Kiss Her Goodbye by Allan Guthrie

glove compartment."
    "Ah," Joe said. "Convenient. Ronald, at no point did I write down my flight number. Can't they check the handwriting?"
    "I'm sure they will, but it won't prove anything. Somebody else may have written down the details, but you were undeniably on the plane."
    Neither man spoke for a while. Eventually the lawyer broke the silence. "Can you tell me something?"
    "What do you want to know?"
    "Did you have an argument with your wife?"
    "Do you argue with your wife?"
    "I'm not married. Did you often argue?"
    "Yeah."
    "Did you love your wife, Mr. Hope?"
    "I hated the bitch." Joe twisted his wedding ring a fraction. He tugged it towards his knuckle. No way was it ever coming off. "But last time I checked, that wasn't against the law."
    "You want to tell me why you hated her?"
    "None of your business."
    "I'm not asking out of idle curiosity. It might help your defense."
    "Tough." Joe crossed his arms.
    Ronald Brewer shoved his bundle of papers back in the briefcase. He coughed. He removed a notebook from the briefcase and unclipped a biro from his breast pocket. "I spoke to Mr. Cooper earlier this morning. He said to tell you that Tina had agreed to back up your story."
    "What story?"
    "What game are we playing here, Mr. Hope?" Brewer leaned forward and whispered, "Nobody's listening, you know." He leaned back. "This is between us. Is there something you want to tell me?"
    "I asked you a question," Joe said. "What story?"
    "That on the night of your wife's death, you were at your prostitute friend's flat all night. She's prepared to state that you didn't leave her bed until the morning. After your wife was murdered."
    Joe's eyes widened. What the fuck was this? He was at Cooper's the night Ruth was killed. Okay, he was at Tina's earlier in the evening, but he left, went home for a while and had a cup thrown at him by a very much alive Ruth, then went on to Cooper's where he stayed the night. "Yeah?"
    "It's an alibi, Mr. Hope."
    "I can see that."
    "Your alibi. Your beautiful, watertight alibi. The police are interviewing Tina as we speak." Ronald Brewer made a few marks on his notepad. "You know," he said, "I can't help wondering why an innocent man would need to fabricate an alibi."
    Joe wasn't sure either. Cooper had obviously arranged it with Tina. Maybe Cooper had thought, being Joe's best friend, he wouldn't make such a convincing witness. Tina, on the other hand, had no such emotional attachment. Why would she lie? But would a jury see it like that? "What makes you so sure I wasn't there all night?"
    "Like I said, your neighbors heard you arguing."
    "Couldn't have been me. Maybe it was the TV."
    Behind the lawyer, the door opened. The policeman who'd vanished what seemed like hours ago to fetch coffee reappeared with a single white plastic cup. Obviously, he'd delivered Monkman's first. Bastard.
    Joe said, "What took you?"
    The policeman didn't reply. He set the cup down next to Joe's right hand, acknowledged Ronald Brewer with the tiniest elevation of his eyebrows, turned and left the room.
    Joe picked up the cup. Instant crap. From a machine. Freckles of undissolved granules floated on the surface. Despite Groves' assurances to the contrary, he wondered if Monkman had spat in it. "Don't suppose you have a spoon on you?" he asked the lawyer.
    "Are you going to talk to me or am I wasting my time?"
    Joe took a sip. Scalding. He smacked his burned lips together. They tasted of chicory. Like his grandmother's Mellow Birds. "I don't know what you mean." Joe had to make a decision. It wasn't hard. He asked himself who he trusted and immediately put himself in Cooper's hands. "I was at Tina's all night. That's all there is to it."
    "What about the neighbors who heard you having a row?"
    "They're mistaken." Maybe that's what Cooper was trying to cover up. "If it wasn't the TV they overheard, then maybe Ruth was arguing with her killer. How should I know? I wasn't there."
    "Why did Mr. Cooper insist I pass on the