‘Still.’

Cairns nodded and Chloe left to return just moments later with a decanter of water and two crystal tumblers. Cairns nodded again and the girl left. Narey waited until she had closed the door behind her before she spoke.

‘Thanks for seeing me, Mr Cairns. I realize this is a difficult time for you.’

‘That’s an understatement. Do you have any news on the investigation?’

‘We’re making progress. There’s a couple of definite leads we’re looking at.’

Cairns wasn’t giving much away, no matter how closely she studied him. There was a nervous air about him but that was hardly surprising given the circumstances.

‘What are they?’

‘Well we’ve spoken to some of your wife’s friends to establish a picture of her movements. That’s opened some avenues we’re exploring now.’

She was being deliberately vague, teasing a reaction out of him. His mouth twitched: he was suitably exasperated.

‘And?’

‘Mr Cairns, one of the people we’ve spoken to has suggested that your wife may have been having an affair. Do you know if that is correct?’

He reacted this time okay. His eyes widened, either in shock at what she’d said or that she’d said it. His face darkened and his lip curled in anger.

‘How dare you come here and ask me that at a time like this?’

‘I know this must be upsetting, sir, and I’m sorry for that. But it is something I have to ask. Was Jennifer having an affair?’

Suddenly, Cairns was on his feet and shouting. ‘Who told you that?’

Narey remained calm. ‘Who told me isn’t what’s important. I’d like to establish if it was the case and if you were aware of it.’

‘Don’t fucking tell me what isn’t important.’ Cairns plucked the glass of water from the table and hurled it across the room where it smashed against the Perspex wall. An ugly crack appeared in the black frosted screen and, beyond it, Narey could see shadow figures standing up to see what had happened.

Cairns’ mouth was hanging open, as if he didn’t believe that he’d actually done it. He was shaking with anger or nerves. ‘Get out of my office!’

‘Sit down, please, Mr Cairns.’ She kept her voice as low and as composed as possible.

‘Get out!’

The door opened and Cairns’ partner David McCormack hurried inside looking suitably anxious. He stared at the hairline in the frosting and the shattered glass on the carpeted floor.

‘Douglas? What the hell’s going on? Are you okay?’

Cairns shot him a furious glance, ready to take his anger out on anyone. ‘Yes, I’m okay! I’m just . . . just—’

‘What is all this?’ McCormack waved a hand at the broken glass.

‘I’m asking Mr Cairns some questions relating to his wife’s death.’

He stared at her, as if not making sense of it. ‘Does this really have to be done now? I’d think Douglas has been through enough.’

‘I sympathize with that, Mr McCormack, but I have a job to do. And sometimes, like now, that means asking difficult questions. I’m sure we all want to find out what happened to Mrs Cairns. If you could leave us, please, then I can get on with trying to do that.’

The man looked between Narey and Cairns, clearly unhappy at the situation and unwilling to leave.

‘If you could close the door behind you, please, sir. I won’t keep Mr Cairns any longer than necessary.’

There was a brief stand-off while the two men considered their positions but finally some of the air and defiance went out of Cairns. He nodded at his colleague that it was all right and he should go.

‘Okay.’ McCormack didn’t seem happy at all. ‘But I’ll be outside. Call me if you need me, Douglas. And Detective Inspector, I’d appreciate it if you remembered that Douglas has just lost his wife.’

‘It’s why I’m here, Mr McCormack. You can leave us now.’

The man glared but said nothing. He closed the door and left them alone.

Cairns was dragging his hand through his long, greying hair and looking decidedly agitated. ‘Okay, ask me your question.’

‘Please sit down, Mr Cairns.’

He resisted like a sulky teenager but then parked himself angrily back on the leather sofa.

Narey nodded, satisfied. ‘Was your wife having an affair, Mr Cairns?’

His jaw clenched and he took in a lungful of air. ‘I think so, yes.’

‘How sure are you of that?’

The question made him scowl. ‘I’m not sure. I just . . . I had my suspicions. I want to know who told you that she was. Was it that bitch Carrie Thomson?’

‘I can only repeat what I asked you. It isn’t important who told me. I’m more interested in whether it was true and what you knew of it.’

‘Why don’t you tell me what you’ve been told?’

‘Okay, I will. I am told that your wife had an affair once before. And that she was having an affair at the time she was killed. Does that fit with what you know?’

Cairns gripped the side of the sofa, clawing at the leather with his fingers, and she thought he was going to push to his feet again. He was clearly furious.

‘I told you. I didn’t know. I suspected.’

‘Okay, what made you suspect?’

He huffed irritably. ‘She was out a lot, vague about where she was, dressed up to the nines. She’d be putting her mobile away when I came into the room. There was something different about the way she was acting.’

Narey nodded, making a show of taking it in. ‘The person who told me that Jennifer was having an affair also said that you were aware of it. That you knew.’

‘I already told you—’

‘Okay, if you suspected, was there anyone in particular you suspected your wife was seeing?’

This time he did stand up. ‘This interview is over. You can leave now.’

‘I’d like to ask you a few more questions, Mr Cairns. I’m not—’

‘Get out!’

His shout brought McCormack back into the room at the double. ‘What’s going on? Douglas, are you okay?’

‘No I’m not. This . . . this woman—’

‘Right, I think you should leave. This is harassment. Unless you’ve got some kind of warrant, you need to go now. The man’s wife has just died.’

‘Murdered.’

‘What?’

‘Mr Cairns’ wife has been murdered. I think it’s important that we remember the difference.’

‘Get out! Get out before I throw you out.’

‘I seriously suggest you do not attempt to do that, Mr Cairns. But there’s little to be gained from taking this any further today so I will go. We can take this up another time.’

‘Chloe!’ It was McCormack’s turn to shout. Moments later, the young, black-clad woman reappeared looking quite startled. ‘Chloe, show this lady out, please.’

‘Thank you, Mr McCormack, but I’m no lady. And I can find my own way out. Mr Cairns, I apologize for any distress this has caused you but murder investigations work that way sometimes. And this one isn’t over.’

Chapter 43

Saturday evening

Winter had spent a long, frustrating day chasing sirens but with his mind most definitely elsewhere. None of it had been the sort of thing to get his pulse racing. A break-in at an off-licence, the bruised remains of a mugging and the burned-out shell of a stolen Ford Focus. If the day had had a flavour it would have been vanilla.

The job was beginning to feel like work and he didn’t like it that way. He’d never wanted routine, never been interested in any job that was done by the numbers or meant drowning in bureaucracy. Whether he’d changed or the job had, that’s how it seemed now. Frame a shot, push a button, fill in a form, go home, start again. It wasn’t enough.