Every Second Counts

Chapter Thirty

REUBEN HAS CHARISMA. Not for the likes of me, but his smile turns his rugged face into boyish charm. From what I have gleaned from Maggie her life has been a chess board of disappointments and false hope which seems to have stemmed from the time her kid was killed. And then along came Reuben, she would have been putty in his hands. A much needed knight in shining armour.

'Thank you for coming.'

'Not sure what you expect me to do,' he says.

'I want to hire you to find out who killed my parents and why.'

'And once you know, what are you going to do about it?'

'Tell the authorities of course,' I answer.

'The thing is, I have to be kept out of it. Once you get your information you cannot tell anyone I was involved. You understand?'

'Surely if you crack the case, it'll give you Kudos? Your old Department will want you back.'

His shoulders stiffen and his boyish expression vanishes as he flicks a wary eye over my solemn features. 'Why'd you say that?'

I gulp. Now what do I do? 'Sorry, just assumed there was bad blood, you know, you're not that old so I'm guessing you haven't left the Force to retire.' Houston takes a long sip of his beer. 'And it's good for me. I'd much prefer a Detective who doesn't have to cow-tow with the police department.'

'Is that so? Sounds to me you've got some stuff you want to keep to yourself. Just what is it, Miss Morisot?' He lowers his head and stretches his neck forward toward me. I take a nervous breath and meet his eyes. I sure hope he can't see the secrets behind them.

'I don't have any secrets. But, if you agree to work for me you'll be freelancing so I can get info straight from you and not have to go through a lot of channels and police procedures. I need to know what's happening every step of the investigation.'

'Right, well first of all, my fee. This could take a while, you understand. If my ex colleagues haven't got far and your parents were actually Russian it makes the investigation quite complex. I may need to take a trip to Russia myself. So, for starters it'll be £10,000 up front and another £10,000 when you find the killers plus expenses if I have to trip around.'

I nod. 'Fine.'

'So, you don't want me to do anything about them? Like whack them? Because if you do, you need to double the stakes.'

I consider. To have this guy whacking them would be like a dream come true. But then I realise what this man is really asking and if he's still working for the police department as an undercover cop, this could all be one hell of a set up. Entrapment. And within a minute he'd cuff me, tell me he has taped everything and I'd be up for premeditated murder by proxy. I congratulate myself on sussing out a potential trap.

'No, of course not. As I said, I want to know who they are, why they did it and I'll pass the info onto the police and I won't involve you at all.'

'Right, then. So I can understand everything that's been going on in your little world, you need to start telling me a bit about your parents. Their lives so I can build up a picture to figure what threats they could have had.'

'I'm sure you already googled them last night and discovered they were very rich. I knew of their wealth, but nothing other than being part of a normal family until they were murdered. Since then, I discovered they were Russian. They arrived in England over thirty years ago, assumed new names, had me and lived a normal life.'

'Go on,' he tells me.

'I think I have a sister. Her name is Anya Sashenka CTEllAHKOB,' which is translated to Stepankova.