The Careless Word (#8 - The Craig Crime Series) by Catriona King

thoughtfully. “Unless your husband refused to pay them?”
    It was Sadie’s turn to shake her head. “Jules wouldn’t have done that. He loved the shop and he’d got over being angry about the extortion years ago. No, he paid them and I don’t think they destroyed the shop, but I‘ll give you their names and perhaps you can stop them doing it to others.”
    “So if it wasn’t the protection racket, why else? You said someone wanted you out of the shop?”
    Sadie nodded. “Not just us, all the shops on that row.”
    “Developers?”
    “You’ve got it in one. So called progress.”
    She waved a hand around and Liam realised that she was indicating Smithfield, not the room they were in. “Belfast is starting to grow again, now that we’re almost out of the recession. That means that a lot of apartment developments that had stalled for years are restarting and others are being planned. Jules was offered a lot of money to sell the shop.”
    Liam nodded. It was a fair assessment of what happened once money started to flow. “Who’s the developer?”
    “A company called SNI. They first approached Jules last summer. They made him a fair offer but he said no. We thought that was the end of it, then the two shops beside us were sold one after another. That only left us at one end of the terrace and the convenience store at the other. We heard last weekend that they were leaving as well.”
    “That only left your bookshop in the developer’s way.”
    Sadie nodded and bit into a scone. “They want to build new apartments. A ‘boutique’ development they call it. Apartments, a gym, swimming pool; the whole shebang.” Her face fell and for a moment Liam thought she was going to cry. “They’ll get their way now that the shop has gone.”
    Liam nodded kindly but he was thinking of other things. In one conversation Sadie Robinson had added three potential motives and suspects to their list; SNI the developers, the extortionists and someone who might have wanted Jules Robinson dead because of his past life in the RUC. The case was beginning to look unsolvable before the wedding. Liam parked his doubts and focused, gazing across the table at the woman whose life he knew had just been destroyed, no matter how brave she was trying to be about it. He spoke in the softest voice that he possessed.
    “Do you have any family, Mrs Robinson?”
    Sadie Robinson shook her head sadly and then sighed. “We had no children. God didn’t bless us that way. I have a sister in England, but…”
    Liam cut in. “I think you should go and stay with her for a while, at least until we get this sorted out.”
    Sadie’s brown eyes widened. “You do? You think that I might be at risk?”
    Liam shook his head. “It’s unlikely, but until we’re certain who did this, I’d rather that you were safe.”
    She smiled, pleased that someone cared. She patted Liam on the cheek as if he was her son. “I’ll do it, Mr Cullen, if you promise me one thing.”
    “What?”
    “That you’ll come and take tea with me another day.”
    Liam nodded. Not out of politeness and not to make her go to her sisters, but because he meant it. Sadie Robinson had just made a new friend.

Chapter Eight
     
    The Lab. 1 p.m.
     
    John was in his outer office arranging his newly reinstated cabinets when Craig arrived, and from the prints and paintings leaning against the wall Craig knew what his next task was going to be. He stood in the doorway and considered his best friend for a moment. John looked happy, happier than Craig had seen him in… well, ever really.
    John had been a solitary only child when they’d met at grammar school; small and thin for his age and wearing glasses. He hadn’t exactly been bullied but he’d spent every lunchtime alone, reading a book or working on experiments in the lab. Everyone had thought he was doing it to suck up to the teachers but the years had proved them very wrong. What had started as childhood curiosity had become