Doppelganger
for herself as a BIA, and
had had some speculator successes with a police force in Lancashire. Millicent
was very short, with jet black short hair and self consciously casual clothing:
jeans and a sweatshirt, bangle bracelet dangling from her wrist. I’ve come to
the conclusion that she might once have had an attractive face, but that years
of frowning had etched the lines of gloom around her mouth. And sometimes, very
occasionally when the light’s just so, I’m sure I can see a faint line of
moustache on her upper lip.
    “How are you Millie?”
    “My name’s Millicent, and you
know it.”
    “I forgot.”
    “Like you forgot that once you
were a reputable BIA, before you sold out to write those crappy books. You’d
better clear off, Jack, you’re not welcome here. You’ve made it clear what your
attitude is to the police. You’re either with us or against us.”
    “Who’s us? You and your pals in
the dirty old caravan?”
    She shrugged. “I have loyalty.
I’d never write anything defamatory about a retired police officer.”
    I turned to look at the figure
striding towards us, who’d just come out of the caravan. DCI Fulford looked
even more angry than the last time I’d seen him.
    “Dr Lockwood was snooping,”
Millicent Veitch said, smirking as she turned towards the newcomer. “I was just
about to ask someone to escort him away.”
    “My God, you’ve got some nerve!”
The Scottish DCI glared at me for a moment, twisting his lips into that
trademark scowl. “Millicent worked with you on a case once. She’s been keeping
us amused about it.”
    I thought back to the one time
I’d worked with Dr Millicent Veitch for another force. A case of domestic
abuse, where Millicent had argued forcibly that the estranged  husband of the
murdered woman had ticked all the psychological boxes as her killer. I’d argued
that he’d been innocent, but no one had listened to me, and the husband, Damon
Allbright, had been sent down for 16 years, thanks to incriminating evidence
belatedly found at his flat. A month afterwards he was freed when it was
discovered that the evidence had been planted by the actual killer, who’d
killed himself and left an explanatory note. That, of course, was the nub of
our antipathy: Millicent was one of those people who’ll always hate you if
you’re right about something. But our animosity was based on more than that.
Our professional disagreement cloaked a more primeval feeling of friction
between us that I had never really understood myself.
    “I don’t want to see you anywhere
near here, ever again , Dr Lockwood.” Fulford said.
    “You don’t have jurisdiction over
a car park, Chief Inspector.”
    “Don’t get clever with me, I’ve
got your measure, laddie! Come along to try and get some gossip have ye?”
    “I was hoping–”
    “Aye, I know what you were hoping
for, to get a glimpse inside the Incident Room. If you don’t leave this minute,
you’ll be arrested, and if I ever see you hanging around here again, the same
applies.”
    As I left, I thought I noticed
Fulford’s hand glide surreptitiously along Millie’s arm, and she responded by
moving a little closer to the senior officer.
    I had a beer in the Queen’s Arms
on the way home. It was around lunchtime, and I knew Dave Parsons often popped
in. My hunch paid off.
    “Fuck off Jack, do you want to
get me sacked?” Dave said when he saw me, looking round furtively to check no
one was watching.
    “No one’s going to know, Dave.
Maybe I can help the investigation?”
    “How?”
    I shrugged. “I’m a BIA, remember,
and if your assessment of the Veitch woman matches mine – that she’s a
head-in-the-clouds academic with no real crime hunter’s instinct, maybe you
could do with a fresh viewpoint?”
    “You don’t give up, do you?”
    “Sit down, mate. If you give me
anything I swear I won’t reveal my source.”
    Dave hesitated, scratched his
long aquiline nose, then pointed towards one of the private

Similar Books

Kamchatka

Marcelo Figueras

Mickey & Me

Dan Gutman

Brushed by Scandal

Gail Whitiker

Kiss My Name

Calvin Wade

Mayan Lover

Wendy S. Hales

Asher's Dilemma

Coleen Kwan