and sister are where they should be
Is Leanne still in Spain? Ask Steph about her relationship with Jimmy
Check out Joshu’s family
The first item on the list was the one he didn’t want to do from the office. Dr Charlie Flint was a psychiatrist and former offender profiler who had only recently been reinstated after a controversial suspension. The whole process had turned Charlie into a pariah as far as the police were concerned. Which was why he didn’t want to make the call where Broad bent could overhear it. But Nick and Charlie went back a long way. Back when he’d been studying psychology at university and running a lucrative drug-dealing business on the side, Charlie had stepped in and given him a harsh ultimatum. Stop it or she would shop him to the police. Her intervention had saved Nick from his adolescent arrogance and he knew he owed this life he loved to her. ‘It’s not that I liked you,’ she had later told him. ‘I just hated to see a good mind wasted.’
She’d been teasing him, of course. In spite of – or perhaps because of – his complicated past, they’d become friends. Not that he was short of friends. Few of them were cops, but there were plenty of musicians, both professional and amateur. But Charlie was the only person in his circle these days who knew how close he’d come to a very different life from the one he lived now. When things got tough, it made a difference to have someone completely trustworthy in his corner. And this was exactly the kind of case where Charlie might have useful insights.
As he summoned her number and waited for it to connect, he admitted to himself that he might not have bothered Charlie if this had been a routine case. He was fired up about this because the person sitting in the FBI office freaking out about little Jimmy Higgins was Stephanie.
It had been a couple of years since they’d first met, and he’d been attracted from the beginning. But there hadn’t been any opportunity to make something of it. Besides, he’d always felt awkward about the idea of mixing business and pleasure. His wasn’t a line of work where your first encounters generally provoked happy memories. Cops were there for the bad things in life, and that wasn’t likely to get a relationship off on the right foot. The power balance was all wrong, for starters. He wanted a relationship based on equality, not on him as hero, her as vulnerable damsel in distress.