The Major Crimes Team - Vol 1: Lines of Enquiry
Page 11
‘You happy?’
Campbell shook his head and started to speak the formal words of arrest.
When Marie was taken away, he stood in the centre of the room and looked around with sadness and understanding. It was little wonder Marie had sought attention and turned to selling drugs as a way to try and escape this life.
* * * *
Anderson pushed her way through the crowd and placed another pint and a whisky chaser in front of Campbell. Changed from her usual attire of business suit into a skirt and top, with her hair freed of its usual ponytail into a carefree wave she looked totally different.
Campbell had always been aware she was pretty, but seeing her tonight he realised she had made the transformation from caterpillar into butterfly. The rest of the team would forever see her in a new light.
Jokes and war stories littered the air as the team gave Campbell the traditional boozy send off.
The afternoon had been spent extracting a formal confession from Osbourne and attempting to coerce Marie Mason into giving up the name of her supplier. Their fifty percent success rate was about normal. A canny old bird like Marie knew she had more to fear from her supplier than she did from the judge.
‘What do you reckon to her but?’
Campbell turned to face DS McKay, his response already guarded. ‘She’s a good detective. ‘I’ll bet she’ll be sitting her Sergeant’s exams in a year.’
‘I know all that. I’m on about how hot she looks all of a sudden but.’
McKay’s use of the word ‘but’ as an end to ever sentence was a local trait which Campbell had worked hard to rid from his own voice, it grated on him when he heard it from fellow officers.
The lecherous intention fuelling McKay’s comments about a junior officer’s appearance didn’t sit well with him.
Resisting the urge to tell McKay where to get off, he looked him in the eye. ‘And your point is?’
‘Come on big man, you know the score. She’s never been seen in owt but a suit before and suddenly at your leaving party she’s dolled up to the nines. She’s after someone, and I reckon it’s you but.’
‘The drink’s addled your brain. I’m a married man and she’ll never see me again.’
McKay’s laugh echoed round the crowded bar. ‘You’re the one who’s no’ thinking straight. Tonight’s her last chance for a spot of no strings attached fun with the DI who she follows round like a lost puppy.’
‘Piss off ya numptie.’ Campbell walked away to join a discussion about Celtic’s forthcoming match.
Try as he might, he couldn’t shake McKay’s words from his mind. If the man was right there would be worse fates than a few hours in Anderson’s bed.
Once upon a time he would have tried to snake her as a matter of habit. Now with Sarah carrying a ring on her finger and a baby in her stomach, it was time to play the game and resist temptation. It was one thing risking a short term relationship for a chance encounter, but to risk a marriage and face years of being a weekend dad was too great a gamble.
Strengthened by his decision he laughed and joked with the team as they went from pub to pub. As the night wore on, other faces from the station appeared and some of the earlier starters left, conscious of the fact they were on shift the next day.
Anderson’s continued presence at his elbow made Campbell start to believe McKay’s suggestion. Hearing her say she was leaving was a welcome relief. Now there was no reason to fear a lack of willpower followed by a guilt trip.
When the suggestion of heading to a club was mooted, Campbell ducked out of a side door and clambered into a taxi. When the send off had been organised he’d booked a room in the Premier Inn at Buchanan Galleries. He could sleep the drink off before tackling the drive home. With luck he’d be able to spend a couple of hours with Sarah before attending the briefing on the role he was due to assume next week.
He told the driver where to go and settled into the seat, thinking about his years spent policing Glasgow, the murders, rapes and gang wars more prominent in his memory than the pettier crimes. The victims and their families cascaded through his mind like some kind of photo-fit slideshow.
Climbing out of the taxi, he noticed a familiar face sitting at the bus stop outside the Premier Inn.
‘Hello Guv.’
‘Hi. What you doing here?’
Campbell didn’t need his question answered. There was only one reason DC Hannah Anderson was here.
She stepped forward until she was only a foot away from him, her body language removing the need for speech.
‘I’m here to say goodbye to you.’ As soon as the words left her mouth she pressed her lips against his.
All thoughts of Sarah and the baby she was carrying evacuated Campbell’s mind as she thrust a viperous tongue into his mouth. Feeling his body respond to her close embrace he pulled her tighter against him.
It was Hannah who broke away from the kiss first. Stepping a half pace back, she took his hand in hers and nodded towards the Premier Inn. ‘Let’s move this inside.’
Hands fumbled under clothing as the lift clambered its way upwards. Reaching his room door, Campbell fished in his pockets for the keycard. When he pulled it out he had a flash of premonition and turned to face Hannah.
‘I’m sorry. I really want to do this, but I can’t. I’m married and about to become a father.’
Hannah’s face dropped as she realised his decency had thwarted her plans. When she spoke her voice was touched with more than a tinge of bitterness. ‘Bloody typical. The thing that most attracts me to you is the thing that stops us from being together.’
‘I’m sorry.’ Campbell reached for the door handle, knowing he had to get rid of her before he changed his mind again.
‘Goodnight guv.’
As Hannah turned and made her way towards the lift, Campbell eased the door open and went straight into the ensuite bathroom. Stripping naked he tried to decide between an ardour damping cold shower or a hot one coupled with a spot of self-relief.
Figuring he’d already crossed too far over the line, he twisted the shower controls to blue and prepared himself for the icy water.
A DI Harry Evans Novel
Table of Contents
Home Wreckers
Manhunters
Dealing with the Drugs
Washed Up
Final Days