The Murder Exchange by Simon Kernick

Especially if the coppers manage to
trace the blood on the back seat of my car back
to Fowler. If that gets public then I'm going to be on
the Holtzes' hitlist, aren't I? As well as everyone
else's.'
    We didn't speak for a few moments. She sat
there, watching me now, puffing on her cigarette. It
was difficult to tell what she was thinking behind
the dark eyes.
    'I feel partly responsible for what happened/ she
said eventually. I didn't bother telling her that she
was partly responsible. At that moment I needed all
the friends I could get. 'You can stay here for a
couple of days if you want, until things die down/
    Thanks/ I said, 'I appreciate it.'
    'Do you want a drink? A proper one?'
    'Yeah, I think I need one. What have you got?'
    'Most things. What do you want?'
    'A brandy, please. And a beer, too, if that's all
right.' I thought that I might as well take advantage
of the hospitality on offer, not sure how long it was
going to be lasting. She didn't look like she'd taken
offence and smiled as she got up and kicked off her
shoes. Her toenails were painted a bright red,
which they always say is a sign of passion. I began
to stop thinking about my current woes and instead
    98
concentrated on more immediate possibilities.
    She went into the kitchen to make up the drinks
and I took my shoe off and casually followed her in.
'You're looking really good, you know/ I said,
thinking that I was going to have to buy a book on
chat-up lines or at least put more thought into
them. The thing is, I've always been a man who
preferred the more direct approach. If I thought I
vets in with a chance - and to be honest with you,
I reckoned Elaine owed me one - I tended to go
straight in for the kill.
    Thanks/ she said, pouring the brandies. 'You're
not looking so bad yourself. You seem to have
improved with age.' She gave me a quick onceover,
like she was checking out a dress. 'You've
uuiked out as well. It suits you. You were always a
bit too skinny in school.'
    Cheeky mare.
    I took the brandy with one hand and moved the
other round towards her shapely rear, thinking that
I was taking a bit of a risk here, since she didn't
seem like the sort of person who'd suffer unwanted
attentions in silence, and if she kicked me out I
really was bolloxed because I had pretty much
nowhere else to go. But as the hand made contact,
and I gave the left cheek a gentle stroke, she shot
me a look that said that after all the fucking
mishaps of the day - and by God there'd been a few
- I'd finally struck gold. Our lips met Mills and
Boon style and her fingers crept up my inner thigh.
    Not everything had changed since school, then.
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Saturday, fifteen days ago
    Gallan
    'Do you ever stop work, Sarge?' asked Benin,
nursing his black coffee. Turning up at the Arcadia
on your tod at half eleven at night, getting involved
in a scuffle, and then coming to work next morning.
That's the sort of thing you're meant to do when
you're like eighteen, isn't it?'
    'I was trying to recapture the fading spirit of
youth. I won't be trying again for a while.'
    'So, did you get anything else from Elaine Toms?'
    'Nothing of any use. She said she hadn't heard a
word from Fowler, and she claimed she didn't
know who Max Iversson was.'
    'Do you believe her?'
    I shrugged. 'I don't know. I didn't see him with
her so she could be telling the truth. There just
seemed something a bit coincidental about it.'
    It was nine o'clock on Saturday morning and
Benin and I were the only people in the Matthews
incident room. I hadn't left the club until quarter to
one and I was tired. However, I didn't look as bad
    100
as Benin, who was carrying a mean hangover, and
vvhose breath smelled of long-dead fish. About the
only thing he'd got remotely enthusiastic about in
the ten minutes since we'd got in was the altercation
I'd had with Iversson. He'd found it
particularly amusing that the ex-para had chucked
someone at me while they'd still been taking a leak.
'Simple but very effective, I should think,'