Lifeless - 5 by Mark Billingham Page B

big company and I tend to pick up on most things that are going on, but there's no way I can be on top of what the people here are up to in their own time. Having said that, there was no-one Jane had a problem with as far as I'm aware. I'm here for people to tel me stuff like that and Jane and I were good mates, you know, so, I think she'd have said something.'
    Hol and placed his coffee cup back on the table. 'I get the impression that Jane was pretty much the life and soul round here. That she liked to enjoy herself.'
    There was a resounding raspberry noise as Bracher shifted on the leather chair. 'I think that's why what happened hit everybody here so hard. It can get a bit dul around here if you're not careful, and since everything went so bloody PC, some people can get a bit touchy if people try to... liven things up.'
    Thorne glanced across as a motorcycle courier came through the revolving doors, took off his helmet and strol ed towards the reception desk.
    'Liven things up?' Hol and said.
    Bracher leaned forward, elbows on knees, fingers intertwined. He had a serious point to make. 'Seventy-five per cent, at least, seventy five per cent of people meet their husbands, wives, or long-term parmers at work. That's a fact. But if you so much as ask a woman out these days, you've got to be careful, you know? You used to be able to have some fun, men and women could wind each other up a bit, but now it's al got a bit po-faced. Nobody real y talks to anybody else now, except for five minutes when they're making a coffee or whatever.
    'Water-cooler time' I think they cal it in America. Anyway, Jane didn't give a toss about any of that. She just enjoyed a laugh, and if people didn't like it, then sod 'em, you know?'
    Thorne watched as the courier pul ed a package from the bag over his shoulder and handed it to one of the girls at the desk. She laughed at something he said...
    'Was there anybody who didn't like it?' Hol and asked d in such a way as to imply that not liking it, whatever it was, would have been utterly stupid.
    'Wel , there's always a couple of arseholes anywhere isn't there? I bet you've got a few on the force haven't you?' Hol and smiled, but only with his mouth. 'Yeah, there was the odd one, you know, couldn't see the joke, but we'd just take the piss. You've got to have a sense of humour haven't you? I mean, we're al fair game at the end of the day...'
    Thorne tuned Bracher out. The courier and the girls on reception were stil flirting. Jane Lovel might have been kil ed by a complete stranger, and she might have been kil ed by someone she knew wel . A third option was that her murderer was someone with whom she was casual y acquainted - someone she saw regularly without ever real y knowing. A courier, a shop assistant, someone she met at the tube station every morning.
    Cal it a couple of thousand suspects...
    'Jane was always up for it, you know? Up for the crack.' Bracher was stil eulogising. 'As far as I know, she got on with almost everybody.'
    Thorne spoke directly to him for the first time, his sarcasm undisguised. 'And, as far as you know, Mr Bracher, did she ever get offwith anybody?'
    Bracher reddened. He picked up a teaspoon and tapped it against the side of the table for a few seconds. 'Look, I'm here to make sure that people can work together. Who they're sleeping with is real y none of my business.'
    'Even if it's someone in the same office? I find that hard to believe.' Bracher's mobile rang and he grabbed for it grateful y. As he murmured into it, he raised his eyebrows at Thorne, an apology for the tiresome interruption. Thorne looked at Hol and. Time to go.
    Bracher shrugged and stood up. 'I'm sorry, but unless there's anything else...'
    As they al shook hands, gathering up jackets and overcoats, the thought crossed Thorne's mind that Bracher had primed a col eague to ring him after ten minutes, giving him an excuse to get away. As he and Hol and pushed their way out through the revolving door,