G03 - Resolution by Denise Mina Page A

He was sitting forward, watching Siobhain as she looked at the paper, his hands clasped between his knees.
    Siobhain finished reading and looked up at Liam, her face blank, her mouth hanging open.
    “He can’t hurt you,” said Liam quickly, taking his own specs off. “He can’t get anywhere near you. We won’t let him.” He looked to Maureen for confirmation and she nodded.
    “He’s still in prison,” said Maureen, shedding her cheap glasses. “They’re just trying the case.”
    Siobhain raised a hand to her face and took her own glasses off, dropping them onto the settee, her hand hanging limply on her lap. “Will they let him go?” she said quietly.
    “No,” said Liam quickly.
    Siobhain looked at him suspiciously. They didn’t really know what would happen. As far as they knew, Angus Farrell was just as likely to be sent to a chip shop for life, without the possibility of vinegar. Tm not stupid, Liam,” she said softly.
    “We don’t know what’ll happen,” said Maureen, “but we do know that the trial’ll go on for a while and he’ll be in all the papers and we wanted to warn you about it.”
    “He’s in court,” Siobhain said.
    “That’s right,” said Liam, leaning into her. “But he can’t get to ye.”
    Siobhain dismissed him with a look and spoke to Maureen. “He’s in court in Glasgow?”
    “Yeah.”
    Siobhain looked at the picture in the paper and slowly lifted her face to Maureen, tipping her chin and taking a deep breath. “Will he go to prison for what he did to me?”
    Maureen and Liam looked at each other.
    “I don’t think so,” said Maureen. “The paper says it’s just the murders he’s been done for.”
    “Will they ever try him for the other things?”
    Liam shook his head. “We don’t know.”
    Maureen knew the police had tried to be kind when they questioned Siobhain. She wouldn’t survive a court case. Maureen sat forward a little. “Siobhain,” she said, reasoning that an outright lie was the kindest course of action, “he’s being tried for murder and the police don’t think he’ll get off. He’s just being tried for the murder.”
    They fell silent and watched Montel on the giant television. It was the only expensive thing in Siobhain’s house: everything else had been provided by Social Services when she came out of hospital. Douglas had given Siobhain money too, a fat roll of cash that Elsbeth didn’t know anything about.
    Montel was trying to coax the woman to speak through her tears by telling her something about his military experience. The woman had been accused of insurance fraud and was facing twenty years in jail.
    “She is going down,” said Siobhain, and dropped the paper to the floor.
    Out in the street, two gangs of tired ten-year-olds were fighting about a football. A mum hung out of a window, calling someone in for bed and telling them to learn to fucking behave, for fuck’s sake. Liam tugged the hood up on the car and slapped open a rusted hinge. “She’s terrified,” he muttered, glancing up at the window.
    “She seems okay to me,” said Maureen. “I’ve seen her terrified. She freezes and cries and throws up.”
    “Maureen,” he said, authoritatively, as if he were the only person who had ever met Siobhain, “you don’t know what she’s feeling.”
    “Well, you don’t know either. All you’ve got to go on is what she says.”
    He snorted and walked around the car to tackle the roof on the passenger side. “I think I know Siobhain,” he said prissily.
    “Aye, better than she does?”
    Liam didn’t answer but pulled up the hood of the car, blocking the sun from her face. Maureen sat in the shadow, waiting patiently as he clipped the hood to the windscreen. She saw him turn and look up to Siobhain’s window, hoping for a final glimpse. She wouldn’t be standing there, Maureen knew she wouldn’t, not while Montel was on. He climbed in next to her and shut his door, pulling out the choke. “Liam, do you fancy